Kaplan QBank is messed up!!

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FeedTheHippo

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So I finished UW, and my exam is in a cpl weeks... I took some advice from ppl that scored very high on the exam, and they stressed that I do Kaplan before the exam, the questions are more similar to the actual I guess. After doing a cpl NBME exams, I do feel that the way I read and answer the qbank questions is similar to the feeling I had during the nbme exams. However, I feel I am doing horrible on the qbank!! Alot of the answer choices are starting to look the same to me, and many times I feel I am finding mistakes in the choices, which is a waste of my time.. I started off doing not too bad w/ qbank, upper 60s, low 70s.. However, now I am getting in the 50s, and I am getting very worried considering my exam is coming up very soon!.. I am still re-doing many of the UW questions, and I am doing very well on those.. However, I do feel there is something wrong if I cant do Kaplan very well also..

Does anyone feel kaplan is making them dumb? I dont know what it is. When I did UW, I primarily did organ based questions, ie. every subject for cardio.. Now, I am trying to do blocks of everything, and maybe that might be my problem. I just feel I am getting more and more frustrated doing Kaplan, and unless I figure out how to master it, its gonna kill my confidence..

Any advice?? I got about 16 days!! :scared::scared: Please, anyone who already took it.. Your last two weeks, was there anything that really gave you a nice boost in your score, or even confidence?? Anyone that didnt take it, any advice from a good M3?

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Don't freak out. I am getting killed by the Kaplan Qbank as well. I have heard that it is much harder than the real thing because they test much more on minutiae. UsmleWorld is more representative of the real deal, and especially the NBME's and UWorld Self assessments are good predictors. Use those! You'll do fine I'm sure.
 
How many questions are in the kaplan qbank? it says 4000+ on their website
 
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Apparently QBank just updated itself with a new MedEssentials tab for the answer explanations.

Wow, looks like they did it within the last 24 hours. I wish they had this done in the beginning of the year, I would have learned so much more. I think this makes Qbank>Rx. Better explanations, FA page references (although this can be messed up sometimes), and now medessentials.
 
Wow, looks like they did it within the last 24 hours. I wish they had this done in the beginning of the year, I would have learned so much more. I think this makes Qbank>Rx. Better explanations, FA page references (although this can be messed up sometimes), and now medessentials.

They did it sometime between last night and today. I'm curious to see how good it is, I guess I will know tonight.
 
Yes they did it sometime between 4AM-10AM eastern time lol.
i really like the new format, it tells you how many % of people got the question right, and it also makes you submit your answer without having the tabs at the bottom to see the answer...sometimes i get the urge just to click what the answer is but this way it prevents you from doing that.

medessentials is clutch, i like charts and a different adding info to FA is going to be great. Im glad that they changed this when I am about 600 questions in. do not feel bad for 'wasting' money now. and there are 2400 questions, not 2000.

I do not understand what the IV Vignettes are/how much of these are on the actual step i hear 5-6? also are the physio questions helpful for the real exam? I will probably consider doing them on my second/third run through the material.

For people using kaplan, what have your %'s been? Mine are around ~70% +/- 5 during my first pass. I feel like i am forgetting everything i learned from the begining like biochem, but i do not have time in the day to go back and review anything...are you guys doing multiple sections at a time during the first pass?
 
Yes they did it sometime between 4AM-10AM eastern time lol.
i really like the new format, it tells you how many % of people got the question right, and it also makes you submit your answer without having the tabs at the bottom to see the answer...sometimes i get the urge just to click what the answer is but this way it prevents you from doing that.

medessentials is clutch, i like charts and a different adding info to FA is going to be great. Im glad that they changed this when I am about 600 questions in. do not feel bad for 'wasting' money now. and there are 2400 questions, not 2000.

I do not understand what the IV Vignettes are/how much of these are on the actual step i hear 5-6? also are the physio questions helpful for the real exam? I will probably consider doing them on my second/third run through the material.

For people using kaplan, what have your %'s been? Mine are around ~70% +/- 5 during my first pass. I feel like i am forgetting everything i learned from the begining like biochem, but i do not have time in the day to go back and review anything...are you guys doing multiple sections at a time during the first pass?

from my understanding, 70% is very good. I am 57% overall, but just recently started stabilizing and trending upwards (I chart all my scores in excel). So I have been at the low-mid 60s for last few blocks and I hope that trend continues. Best of luck in your studies!

