QBank Rank

[FrkyBgStok]

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I am a DO student taking the USMLE and the COMLEX. I am looking for a rough ranking of qbanks. I am planning on splitting up my time between USMLEworld and COMQuest in the last month but i guess my ultimate question is that I have time to get through either all of Kaplan and half of another (i was thinking of USMLERx just so it gets me through first aid), or all of another and half of Kaplan. I was curious if someone who has taken the test could tell me which is more high yield.

So any tips? Is there a better qbank that USMLERx that I should consider? I already have Kaplan qbank stuff through school. Thanks.

 

[Lavan]

USMLE World is the only one you really need, and I highly recommend knowing that qbank cold before buying an additional one. Do it a second time. Mark all the questions you get wrong or just guess correctly, and do those again. Read the explanations in detail. Kaplan is #2 but not as good by a long shot. USMLERx isn't really worth your time. Questions are questions. They're are similarities across all banks, you don't need to buy another just because you finished one.

 

[FrkyBgStok]

So it is much more beneficial to go through usmle world twice than that and another qbank? I will plan on doing that.

 

[J ROD]

Uworld is the best. Kaplan and Rx depends on the person from the research I have done. I chose Rx and using that to reinforce what I am learning/reviewing in FA. So far, I find it is working fairly well.

Personally, I am going to go through UWorld once slowly so I can take my time during my dedicated study time. I may go over the ones I miss or sections I suck at again. I figure with around 3500-4000 questions done I should have a clue to at least pass. If not, then I deserve to go home.

 

[sanj238]

I am a DO student taking the USMLE and the COMLEX. I am looking for a rough ranking of qbanks. I am planning on splitting up my time between USMLEworld and COMQuest in the last month but i guess my ultimate question is that I have time to get through either all of Kaplan and half of another (i was thinking of USMLERx just so it gets me through first aid), or all of another and half of Kaplan. I was curious if someone who has taken the test could tell me which is more high yield.

So any tips? Is there a better qbank that USMLERx that I should consider? I already have Kaplan qbank stuff through school. Thanks.

As a DO I actually think USMLERX is superior to UWorld. And you only need kaplan if you're taking USMLE. caveat- I haven't taken usmle yet.

rx has more clinical focus with questions you ar emore likely to see on the comlex. The question stems are focused towards patient presentations and tend to have that limited info style so common on comlex. I personally found UWorld to be ridiculously easy and whatever I got wrong was because I hadn't yet covered it in that system. I would say that UWorld's explanations are also very limited compared to rx. Obviously you HAVE to do UWorld but I think it needs serious updating to become more useful.

Its clinical oriented questions are also limited as it focuses on the basic sciences more- biochem, physio, mol bio. These are important but nto as high yield for the COMLEX as well. I would say rx focus' more on the path- because thats what First Aid is about mostly.

I've completed all of UWorld and I am currently at 83%. My rx which I did first was bw 60-70%. A lot of what I learned in rx I would see again on UW and I basically knew the right answer. The remainder- that people find difficult - I got really high scores on- my physiology/ pathophys is around 90%.

So I dunno- it really depends on waht you want- the clincally oriented material - then rx _ which I think is best for COMLEX- think combank but far superior to it in terms of difficulty and quality of explanations.

UW- reasoning - then yeah its good at throwing wrinkles at you- sort of what the USMLE would do. I haven't taken usmle yet

 

[Lavan]

For the USMLE, UW is the best without a doubt. For myself and for most other students I've known as well as the students I've tutored, depth is more important than breadth. All qbanks are going to hit the majority of the same stuff. Getting the same question wrong in different qbanks and not learning it well helps you not one bit. Knowing a question well and how to get it right the next time? That's what matters. UW has fantastic explanations imho.

It's not just about the raw number of questions you get through that matters, it's how you get through them. If UW wanted to be simply be bigger, it easily could be.

 

[sanj238]

No need to get defensive over a qbank.... its a qbank.

