USMLE Weapon - second-best Qbank? Or is it something else?

[shan564]

I did a search, but surprisingly enough, I couldn't seem to find anything here about USMLE Weapon, which seems to be a pretty decent new Qbank... it's so new that even First Aid (which I usually use for these sorts of questions) doesn't have the answer in their little comparison at the end of the book. I've read good reviews online, but has anybody had a chance to compare it to the other options? Everybody knows that UWorld is the best, but what about when you've finished UWorld?

Just for a bit of background - I'm taking the text in about two months, and in my first 2.5 weeks of full-time studying, I've already exhausted about half of the questions on UWorld. I think I've been relying too much on questions and not enough on actual primary preparation, so I'll probably decrease my question use a bit, but I'm still doing about 50 questions a day... which means I'll probably finish UWorld in about 3 more weeks. I've also started doing the First Aid Q&A book (just because I already have it), but I'll probably need another Qbank.

From what I've heard, USMLE Weapon has a few questions that are quite high-yield (and might actually show up on the real exam), while Kaplan is better for learning little minutiae, and USMLERx is the best for memorizing facts out of First Aid. But has anybody actually had a chance to compare them?

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[sylvanthus]

If it is so new I wouldn't bother with it. Stick with the tried and true qbanks, especially this close to the exam. If I were you I would do UW a second time and take a few practice NBMEs instead of attempting some random qbank few have heard of.

 

[secants]

Never heard of this one. Went on their site but they don't list how many questions they have or offer a few sample ones either. Can't really judge this bank then.

 

[MrBigglesworth]

Not much info out there about this qbank. But I don't see anything about number of questions or even contact info?!

I had to look around for awhile until I found out who the 'authors' were.

http://www.usmleweapon.com/our-authors

Its in some other language.. google translate it later. In one part it said that the bank was from 99th percentile scorers and I was expecting to see "Harvard Med Plastic Surgeons" (like GT) but it seems that the majority (all?) were DO. Not to knock DO's at all, but I find it hard that it would be better than Rx or Kaplan...

I asked my Carrib buddies also, and they haven't heard about it, and they are usually on top of the latest and greatest...

 

[WarriorMD]

I have some friends who used it early on in studying, they said it was "ok", but they haven't given the exam yet so they can't really comment on how useful it was.

 

[shan564]

Not much info out there about this qbank. But I don't see anything about number of questions or even contact info?!

1700 questions. They seem to respond pretty quickly on their facebook page; I haven't tried contacting them any other way.

Its in some other language.. google translate it later.

That's Latin... it's not an article in "some other language", it's just the filler text that people use when they haven't filled out the actual text yet.



Anyway, I know that a lot of people haven't heard of it, but that's the reason why I was asking here. USMLEWorld was pretty new a few years ago too, and it turned out to be the hands-down best. I've been a bit disappointed with the quality of questions in Kaplan/USMLERx, and the few people who have used Weapon seem to be raving about, which seemed like a good sign...

I ended up getting a subscription, so I'll provide some feedback when I've done enough questions to compare it to Kaplan/Rx/UWorld.

 

[ijn]

I'm tempted to use it too but I haven't heard any feedback. Shouldn't the creators be giving out discounts to get some good press from students? No one wants to beta test for $150 with no guarantee that they aren't getting scammed.

 

[Phloston]

If it is so new I wouldn't bother with it. Stick with the tried and true qbanks, especially this close to the exam. If I were you I would do UW a second time and take a few practice NBMEs instead of attempting some random qbank few have heard of.

I agree with Sylvanthus. There is not enough information to weigh the value of this QBank in one particular direction, but regardless, stick to the "tried and true" ones this close to the exam.

 

[shan564]

Well, I've started it and done 50 questions, and I can't say that it's explicitly better or worse than Kaplan or USMLERx. The questions are definitely better than USMLE Consult, and definitely not as good as UWorld. The Android app is nice, but it's still a bit buggy.

