Thinking about doing USMLEworld only; thoughts?

[fatsal]

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I have 6 weeks until my exam. I plan to do USMLEworld Step I at least two times and perhaps three times. I memorize through repetition. I can see how doing USMLEworld once would do little good. However, I can see how doing it 2 or 3 times could provide me with enough information to do well on the real thing. Honestly, I feel that it is pretty comprehensive and has all the details you need to know. Even if a question asks about a particular fact, the long explanations of the distractors seems to cover everything.

My goal is to get between a 215-230. I respect everyone's opinion and strategy but I don't think reading several books would be beneficial for me since I memorize through repetition. And unlike First Aid, USMLEworld teaches you how to apply the information and provides mechanisms which suits me well since I learn through understanding. I've gotten through half of it and am averaging 53%. That's not great but I plan on doing the whole bank at least one more time.

Again, I feel that the explanations are pretty detailed and comprehensive. There are nearly 2000 questions with each question offering about a page long response that explains the answer and the distractors. I fail to see how it's leaving out any information. Thus far, I felt it is more informative that First Aid because it provides mechanisms and details that FA leaves out. I may not being doing well on these questions but I'm learning a lot from each question on tutor mode. I'm not expectating to receive the exact type of questions on the real exam but I feel that the topics tested on USMLEworld will be nearly identical to the real thing. After all, you can only ask a question in so many different ways. I plan on reading the whole thing 2-3 times. We will see how I do.

Has anyone tried this strategy? Thoughts?

 

[jey2283]

I have 6 weeks until my exam. I plan to do USMLEworld Step I at least two times and perhaps three times. I memorize through repetition. I can see how doing USMLEworld once would do little good. However, I can see how doing it 2 or 3 times could provide me with enough information to do well on the real thing. Honestly, I feel that it is pretty comprehensive and has all the details you need to know. Even if a question asks about a particular fact, the long explanations of the distractors seems to cover everything.

My goal is to get between a 215-230. I respect everyone's opinion and strategy but I don't think reading several books would be beneficial for me since I memorize through repetition. And unlike First Aid, USMLEworld teaches you how to apply the information and provides mechanisms which suits me well since I learn through understanding. I've gotten through half of it and am averaging 53%. That's not great but I plan on doing the whole bank at least one more time.

Has anyone tried this strategy? Thoughts?

Never tried it. Your average in my opinion is low. This is a bad system. Very little of what was on UW was actually on my test (yes most of genetics, and biostats was on my exam). You are doing low because 1. its hard 2. ur lacking knowledge.

This is not a test you memorize for.

Ur time would be better spent reading Firstaid (just bc ur short of time) and goljan (and since ur short of time his high yield).


How UW was set up: professional think tanks would generate 10-25 questions for h every chapter read (even those really stupid low yield chapters). This increases the number of questions on their Qbank. This wastes ur time if you plan on memorizing it. UW is really ONLY to spot cehck ur knowledge.

Hope that helps, doesn't discourage, just my opinion. Good luck! 🙂

 

[fatsal]

Never tried it. Your average in my opinion is low. This is a bad system. Very little of what was on UW was actually on my test (yes most of genetics, and biostats was on my exam). You are doing low because 1. its hard 2. ur lacking knowledge.

This is not a test you memorize for.

Ur time would be better spent reading Firstaid (just bc ur short of time) and goljan (and since ur short of time his high yield).


How UW was set up: professional think tanks would generate 10-25 questions for h every chapter read (even those really stupid low yield chapters). This increases the number of questions on their Qbank. This wastes ur time if you plan on memorizing it. UW is really ONLY to spot cehck ur knowledge.

Hope that helps, doesn't discourage, just my opinion. Good luck! 🙂

Thanks for your opinion. I wanted honest opinions. Much appreciated! Which Goljan are you are talking about, Rapid Review Pathology or the Goljan notes?

 

[peter90036]

UW is really ONLY to spot cehck ur knowledge.

absolutely not true.

i have knowledge and end up picking the wrong answer because of failed thinking/application/distraction/inattention.

UW will help develop test taking skills along side learning thru the explanations.

fatsal: as you know UW has large & detailed explanations. these take alot of time if you dont focus on the big idea. dont memorize details. pick a couple ideas from each explanation and make sure you know those. dont write down details. if its not in your head its no use.

 

[tfom08]

UW is definitely not even close to comprehensive for step 1. It's a very good source, but don't think for a second it's comprehensive. Not many people 230+ would recommend using only UW and really if I had to pick only between FA and UW, I would do FA only. I understand you learn better from questions, but I really think you are settling for a score beneath your potential if you go that route. Especially because from your average (absolutely no disrespect intended because 53% isn't bad for no studying yet) it doesn't appear that you have the knowledge base to study by only using a question bank. Get some books, you'll thank yourself. Start with FA and Goljan, I'd suggest a micro and phys book to go along with those.