UWorld is the gold standard. You telling everyone its amazing isn't new. Its questions are not very well geared towards the COMLEX which he is going to take- as a requirement and which I have done.

The conceptual questions that UWorld has just are not part of the comlex. They are very heavily geared towards clinical side.

Whats more, this indepth you and everyone speak of is easily acquired by reading the right review material. Goljan rr path and Kaplan physio in particular all cover that material really well - BRS can be included here. But the clinical style questions are hard to come by.

For OP, just to give you an idea:

Everyone knows that PCOS causes hirsuitism in patients. But how does one recognize it? Goljan, Kaplan, FA do not discuss this. rx- the question presents this as ".... a woman with presentation of hair around her areola"- hidden inside the question and very difficult to identify this as hirsutism on its own. But these types of clinically oriented q are what COMLEX and rx heavily focus on. - UWorld has this as well I think but its all a blur. I just remember seeing this on rx first. I think far more of these types of questions are in rx though instead of the "in depth" material

 

[Lavan]

Haha not defensive man, I was mostly responding to OP's follow-up question ("So it is much more beneficial to go through usmle world twice than that and another qbank?"). Particularly as OP is talking about his final push before taking the USMLE, it's probably better to dedicate himself to a single resource than to spread himself too thin.

 

[notbobtrustme]

Uworld > UsmleRX

everything is pretty much crap. I love Rx because it's First Aid in questions, which helps you retain the information better. Just reading through pages and pages of lists is really mind-numbing and extremely passive. However, when you read a question and work through the diagnosis/treatment/mechanism, you have to actively engage in the learning process. I haven't even cracked open First Aid yet but I feel like I have a good grasp on the stuff we've covered already because of working through the Rx qbank.

 

[sanj238]

Uworld > UsmleRX

everything is pretty much crap. I love Rx because it's First Aid in questions, which helps you retain the information better. Just reading through pages and pages of lists is really mind-numbing and extremely passive. However, when you read a question and work through the diagnosis/treatment/mechanism, you have to actively engage in the learning process. I haven't even cracked open First Aid yet but I feel like I have a good grasp on the stuff we've covered already because of working through the Rx qbank.

Haha not defensive man, I was mostly responding to OP's follow-up question ("So it is much more beneficial to go through usmle world twice than that and another qbank?"). Particularly as OP is talking about his final push before taking the USMLE, it's probably better to dedicate himself to a single resource than to spread himself too thin.

Just out of curiosity can you tell me what exactly about UWorld is superior or so good? Can you give me examples?

 

[notbobtrustme]

Just out of curiosity can you tell me what exactly about UWorld is superior or so good? Can you give me examples?

Uworld relies less on trigger words and is more integrated. A typical Rx question is maybe 2 or 3 sentences long and you can nail the right answer 75% by knowing the code words. Last night, I did a quick run of some Rx questions on Neuro and I had a question that asked what caused this woman's fall and altered mental status. They mentioned she was being treated for ADPKD, so bam, right away, you know the answer (berry aneurysm rupture), even though other things may have caused her fall and altered mental status. There just wasn't enough information to lead you astray. Rx was testing whether or not you know that ADPKD = berry aneurysm rupture. In a Uworld question, there are more distractors and more indepth reasoning because the questions are longer (5-6 sentences long). For example, it'll give you some symptoms and ask you how this disease is related to another different disease but sharing the same mechanism (eg acne and bile duct obstruction or Lambert Eaton and Goodpasture's). I don't think I've seen anything like that on Rx.

 

[FrkyBgStok]

So if I don't want to get read through first aid, because it is passive learning, would usmlerx be a better choice than kaplan? My current plan is do kaplan, then uworld twice. Would usmlerx then uworld twice be better and not focus on first aid? I also have pathoma and picmonic but would rather spend time doing questions as opposed to reading books.