They have a 20% off coupon on facebook (USMLEFB). I was looking for a 2-month subscription, so Kaplan would have cost $200, since they allow either 1 month or "till your test." But USMLERx is only $150 for a 3-month subscription, and since Weapon is no better, I think that Rx is the better choice because it has more questions and better explanations with the First Aid tie-ins.

 

[Scallop]

I found some pretty interesting information about them (make sure to read both pages!): http://www.usmleforum.com/files/forum/2012/1/657691.php I wonder if anybody here works for them?

 

[Phloston]

Well, I've started it and done 50 questions, and I can't say that it's explicitly better or worse than Kaplan or USMLERx. The questions are definitely better than USMLE Consult, and definitely not as good as UWorld.

Considering you've already started it, after you do more questions it would be great to give an update as to how good it really is. I was considering starting Consult at some point. You said you don't think the questions are that good? What about it do you find off?

Thanks,

~Phloston

 

[shan564]

Considering you've already started it, after you do more questions it would be great to give an update as to how good it really is. I was considering starting Consult at some point. You said you don't think the questions are that good? What about it do you find off?

Thanks,

~Phloston

Well, I do some semi-professional practice test question writing on the side, and the Consult questions just seemed like they weren't written as professionally. It was usually little things - mediocre grammar/style, poor sentence structure, etc... in some cases, that could change the meaning of the question. I also thought that their questions are often worded in a convoluted way for no real reason... it's like they're trying to trick you rather than trying to teach you. And they don't usually involve multi-step reasoning. And I was disappointed with the quality of explanations. And that was in the 30-question sample test... I assume they use their best questions there, since it's really just a sales tool.

Kaplan and USMLERx were both much better. The quality of question writing and explanations are almost as good as USMLEWorld, although both have their shortcomings.

If you want a good objective review of those three options, check out the reviews at the end of First Aid. They're pretty good at concisely pointing out the pros and cons, but they don't talk about Weapon yet.

I'm personally not a big fan of Weapon. It seems like they overvalue certain concepts that aren't as high-yield as they make it seem... in the first 100 questions, I had 8 questions about personality disorders, 8 about sensitivity/specificity/PPV/NPV, and 3-4 about lysosomal storage disorders. I know those are relatively high-yield topics, but they shouldn't make up 20% of the test all on their own.

UWorld/Rx/Kaplan do a much better job of distributing the questions in a way that you learn just by answering them. If you ask the same concept repeatedly, that doesn't help me all that much... I want to learn something with every question I answer.

 

[shadowfox87]

It seems DIT is offering this qbank complimentary starting April 5. Since I'll be getting it for free, I might as well try them out.
More about them here: http://www.prweb.com/releases/2011/11/prweb8923878.htm

 

[lookmanohands]

It seems DIT is offering this qbank complimentary starting April 5. Since I'll be getting it for free, I might as well try them out.
More about them here: http://www.prweb.com/releases/2011/11/prweb8923878.htm

"Voted The #1 Qbank"

 

[ijn]

Their QBank isn't finished or is severely bugged. I'd say maybe 20% of the cardio questions make reference to a picture that is required to answer the question, but there isn't any picture!

Some of the questions make me really think they have no idea what they're talking about. There are two GI questions that require you to memorize all of the Ranson criteria for acute pancreatitis. The explanation suggests that memorization of all of the criteria is high yield for the STEP 1. Umm, HELL NO. Or am I totally wrong here? A list of diagnostic criteria like that smells like a IM board question, not a STEP 1 question. All I remember about Ranson criteria from my school's GI lectures is that the presenter (a gastroenterologist) thought weren't very useful/helpful. Although she did test us on them anyway...

 

[shan564]

Yeah, from going through some of the questions, it's very clear that this Qbank is inferior to Kaplan and USMLERx. I'm disappointed with DIT for calling it the "#1 Qbank".

 

[zebalong]

Their QBank isn't finished or is severely bugged. I'd say maybe 20% of the cardio questions make reference to a picture that is required to answer the question, but there isn't any picture!

