kaplan qbank vs. usmleword: Difference?

[sammydoc]

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Anyone know if one is better than the other? Or are they pretty much the same? And are both/either of them similar to the actual boards questions or are they slightly harder? I used kaplan for mcat, and thought the real mcat was way easier than kaplan, but i guess thats a whole diff test and the same theory might not apply...

 

[ENThopeful]

kaplan is weird. its made by phd's i think so some of the quesitons, esp micro is off the wall.

uworld is much better -> clinically oriented, obviously written by doctors (emphasizing first line treatments, etc.). explanations are great too. great for learning.

i have heard the real test is more like kaplan though, just random cheap shots of you know it or not.

if you have time, do both. if not, id stick with uworld.

 

[carlosc1dbz]

And who writes the Step 1? PhD's or Physicians?

 

[Depakote]

The upperclassmen at my school have unanimously recommended UWorld.

I had a kaplan trial and have used both.

Head to head, Kaplan has better aesthetics (the FA page references are nice) but I get the feeling they might be focusing on some obscure details on occasion, even if they can find a FA reference for it. They also have AV questions which UWorld didn't have when I started my Kaplan trial.

As mentioned above UWorld's explanations just feel and sound like I'm getting more out of it. I feel like I'm getting a better experience with UWorld.



With Kaplan's questions, I have a hard time gaguing where I should be... Did I get it wrong b/c it was an important concept I should be studying or did I get it wrong b/c it was something someone thinks is important and I'm going to waste my time if I focus on it.

If I'm doing UWorld, I feel like it's a good indicator of my progress. Stuff I'm getting wrong there... I need to study.


(Yeah, I'm done with Kaplan)

 

[alphaholic06]

The upperclassmen at my school have unanimously recommended UWorld.

I had a kaplan trial and have used both.

Head to head, Kaplan has better aesthetics (the FA page references are nice) but I get the feeling they might be focusing on some obscure details on occasion, even if they can find a FA reference for it. They also have AV questions which UWorld didn't have when I started my Kaplan trial.

As mentioned above UWorld's explanations just feel and sound like I'm getting more out of it. I feel like I'm getting a better experience with UWorld.



With Kaplan's questions, I have a hard time gaguing where I should be... Did I get it wrong b/c it was an important concept I should be studying or did I get it wrong b/c it was something someone thinks is important and I'm going to waste my time if I focus on it.

If I'm doing UWorld, I feel like it's a good indicator of my progress. Stuff I'm getting wrong there... I need to study.


(Yeah, I'm done with Kaplan)

How was your Kaplan average compared to your UWorld average?

 

[Depakote]

How was your Kaplan average compared to your UWorld average?

Can't really say... they were roughly the same but I don't think it is a good generalization.

UWorld, I had a longer subscription to so I was doing questions along with class, but I limited the questions to the subjects we were studying at the time.

I got kaplan farther along in the year, but I was doing more actual USMLE study with kaplan, less subject specific. Also, I messed up making a few kaplan tests early on and quit them rather than suspending them so it pulled my overall average down with some omitted questions. Which was somewhat annoying.

It turns out with longer UWorld subscriptions you can reset your data, I'm going to do that in early May.

 

[Slide]

I have subscriptions to both and here's my 2 cents:
Kaplan QBank is great if you need to rapidly learn and assimilate information; like Depakote said, the FA references and the explanations are pretty good. However, for real Step I prep, it's too detailed at times and some questions you would never get correct unless you a) bought their books, or b) fortuitously learned it in class recently. Kaplan QBank seems to be more recall, while USMLEWorld seems more realistic and involves both some recall and critical thinking.

So, yeah, Qbank - great for rapid learning, USMLEWorld - great for studying for the actual test.

 

[alphaholic06]

Depakote and Slide, thanks for the replies. I'm doing Qbank now (for the "rapid learning"), and I plan to start UWorld next month.

 

[lantus99]

have a few questions about the kaplan qbank for you guys

I didn't know they had references to the first aid until now. Is this for every question? It's for the 2008 edition right? How much of the first aid gets covered in the end?

What format are these teaching tabs audio/video/slide animation? I saw a small demo from their website. They mentioned 200 teaching tabs or so How long are those things?

How are the explanations comared to UW? Do they give good background theory? Thanks!

 

[future_dr_house]

have a few questions about the kaplan qbank for you guys

I didn't know they had references to the first aid until now. Is this for every question? It's for the 2008 edition right? How much of the first aid gets covered in the end?

What format are these teaching tabs audio/video/slide animation? I saw a small demo from their website. They mentioned 200 teaching tabs or so How long are those things?

How are the explanations comared to UW? Do they give good background theory? Thanks!

The teaching tabs are incorporated into their explanation. They are between 1 and 5 minutes each. There are not that many of them (maybe 4-5 in any given 48 question block). They are useful in my opinion, especially since they focus on concepts more than nitty gritty details like some of the rest of the qbank. They do make studying easier as it allows you to just sit back instead of looking up sources.

I've had access to both banks. In short they both emphasize important things, Kaplan seems to test trivia occasionally. I am going to and would advise you to do both, but if you are restricted by time, I would choose Udub.

 

[lantus99]

Thanks house for the reply! 👍

How was the overall coverage for FA? Did it allow you to work through the majority of the book to see the main summary skeletons of what was discussed in the q? Was there one for each question?

I only got 5 weeks left and am about 1/4 into UW now going back to FA to see the related skeleton for each thing and adding in anything that was never there before. That's all I am adding into FA, just anything missing from FA and it seems UW so far has a bunch of random things not found in the FA.

I'm done with my other resources, so I don't know if I have time to finish both banks, with a few days to browse through FA again. That would be like doing over 200q's a day. 😱 I don't know if anyone can go through that many questions AND read the discussion for each while going back to FA at the same time.

 

[future_dr_house]

To answer your question briefly, I'm not totally sure myself. I'm working through the banks currently. About 1/4 done w/ UW and Kaplan. Most of the kaplan q's have a correlate for MedEssentials and FA. A few do not because they are very general. So as far as FA covering all the key points of UW or Kaplan...I definitely think you have to annotate FA as you go. The info may be briefly touched on but not to the degree that the banks have. Many times I've read a section in FA, taken the corresponding Q's, get angry that something wasn't in FA, only to see that I just neglected looking at something carefully enough in a diagram or paragraph.

...the mysteries of FA, so good, but you gotta appreciate all the fine details.