 

[sanj238]

Uworld relies less on trigger words and is more integrated. A typical Rx question is maybe 2 or 3 sentences long and you can nail the right answer 75% by knowing the code words. Last night, I did a quick run of some Rx questions on Neuro and I had a question that asked what caused this woman's fall and altered mental status. They mentioned she was being treated for ADPKD, so bam, right away, you know the answer (berry aneurysm rupture), even though other things may have caused her fall and altered mental status. There just wasn't enough information to lead you astray. Rx was testing whether or not you know that ADPKD = berry aneurysm rupture. In a Uworld question, there are more distractors and more indepth reasoning because the questions are longer (5-6 sentences long). For example, it'll give you some symptoms and ask you how this disease is related to another different disease but sharing the same mechanism (eg acne and bile duct obstruction or Lambert Eaton and Goodpasture's). I don't think I've seen anything like that on Rx.

Ah, I see- I think you and I utilize rx differently then.

For me Rx is about the clinical presentation- I don't really care about that integrative aspect because I feel like I know it well enough from studying comprehensive sources. I feel like the setup to the question is what I like the most about rx.

For example- as I mentioned above- and I'll repeat because I cant remember off hand other questinos- rx asks about PCOS- they mention clinical symptoms like amenorrhea, hair around areola, and so forth. I had a hard time figuring out what the patient had- but after seeing it was PCOS I realized that their description meant hirsuitism. Things like that are what are important for me.

COMLEX really does not ask integrative questions- they primarily focus on the clinical presentation and ask you what it is. If there are hard q its just more details as opposed to putting things together. For this rx is great.

Also- that aspect of integration you refer to - I get from doing Kaplan Comprehensive/ goljan- almost all of those things are covered by the two with a few other sources brs etc. But none of these indepth sources offer the clinical presentations found in questions which rx does a great job of.

if you are only using it as a question answer type then yeah I think UWorld is better but if you intend to use everything information wise in the question - from the patient presentation to the explanations in the wrong answer choices then rx is better. I think you are primarily using rx as just whether or not you can get the answer right. In this sense its not so great- the q are simpler. But the exposure you get to the material regaridng patient presentation and the sheer information explained in the answers- is amazing.

 

[sanj238]

So if I don't want to get read through first aid, because it is passive learning, would usmlerx be a better choice than kaplan? My current plan is do kaplan, then uworld twice. Would usmlerx then uworld twice be better and not focus on first aid? I also have pathoma and picmonic but would rather spend time doing questions as opposed to reading books.

Haha- Not reading FA is terrible. Its just as bad as not doing a qbank. FA is the gold standard- suck it up and read it. rx is just there to make sure you didnt skip over details. Skipping FA and you're playing with fire with in a room with a gas leak.

I'd say skip Kaplan altogether. the qbank is great I'm using it now but its only good if you've done the other two. its too detailed compared to UWorld and doesn't have enough clinical q to match rx. Its not worth it unless you do it after the other two for additional depth.
pathoma and FA are a must. picmonic was great for drugs/bugs/and heme/onc diseases but its not enough. You need FA+ pathoma + qbank. I'd say at the very least do combank. Or Rx. ideally you will do both rx and Uworld.

 

[FrkyBgStok]

I didn't say I was going to skip it it, I just don't want to set up a plan where I read it 5 times. I want to read it in depth once or twice and focus more on questions.

 

[Lavan]

I didn't say I was going to skip it it, I just don't want to set up a plan where I read it 5 times. I want to read it in depth once or twice and focus more on questions.

Outside of SDN, there are many people who read through First Aid and then proceed to hammer away at UW and do nothing else and score excellently. I personally disliked Rx precisely because I'd already read FA, and with limited time, I preferred to spend it doing the best questions and best explanations possible. For every Step exam I relied on UW a lot for primary high-yield learning (a textbook in question format), not just for the questions themselves. There is no rule that says you have use a dozen books, a video course, etc to succeed.

