Question about UWorld

[Umairshariff23]

Hi everyone, I have recently started doing questions from UWorld (tutor mode) and have gotten to a point where I can do 2 blocks in under an hour. What I want to know is the propotion of questions from Uworld that appear in the main Step 1 exam.

For example, can most of the questions that examinees encounter be found in the Uworld question bank??

Another thing, I have been looking into for some full fledged online practice exams, it would be a great help if someone can point me to a website

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[Mad Jack]

If you're going through two exams in an hour, you're not doing it correctly. UW is a tool that is meant to be studied from- you don't just answer questions to see what you know, you read every single answer (including the wrong ones, as those wrong answers are the right answer for 4+ other questions), annotate the little details into First Aid, then move on to the next question. A fast run of a 40 question block is 3 hours for a lot of people, because of all of the reading, annotating, etc. UW isn't to test your knowledge, it is to build it.

As to "are these the questions that are on the boards," no, they're not. You will encounter similar, because there are only so many things to be asked, but there are a lot of different ways to ask those things. There is also always new information being added to the boards all the time, so there might be material included that has not yet been added to UW.

For full length self assessments, there is the Free 150, available at the USMLE website, the two UW self assessments, and the NBME practice tests (of which there are, I believe, 6). The UW ones you have to buy, and the NBME ones cost 60 bucks a piece if memory serves. Also, if you have Kaplan, there are two free full length exams there.

 

[DocWinter]

You are doing 80 Questions in under 60 minutes....

 

[Umairshariff23]

If you're going through two exams in an hour, you're not doing it correctly. UW is a tool that is meant to be studied from- you don't just answer questions to see what you know, you read every single answer (including the wrong ones, as those wrong answers are the right answer for 4+ other questions), annotate the little details into First Aid, then move on to the next question. A fast run of a 40 question block is 3 hours for a lot of people, because of all of the reading, annotating, etc. UW isn't to test your knowledge, it is to build it.

As to "are these the questions that are on the boards," no, they're not. You will encounter similar, because there are only so many things to be asked, but there are a lot of different ways to ask those things. There is also always new information being added to the boards all the time, so there might be material included that has not yet been added to UW.

For full length self assessments, there is the Free 150, available at the USMLE website, the two UW self assessments, and the NBME practice tests (of which there are, I believe, 6). The UW ones you have to buy, and the NBME ones cost 60 bucks a piece if memory serves. Also, if you have Kaplan, there are two free full length exams there.

Ok, thanks for the info. I was overwhelmed with the almost 2500 questions and wanted to be done with all of them asap, and was hoping that these questions would be on the main exam. I will take your advice and review the older questions and follow it up with FA.

And thanks for the info about the self evaluation exams, once I feel that I am ready, I'll attempt those.

BTW, one more thing, the question on the mock tests, are they any resemblance to the questions on the main exam??

 

[Mad Jack]

Ok, thanks for the info. I was overwhelmed with the almost 2500 questions and wanted to be done with all of them asap, and was hoping that these questions would be on the main exam. I will take your advice and review the older questions and follow it up with FA.

And thanks for the info about the self evaluation exams, once I feel that I am ready, I'll attempt those.

BTW, one more thing, the question on the mock tests, are they any resemblance to the questions on the main exam??

They're similar but not identical. Like, there's only so many ways you can ask about CYP450 inducers and inhibitors, but those ways still number in the hundreds lol. That's why you need to actually read, process, and understand each question and the answers- you will not see the exact same questions on the Step exam, but if you understand the questions and answers, you will be able to handle similar questions when they come your way. A major secondary point of UW (in addition to supplementing your knowledge) is to see a lot of the different ways that something can be asked so that you can anticipate how to apply those different methods of approaching a topic more broadly and aren't blindsided by the odd, three-step nature of a lot of the questions you'll come across. UW is NOT meant to gauge your knowledge base and is NOT an assessment tool, it is a learning tool.

As to the mock exams, they are similar in content makeup to the boards (i.e. 10% anatomy, 10% biochem, 25% physio, etc) but the questions themselves are not the questions you'll see on boards, as the board questions change with every administration of the test and are selected from a constantly changing bank of thousands of questions. Focus on learning how things can be asked and mastering the material, as every administration of the Step exam is sufficiently different that no mock exam will ever be anything like what you see on test day.