Starting UWorld halfway through MS1

[Ja3ger]

I'm halfway through MS1 and am starting to think about the benefits of light but longterm Step 1 studying. I'm considering doing ~10 UWorld questions per day, starting next week.

It seems that most people on SDN recommend saving UWorld until relatively close to Step 1. However, I've also noticed a significant contingent of posts saying that UWorld is more of a learning tool than an assessment tool, and that it consequently isn't harmful to learn and understand the QBank over a long period of time before more intense Step 1 prep.

Imagine if, for every QBank question, someone learns it to the point of being able to only recognize the question and the correct answer choice. This is almost certainly a waste of the material. Now imagine if this person was able to actually understand why each incorrect answer was wrong, and why the correct answer choice was right. Would this person really be wasting the material?

Given the obvious fact that people can have very different study strategies all yielding very successful scores, I'd like to know whether I'm missing something significant that explains why I'd really be doing a disservice to myself starting UWorld right now - with the goal not only of familiarizing myself with the test format but also of gradually understanding the material and reasoning behind each question (or at least as many of the questions as I can).

Thank you!

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[seminoma]

Depends on your curriculum. If you're not learning path/pharm during MS1 like most schools, then a qbank is a waste of time.

Uworld for 1.5 years is way more expensive than Kaplan or Rx for 1 yr plus UW for 60 days. Sure, it's beneficial to "actually understand..." but it won't take you 1.5 years to understand why everything in Uworld is correct. Better to use a lesser-qbank (Kaplan/Rx) during school and attempt to understand why all that is correct, then spend your dedicated prep time understanding Uworld. Just my opinion.

 

[zany_brainy]

UWorld's value comes into play when you have had exposure to almost all the preclinical subjects and you start to integrate them with each other, which usually occurs towards the end of MS2. A lot of UWorld questions integrate multiple systems and subjects together, so as an MS1, you probably have not had exposure to pathology, microbiology and pharmacology. While you probably have had exposure to biochem, anatomy, physiology and possibly immunology, you most likely haven't had those subjects integrated with path, micro and pharm. Doing the questions now would be costly and a waste of time, in my opinion. The earliest you should consider getting it is maybe halfway through MS2.

Also, you will have plenty of time to understand the questions and their answer choices (with regards to why they're incorrect or correct) if you start UWorld towards the end of MS2.

 

[Ja3ger]

Thanks for replying! So far I've had exposure to anatomy/histo, biochem/genetics, and immuno/micro/path (some integration, I think, but much more to be had no doubt). Starting physio and pharm next week.

I understand that people will get more out of UWorld (and get it more efficiently) if they already know more of the material prior to using it. However, the issue here is time. If I spend the next year or so doing an average of (at least) 10-15 questions per day, I imagine I'll have a very good foundation for more intense Step 1 studying. In turn, this would allow me to devote more time and effort to studying from other resources.

If I start UWorld next week, I have no doubt that the first several months will be rocky and discouraging. However, it's material that (a) I'll have to learn eventually and (b) will positively influence both what and how I study during the rest of MS1 and MS2. No doubt I will forget many things along the way, but relearning them will be that much easier and will stick in my mind that much more with all the repetition.

This approach obviously collapses if the degree to which I will be able to "learn" from UWorld is pathetically low - given that I'm only halfway through MS1. This "degree" only increases with time, and given that so many MS3/4's have wished they had gone through UWorld X more times, I find it hard to believe that doing UWorld is truly a waste of time in MS1.

My goal is to know UWorld cold (or come as close as I can) before intense Step 1 study time. While I could do USMLERx instead, it's practically fact around here that UWorld is much better quality than Rx - and I'd rather devote a year+ to studying the higher-yield, better quality source.

So, besides possibly being a waste of my time/money (and not a waste of the material, itself) depending on my background knowledge, is there any other reason why I shouldn't do this?

 

[seminoma]

Thanks for replying! So far I've had exposure to anatomy/histo, biochem/genetics, and immuno/micro/path (some integration, I think, but much more to be had no doubt). Starting physio and pharm next week.

I understand that people will get more out of UWorld (and get it more efficiently) if they already know more of the material prior to using it. However, the issue here is time. If I spend the next year or so doing an average of (at least) 10-15 questions per day, I imagine I'll have a very good foundation for more intense Step 1 studying. In turn, this would allow me to devote more time and effort to studying from other resources.

If I start UWorld next week, I have no doubt that the first several months will be rocky and discouraging. However, it's material that (a) I'll have to learn eventually and (b) will positively influence both what and how I study during the rest of MS1 and MS2. No doubt I will forget many things along the way, but relearning them will be that much easier and will stick in my mind that much more with all the repetition.

This approach obviously collapses if the degree to which I will be able to "learn" from UWorld is pathetically low - given that I'm only halfway through MS1. This "degree" only increases with time, and given that so many MS3/4's have wished they had gone through UWorld X more times, I find it hard to believe that doing UWorld is truly a waste of time in MS1.

