TrueLearn Question Bank

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Maverikk

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Anyone try this question bank for ITE/Basic? Looks like decent prices, how is the content and explanations?
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My program has used it for the past 3 years for ITE (and will start using it for Basic this year). I thought it was a really good question bank. On par with the actual test. Explanations are good, and it gives the sources if you want to read further.
 
twoliter said:
My program has used it for the past 3 years for ITE (and will start using it for Basic this year). I thought it was a really good question bank. On par with the actual test. Explanations are good, and it gives the sources if you want to read further.
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True Learn is IMHO the best of the question banks. Use it and supplement with Open Anesthesia and some ACE questions and you'll be money.

- ex 61N
 
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twoliter said:
My program has used it for the past 3 years for ITE (and will start using it for Basic this year). I thought it was a really good question bank. On par with the actual test. Explanations are good, and it gives the sources if you want to read further.
Click to expand...

I view it this way- how does the ABA go about making one of these tests? They pull questions directly from Miller and Barash. True Learn covers Barash. Open Anesthesia, Hall, and ACE covers Miller. Use these resources together and you'll be ready for anything.

- ex 61N
 
I'm trying to decide what True Learn question bank to purchase, either the "Basic Exam" or "ITE." Anyone have any advice on this? From the True Learn web site the Basic Qbank has 625 ?'s and is $399 for an annual membership. The ITE Qbank has over 1000 ?'s and is $299 for an annual membership. As far as I know the Basic exam is a pass/fail exam that is not used by fellowships and the ITE is heavily used by fellowship directors to rank applicants. Right now I'm leaning on just getting the ITE question bank and using it to study for the ITE as well as the Basic exam. What do others think?
 
i don't like TrueLearn, questions were too basic. I would recommend anesthesiaqbank.com. Lowest prices it seems, $79 for a month or $99/6 months. over 1000 questions..can't be beat for the price! just my 2 cents
 
ether123 said:
i don't like TrueLearn, questions were too basic. I would recommend anesthesiaqbank.com. Lowest prices it seems, $79 for a month or $99/6 months. over 1000 questions..can't be beat for the price! just my 2 cents
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For the basic/ITE there were questions almost verbatim from true learn.

Caveat Emptor
 
CA1 here, any thoughts about m5boardreview.com vs truelearn vs openanesthesia vs anesthesiaqbank.com? Trying to decide what to get in prep for ITE
 
smb4 said:
CA1 here, any thoughts about m5boardreview.com vs truelearn vs openanesthesia vs anesthesiaqbank.com? Trying to decide what to get in prep for ITE
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I like M5's explanations better than True Learn and open anesthesia. One of the things I like best about M5 is the answers are very detailed and more conversational which helps me stay interested and retain the information. Seems like almost every sentence is ITE gold as I have seen very few topics on the ITE that weren't directly addressed in M5. M5 has been money for all my ITE's (85-90%). I've done 1/2 of open anesthesia and even less of true learn as I wasn't overly impressed with either. I've seen a fair number of errors in true learn as well. Bottom line is pick a q-bank and master the content. I take the real deal next week, I'll report back on how well M5 holds up to the written boards.
 
Thanks for your advice, Kazuma. That does sound like the best approach
 
I'm currently using TrueLearn. I like it. (As you know, per standard SDN BS assumptions, anyone who has anything positive to say about a study product is a shill for that company.) I think it is probably a little on the easy side, but I think there are good concepts there.

I also did about 2/3 of OA, which I really don't like. Bad explanations, bad esoteric questions, i.e. What is the maximum square area you can wipe with a chlorhex swap? Bad distribution of concepts, too much rehashing of the same question, bad interface, no real feedback. TL has a good amount of feedback so you know where you stand in relation to the rest of the people who used their qbank, and there is an explanation for every correct and incorrect answer. I feel there's enough difficult questions to keep you on your toes (at least for me).

