Thoughts on UWorld?

[fuzzywuz]

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I have about 400 questions left. I'm wondering if I'm alone in thinking this about the Qbank...

- Some questions really make you jump through loops to get at an answer choice. Rather than being a 2-3 step problem, I feel like they are withholding more information than they ought to for that question.

- I'm alright with those arrow questions. However, I really hate the questions with 10+ answer choices. Is it going to be like that on the real test?

- Some questions may have a list of answers that are VERY hard to pick out the correct answers. A good example would be those questions where they ask you to pick a drug for a particular indication. There may be times when a few choices seem plausible, but there may be a thing or two about the drug that makes it the wrong answer... I hope the real exam will have more contrast btwn the choices.

- Now that I'm at the last leg of the bank, I feel like I'm encountering a lot of questions that test factual detail rather than concepts. Those questions are probably unavoidable, but do they have an algorithm when they generate questions for each block? I'm wondering if they are making the questions harder at the tail end because they expect you to know more. If that is the case, does this mean those questions are more indicative of the real questions?

- Biochem questions are hard. Maybe I'm just bad at it, but looking at the percentages for those questions, most of the time.. less than 50% get it right.. so maybe it's not just me...

That's all I can think of for now. I would say I'm an average student in school. I started the Qbank with 50s (% correct) and now I'm around the 60s. I may crack 70 once in a blue moon. I may also dip back to the 50s here and there. With that, I just don't know how to interpret my performance and how I can possibly correlate that to the real thing.

 

[justaregularmed]

I have about 400 questions left. I'm wondering if I'm alone in thinking this about the Qbank...

- Some questions really make you jump through loops to get at an answer choice. Rather than being a 2-3 step problem, I feel like they are withholding more information than they ought to for that question.

- I'm alright with those arrow questions. However, I really hate the questions with 10+ answer choices. Is it going to be like that on the real test?

- Some questions may have a list of answers that are VERY hard to pick out the correct answers. A good example would be those questions where they ask you to pick a drug for a particular indication. There may be times when a few choices seem plausible, but there may be a thing or two about the drug that makes it the wrong answer... I hope the real exam will have more contrast btwn the choices.

- Now that I'm at the last leg of the bank, I feel like I'm encountering a lot of questions that test factual detail rather than concepts. Those questions are probably unavoidable, but do they have an algorithm when they generate questions for each block? I'm wondering if they are making the questions harder at the tail end because they expect you to know more. If that is the case, does this mean those questions are more indicative of the real questions?

- Biochem questions are hard. Maybe I'm just bad at it, but looking at the percentages for those questions, most of the time.. less than 50% get it right.. so maybe it's not just me...

That's all I can think of for now. I would say I'm an average student in school. I started the Qbank with 50s (% correct) and now I'm around the 60s. I may crack 70 once in a blue moon. I may also dip back to the 50s here and there. With that, I just don't know how to interpret my performance and how I can possibly correlate that to the real thing.

You are normal. These are normal thoughts.

Some World questions are terrible. I personally think some are incorrect (that have been around for years apparently). World has a tendency in my opinion to misuse concepts and come to bizarre but true conclusions. I also hate how in World they will give some symptoms and two answers will be almost identical except for headache or diarrhea, or they will omit explaining why an answer is wrong entirely.

So far as I have ever been exposed to the NBME is perfectly straightforward in everything but behavioral science. When the NBME throws a funny abstract situation at you the situation generally exists or is at least possible (they might not tell you) but generally its not some bizarro mismatch of concepts that's impossible. Maybe the real deal does this but I find it unlikely.

Just work on your reading comprehension and get comfortable with the interface and most importantly just study the answers because most of the time they are pretty good.

 

[greg1184]

I have about 400 questions left. I'm wondering if I'm alone in thinking this about the Qbank...

- Some questions really make you jump through loops to get at an answer choice. Rather than being a 2-3 step problem, I feel like they are withholding more information than they ought to for that question.
There are many questions on the real test that are vague and give you BARELY the amount of information you need to answer the question
- I'm alright with those arrow questions. However, I really hate the questions with 10+ answer choices. Is it going to be like that on the real test?
YES.
- Some questions may have a list of answers that are VERY hard to pick out the correct answers. A good example would be those questions where they ask you to pick a drug for a particular indication. There may be times when a few choices seem plausible, but there may be a thing or two about the drug that makes it the wrong answer... I hope the real exam will have more contrast btwn the choices.
There are some difficult Pharm questions on the real thing. For example I had to pick a protease inhibitor for HIV that had a specific side effect.
- Now that I'm at the last leg of the bank, I feel like I'm encountering a lot of questions that test factual detail rather than concepts. Those questions are probably unavoidable, but do they have an algorithm when they generate questions for each block? I'm wondering if they are making the questions harder at the tail end because they expect you to know more. If that is the case, does this mean those questions are more indicative of the real questions?
The questions are selected randomly. Some blocks are hard, some are easy. The questions are hard. They ARE designed to reinforce important concepts that are on Step 1. There are very few things in UWorld that are trivial facts.
- Biochem questions are hard. Maybe I'm just bad at it, but looking at the percentages for those questions, most of the time.. less than 50% get it right.. so maybe it's not just me...
Biochem is more difficult than the real thing, but UWorld is designed to teach and reinforce concepts.
That's all I can think of for now. I would say I'm an average student in school. I started the Qbank with 50s (% correct) and now I'm around the 60s. I may crack 70 once in a blue moon. I may also dip back to the 50s here and there. With that, I just don't know how to interpret my performance and how I can possibly correlate that to the real thing.

The thoughts on UWorld are clear. It is by far the best QBank for Step 1. It is the best QBank for step 2. It makes you take multiple steps in figuring out an answer. And yes, they are hard. They don't hide that fact. But they also don't hide the fact that this qbank is designed to be a teaching tool, not an assessment of your knowledge.
One of the biggest regrets I have was not doing UWorld twice. I rather have done that than read 50 different books.

Good luck on your exam.