Edit:
oh, to answer your second question, I am doing completely random of all the subjects I've covered thus far in my taus pass ( missing embryo, micro, stats, mskltl, derm) and I add subjects in as I complete them.
 
fI am 57% overall, but just recently started stabilizing and trending upwards (I chart all my scores in excel). So I have been at the low-mid 60s for last few blocks and I hope that trend continues.


You do know that they do that for you, right?

I understand you might want to have it all saved onto your computer. Just checking.
 
I have been doing 50 Q at the end of the day after I finish w/e subject I am on.
If it takes me 2 days to cover GI...i do 50 Q when i am finished reviewing all of GI with RR/BRS ect.

How do you find time to also to random 50Q AND annotate. I guess im slow with Q's it takes me 3hrs for 48 questions + annotations.
 
I have been doing 50 Q at the end of the day after I finish w/e subject I am on.
If it takes me 2 days to cover GI...i do 50 Q when i am finished reviewing all of GI with RR/BRS ect.

How do you find time to also to random 50Q AND annotate. I guess im slow with Q's it takes me 3hrs for 48 questions + annotations.

I assume this was directed at me? Well I do sets of 25 questions since I still have classes until mid May. I usually do one set in the morning and one at night. I only annotate if it's an explanation of something in FA or something that is not in FA but "seems" important. Don't ask me how I know what is important lol... Some of the more minutiae I just read and move on. It takes me about 75 minutes for 25 questions so I'm not really that much ahead of you. I guess I've just quit caring abou classes until a couple days before exams.

I know they chart it with the bar graph but
I like to see the scatter plot with a trendline - makes me feel alot better about some scattered low outliers if my trendline is still upward sloping lol.
 
These new changes are pretty baller. I have a several yrs old edition of medessentials and I remember thinking that they had a good approach when I read it, now I can get the benefit of seeing alot of the newest edition. I'm pretty sure they've always had the % of people getting it correct its just way down at the bottom. I think another new feature is the option of adding a question to "my questions", I'm not sure how I could really get any utility from that though; has anyone started using that?
 
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have a copy of the medessentials also, i guess i will utilize it with the Qbank and annotate into FA. Question is do i get qbank along side uworld or run through qbank in month then get uworld. I am ~2.5 months away and still going to class. Initially i was going to skip kaplan qbank and use uworld, i have already done usmlerx. Or should i go with uworld first then kaplan if i have sometime after that? Any thoughts?
 
I think another new feature is the option of adding a question to "my questions", I'm not sure how I could really get any utility from that though; has anyone started using that?


I did a few questions this morning and came across two or three answer explanations with extensive tables (which extended beyond just what was being discussed in the question) in the MedEssentials tab and didn't have time/energy to go through them, but thought they'd be helpful down the line, so I added them to "My Questions" . . . which I assume means they're more or less "flagged" and easy to find. I haven't checked yet, though.
 
Updates on Qbank are much better! :thumbup::thumbup:

2 weeks from today, I will be facing Goliath!! Any last minute tips? Anyone taking the exam on the 22nd?
 
took the test last year and found USMLEW to be much closer to the real thing than kaplan, but dunno how it is after these changes. World also was within 1 point of my final score (your % * 2.4 + 82 i think was the equation)
 
Does anybody else find the teaching videos completely useless?

I feel like they just slow down my pace of reviewing questions and don't explain anything beyond the text.
 
Does anybody else find the teaching videos completely useless?

I feel like they just slow down my pace of reviewing questions and don't explain anything beyond the text.

Yea, maybe only like 25% of them provide additional understanding. I usually tell based on the question and description if there'll be more for them to add, I also just flip through it fast once I see a chart cause often they'll just spend the entire time reading off it.
 
Does anybody else find the teaching videos completely useless?

I feel like they just slow down my pace of reviewing questions and don't explain anything beyond the text.


Yeah after the first week of having the QBank I just stopped watching the teaching videos.
 
hi all

I just started studying for boards ... classes are still going on .... I'm taking it at the very end of June so I will have 8 weeks of uniterupted study.

