Tips on reviewing UWorld?

[sharklasers]

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Does anyone have a good strategy they use to review Uworld thoroughly but quickly?

I probably spend 3-4 hours just going over a block. I spread this out over a few days so it isn't too bad now, but I definitely think I'm taking too much time. How do y'all do it?

 

[Phloston]

It took me 6-8 hours, on average, to go through 50 questions of UWorld.

Some people have given me heat for that because, yes, you can go a lot faster than that and still do great on the USMLE. It just depends on how OCD you are and how well you want to reinforce the material (all within the context of your timeline of course).

The explanations should take a long time to go through. That's your learning right there. And on the real USMLE, it will pay off if you put in the clock-work.

 

[Transformers]

I agree with Phloston...it takes time especially if you plan on using UWorld as your source of teaching/annotating kowledge....what I've been doing in the first pass of Uworld has been reviewing subjects by block on tutor (vs. timed and random which I'll do on the 2nd pass) and then annotating as I study so I annotate everything about a subject straight from the golden source- Uworld...basically creating an efficient and surefire way of taking everything from UWorld he first time around

 

[sharklasers]

Yeah Transformers, that is exactly what I have been doing. It feels so tedious sometimes though, don't you think?

How long would you say it takes to do a block of questions?

Do you read the explanation for every answer, or just the correct and maybe one or two most selected wrong answers?

 

[startswithb]

Takes me about 5 hours.

 

[MDmePwease]

The reviews will take some time at first but, as you do more questions, you will make fewer mistakes. It also took me 3 - 4 hours at first but im down to 1 hour review per 46 question block at this point simply because ive done so many.

Something that might help is when reviewing, if you got the question correct, scroll to the bottom and see the "quick" explanation. If you got the answer correct for the right reason...no need to read the long explanation. This should help you skip between 10-15 (or hopefully more ha) questions per block so reviewing will take less time.

A second thing i like to utilize is the note section for each question. When i get a problem completely wrong...and by this i mean i literally remember nothing about the pathway or subject matter (example: i simply didnt remember the heme synth pathway and just had to guess on one of the practice questions) I take note of it in the notes section and then move on. I do not try to memorize the entire pathway/topic at that moment and instead finish reviewing the rest of the exam so that I can still remember why I chose certain answers. Then later that week (typically I do my big reviews wednesday and saturday) I sit and throughly review the questions and subjects I had totally forgotten. Its kind of a way for me to better organize my "big" study sessions.

Hope this helps

 

[OberynMartell]

I can see that working if you have a lot of time, but how do you manage that if you only have 5 weeks of dedicated study time? Do you read a few chapters of First Aid and then use the rest of your day for UWorld questions/annotation?

 

[WarriorMD]

I agree with Phloston...it takes time especially if you plan on using UWorld as your source of teaching/annotating kowledge....what I've been doing in the first pass of Uworld has been reviewing subjects by block on tutor (vs. timed and random which I'll do on the 2nd pass) and then annotating as I study so I annotate everything about a subject straight from the golden source- Uworld...basically creating an efficient and surefire way of taking everything from UWorld he first time around

Are you going to do another full run through Uworld during dedicated prep time?

I'm currently just 10-15% through Qbank and based on the time commitment to Firecracker I think I will get only about 60-80% of Qbank done and then one run through Uworld at the very end.

I'm starting to wonder if I should just drop the Qbank and do a thorough run through Uworld subject-wise and properly understand the explanations as I'm studying the related concepts since this will help me organize what I learn from Uworld as well as keep focus on HY concepts. I'm thinking that doing Uworld randomized at the end would mean I'd be trying to figure out a Renal concept that I was confused with and then suddenly jumping to embryo and it may become harder to organize things into my head.

After this I would go through Uworld again randomized to see what I missed and near the exam I could use Qbank just to fly through Q's without worrying about the explanations too much.