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Does anyone know of someone doing well by preparing only with questions (Qbank, BSS, NMBE) without reading review books?
Questions only?
- Thread starter scully
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I think this approach works for some people. It works for those people that read and understand the right and wrong answers. This is crucial. It's not about seeing "what is my percent correct," as much as it is, "did I really learn something here?"
If you can do that, then questions are a great way to study, but don't neglect First Aid.
If you can do that, then questions are a great way to study, but don't neglect First Aid.
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Okay, First Aid too -- thanks for the input. I have only had two weeks to study, so I thought going straight for the questions might be best. For me, active answering and learning from the explanations seems to keep me awake better than trying to slog through first aid or BRS. Hopefully the questions will represent all of the topics we need to know!
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scully said:
How useful questions will be for you depends alot on what stage of studying you are at, for a given subject. If your foundation is good (meaning that you understand most of the core concepts and facts for a subject), then doing well-written questions will help to cement what you know and to make new associations in your mind, which is critical.
If your foundation for a subject is only so-so, then doing questions is a totally hit or miss affair, since you can't expect too many repeats on the real test, although many will seem somehow familiar. You'll get something out of it, but it probably would have been more helpful to review the core info directly.
As a final note, you have to understand the generalizations that come out of questions you do, so that you can answer related q's as well. A good way to to do this, as BigFrank mentioned, is to read both the right and wrong answers. It expands your periphery of knowledge and the associations you have forged in your mind for a given topic. Hope that made some sense.
Many people speak of First Aid as the Bible. While it is true that it at least mentions many of the topics that you'll see (also true of a medical dictionary), it isn't sufficient to answer much of anything, unless you have already understood those topics somewhere else (either in coursework or during review with a thicker book). That's why some people get a lot out of it (already have a strong foundation) and some people get little out of it (foundation is weaker). All in all, definitely would have reused it again but would have skipped over a lot of the minutiae in it, most of which was close to worthless.
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I personally think that anyone using only question sources for review will get hosed on the step, UNLESS they kicked butt their first two years and remembered most of what they were taught.
No question review source can possibly teach you everything or even a lot of what you need to know
No question review source can possibly teach you everything or even a lot of what you need to know
Stinger86 said:
I used only Q bank and the questions on Webpath...and did pretty okay for three and a half weeks of cramming. Did pore over reasoning of incorrects as well as corrects. I only do well in a quiz-style situation (which is why I love being pimped in Med I!) and knew I would retain far more from this learning approach than reading.
Must admit I freaked and read biochem out of First Aid the day before the test--ended up high asterisking it on the real thing. I guess that stuff was always bound to be short-term for me, anyway!