 

[UditNarayan]

i think a good thing to do is to take an NBME practice exam to see where you stand...you then know where to focus ur efforts. UW is a good learning source, and i definitely found that for me, spending ample time to review the explanations, etc really allow me to reinforce concepts and learn some new ones. overall though, the combination of sources like rapid review pathology worked for me.

 

[pcarlson05]

I had an intern that I worked with on my medicine rotation who employed exactly this strategy. He said he just spent two weeks doing USMLEWorld, and then retaking the incorrect questions, and that "it worked out really well." He was in his radiology residency for whatever that's worth.

 

[fatsal]

absolutely not true.

i have knowledge and end up picking the wrong answer because of failed thinking/application/distraction/inattention.

UW will help develop test taking skills along side learning thru the explanations.

fatsal: as you know UW has large & detailed explanations. these take alot of time if you dont focus on the big idea. dont memorize details. pick a couple ideas from each explanation and make sure you know those. dont write down details. if its not in your head its no use.

This is exactly how I feel. I knew I wasn't alone. I can understand and respect if people feel I lack the knowledge, they may be right. However, I feel that my knowledge isn't so bad. I feel like I'm in the same situation in which I will pick the wrong answer because of failed thinking or application. I have a lot of information memorized but I don't apply it as well. This is why I don't feel that reading several books will benefit me the way it has with others. I've read First Aid 4 times and BRS Path and Phys. Well, we will see, I will be honest and provide my score good or bad. If this backfires, maybe others will realize this system stinks. 🙂 Thanks everyone for your input

 

[GMDMD]

I had an intern that I worked with on my medicine rotation who employed exactly this strategy. He said he just spent two weeks doing USMLEWorld, and then retaking the incorrect questions, and that "it worked out really well." He was in his radiology residency for whatever that's worth.

Then again, a lot of people who are in radiology are laid back, but mental studs who probably would've scored 230+ using any study method.

To the OP, i think your idea is a very bad idea. UWorld isn't comprehensive, it doesn't try to be comprehensive- not in the way FA or a real reference text is. It was formed by a bunch of dudes sitting around thinking up questions, not systematically covering all of the topics you need to know. There is quite a bit of broad knowledge completely lacking in UW.

For example, the biostats in UW isn't the best. In fact, I went back to kaplan (which hurt) qbank just to get through all of their biostats questions. There are quite a biostats Qs you'll find in FA section that are not even tested by UW.

I think if you study only UW you will end up with some major holes in your game. If you learn primarily from qbanks, I would suggest that whenever you come across difficult topics or concepts, flip to that area in FA or a pathology text and read up on that topic and any interesting surrounding topics.

 

[OBandWifey]

Well I used FA and USMLEworld...and I can honestly say that UW was great...but when i got to the test I can't say that only UW would have gotten me through it. It's really not that comprehensive...and sometimes the questions are like WTF? And all the knowledge in UW just can't help you through it. So I say do FA and a microbook...heck I did the Micro in FA and some BRS notecards and I'm sure I did really well on those questions. I suggest memorizing the Gram positive and Gram negative chart in FA...just by knowing that alone I was able to get questions right with no problem.
I agree with everyone here. You need to do something else besides the UW...because it seems that the test writers try their best not to make the test questions similar to the ones that are in UW...

 

[nocebo]

If you have time UW is a pretty decent question bank. Certainly their questions were more similar to the real exam than Kaplan. But any q-bank alone is not really sufficient. Memorizing First Aid cover to cover can get you on the way to a solid score, and then some of the more detailed subject review books fill in a lot of the rest.

Of course the best way to prepare is to work hard during the first two years of med school, especially the second. If most of the stuff in FA and review books sound familiar already you're probably in decent shape. The NBME exams also give you an idea of where you stand--the two I took within the last couple weeks before my Step 1 gave me the exact same score estimate (and my score on the real thing was only 2 points off from those).

 

[SupremeSurgeon]

Then again, a lot of people who are in radiology are laid back, but mental studs who probably would've scored 230+ using any study method.

To the OP, i think your idea is a very bad idea. UWorld isn't comprehensive, it doesn't try to be comprehensive- not in the way FA or a real reference text is. It was formed by a bunch of dudes sitting around thinking up questions, not systematically covering all of the topics you need to know. There is quite a bit of broad knowledge completely lacking in UW.

For example, the biostats in UW isn't the best. In fact, I went back to kaplan (which hurt) qbank just to get through all of their biostats questions. There are quite a biostats Qs you'll find in FA section that are not even tested by UW.

