Pretest vs Uworld for Shelf Exams

[Disinence2]

Which one did you guys use? Both? Anyone know what the main difference is, aside from computerized/print.

Thanks!

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[ubcredfox]

I looked at Pretest for Obs and Internal; I did not use it at all. I think UWorld is pretty high yield and I used it for every shelf exam I wrote. Considering there were questions directly from Uworld on the shelf's I was pretty surprised. I would recommend it hands down.

 

[Pinkertinkle]

Uworld rocks your socks, pretest is ehh, but I did both.

 

[Pontifex Maximus]

Pretest, IMO, sucked for almost all rotations. I'd use Kaplan Qbook and all other sources before pretest.

 

[kdburton]

So did you guys/gals get UWorld for the entire year then or something? If thats the case then are you just planning on re-doing the whole bank when you study for Step 2 or what? I got a copy of Qbook from a friend that graduated last year, but I'd much rather do practice questions on a computer after studying for Step 1 and whatnot. I only talked to one person at my school who got UW for all of 3rd year and she said she liked it, but i guess there were probably more who I just didn't know. Whats everyones' opinion?

 

[iheartcheerios]

So did you guys/gals get UWorld for the entire year then or something? If thats the case then are you just planning on re-doing the whole bank when you study for Step 2 or what? I got a copy of Qbook from a friend that graduated last year, but I'd much rather do practice questions on a computer after studying for Step 1 and whatnot. I only talked to one person at my school who got UW for all of 3rd year and she said she liked it, but i guess there were probably more who I just didn't know. Whats everyones' opinion?

I would also like to know if people redo UW before step II or buy a new bank (kaplan??) before i put down the $400 for a 1yr subscription.

 

[Abilene85]

What is the time commitment for UWorld when studying for each shelf? Are there ~200 questions per clerkship or ~500 questions?

 

[Pinkertinkle]

What is the time commitment for UWorld when studying for each shelf? Are there ~200 questions per clerkship or ~500 questions?

Its about 200 for each rotation except for medicine, which has 1500 questions.

 

[DoctaJay]

Yeah, i think that most of us who get UWorld now will have to renew. But hey what is an extra $100 in the scheme of all of our debt.

 

[pseudoknot]

Yeah, i think that most of us who get UWorld now will have to renew. But hey what is an extra $100 in the scheme of all of our debt.

I thought it would be $400 for the year even if we had it before. I was leaning toward not getting it since most questions are for IM and we already have the MKSAP questions to do.

 

[jsong812]

I thought it would be $400 for the year even if we had it before. I was leaning toward not getting it since most questions are for IM and we already have the MKSAP questions to do.

take what I say w/ a grain of salt b/c i just started IM myself but from going through about 1/2 of MKSAP and just starting the IM questions from Uworld, I have to say that the Uworld questions are far superior. I guess my biggest concern was that I'm the type of person who remembers questions awfully well and if I burned all of them on studying for the shelf, I wouldn't really benefit from them when I would have to study for Step 2. However, if you did well on step 1, I would imagine that you would probably delay taking your step 2 and in the grand of scheme of things, your shelf exams are probably worth more than your step 2 (granted you did well enough on step 1), and so I think it's a worthwhile investment even if it's only to study for the shelves.

 

[drdr2010]

I used uworld for all my 3rd year rotations. I purchased the year long subscription. Expensive, yes. But worth it in my opinion.

As far as internal medicine, I think the MKSAP questions are too easy and not representative of the shelf, where uworld is much more similar. Other rotations, the q's were good too (the one that stands out was surgery).

I am studying for step 2 now and using the same uworld qbank. Honestly, so much time has passed between when I used it for IM and psych (well, basically everything except my very last shelf which was Ob/Gyn), that it feels like the q's are new to me. I still have ~500 unused med questions and then I just mix it up with the other subjects by doing incorrects or only choosing some of the subdivisions.

Another option would be to just purchase a brand new one month subscription right before step 2 so that all the questions would be "new" and you could get a more accurate idea of what percents you are scoring.

 

[bostonguy]

I only started using UWorld for Surgery and Ob and wish I had used it for all of them. However, the shelfs are really hard and since Pretest is even harder, it is also great to use.