Kaplan, I misjudged you

[username456789]

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So I've picked on Kaplan a bit for being a crappy Qbank at times (or at least asking a lot of minutiae), but the bulk of when I was using it was prior to really studying First Aid very closely. As I'm finishing up a huge pass through FA (along with RR and BRS Phys), I've been using Kaplan QBank for targeted review questions at the end of the night (UW random q blocks in the morning), and I must say, for the most part they really go along with FA stuff nicely. Sure, they're not ripped directly from the pages of FA with screenshots of the page in question in the answer explanation like USMLERx, but they really do mirror what's mentioned in the relevant chapters. The questions sometimes get lazy on presentations (they'll often list buzzwords instead of describing the buzzword features like UW/the real deal), and their explanations aren't anywhere near as thorough or comprehensive as UW obviously, but they often do a solid job of saying "Ok, the answer was indeed yolk sac tumor. Now, here are the various categories of testicular cancer and their characteristic findings", which often basically gives you a run down of what's listed on the pages of FA anyway.

Anyway, long story short, Kaplan has utility as a qbank when you need to reinforce the concepts you've just studied in FA. I prefer to use UW for random blocks to keep myself sharp all around, and sometimes I hardly even skim the explanations in Kaplan anymore, but they're still fairly useful for what they are.

 

[Waysensei]

Kaplan is a good secondary Qbank to learn material prior to starting UW. It should be not used in lieu of UW, however.

So I've picked on Kaplan a bit for being a crappy Qbank at times (or at least asking a lot of minutiae), but the bulk of when I was using it was prior to really studying First Aid very closely. As I'm finishing up a huge pass through FA (along with RR and BRS Phys), I've been using Kaplan QBank for targeted review questions at the end of the night (UW random q blocks in the morning), and I must say, for the most part they really go along with FA stuff nicely. Sure, they're not ripped directly from the pages of FA with screenshots of the page in question in the answer explanation like USMLERx, but they really do mirror what's mentioned in the relevant chapters. The questions sometimes get lazy on presentations (they'll often list buzzwords instead of describing the buzzword features like UW/the real deal), and their explanations aren't anywhere near as thorough or comprehensive as UW obviously, but they often do a solid job of saying "Ok, the answer was indeed yolk sac tumor. Now, here are the various categories of testicular cancer and their characteristic findings", which often basically gives you a run down of what's listed on the pages of FA anyway.

Anyway, long story short, Kaplan has utility as a qbank when you need to reinforce the concepts you've just studied in FA. I prefer to use UW for random blocks to keep myself sharp all around, and sometimes I hardly even skim the explanations in Kaplan anymore, but they're still fairly useful for what they are.

 

[username456789]

. . . I hope you didn't interpret my post in any way as "Kaplan should be used in lieu of UW." I thought I made it pretty clear it has its utility in an entirely different way compared to UW. For those looking to not "waste" UW questions on target practice, Kaplan Qbank is a decent way to "quiz yourself" on what you just read in FA.

 

[lildave2586]

. . . I hope you didn't interpret my post in any way as "Kaplan should be used in lieu of UW." I thought I made it pretty clear it has its utility in an entirely different way compared to UW. For those looking to not "waste" UW questions on target practice, Kaplan Qbank is a decent way to "quiz yourself" on what you just read in FA.

The best thing I did was Kaplan Qbank before my dedicated study period started. I used Qbank for the Path and Micro/Immuno shelf exams, and this was the best move I ever made. I encourage everyone to get through BOTH Qbank and Uworld. Of course, you need to do Kaplan first, and Uworld second.

 

[username456789]

Definitely start Kaplan before UW, and UW should be the meat of your questions during dedicated study. I've chosen to overlap it, since I didn't use Qbank TOO extensively during the year (no shelf exams, so I was more focused on the stupid stuff our profs were focusing on), so finishing about half of it before the summer was helpful, and now I'm using some of the rest of it as described above.

For those people looking to use other questions SIMULTANEOUSLY (quite a few people on here I believe like to use something like FlashFacts or homemade flash cards or USMLERx or whatever as a way to reinforce FA as they go during their dedicated study period rather than just hoping what they read stuck somehow), I think Kaplan is a pretty decent choice. I do my learning from UW. I do my review from FA, with Qbank there to make sure the stupid details stick.

 

[pedzplz]

you juinxed the hell out of kaplan.. the sight is down!! 🙁

 

[username456789]

you juinxed the hell out of kaplan.. the sight is down!! 🙁

Haha, my bad.