Some of the questions make me really think they have no idea what they're talking about. There are two GI questions that require you to memorize all of the Ranson criteria for acute pancreatitis. The explanation suggests that memorization of all of the criteria is high yield for the STEP 1. Umm, HELL NO. Or am I totally wrong here? A list of diagnostic criteria like that smells like a IM board question, not a STEP 1 question. All I remember about Ranson criteria from my school's GI lectures is that the presenter (a gastroenterologist) thought weren't very useful/helpful. Although she did test us on them anyway...

Gt stated specifically that ranson criteria was on the step 1. Not sure if they were experimental questions but no one can know for sure- best bet is to spend 5 minutes and just memorize it, weapon might emphasize newer topics appearing on the step.

 

[Phloston]

I'm personally not a big fan of Weapon. It seems like they overvalue certain concepts that aren't as high-yield as they make it seem... in the first 100 questions, I had 8 questions about personality disorders, 8 about sensitivity/specificity/PPV/NPV, and 3-4 about lysosomal storage disorders. I know those are relatively high-yield topics, but they shouldn't make up 20% of the test all on their own.

Everything you've written has been very helpful, but with regard to the statement above, how is the quality of the questions, irrespective of whether they are perhaps non-representing of the true proportions of the real exam. Because to be honest, behavioral science, psychiatry and biostats are my weakest areas in Rx, so your statement has actually made me more inclined to try weapon! But nevertheless, I won't even bother if the quality is sub-par, so if you could comment on the quality of Weapon's questions, that'd be great!

I'm going to edit my post here:

1) I can't find anywhere how many questions are in Weapon. Are there 2000, 3000?
2) If you click on the link on the top that says "Our Authors," the website is written by medical students!! I get angry enough with the fact that USMLE Rx has a billion errors. Perhaps this QBank should be taken with a grain of salt, because the other thing is, if they had senior reviewers, they would undoubtedly mention them, and they don't! However, an optimistic consideration is that these guys might also be very "fresh" with the Step1, and perhaps they've collected superb notes from their own studies (we'd hope).

 

[shan564]

From going through the questions, it's pretty obvious that they weren't written by professionals. I thought that the questions were a bit too straightforward and I wasn't really learning much from them.

Yes, they had a lot of questions about biostats and personality disorders, but all of those questions were just "here's a simple presentation; what's the most likely personality disorder?" or "here are some numbers; what's the PPV?".

In general, it was pretty obvious that the questions had been written by medical students and not experienced specialists.

 

[Phloston]

I appreciate the input. It's helpful hearing from someone who's actually seen the questions.

Regardless though, based on what you've said, I gather it's still worth it for me to do at least a cursory pass on the QBank (i.e. going through it quickly and not taking the explanations to heart) just because BS, BSt and psych are my weakest right now.

Could you please comment on how many Qs are in the QBank? 2000/3000? It doesn't say on the website (as far as I could see).

 

[shan564]

Could you please comment on how many Qs are in the QBank? 2000/3000? It doesn't say on the website (as far as I could see).

I think there are 1700 IIRC.

If you've used up UW/Kaplan/Rx, then it's worthwhile to do a pass. Maybe you'll like them better than I did.

 

[Phloston]

If you've used up UW/Kaplan/Rx, then it's worthwhile to do a pass. Maybe you'll like them better than I did.

Interesting that you say that. I was actually planning on doing Weapon after Rx, but before Kaplan and, ultimately, UWorld. Even though the latter are the better quality QBanks, I feel that that's actually a reason to use Weapon as an adjunct shelf-knowledge builder first. Iow, the questions are most effective if you think you know the topic well already and are using them for shock-value. I would think Weapon to be pointless after Kaplan or Uworld, bc that would only be regression. In the end though, no one is right. It's to each his or her own as far as the learning is concerned.

 

[USMLEWeapon]

Hey All,

I am writing to you on behalf of our team here at USMLE Weapon. Since we are new in the USMLE market and a few of you have questions, I thought I would tell you a little bit about our Qbank. We are a Pittsburgh-based company with ties into Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh. USMLE Weapon was driven through the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. Our author teams consist of mostly residents (whose bios we will be adding to the site) and senior medical students, most of whom are 250+ scorers. We take a very academic approach to building content within the Qbank, with a quality control process for our questions that goes through multiple levels of editing, ending with a review and approval by Doctors In Training. It is very important to us that we hear your feedback - we take our customer service very seriously. If there are topics you would like to see more of, technology features you would like us to build, or would just like to say hello, please contact us by phone (877.233.6460) or email ([email protected]). We are here to help you and to advocate for you any way possible. Good luck to each of you as your exam day approaches, and keep in touch on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/usmleweapon.

