Starting UWorld Early second year (now)?

[DrFizition]

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Thinking about purchasing UWorld now while i just started second year and working my way through the material as I learn it. Is this recommended or doable? I've heard mixed things, and will likely get mixed responses below but oh well.

Thanks!

 

[Psai]

No

 

[xroc]

I'll go ahead and say yes. Uworld is arguably the best tool in order to learn board-relevant material (along with pathoma and sketchy). If you can manage to cover the relevant material in those resources during your M2 year courses you will be set up for success come Step 1 time.

 

[taffer]

It probably won't help you on your M2 exams. May be helpful to read associated sections of First Aid to get a quick summary / high yield stuff while you go along though.

 

[whatisthisstuff]

My philosophy is to use another qbank along with classes in 2nd year and then save Uworld for Jan at the earliest. Overall I think the material is too difficult for first time learning and that you won't get the same practice with thinking your way through topics. Also was not helpful for class exams. But there is definitely different schools of thought on this. Learning is obviously a big part of Step, but you will see lots of things you flat out don't know. This is where practice with thinking through questions and strategies really helps imo.


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[Anti-PD1]

Kaplan now. UWorld during dedicated.

 

[Babesighosis]

Was in a similar boat as you. I decided to start UWorld beginning of second year and I found it tremendously helpful. For each system I went through USMLERx -> Kaplan -> UWorld; doing UWorld really cemented my knowledge base.

 

[Pikachu522]

It will be incredibly helpful if your exams are NBME-based as they are at my school. I didn't start until dedicated because people told that I would remember questions and it would cause my uworld scores to not accurately reflect my knowledge since I would have done a lot of the questions. But that was complete BS because uworld is mainly a learning tool, we have NBMEs and uworld sims if we really want to know how our progress is. So yea, I definitely suggest starting uworld now. If you Kaplan or rx, it's a good idea to try to do all of them (especially Kaplan, since rx is really just first aid).

 

[gapyearguppy]

Do what you want. I got the same score on Step as a guy who did UWorld along with 2nd year material. I started in January.
I think it's more about the number of questions you do tbh. During the year I did Kaplan, Rx, BRS questions, Robbins Review questions, Guyton questions etc etc literally whatever I could get my hands on.

 

[Osteoth]

Kaplan now. UWorld during dedicated.

I freaking hated Kaplan. I'd recommend USMLERx.

 

[ChordaEpiphany]

.

 

[Perpetually Perplexed]

Was in a similar boat as you. I decided to start UWorld beginning of second year and I found it tremendously helpful. For each system I went through USMLERx -> Kaplan -> UWorld; doing UWorld really cemented my knowledge base.

I agree with this. Started doing Uworld to supplement my class material second year and I scored very well on my class grades. Step1 was >1SD above the mean, so ignore all of the naysayers that claim doing uworld before dedicated is anathema. IMO, it's best to learn the material well the first time around, and Uworld helps you do that.

 

[Taddy Mason]

I followed the advice on SDN and people in the class above me for Step 1 (e.g., Rx during 2nd year, and save UWorld for dedicated). If I could redo 2nd year and Step 1 I would start UWorld at the beginning of 2nd year and take notes as I reviewed answers, then reset it during dedicated, make one more pass through, and make sure to review any questions I flagged or got wrong the 2nd time around. You won't remember questions/answers as much as people claim, and even for ones you do thinking about logic behind why the correct answer is correct, why the wrong choices are wrong, and reading or at least skimming the explanation just provides more reinforcement of concepts. And obviously supplement with other resources like Kaplan videos, Sketchy, Pathoma, Bros deck, etc. For biostats just watch the OnlineMedEd videos; the UWorld biostats review is garbage IMO.

 

[mistafab]

Nah dude.

I got RX for questions and my school gives me exam master. So basically save up all the Uworld for dedicated. I just do as many test questions as possible each block (RX + Exam master + course material quizes) and it helps a lot. Doing excellent this 2nd year.

I think you might be shooting yourself in the foot for using the best USMLE prep test material now instead of during dedicated. What will you do then? Just hit some inferior qbanks? RX now bruh, save Uworld for dedicated.

Disclaimer: I am an M2 so I have absolutely no experience in the actual step exam. My perspective is completely built on unfounded claims, which are further built upon bias. YMMV.

 

[68PGunner]

Kaplan and USMLERx now and then start on Uworld in Jan. I get this advice among people who have reportedly scored 250+ on their Steps.

 

[gapyearguppy]

This has been my approach so far. How did it work out for you? I'm not asking for an exact score, but are you looking at neurosurg/derm in a nice location or more along the lines of "we'll see if I can match something competitive or not"?

I scored in the upper 240s. So it's a we'll see 🙂

 

[moisne]

I finished Rx first before starting Uworld. I was about half way done with UW before dedicated. My score was pretty close to national avg tho. (I loved sketchy, ID became my best subject)

My SO who did great suggested Rx, UW, Kaplan, pathoma, goljan.

 

[Lannister]

For those of you who are saying you used question banks throughout the first semester of second year, do you mean that you used the questions that specifically related to what you were studying at the time? For example, during the cardio block you only did cardio-related questions? Or did you also spend a lot of time doing practice questions that were related to the stuff you learned during M1? I'm thinking I'll start doing the block-relevant questions now, but I'm not sure how beneficial practice questions about M1 stuff would be for me without reading FA first.

 

[mcloaf]

For those of you who are saying you used question banks throughout the first semester of second year, do you mean that you used the questions that specifically related to what you were studying at the time? For example, during the cardio block you only did cardio-related questions? Or did you also spend a lot of time doing practice questions that were related to the stuff you learned during M1? I'm thinking I'll start doing the block-relevant questions now, but I'm not sure how beneficial practice questions about M1 stuff would be for me without reading FA first.

Personally I did Rx as block relevant review along with reading the FA chapter for all of M2. I started mixing in random blocks of Kaplan during 2nd semester, and did all of UWorld on random during dedicated.

 

[Taddy Mason]

Another thing to consider if putting off UWorld until dedicated is how much time your school allows for dedicated study time for Step.

 

[sharkbyte]

The consensus among the several M3's I've talked to at my school (all of whom did quite well, including some who got amazing scores) was that it's too early to start UWorld now and that it is better to instead do Kaplan or Rx during the school year (or both, which seems like overkill but I think a couple people did this) before starting UWorld in the spring. My personal plan is to complete Kaplan throughout the year alongside systems and then start UWorld around spring break.