QBank Questions: When to start?

[USFOptho]

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Hey guys,

My school says not to even start Q-Bank until after 2nd year ends, when we have a few weeks off to study for step 1.


Any ideas on starting Q-bank early, as in, November, for the classes I've already had? (Phys, anatomy, biochem, behavioral)....Do 50 questions a night, or during down time, and hit up the full explanations.....

Thoughts?

 

[tom_jones]

Hey guys,

My school says not to even start Q-Bank until after 2nd year ends, when we have a few weeks off to study for step 1.


Any ideas on starting Q-bank early, as in, November, for the classes I've already had? (Phys, anatomy, biochem, behavioral)....Do 50 questions a night, or during down time, and hit up the full explanations.....

Thoughts?

put down the guns and step away from the Q-bank.

 

[Vince]

I have done better than average on both COMLEX and USMLE Steps/Levels 1 & 2, and I agree with Tom here on this one.

There were soooo many questions on USMLE Step 1 that I had to reach back into what I had learned during the first two years. So, study hard now in the classes that you are taking, but I wouldn't get Qbank yet, it would be waste of money. Learn what you need to on each system or however your curriculum is set up. If you learn as much as you can while you are taking your pre-clinical/basic science courses, you'll be prepared for Step 1.

My advice that I have been giving to 2nd years/3rd years at my school is to try to finish First Aid(and/or StepUp) about a month or so before your boards, then just do questions. (I did NMS, A&L's, and some Qbank). I think you are wasting your time if you are reading on topics within a month of the boards. You are going to be burnt out, sick of it all, and questions help focus your attention when you are exhausted. If you want to look stuff up that you missed that's different, but don't just sit down and read stuff. DO QUESTIONS!

If you really want to be successful, I would start out doing questions, etc. on your weakest subjects so that you don't leave them until the end. I did that and I really think it helped, especially with Step 2, and I remember even with Step 1.

For Step 1, our school gave us the practice USMLE that can be ordered and administered by the school on a Saturday...my worst subject was Renal so i studied that hard before Step 1, and wouldn't you know it...it was my best subject on the real deal, and I remember there was a lot of renal on that test.

Same thing for Step 2...I started out with Peds(esp. Immuno Dz's), OB/Gyn, and Psych b/c I knew they were my weakness and it really helped b/c my Peds turned out okay and so was Ob/Gyn. Okay...Psych was still my lowest, but who cares, those questions are as nutty as the patients.

And what was I off the charts in again on Step 2????

"Renal, Urinary & Male Reproductive Systems."

Boy are those Kidneys important..... 😀

Good luck! And don't you dare sign up for Qbank yet!

 

[USFOptho]

Thanks for the opinions. Anyone have a differing one?

 

[SolidGold]

USFOptho, you better start skipping class and start those Qbank questions right now!!! 😀

 

[USFOptho]

USFOptho, you better start skipping class and start those Qbank questions right now!!! 😀

Solid,

I know..if I want to catch up to your "288 or bust" schedule, then I better start working like a boston girl on manny ramirez... 👍

 

[SolidGold]

Solid,

I know..if I want to catch up to your "288 or bust" schedule, then I better start working like a boston girl on manny ramirez... 👍

I've got the Qbank up on my laptop during lecture...I've already done 300 questions since I signed up last week. I'm really shooting for a 266. I'm going to be Step 1's daddy.

 

[USFOptho]

I've got the Qbank up on my laptop during lecture...I've already done 300 questions since I signed up last week. I'm really shooting for a 266. Step 1 will be my daddy.

What can I say? I'm impressed. Do you really need a 266 to match into a carribean family practice residency?

 

[bof]

sign up for qbank 1 month before your test date.

for now, it is not a bad idea to start doing questions. if you like kaplan you can get the qbook, but NMS is also a cheap source of quality questions. start early but save qbank for the last month of studying.

boF

 

[SolidGold]

I was just kidding above, I have not started doing any questions yet.

I keep hearing that the one regret most people have is that they did not finish all of the Kaplan questions before Step I. But I want to know if it is possible to complete all 2100 QBank questions and the 850 questions from the QBook in a 4 week span, while still studying? That's about the amount of "free time" that I'm given to study for Step I.

 

[bigfrank]

Hey guys,

My school says not to even start Q-Bank until after 2nd year ends, when we have a few weeks off to study for step 1.


Any ideas on starting Q-bank early, as in, November, for the classes I've already had? (Phys, anatomy, biochem, behavioral)....Do 50 questions a night, or during down time, and hit up the full explanations.....

Thoughts?

If you're going to use QBank as a studying tool, you really need to be doing questions for 2 months, not 2 weeks. QBank is good for getting you in the mindset for the *types* of questions that you will be asked. Your school is wrong.

 

[USFOptho]

Big Frank,

I'm glad you piped up, since I know you're USMLE Stud of 2004. I actually have QBank access for 9 months as part of a promotional deal, and a few other types of study question sets as well. Since I've already taken 1st year classes, obviously, I wanted to start doing those questions to get my mind back in the groove of phys, anatomy, biochem, etc...and go over the explanations when done.

Thanks!

If you're going to use QBank as a studying tool, you really need to be doing questions for 2 months, not 2 weeks. QBank is good for getting you in the mindset for the *types* of questions that you will be asked. Your school is wrong.