I think if you study only UW you will end up with some major holes in your game. If you learn primarily from qbanks, I would suggest that whenever you come across difficult topics or concepts, flip to that area in FA or a pathology text and read up on that topic and any interesting surrounding topics.

Hey gmdmd, so I'm almost done with the behavioral science and biostat sections on UW and would like some more practice in this area. I'm considering doing more Behavioral science questions in Qbank. Do you think this helps in terms of reviewing? Did you also supplement other sections from Qbank? Thanks.

 

[peter90036]

i just did kaplan 'cause of him 🙂

behavioral science in kaplan is not hard i got 78%, there were a couple interesting points.
statistics part i never get so i didnt do good 😛 = did bad... 45%

uw behavior doing better than k but only half done
uw stats doing alot better than k only half done

 

[GMDMD]

Hey gmdmd, so I'm almost done with the behavioral science and biostat sections on UW and would like some more practice in this area. I'm considering doing more Behavioral science questions in Qbank. Do you think this helps in terms of reviewing? Did you also supplement other sections from Qbank? Thanks.

I think Kaplan qbank has by far more "WWJD?" type questions which I had 3 or 4 of on my exam. Kaplan does a pretty good job giving you practice in getting into that mindset of thinking "what answer are they looking for?" vs "what would any sensible person do?" It ended up still being my weakest subject but I got it up to the higher performance range just short of a star. I started off on NBME1 with a star for lower performance.

I would also supplement UWorld with Kaplan's biostats. It seemed to me that they had more detailed and complex sensitivity/specificity questions which are great practice. In particular I remember one great question which taught you to reconstruct a 2x2 table using some abstract population data. One of those things you could figure out with enough time but you don't want to go into the exam without having seen before.

UWorld had much harder "what kind of study is appropriate" and "what is the shortcoming of this study" questions and also some useful stuff like Number-Needed-To-Treat which doesn't show up on kaplan or first aid.

I only got through 75% of UWorld but when I started running out of time, I made sure to finish off all of the biostats/behavioral in UWorld then went back and did all of the biostats/behavioral questions in Kaplan. Personally I thought it was a decent use of time. You can spend forever learning pathology but a little time developing a solid biostats/behavioral background is money in the bank.

I would never endorse purchasing Qbank but I would find a friend who's done or given up on qbank to ask if you can just borrow their account and go through those 2 sections. I will warn you that it's REALLY HARD reading through annoying kaplan questions/explanations after using UWorld though.

...

Add: I might also CONSIDER do the psych section on kaplan go get down those "what personality disorder does this person have" questions. UWorld actually covers that pretty well but I felt I needed the extra practice. It might also be useful if you are weaker on some of the drugs. I don't recommend this as strongly as biostats/behavior because I don't know that I got as much out of it and doing kaplan q's made me want to punch the screen.

 

[SupremeSurgeon]

I think Kaplan qbank has by far more "WWJD?" type questions which I had 3 or 4 of on my exam. Kaplan does a pretty good job giving you practice in getting into that mindset of thinking "what answer are they looking for?" vs "what would any sensible person do?" It ended up still being my weakest subject but I got it up to the higher performance range just short of a star. I started off on NBME1 with a star for lower performance.

I would also supplement UWorld with Kaplan's biostats. It seemed to me that they had more detailed and complex sensitivity/specificity questions which are great practice. In particular I remember one great question which taught you to reconstruct a 2x2 table using some abstract population data. One of those things you could figure out with enough time but you don't want to go into the exam without having seen before.

UWorld had much harder "what kind of study is appropriate" and "what is the shortcoming of this study" questions and also some useful stuff like Number-Needed-To-Treat which doesn't show up on kaplan or first aid.

I only got through 75% of UWorld but when I started running out of time, I made sure to finish off all of the biostats/behavioral in UWorld then went back and did all of the biostats/behavioral questions in Kaplan. Personally I thought it was a decent use of time. You can spend forever learning pathology but a little time developing a solid biostats/behavioral background is money in the bank.

I would never endorse purchasing Qbank but I would find a friend who's done or given up on qbank to ask if you can just borrow their account and go through those 2 sections. I will warn you that it's REALLY HARD reading through annoying kaplan questions/explanations after using UWorld though.

...

Add: I might also CONSIDER do the psych section on kaplan go get down those "what personality disorder does this person have" questions. UWorld actually covers that pretty well but I felt I needed the extra practice. It might also be useful if you are weaker on some of the drugs. I don't recommend this as strongly as biostats/behavior because I don't know that I got as much out of it and doing kaplan q's made me want to punch the screen.

Thanks a lot GMDMD. I'll definitely give it a try and see how it goes. Maybe I'll use a projector so I'll just punch the wall instead!