Q Banks Comparing to real exam?

[beavis84]

---

Members do not see this ad.

hey..

Congrats for the great scores!

everyone , or atleast almost everybody here, recommends UW as a Qbank. but how do the new ones compare to the real step1?

elseviers usmlesteps123 (heard nothing about this one)
usmleRx (supposed to be to easy, or??)
kaplan (i heard they kinda updated it recently to make it more like the real exam, harder etc. is this true?)

maybe some opinions here?
thanks..

 

[MikeyK]

I used Kaplan QBank and thought it was a great resource. I would do about 100 Q's/day. in the end my predicted score underestimated my real score by a few points, so it was pretty spot on. I think the general consensus around here is that QBank is worthless and UW is the only way to go. IMO this is not so, the only draw back to QBank is the cost. If I could have used UW to the same effect and saved a couple hundred bones, I would have done it. But I think there is a lot to be learned form the detailed explanations of QBank

 

[Old_Mil]

hey..

Congrats for the great scores!

everyone , or atleast almost everybody here, recommends UW as a Qbank. but how do the new ones compare to the real step1?

elseviers usmlesteps123 (heard nothing about this one)
usmleRx (supposed to be to easy, or??)
kaplan (i heard they kinda updated it recently to make it more like the real exam, harder etc. is this true?)

maybe some opinions here?
thanks..

In my opinion, Kaplan's Qbank was a joke. I was scoring around 70% on it (56% on UWorld), and though I don't have my scores back yet it'll be a miracle if I pass.

 

[Coxsuckie Virus]

I used Kaplan and UWorld.

I found both to be useful. There were actually similar questions on each that appearred on my exam.

The explanations on Kaplan were oftentimes subpar. But in actuality, you rarely need more of an explanation than the correct answer to realize why you were wrong on something anyways.

UWorld was a lot of fun. I used it to study for about 2 straight weeks. I started out getting anywhere from 40 to 60 percent correct depending on the type of material I was focusing on. But as I got deeper and deeper into it, my score would rise consistently. Their explanations were generally awesome, with great figures and animations. Very detailed about why things weren't correct as well.

After living on UW for two weeks, I dicked around with Kaplan for a week. Starting out around 50% and by the end of the week, getting 70-80% with consistancy.

I would say I did about 50% of the Kaplan Qbank as well as a decent amount of the Clinical Vignette thing. On UW, I went through the entire thing in a week, then just hammered home a lot of points until I could randomly pick any question set or any subset and nail 80%.

I felt okay after the exam, but I was shaky on some things. Some of that may have been holes in my own knowledge, but either way, the two banks reflect how you do against everyone else on their first try of the same questions. So you can get a good assessment of how you compare.


UW was a little more difficult than Kaplan. By that I mean a larger proportion of their questions are harder than the hard questions proportioned out in Kaplan. And their interface is better too, exactly like the real test. But overall, I think had I made it completely through Kaplan, I would say they're both equally good at prepping you, and a lot of synergism in tag teaming the two of them can only make you better.

Go with both. Do every question. Read every explanation. Then do them all again. Questions, questions, questions until you can't get anything wrong.

You'll know you're good when you can look at the answer choices, and know what the answer they want before you even read the stem. When you can do that, and if you do that on the actual test, you'll know you're $money$ 👍

 

[canedoc]

I have to agree with the post above. I used both Qbank and USMLEworld. I found the 'world a bit easier than Qbank, since I used Qbank during my study period, and the 'world during my reviewing phase.

I think that it's almost a given that you will find varying opinions on the various question banks. That being said, I found some value in having a question bank that you do during your acutal studying and then a separate one you use in the reviwing part of your studying. That way, you almost ensure that when your scores on the qbank aren't what you want...that you have a second fresh question bank to start with a good base of knowledge.

I also recommend some of the PreTest books. Although the explanations are lengthy, the fact that you're doing questions makes the experience worth the trouble.

Good luck!

 

[beponychick]

I have to agree with the post above. I used both Qbank and USMLEworld. I found the 'world a bit easier than Qbank, since I used Qbank during my study period, and the 'world during my reviewing phase.

I think that it's almost a given that you will find varying opinions on the various question banks. That being said, I found some value in having a question bank that you do during your acutal studying and then a separate one you use in the reviwing part of your studying. That way, you almost ensure that when your scores on the qbank aren't what you want...that you have a second fresh question bank to start with a good base of knowledge.

I also recommend some of the PreTest books. Although the explanations are lengthy, the fact that you're doing questions makes the experience worth the trouble.

Good luck!

Since you used the QBank as a study tool, when do you think its a good time to purchase it? I am starting M2 in Aug. Should I buy it right away or wait until Jan or next year?