My goal is to know UWorld cold (or come as close as I can) before intense Step 1 study time. While I could do USMLERx instead, it's practically fact around here that UWorld is much better quality than Rx - and I'd rather devote a year+ to studying the higher-yield, better quality source.

So, besides possibly being a waste of my time/money (and not a waste of the material, itself) depending on my background knowledge, is there any other reason why I shouldn't do this?

If UW had any value during MS1, more MS1s would be doing it. You clearly recognize that you will be going through UW very slowly and not gaining as much from it as would an MS2, but you're missing one more very important thing. All the time you spend on UW as an MS1 is much better spent on learning things at the level MS1s are supposed to learn them. So no, doing 10-15 UW questions during MS1 will not give you a "very good foundation for more intense Step 1 studying". It will put you in a position where you're sacrificing a strong foundation in MS1 material in order to try and gain a cursory understanding of MS2 material, which in general depends on a thorough understanding of MS1 material to begin with.

Using UW as an MS1 (in the curriculum you describe) is like trying to read a novel without knowing the alphabet.

 

[Psai]

Do usmlerx by topic if you feel a need to do questions. Uworld is a waste if you do it without knowing anything because it teaches you how the test writers think

 

[Ja3ger]

Seminoma, that's interesting. I was under the impression that 10-15 UW questions each morning would not take up so much time that I'd necessarily be deprived of a strong foundation in MS1. My experience so far in MS1 is that doing well in classes requires memorizing minutiae. I feel like I've been learning the main concepts just fine; most of my studying before an exam consists of me trying to figure out which superfluous powerpoint lines I should and shouldn't memorize. What makes you think that 10-15 UW questions per day would deprive me of gaining a strong MS1 foundation? Also, at what point is an MS1/MS2 "qualified" to start UWorld?

 

[zany_brainy]

Seminoma, that's interesting. I was under the impression that 10-15 UW questions each morning would not take up so much time that I'd necessarily be deprived of a strong foundation in MS1. My experience so far in MS1 is that doing well in classes requires memorizing minutiae. I feel like I've been learning the main concepts just fine; most of my studying before an exam consists of me trying to figure out which superfluous powerpoint lines I should and shouldn't memorize. What makes you think that 10-15 UW questions per day would deprive me of gaining a strong MS1 foundation? Also, at what point is an MS1/MS2 "qualified" to start UWorld?

Look man, at the end of the day, you do what you want. You posted here asking for advice and we gave it. I got close to 260 and I started in the spring semester of MS2. I know people in my class that scored as well as or higher than me that didn't do UWorld until the spring semester too. Plenty of high scorers on this forum also saved UWorld for closer to their exams. If you're willing to break the mold and do your own thing, and if you can spare close to $700 to get UWorld for 1.5 years, then be my guest.

 

[seminoma]

Seminoma, that's interesting. I was under the impression that 10-15 UW questions each morning would not take up so much time that I'd necessarily be deprived of a strong foundation in MS1. My experience so far in MS1 is that doing well in classes requires memorizing minutiae. I feel like I've been learning the main concepts just fine; most of my studying before an exam consists of me trying to figure out which superfluous powerpoint lines I should and shouldn't memorize. What makes you think that 10-15 UW questions per day would deprive me of gaining a strong MS1 foundation? Also, at what point is an MS1/MS2 "qualified" to start UWorld?

Answering 10-15 questions won't take long. Actually understanding why the correct answer is incorrect and why the incorrect answers are incorrect is what's going to take you a long time. In general it takes an average MS2 3-4 hours to answer and review 46 UW questions during their dedicated prep time. This equates to about 3 hours of review a block or 4 minutes to review a question on average. This is an MS2 who has already learned nearly all of the information and in general can at least rule out 2-3 answer choices out of 5. By ruling out 3 answer choices, the MS2 really is only reviewing a couple of answer choices because they already know why the others are wrong.

You plan to do 10 questions per day and attempt to understand why things are right and why things are wrong. That will take you almost an hour if you work at the same pace as the MS2 above. However, you probably won't be able to rule out any answer choices on most of the questions and will therefore have to review 2-3x more answer choices than the MS2.. So that doubles your review time per question to 8 minutes. Not only do you have to review more answers, but you have to review every answer in much greater depth because you haven't learned nearly everything yet and your background/foundational knowledge is significantly less than an MS2 in dedicated prep time. At best I would say it will take you >2.5 hours to "actually understand why each incorrect answer was wrong, and why the correct answer choice was right" for 10 questions. More realistically I'd estimate at least 4 hours to have a true understanding of the correct answer and all the incorrect answers.

 

[DocWinter]

You would do far better to open your first aid book and get to know that intimately during your MS1, as well as saving the dough. Without a decent enough (read 1-1.5 years med school) foundation, you'd be doing little more than doing a puzzle by randomly grabbing two pieces from the box and trying to see if they fit.

 

[Ja3ger]

Thank you everyone! I have been convinced; I'm just gonna use USMLE Rx with FA for the next 6 months at least.

 

[zany_brainy]

Thank you everyone! I have been convinced; I'm just gonna use USMLE Rx with FA for the next 6 months at least.

Good idea