Here's my q about kaplan. I've just managed to get through about 100 q's and I'm averaging 43%! ..... ugh!!! haha. I really haven't studied at all for boards, but is this a horrible starting score???? I heard it's way harder than USMLE world .......
 
I mean, I wouldn't call it a good score, but I also wouldn't freak out about it, especially since you're just starting your studying. I've had several Rx question blocks in the high 40's and low 50's. All it means is that you need to spend a little more time on whatever subject you just covered. For reference, I recall being told that passing Step 1 requires getting about 55% of the questions. It seems that scoring 70% is exceptionally good, so aim for that.
 
Well that was frustrating. I just did a 48q block and only got 6 wrong (~87%), but my score report showed "66%" and when I went back through the ones it said I got wrong, it had changed all my answers to "A" (none of them were correct as A, but I had not picked A).

How strange. I've never had that glitch before. And now it erases all proof that my 87% ever happened.
 
you could be hallucinating...step studying drives you crazy. just saying.



Haha, definitely not hallucinating. I did it in tutor/timed mode so the whole time I was tallying the number of questions I got wrong. Then I finished it up and when I went to the score report I obviously noticed it was way off. Went back and reviewed and sure enough "A" was filled in for all of the ones that I know I had answered correctly but were no marked incorrectly (and most were blatantly incorrect answers that I wouldn't have even chosen on a guess).
 
Haha, definitely not hallucinating. I did it in tutor/timed mode so the whole time I was tallying the number of questions I got wrong. Then I finished it up and when I went to the score report I obviously noticed it was way off. Went back and reviewed and sure enough "A" was filled in for all of the ones that I know I had answered correctly but were no marked incorrectly (and most were blatantly incorrect answers that I wouldn't have even chosen on a guess).

That's whack, I guess in your case kaplan qbank really is messed up!!!
 
That's whack, I guess in your case kaplan qbank really is messed up!!!

Seriously. I think it's a conspiracy. When you go to the score predictor and try to put in anything above "85%" as your progress so far, it kindly informs you that the score estimator was made for people who have averaged up to but not above 85%. Clearly they're trying to keep me down.

[Editor's note: I am nowhere near 85% on my overall average.]
 
I really like the fact that they added the MedEssentials tab . . . in theory. In reality, I almost never have time to stop and read an entire chart on things. It is nice to have all that info in one place (often it's similar to other charts in FA/Goljan, but sometimes it's not).

For the ones that strike me as particularly helpful (i.e. information aggregated in one spot that I haven't found elsewhere) I'll do a screen capture of it. Otherwise, I guess I'm letting them go to waste.
 
I really like the fact that they added the MedEssentials tab . . . in theory. In reality, I almost never have time to stop and read an entire chart on things. It is nice to have all that info in one place (often it's similar to other charts in FA/Goljan, but sometimes it's not).

For the ones that strike me as particularly helpful (i.e. information aggregated in one spot that I haven't found elsewhere) I'll do a screen capture of it. Otherwise, I guess I'm letting them go to waste.

i screen captured a couple of their tables and printed them out. personally, i found the anatomy stuff to be the most helpful in supplementing FA since i haven't/might not use an outside source. plus lower limb is lacking in FA
 
took the test last year and found usmlew to be much closer to the real thing than kaplan, but dunno how it is after these changes. World also was within 1 point of my final score (your % * 2.4 + 82 i think was the equation)

uw*2.4+84
 
i screen captured a couple of their tables and printed them out. personally, i found the anatomy stuff to be the most helpful in supplementing FA since i haven't/might not use an outside source. plus lower limb is lacking in FA

Cool , what key combo did u use to screen capture em? I tried all I could but in vain..lemme knw! I use Wind XP
 
Oh, it'll work all right. Only problem is that you'll get a nasty email from UWorld shortly thereafter threatening to cancel your subscription.
I couldn't get it to work. I did get the email though. I've tried to figure out a way around this but haven't been able too. I used to capture stuff from Kaplan Qbank and print it out and tape it in my First Aid. I was hoping to do this with UW but it looks like I'll just have to hand copy.

To the original poster: My UW average is about 5% higher than my Kaplan Qbank average. I think the Qbank questions test more nitpicky stuff that no one has ever heard of. UW tests simple concepts in difficult ways.
 
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