Kaplan Qbank- Only high yield mode??

[herewego]

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I have about 2 months left till my exam, about ~70% done with uworld. I've been using it as a learning tool. I plan on going through it one more time during dedicated study time, but I would like exposure to more questions. I've heard that kaplan qbank is very esoteric, but how is high yield mode? Would high yield mode eliminate some of the nitty nitty nitty gritty details that I hear kaplan qbank tests?

Any help would be appreciated.

 

[islandCrazy]

I think Kaplan has classified around 700 questions as low-yield. I have just started the qbank after doing USMLERx and I haven't selected the High Yield option yet and to be honest I have only had a maybe 5 questions out of 300 which are not found in FA (The qbank provides FA references). However I have found the answers to those 5 in either Pathoma or Goljan.

 

[secants]

The HY mode still has a good chunk of questions though. I know people were saying the video explanations they have for some questions were really good. I'm in a similar situation as yourself and I plan on doing the HY mode and then if I have time, the unused questions in my weaker areas.

 

[herewego]

The HY mode still has a good chunk of questions though. I know people were saying the video explanations they have for some questions were really good. I'm in a similar situation as yourself and I plan on doing the HY mode and then if I have time, the unused questions in my weaker areas.

Yea, I'm not worried about cutting down on questions, I just want questions that are worth spending my time studying.

 

[futuredoctor10]

I think Kaplan has classified around 700 questions as low-yield. I have just started the qbank after doing USMLERx and I haven't selected the High Yield option yet and to be honest I have only had a maybe 5 questions out of 300 which are not found in FA (The qbank provides FA references). However I have found the answers to those 5 in either Pathoma or Goljan.

Similarly, I have found that the majority of Kaplan's questions are actually covered within First Aid (almost always directly/explicitly or "reading in between the lines").

Occasionally they do have some really esoteric random detail questions though... for instance, a question on KI-67 being a tumor marker for cellular proliferation. Would that ever really come up on a Step 1 exam? I have no idea!

 

[islandCrazy]

Similarly, I have found that the majority of Kaplan's questions are actually covered within First Aid (almost always directly/explicitly or "reading in between the lines").

Occasionally they do have some really esoteric random detail questions though... for instance, a question on KI-67 being a tumor marker for cellular proliferation. Would that ever really come up on a Step 1 exam? I have no idea!

Yeah I haven't used the HY mode yet and so far only two questions did not have a FA reference page. However I had put alot of emphasis into Gunnertraining as well as simply rereading FA sections a ton of times. Hence why I'm not surprised by little details (now actually apply those details... yeah not my strongest point )

 

[Phloston]

I'm working on USMLE Rx at the moment and will be moving to Kaplan next. To be honest, I'm excited for the supposedly lower-yield minutiae that Kaplan has to offer, because, at the end of the exam day, it's the twenty or so extremely pedantic questions that will be the differentiators between a top score and a top top score, and if Kaplan helps with even getting five of those 20 correct, then they were successful, despite the criticism they take for their esoteria.

That being said, it depends on your goals. If you want to do well and are time-limited, then maybe considering HY-mode is appropriate. If you want to do extremely well and/or aren't as time-limited, then consider all of the MCQs available to you.

 

[herewego]

I appreciate the input everyone. I'm going to do HY mode first after my 2nd pass of uworld. Still have 60+ days, and at this point I'm more concerned with depth of knowledge/mastery of the "basics" rather than minutia.

 

[katarina90]

I finished the whole Kaplan so I can't say much on using HY mode specifically but I agree that most of it is actually the stuff in FA.

There are some bits and pieces of minutiae, including some drugs I have never heard of and don't think are in FA (aprepitant, etc.). For the most part they tend to ask on common disorders but in a totally different way than I would have expected, so it broadened by knowledge of those disorders (I can't think of any specific examples, its something you'll notice if you do a significant amount of questions though).

Finally, there's a ton of Q's on physiology with graphs and chart interpretation, and what felt like a zillion questions reminding me I need to brush up on the brachial plexus (great if you need it, skippable and possibly annoying if you know it really well already).

 

[Bernoull]

I finished the whole Kaplan so I can't say much on using HY mode specifically but I agree that most of it is actually the stuff in FA.

There are some bits and pieces of minutiae, including some drugs I have never heard of and don't think are in FA (aprepitant, etc.). For the most part they tend to ask on common disorders but in a totally different way than I would have expected, so it broadened by knowledge of those disorders (I can't think of any specific examples, its something you'll notice if you do a significant amount of questions though).

Finally, there's a ton of Q's on physiology with graphs and chart interpretation, and what felt like a zillion questions reminding me I need to brush up on the brachial plexus (great if you need it, skippable and possibly annoying if you know it really well already).

BTW, how long did it take u and how many Qs did u do per session on avg. Also how long does it take u to review annotate after ur standard block.. this takes me forever so I'm trying to gauge other ppl's experience

 

[katarina90]

Bernoull--First half of the year I did questions that only pertained to what I was studying at the time, and so the blocks were random lengths.

This semester, I finished it off by doing 1 block of 46 questions a day on random mode. I only read/annotated explanations for missed Q's so it took me about 20-30 minutes to go through the questions I got wrong. All in all, I've been working on the Q bank since about September-October. Getting ready to dive into UWorld now..

 

[missmedschool]

BTW, how long did it take u and how many Qs did u do per session on avg. Also how long does it take u to review annotate after ur standard block.. this takes me forever so I'm trying to gauge other ppl's experience

I definitely go through the wrong answers and for the answers I get right I still go through the "Recap" ... On a really really really good day scoring ~78% it'll take me 1 hour to go through all of it. On a normal day though scoring round 67% it takes me 2 hours to thoroughly go through the questions and annotate em into FA.