 

[sanj238]

So if I don't want to get read through first aid, because it is passive learning, would

Outside of SDN, there are many people who read through First Aid and then proceed to hammer away at UW and do nothing else and score excellently. I personally disliked Rx precisely because I'd already read FA, and with limited time, I preferred to spend it doing the best questions and best explanations possible. For every Step exam I relied on UW a lot for primary high-yield learning (a textbook in question format), not just for the questions themselves. There is no rule that says you have use a dozen books, a video course, etc to succeed.

Depends on what scores one is looking for. I assume you are an FMG so scoring may be different for the rest of us.

 

[Lavan]

Depends on what scores one is looking for. I assume you are an FMG so scoring may be different for the rest of us.

Haha not at all, that's an odd assumption. No, for what it's worth, I'm a US MD who was Alpha Omega Alpha at a large state medical school.
It's the depth of understanding not the quantity of resources that defines performance, as well as general test taking skill.

 

[musycla2]

Have any of you tried firecracker? Do you guys find it helpful?

 

[mcloaf]

Have any of you tried firecracker? Do you guys find it helpful?

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/threads/firecracker.929275/

 

[da Vincis World]

Unless something has changed UWorld has significantly more refined explanations and stems that are much more like USMLE questions, than does Rx. When I was doing this a couple of years ago there were quite a few errors in Rx.....I did about 1000 Rx questions and submitted enough errors to them to get a pretty nice check from the publisher. I ended up using FA, Pathoma, UWorld(~8500 quesions) and savarese for omm. I think knowing fewer sources completely is significantly better than studying from a ton of different sources. You certainly don't need to do a comlex specific qbank to excel on that test. You really only need FA and UW to kill the USMLE....its all there.

 

[Ionian]

Unless something has changed UWorld has significantly more refined explanations and stems that are much more like USMLE questions, than does Rx. When I was doing this a couple of years ago there were quite a few errors in Rx.....I did about 1000 Rx questions and submitted enough errors to them to get a pretty nice check from the publisher. I ended up using FA, Pathoma, UWorld(~8500 quesions) and savarese for omm. I think knowing fewer sources completely is significantly better than studying from a ton of different sources. You certainly don't need to do a comlex specific qbank to excel on that test. You really only need FA and UW to kill the USMLE....its all there.

Sure, "its all there" between FA and Pathoma and Uworld, but are you sure you will have untested concepts down just by watching and reading them? Wont know till you get a good question on it. Uworld is very non-comprehensive, worse than that it repeats questions 3/4 times, and leaves wide wide gaps of untested material. Rx should be done all 2nd year without question.

It has been a few years for you to being removed from Rx. All I can say is its better than it was, its 2700 questions distributed equally throughout FA with pretty much no repeated questions which is just awesome. Yes 10% of the question are still poorly written, but after 4 weeks of my first run through of Uworld, ill go ahead and argue 10% of its questions are equally as bad or useless.

Uworld to me seems like stolen rx or robbins or past nbme questions, that have been made more convoluted, or made with more uncommon terms.

That's an easy way to make it a difficult Qbank, and easy way to not impress me.

 

[rodmichael82]

I am a DO student taking the USMLE and the COMLEX. I am looking for a rough ranking of qbanks. I am planning on splitting up my time between USMLEworld and COMQuest in the last month but i guess my ultimate question is that I have time to get through either all of Kaplan and half of another (i was thinking of USMLERx just so it gets me through first aid), or all of another and half of Kaplan. I was curious if someone who has taken the test could tell me which is more high yield.

So any tips? Is there a better qbank that USMLERx that I should consider? I already have Kaplan qbank stuff through school. Thanks.

In my opinion you need to go through Uworld TWICE. Start doing it don't save it till the end. it's an extremely valuable Qbank and you need to know it COLD.

 

[Ionian]

In my opinion you need to go through Uworld TWICE. Start doing it don't save it till the end. it's an extremely valuable Qbank and you need to know it COLD.

2nd run, overrated.