Sincerely,
Anna
Social Media Manager
USMLE Weapon

 

[sylvanthus]

Hey All,

I am writing to you on behalf of our team here at USMLE Weapon. Since we are new in the USMLE market and a few of you have questions, I thought I would tell you a little bit about our Qbank. We are a Pittsburgh-based company with ties into Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh. USMLE Weapon was driven through the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. Our author teams consist of mostly residents (whose bios we will be adding to the site) and senior medical students, most of whom are 250+ scorers. We take a very academic approach to building content within the Qbank, with a quality control process for our questions that goes through multiple levels of editing, ending with a review and approval by Doctors In Training. It is very important to us that we hear your feedback - we take our customer service very seriously. If there are topics you would like to see more of, technology features you would like us to build, or would just like to say hello, please contact us by phone (877.233.6460) or email ([email protected]). We are here to help you and to advocate for you any way possible. Good luck to each of you as your exam day approaches, and keep in touch on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/usmleweapon.

Sincerely,
Anna
Social Media Manager
USMLE Weapon

Hmm ya this proves the questions are not good. Hell I will be a senior medical student soon with a 250+ and there is no way in hell I feel like I could write good test questions. Also, in before the ban.

 

[Phloston]

Hey All,

I am writing to you on behalf of our team here at USMLE Weapon. Since we are new in the USMLE market and a few of you have questions, I thought I would tell you a little bit about our Qbank. We are a Pittsburgh-based company with ties into Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh. USMLE Weapon was driven through the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. Our author teams consist of mostly residents (whose bios we will be adding to the site) and senior medical students, most of whom are 250+ scorers. We take a very academic approach to building content within the Qbank, with a quality control process for our questions that goes through multiple levels of editing, ending with a review and approval by Doctors In Training. It is very important to us that we hear your feedback - we take our customer service very seriously. If there are topics you would like to see more of, technology features you would like us to build, or would just like to say hello, please contact us by phone (877.233.6460) or email ([email protected]). We are here to help you and to advocate for you any way possible. Good luck to each of you as your exam day approaches, and keep in touch on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/usmleweapon.

I've been willing to consider this QBank, but there is no way that I can do a free-trial as far as I could see. Both Weapon and Consult are the two QBanks that stand out as far as being new and not having confirmed reputations. I did the 30-question free-trial of Consult and it was terrible. Therefore I wouldn't want to just invest cash in Weapon when it could be just as bad. On Weapon's "take the tour," they literally show just one question, and that being said, I'm not even the type who's concerned about the explanations; I just want to see a large number of strong questions. Consider making a free-trial and some of us might consider using it.

 

[ijn]

The other really annoying thing about this QBank is that you spend a LOT of time waiting for things to load. UWorld instantly goes to the next question. Kaplan takes maybe a second to load. Weapon probably takes 3+ seconds for some god awful reason. Also you can't highlight. >_<!!!!!

 

[Phloston]

UWorld probably takes 3+ seconds for some god awful reason. Also you can't highlight. >_<!!!!!

Did you mean Weapon, not UWorld?

 

[shan564]

The other really annoying thing about this QBank is that you spend a LOT of time waiting for things to load.

Yeah, I actually forgot about that part... that was really annoying. And the Android app was very glitchy, which was also annoying.

On the bright side, their customer service was very good.

 

[ijn]

Did you mean Weapon, not UWorld?

Yeah USMLE Weapon. Oops!

 

[chompie]

I saw that they have a coupon code for those who may be interested.

Use promo code 'BUNNY50' at checkout for 50% off your purchase of a 90, 180 or 360-day subscription! Promo is good now thru Friday, April 13.

