q-bank to use along with systems (Rx or Kaplan?)

[theonlytycrane]

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Rx -> memorization of First Aid

Kaplan -> ? I've always hated Kaplan stuff.

Any recommendations?

 

[21Rush12]

I like my Rx bank; a friend has Kaplan and it can be more annoyingly nit-picky. I plan to use Uworld later on closer to dedicated, so I don’t mind the Rx. The explanations are usually good and the link to first aid is helpful IMO.

 

[Ho0v-man]

im going to piggy back on this thread and ask what’s up with Kaplan? I just started using it because we started systems this semester and I’m getting wrecked! Like ~75%. Is this actually good board/test prep bc it’s crushing my confidence ?

 

[ERDOC555]

I use both Kaplan and Rx. I really like Rx when I first am learning the material, and then Kaplan is good for once I feel confident and still need more questions. Kaplan definitely has a lot more freebies and impossible questions than Rx. Kaplan % correct on each question ranges from like 25-90% whereas Rx is usually between 40-80%. Overall I'd say Kaplan is good for fresh questions, but poor for primary learning because of the minutia and freebies and Rx is just overall better to learn from.

 

[Elessar]

Do both. Rx is good for learning FA along with classes, but after doing the whole bank I think it was too basic and buzz-wordy. Kaplan is much higher quality overall. It’s true that you’ll get a question or two per block on random minutiae, but I just make cards for those questions and now I don’t have to worry about missing them if they show up on step 1. It also has great physiology questions, something that Rx lacks.

 

[TheIllusionist]

The best Kaplan questions beat even the quality of STEP1 queations. They can require some fun creativity and fairly deep intuitive understanding to solve. However, the bad questions are worse than the bad questions in pretty much any other major qbank. The explanations tend to be pretty good. I'd say, use both.

 

[68PGunner]

im going to piggy back on this thread and ask what’s up with Kaplan? I just started using it because we started systems this semester and I’m getting wrecked! Like ~75%. Is this actually good board/test prep bc it’s crushing my confidence ?

75% on Kaplan doesn’t equal to getting wrecked. 70-80% means that your full potential on Step 1 is around 240s-250s.

 

[Low Flow]

I used both throughout M2. I finished Kaplan first (shortly after winter break) simply because the school bought it for us. With Kaplan, I would do the questions toward the end of the block as a sort of exam review. The Rx questions seemed a bit more first order and straight forward compared to Kaplan. I was using Rx from about February-April and would complete the questions at the end of a block (after having gone through class material 1-2x). I don't think it's useful to attempt board questions when you haven't studied the class material.

Both are useful as a primer to the real deal (ie, UWorld, step 1) and I don't think there is much difference in completing one bank before the other.

 

[DNC127]

Its less well known, but in IMO True Learn's USMLE bank is WAY better than Kaplan and has better questions that are more like Uworld than Rx, however Rx has the FA pages which is nice. I have completed RX, most of True Learn, and a quarter of U world and Kaplan and would rank them U world >> True Learn = RX >> Kaplan.

 

[AnatomyGrey12]

Kaplan is good but I would agree the quality of questions has a big range from fantastic questions that make you really dive into your knowledge of a topic to questions that are simply terrible. Admittedly I’ve only done one system so my sample size is small. I agree with the above that I like the True Learn bank.

im going to piggy back on this thread and ask what’s up with Kaplan? I just started using it because we started systems this semester and I’m getting wrecked! Like ~75%. Is this actually good board/test prep bc it’s crushing my confidence ?

That’s pretty good actually.

 

[raiderette]

I used Rx from the beginning. It helped me with learning. I did UWorld for dedicated.

 

[ERDOC555]

Do you start USMLE-Rx fairly early in the block, or do you try to get at least one pass through all of the material before doing questions? How many questions do you aim to do in a day?

Here's what I usually do during a typical 4 week block.
Week 1-2: Complete first pass of material to learn it well
Week 2-3: All of Rx questions, start some review (2nd Pass)
Week 3-4: Start Kaplan questions, continue and finish review (2nd Pass)

That way I get 2 passes of the material and do both Qbanks. As for the number of questions, sometimes its 0 per day, other times I'll do 100+, totally depends on how I'm feeling day to day.

 

[Ho0v-man]

75% on Kaplan doesn’t equal to getting wrecked. 70-80% means that your full potential on Step 1 is around 240s-250s.

Bless you

 

[sovereign0]

Kaplan gets my vote. The questions tend to be more difficult (on average - some are stupid as with any Qbank), but the explanations are gold and often very thorough. My goal for a Qbank is to really test my knowledge and comprehension, so hard questions are good questions. Sure, some of them are regarding minutiae or are true "WTF" questions, but the same thing happens on Step 1 so I don't see that as a drawback.

If you want to test yourself on FA, there's Anki decks for that.

 

[MaxillaryCa]

75% on Kaplan doesn’t equal to getting wrecked. 70-80% means that your full potential on Step 1 is around 240s-250s.

Thank you! This is so encouraging to hear.

 

[TheIllusionist]

Kaplan. They cite all of their answers in not only first aid but other resources. Use RX honestly during the couple months of prededicated, when you stop caring as much about grades and your AOA or not is more or less secured. Start reading first aid then and hammering the questions in RX to test mastery of nuances. Kaplan should be completed by then anyway.