 

[rodmichael82]

So it is much more beneficial to go through usmle world twice than that and another qbank? I will plan on doing that.

YES I have USMLE-RX and I also did Kaplan they don't even come close to Uworld. Do Uworld once and then do it a second time.

 

[rodmichael82]

2nd run, overrated.

I feel like I'm learning more from 2nd run than from 1st run. So to each their own. There's so many things that I did not pick up on or learn the first time around which is why I guess 2nd run is valuable for me. I guess if you have killer photographic memory and got everything the first time then probably don't need to worry about a 2nd run?

 

[CherryRedDracul]

2nd run, overrated.

I took notes on everything I got wrong or was even remotely unsure of in UWorld. For me, a second run through would mean doing everything on autopilot because I'll know what the answer was without thinking it out.

*By notes, I mean I have everything in a separate Word document that I can just read through on the fly.

 

[tantacles]

So it is much more beneficial to go through usmle world twice than that and another qbank? I will plan on doing that.

I bought both UWorld and Kaplan Qbank. Ultimately ended up doing all of uworld twice and around 700 questions from Kaplan Qbank. Uworld was awesome, and Kaplan was just too minutia oriented.

 

[da Vincis World]

Sure, "its all there" between FA and Pathoma and Uworld, but are you sure you will have untested concepts down just by watching and reading them? Wont know till you get a good question on it. Uworld is very non-comprehensive, worse than that it repeats questions 3/4 times, and leaves wide wide gaps of untested material. Rx should be done all 2nd year without question.

It has been a few years for you to being removed from Rx. All I can say is its better than it was, its 2700 questions distributed equally throughout FA with pretty much no repeated questions which is just awesome. Yes 10% of the question are still poorly written, but after 4 weeks of my first run through of Uworld, ill go ahead and argue 10% of its questions are equally as bad or useless.

Uworld to me seems like stolen rx or robbins or past nbme questions, that have been made more convoluted, or made with more uncommon terms.

That's an easy way to make it a difficult Qbank, and easy way to not impress me.

Am I sure.... Yes I'm sure, I got a 260 on step 1.

You've got a lot of opinions for someone who has never taken the test. Your n=1 study has no results.

Uworld is quite comprehensive, the explanations are money, and it's timing is exactly like the real test.

THE ABSOLUTE MOST IMPORTANT ADVICE I CAN GIVE YOU (OP) :
Talk to people who have actually taken Step 1 AND done well on it..... med students are full of baseless opinions. The amount of unsolicited board study advice I received was unbelievable.... it typically came from below average scorers(always ask scores if they offer advice). Your school will give you contact info for high scorers from previous years if you ask.

 

[Ionian]

Am I sure.... Yes I'm sure, I got a 260 on step 1.

You've got a lot of opinions for someone who has never taken the test. Your n=1 study has no results.

Uworld is quite comprehensive, the explanations are money, and it's timing is exactly like the real test.

THE ABSOLUTE MOST IMPORTANT ADVICE I CAN GIVE YOU (OP) :
Talk to people who have actually taken Step 1 AND done well on it..... med students are full of baseless opinions. The amount of unsolicited board study advice I received was unbelievable.... it typically came from below average scorers(always ask scores if they offer advice). Your school will give you contact info for high scorers from previous years if you ask.

When did you take it like in the 90s?

Even two years from now, I wont be giving advice to 2nd years, because they will know more about step then I will cause it will thankfully be behind me.

People months out from step know about/remember all the resources, and have advantage of all new things you don't know, dont care about or aren't privy to.

So shut your mouth.

Your advice is about as good as a first years. First years also know how to say use Uworld. Really?? Oh thank you so much sir, we would have never known!

 

[da Vincis World]

When did you take it like in the 90s?

Even two years from now, I wont be giving advice to 2nd years, because they will know more about step then I will cause it will thankfully be behind me.

People months out from step know about/remember all the resources, and have advantage of all new things you don't know, dont care about are aren't privy to.