Regular prices:
3 Month

$169
Under $57 / mo



6 Month

$289
Under $49 / mo



1 Year

$389
Under $33 / mo

 

[runner0382]

Having used COMBANK extensively, a product made by TestWeapon, I cannot recommend enough to STAY AWAY FROM USMLE WEAPON. This is based on the fact that:

1) It is riddled with grammatical errors, spelling mistakes, poorly-written questions, and some downright vague (which is COMLEX-esque, actually) and just plain incorrect question stems. They had a question that didn't discriminate between nightmares and night terrors and just magically expected you to know it was a nightmare (even though 2 things in the stem completely contradicted that clinical presentation). I find it exceedingly unprofessional due to all of the above issues, and all the more embarrassing considering their Director of Content is an MD and graduated summa cum laude from a decent university (Valpo). NONE of these issues should be occurring. The spelling mistakes and poor grammar are just staggering.

2) Software is buggy. Now that the President/CEO Michael Blair (whose background is readily findable on LinkedIn) has overly focused on data feedback, the quality of the software itself has suffered. I don't care how good your breakdown of my performance is when your software blows. The software lags. Today, it won't let me review a test past the 30th question. You know what else? If you don't officially "pause" an exam, it kicks you out. Completely. You have to log back in and return to the exam. Tea kettle go off? Have to use the bathroom? Good luck. The point is, one shouldn't have to log out AT ALL and the system should not be set up so that you get kicked out while taking or reviewing an exam.

Very, very frustrating overall but the only decent comlex-type bank out there. Their sales pitch is a tough one considering my completely lackluster experience with the company. You can call them in PA but they won't answer the phone and their answers over email are only somewhat timely. I did Boards BootCamp and that company has their customer service together. On point, on time, and always available.

TestWeapon is obviously in a growth phase but they need to ensure the quality of their product is there. Right now, IMHO, they have quite a ways to go.

 

[memos87]

I haven't ever used kaplan, and I have been using USMLE world and the free USMLE consult questions since the beginning of the semester. World > Consult > USMLE weapon. The questions are often overly simplistic or sometimes just wrong (although it was rapidly corrected once pointed out). I am normally very happy to get ~ 70% on World questions, but on Weapon questions I can regularly get %80. I got these free through DIT and, well I'm glad they're free, and I guess help somewhat, but not the same caliber.

 

[memos87]

They've actually updated their software finally...I was getting Java script errors all the time, and now it's much faster and more responsive. Still riddled with typographical errors though

 

[Cole Trickle]

Since Uworld is the obvious king, this qbank has to be better than both Kaplan and Usmlerx to be of any use (are there really people using 4 qbanks?). So, who can prove that this is better than either of those?

 

[ijn]

It's not a good question bank. Maybe 5 years from now if they keep updating and revising it or maybe if they make it ridiculously cheap compared to the alternatives. I had a free subscription and I couldn't force myself to deal with the low yield **** that they asked, poor grammar/spelling, or questions that referred to pictures which were not present. Also the loading times between questions were frustratingly long. It's 2012. I should be able to click and go instantly to the next question. It's not like this is a freaking 1080p streaming video. It's text with a 500 kb or less image.

 

[Siggy]

I think the load time problem was that they initially set it up differently than UWorld. In UWorld it downloads the entire question set before letting you start (which is great for the iPhone app since you can start a block of 46 and then go someplace without a connection and work on it). So there's a delay to start the question set, but it's faster to go between questions. On the other hand the original Weapon setup had you downloading each question from the server as you went. So it was faster to start a block of 50, but there was a delay between each question as the client asked the server for the next question. They've recently gone to the UWorld setup for this, which makes it much faster.

 

[Lulesy22]

I'm signed up with DIT and although it's supposed to come with a free trial version of UWeapon, I haven't heard a single thing. It says you'll be contacted in 3 business days from when you "register" but I'm on week 2 of DIT and haven't gotten a single email/call. I sent them an email after the first week and got an auto-response email saying they'd get right back to me, but still nothing. I say stick to the stuff we all know is good. I registered with UWorld.