Taking all of Uworld before heavy studying?

[IkeBoy18]

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I have a friend who suggested that I take all of the questions before I start studying, and then take them again at the end of studying. ... is this a good idea?

 

[exudate]

I don't think that is a very good idea. Instead of doing uworld before you start studying, do it while you are studying. I did that initially. I started my studying with uworld only. And looking back, I feel like I made a stupid mistake and I ended up wasting a lot of money in uworld subscriptions. I recommend that you start uworld after you go through first aid AT LEAST once. This way you will be able to go back to first aid and see where the uworld questions are coming from. Or if they are not in first aid, you can add them accordingly. So try not to start with uworld first. That is what I would recommend! Good luck!

 

[thinker]

I also started studying with it, not the best idea, at least not very early on. Definitely give yourself a good time to read thru FA once and then go over UWorld. I got it early mainly because I wanted some motivation to study and because I hate opening a book like FA with facts just laid out and memorizing them.

 

[IkeBoy18]

thanks for the responses.. i am also the same way.. once i see questions.. i get a better perspective of learning.. i need to go through and fix all the errata .. that should take me a long time.. what i dont get is.. do they fix the errata from year to year? it seems the error pages stay about the same

 

[exudate]

FA errata to me are a very smart business strategy. Errors in every year's first aid are one of the reasons that students buy new first aid every year. If the 2011 year first aid didnt have errors, then why should a student studying for step in 2012 buy the 2012 edition, while they can get the 2011 edition for half the price? This is just my idea of the errata, because there is no other reason for first aid to have the crazy amount of errors that it does have every year. And most errors are the same from previous years editions...

Edit: This is partly why most people recommend that you stick with the first aid with all your notes that you bought from your first semester of med school, and not buy new editions.

 

[sharklasers]

I am using first aid during M2. before you learn the material, its not that great, but it is really helpful, in my opinion, after you learn everything. we have a 1 week study week and first aid is great during this time to really integrate concepts.