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[dr.sartorius]

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This forum is more active thats why I'm posting here. What's the best way to maximize learning using Uworld. Is it more beneficial to study material then do questions in order to reinforce that material, and see how the information can present itself in a question? Or is it more advantageous to do Uworld on random and receive a bolus of different subjects all at once? I understand the test itself is random subjects, so I was planning on doing a second pass using random once I've learned all the material. But is doing a subject based approach first going to maximize learning and building strong synapses? (might have worded that weird but I hope my point comes across). Thank you busy folks for your time!

 

[CR7MedStudent]

I started my studying in my weakest area, biochem, and started u world with a subject based approach. I liked it at first. Doing questions on material you just reviewed really boosts your ego. After a week of studying like this, I realized that I wouldn't be seeing any biochem questions until I reset u world for a second pass. After that day I have been studying everything random and it's a much better approach imo. Was it a difficult switch at first, of course! I mean you spend the morning reviewing renal, only to get a bunch of beh and msk questions in the afternoon wth! But my overall percentage correct kept going up and I am constantly reviewing all of the material so I guess it's working. I usually split my days 50-50. I spend the first half of the day reading first aid and doing usmle rx questions subject based. Then the other half I do uworld questions. Plus I already noticed I'm forgetting a bunch of biochem even though only like 3 weeks passed.....

 

[PL198]

if you do it on specific subjects it makes it 100x easier because like 1/5 of the questions will be like: "what is wrong with the patient" and it'll be like a) pulm HTN b) hypoxic encephalopathy c) DM d) renal failure e) seasonal allergies

and you'll be doing nephro, so it's obviously renal failure. there are tons of questions like that where you can get the right answer just by knowing what subject you're doing.

practice how you play, they obviously won't be by subject on real exam so do random when studying for step 1.

 

[operaman]

This is an excellent question with no right answer. Some general thoughts:

1) NEVER NEVER NEVER do subject-based question blocks immediately AFTER studying that same material. You are only testing your short term memory. These are the people who post wondering why their NBME scores are lower than their UWorld average would predict. Don't be that person. If you want to do subject-focused, do the questions FIRST and then his FA afterword.

2) If you have some really weak subject areas, then you might benefit from additional focused study on them. If that's you, then maybe think about doing some focused blocks on those areas (or maybe use a different question bank for that as well to get more questions). Whatever you do, don't do them on tutor mode. You will see info in the answers that will help you on subsequent questions, but you may just coast on short term memory and not really learn the material.

3) Random/timed is ideal for honing your test taking ability and identifying weak areas. One of the hardest things about step exams is that you have to focus so intently for 1-2 minutes on a question and reason your way through and ultimately pick among a few seemingly plausible options. As if this weren't difficult enough, then you have to clear your mind and do it all over again! And it will likely be from an entirely different discipline! Random-timed gives you practice doing this.

 

[cbrons]

Is the actual step I exam going to say, "GI questions coming up next"? I don't see any long-term benefit at all to doing subject-based questions, you are at a point now where you should know a little bit about everything.

But operaman does make some good points

 

[Jabbed]

Is the actual step I exam going to say, "GI questions coming up next"? I don't see any long-term benefit at all to doing subject-based questions, you are at a point now where you should know a little bit about everything.

But operaman does make some good points

IT DOESN'T?!?

 

[cbrons]

IT DOESN'T?!?

no but it is open book