Step 1 practice questions.

[Mixmaster]

Hi, sorry but Im kinda confused. Can someone tell me if there is a difference between Qbank (computer right?) and Qbook (obviously book right?) and where else one can get practice questions? What's NBME and how many q's is it? How do I buy it? What other questions are there to purchase? WHat's your recommendation on the best practice question source. Which ones are test like simulated (obviously the qbook is not since its not on the computer). Oh and what's BSS? I guess anything you guys know about these question sources would be great! Thanks so much for your help and congrats on finishing Step 1!

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[Mixmaster]

Bumpity bump!

 

[Long Dong]

Hi, sorry but Im kinda confused. Can someone tell me if there is a difference between Qbank (computer right?) and Qbook (obviously book right?) and where else one can get practice questions? What's NBME and how many q's is it? How do I buy it? What other questions are there to purchase? WHat's your recommendation on the best practice question source. Which ones are test like simulated (obviously the qbook is not since its not on the computer). Oh and what's BSS? I guess anything you guys know about these question sources would be great! Thanks so much for your help and congrats on finishing Step 1!

This is what I know and I don't know much. Qbank is something you subscibe to from kaplan 2-3k questions. Qbook is a question book from Kaplan and has about 800 questions, 100 for each subject anat, bio chem, behav sci, phsyio, micro, pharm, and 200 for path. Qbook comes with the kaplan notes when you take the course. I bought the notes from some guy on ebay and he threw in Qbook and a pirated version of Qbank that was copied into a word document.

As for other questions BSS (board simulator series) has about 4-5k questions on disk and you can select witch subject to be tested on or go by organ systems. Other questions source are webpath has about 3k questions and its free do a google search. There is also and Appleton and Lange cd out that has about 2-3k questions. And there is NMS (national medical series) which has about 850 question book or cd. There are others out there but those are the ones recommended to me by my third year big brother.

 

[greets fr. nyc]

simply put:

q-bank : 1200+ questions from Kaplan that you buy and USE ONLINE. comes with many thoughtful/often times representative/clinical vignette questions
= (some would say more difficult than real thing, depending on what USMLE exam you happen to have on test day: each USMLE is done on computer and each "generated" exam can be weighted with different material; though path, physio mechanisms are sure bets to have heaby emphasis on.)
= many say qbank is just like the real USMLE with respect to length and level of difficulty of questions.
= also q-bank has very good explanations = you learn a lot fr. the questions AND explanations
= you buy 1 month , 6 month, 9 month, etc packages and have access during this time period.
= a huge plus: you can CUSTOMIZE your exam questions by way of a) subject matter, one or more topics; b) questions you have AND/ORhaven't done before c) questions you previously got wrong d) questions that are randomly mixed by q-bank program e) length of test: # of questions, timed or untimed, with or without explanations: etc.... very flexible
= another huge plus: program INTERFACE is set up like actual USMLE: so there will be few surprises come test day!
= also: program keeps track of your progress. via raw numbers, bar and pie graphs.

q-book =just like q-bank minus the computer interface and customizable exams. it is basically a book of USMLE-type questions broken by subject matter.
again, good explanations = learn just as much by reading/ going thru explanations as for doing questions. saves eyes as you take a break fr. q bank/computer screen eye tiredness.

that's basically it.

(i used both a 1month subscription to qbank ($149) & a copy of qbook bought second hand ($15)