Also, if you are looking for a tough, but good source, you might think about the Kai Matthes book, I call it "The Humbler".
 
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Xeta said:
I'm currently using TrueLearn. I like it. (As you know, per standard SDN BS assumptions, anyone who has anything positive to say about a study product is a shill for that company.) I think it is probably a little on the easy side, but I think there are good concepts there.

I also did about 2/3 of OA, which I really don't like. Bad explanations, bad esoteric questions, i.e. What is the maximum square area you can wipe with a chlorhex swap? Bad distribution of concepts, too much rehashing of the same question, bad interface, no real feedback. TL has a good amount of feedback so you know where you stand in relation to the rest of the people who used their qbank, and there is an explanation for every correct and incorrect answer. I feel there's enough difficult questions to keep you on your toes (at least for me).

Also, if you are looking for a tough, but good source, you might think about the Kai Matthes book, I call it "The Humbler".
Click to expand...

Couldn't agree more about OA. I walk away from so many of the questions asking myself WTF. While the aba does ask some oddball random questions, I think OA takes it to the extreme.
 
I dont like OA. My vote would be anesthesiaqbank.com
 
I don't know what all this "Truelearn is basic" crap is coming from. I am doing Truelearn for ITE this year, and I think it is pretty hard. And I have done pretty well on previous years' ITEs. I would go so far as to say that some of these questions are downright nasty.

Maybe I've just gotten dumber, but I am doing well on the ACE exams, including the ones I have not done before.
 
Oh wait, I guess the guy trying to pimp out some other qbank is the only one saying truelearn was too basic. Never mind.
 
Anyone try the paperback qbank called Anesthesiology: A comprehensive board review... It's a light blue covered book with 1000 questions. I got through most of it for this ItE and personally hate it. Won't recommend it to anyone. I had a lot of success with M5 and will use true learn for the advanced in July.
 
just took the ITE this weekend -- i thought doing true learn was invaluable for me. there were many questions that i could answer right away because it was a similarly asked topic in the qbank. worth every penny in my opinion.

ill be buying true learn for the basic exam as well.
 
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GassmanMD said:
Anyone try the paperback qbank called Anesthesiology: A comprehensive board review... It's a light blue covered book with 1000 questions. I got through most of it for this ItE and personally hate it. Won't recommend it to anyone. I had a lot of success with M5 and will use true learn for the advanced in July.
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I didn't really care for it either. I gave up on it after a few sections. I felt like they tried to do a lot of "which of the following is false/true/etc." and the explanations were very basic.
 
Maverikk said:
Anyone try this question bank for ITE/Basic? Looks like decent prices, how is the content and explanations?
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I would give the Qbank 2.5/5 grade. It is good in a sense that is reminds you of what is important to know on the ITE and if you follow their questions content with a slightly more in-depth read of the material on your own, you will do well on the exam (I have scored over 90th percentile consistently and have used it). But the question quality per se is very poor. They change the whole content of their question bank every 6 month which should be very difficult to do. To do so, they hire people like me and you who are willing to write questions for 15$ a pop. Some Ca-1s are writing questions and some times I wonder if even interns or medical students are not writing these questions. It can get pretty irritating at times. To summarize, if you do the whole Qbank, follow the content and do your separate reading or videos (kentuky anesthesia review is great), you will do well. But do not take their questions too seriously. (Hall and ACE questions are a lot better quality!)
 
zoukit7 said:
They change the whole content of their question bank every 6 month which should be very difficult to do.
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Huh? Unless things have changed over at TrueLearn, I kept seeing the same questions over and over again all through my CA 1-3 years with only a few new questions over that time - that's really my biggest gripe with them, to be honest. After a couple years you can easily fall into pattern recognition rather than utilizing knowledge if you aren't careful, which is why I recommend supplementing with something else for CA-3 ITE (if your program offers incentives like paying for boards, otherwise not much impact unless you are a late fellowship applicant) or Advanced exam.
 
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