So shut your mouth.

Shut my mouth? Aren't you BIG? You're the clown here, you're giving advice on something that you have zero experience with. I took it two years ago.....it hasn't changed much since then.

Btw, it's "than" not "then".

 

[Ionian]

Shut my mouth? Aren't you BIG? You're the clown here, you're giving advice on something that you have zero experience with. I took it two years ago.....it hasn't changed much since then.

Get out of here old man. We'll talk to phloston when we need advice, aint no one trying to talk to you.

If I need to make sure my grammar is correct though, I'll call on you bro.

 

[da Vincis World]

I stand corrected....All, please take your board studying advice from Ionian as it seems he has proven to be quite a beacon of intelligence.

BTW....unless you're in a PhD program or have significant time off, you'll never have enough time to study like phloston.

-Old man

 

[Ionian]

I stand corrected....All, please take your board studying advice from Ionian as it seems he has proven to be quite a beacon of intelligence.

BTW....unless you're in a PhD program or have significant time off you'll never have enough time to study like phloston.

-Old man

I approve of this message.

 

[orchitisphlebitis]

Moral of this thread: Phloston is a bacon of intelligence.

 

[Wizard of Gauze]

If anyone reading this thread is looking to buy USMLE Rx, we just got a code for it at our school: SUNYDOWNQMAX1 It's $99 for 12-month subscription, and can buy now and activate up to 6 months later if you prefer to wait. Expires 6/6/14

 

[notbobtrustme]

based on the NBMEs and CBSE, which are supposedly the most predictive resources out there, the questions are much more like Rx than Uworld.

I don't understand how NBMEs and CBSE can predictive if everyone says they are "too easy" compared to the real deal. It wouldn't be predictive if NBMEs/CBSEs weren't similar to the real deal.

I mean, I just took NBME 12 and there were like 5 questions that actually require thought (eg took more than 10 seconds to answer the question). The rest were simple 1 step reasonings that you either knew or you didn't. **** is just a vocab test (eg malrotation means the same thing as volvulus, so that's what this guy had). Dude has RA, what drugs inhibits inflammatory cytokine? Dude comes in with portal HTN, what vein is congested? Dude has an absurd number of signs/symptoms for BPH -> prostatic hyperplasia. Sickle cell + hydroxyurea -> HbF. Contact dermatitis -> Type 4 HS. All Uworld does differently is add another unnecessary step of identification (eg increase protein synthesis of HbF, activation of CD4 Tcells) or go out of it's way to help you answer the question. For example, again, on NBME 12, there was a question that said "dude has premature ejac, what's the treatment" that's a straight-up either you know it or you don't know it kind of question. On Uworld, that same question would have had someting like "metabolic study of his brain indicates decreased activity of serotonin circuits" and that would clue you into the actual treatment, which is apparently SSRIs.

Uworld is probably easier than the NBMEs, not harder. There's an absurd amount of help given in each Uworld question that is simply not there on NBMEs/CBSEs.

Going through Uworld twice is a terrible waste of time. It's much better to see the material from a different perspective and Rx is much better than Uworld in recreating the NBMEs/CBSE questions.

 

[Brain Bucket]

Haha, based on the title I thought this thread was presenting neurotisism at a whole new level. I'm glad I was mistaken.

 

[BlueJay25]

In my personal opinion, as I'm studying for step 1 and have spoken to many other students who scored well on Step 1 (people scoring 249-263) I believe that doing both USMLE Rx and U World are both essential for scoring well on Step 1. Rx allows you to really figure out if you know your FA well and haven't just been reading passively. U world, well I think we've all read the many threads that say U World is the gold standard, and that's the exact same advice I got from my colleagues I spoke to who have written Step 1.

Other than Q banks I would recommend Pathoma (I believe it is a must), and if you have the time I would also try to read Goljan Rapid Review. I can't begin to tell you how great of a book that is.

Hope this helped.