Thanks!

 

[Law2Doc]

Since you used the QBank as a study tool, when do you think its a good time to purchase it? I am starting M2 in Aug. Should I buy it right away or wait until Jan or next year?

Thanks!

You won't have time to do it justice during the school year. Best to sign up for it for the three months preceding when you plan to take the exam.

 

[beponychick]

You won't have time to do it justice during the school year. Best to sign up for it for the three months preceding when you plan to take the exam.

With USMLEWorld? Will that be enough time? My school just went to P/F this year so I was thinking I should probably get started on doing questions early on? Does Q bank come in 3mo and 6mo subscriptions? Thanks!!

 

[OddNath]

In my opinion, Kaplan's Qbank was a joke. I was scoring around 70% on it (56% on UWorld), and though I don't have my scores back yet it'll be a miracle if I pass.

See I heard lots of comments like this as I was studying, and it just made me nervous for no reason.

I used kaplan qbank, was scoring >70% for the last couple weeks of studying, and made a 240+ on the real thing. Our school buys gives us qbank for free and I thought it was a great resource.

 

[beponychick]

See I heard lots of comments like this as I was studying, and it just made me nervous for no reason.

I used kaplan qbank, was scoring >70% for the last couple weeks of studying, and made a 240+ on the real thing. Our school buys gives us qbank for free and I thought it was a great resource.

Did you also use UW? or just QBank?

 

[OddNath]

Did you also use UW? or just QBank?

I only used Kaplan Qbank. Never even looked at UW. I was doing ~50 questions/day and didn't quite finish qbank, so there's no way I could've done both (but some people do).

 

[Uegis]

Qbank is tough. If you like minute details and have the time, do the questions and memorize the solutions. I got like a 55-60% on most of my sections but did fairly well on the actual exam and only finished 55% of all questions.

 

[doceasy24]

I did both Kaplan Qbank and UW. I thought the real thing was not exactly similar to either one, but UW was a lot closer than anything else. There certainly were not as many nit-picky details as Qbank and not every question was a multi-step thinking question like UW.

I was getting about 65-70% on both Qbanks and I managed to score a 249 on the real thing (so a lot higher than the score predictor from med friends said). Although, my score was almost exactly what the NBME tests predicted.

Good luck!

 

[Tastebuds]

I did both Kaplan Qbank and UW. I thought the real thing was not exactly similar to either one, but UW was a lot closer than anything else. There certainly were not as many nit-picky details as Qbank and not every question was a multi-step thinking question like UW.

I was getting about 65-70% on both Qbanks and I managed to score a 249 on the real thing (so a lot higher than the score predictor from med friends said). Although, my score was almost exactly what the NBME tests predicted.

Good luck!

How did your score compare to the 150Q set provided by USMLE?

 

[doceasy24]

How did your score compare to the 150Q set provided by USMLE?

I got a ~78% on the 150 free questions, for which the score estimator predicts a step 1 score of 235, but I took these questions very early in my board prep.

 

[beavis84]

Anything about the elsevier's Q bank USMLESteps123.com ?

i mean some people gotta be using it, who recently wrote the exam?
after Kaplan & UW, is elseviers Qbank worth it 'cause of new questions also on different topics and similarity to the real test?


thanks..

 

[Roy7]

hey..

Congrats for the great scores!

everyone , or atleast almost everybody here, recommends UW as a Qbank. but how do the new ones compare to the real step1?

elseviers usmlesteps123 (heard nothing about this one)
usmleRx (supposed to be to easy, or??)
kaplan (i heard they kinda updated it recently to make it more like the real exam, harder etc. is this true?)

maybe some opinions here?
thanks..

I finished both Qbank and World and honestly felt Qbank to be a waste of my time. The questions were waaaaaaaay too striaght forward and waaay too detailed.

World on the other hand was just like my test. And had better explanations.

However, I must say that I felt that Qbank was great for grilling details, but not for preparing me. If I had the choice I would have done qbank by subject to grill things, and world as my random blocks. I think doing another question bank is way better than doing one twice.

 

[blz]

I did qbank by subject while reviewing the material. After I finished, I switched over to usmleworld random. worked fine for me and I would do it that way again.

 

[MaxMoonMD]

I´m thinking about using QBank next to UW, but don´t want to waste too much time doing "the wrong questions" in Qbank, so which Subjects are worth doing in Qbank? (someone mentioned Anatomy being very descent...what about Behavioral? Biochemistry?)

Thanks!
MaxMoon

 

[Uegis]

The Heme-Onc questions and Endocrine questions were well-written on Qbank. Didn't use UW.