USMLE World vs Robbins Question Book

[kate0834tkjn]

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I have just under 5 weeks until my test, and am wondering if USMLE world questions or Robbins questions are better to focus on. I am getting increasingly frustrated w/ Kaplan qbank (finished about 1/3 of it) and want to add an alternative question source.

Thanks for your help! Sorry to ask so many questions recently!

 

[blz]

Use them both - they're both good.

 

[Taus]

I'm doing Uworld random/timed in the morning and Robbins Q's by system at night....this approach has been pretty doable so far and I'm definitely learning a ton and hammering home the info.....the NBME I took (#4) actually felt kind of easy after doing these questions

 

[nasdr]

i've been trying the same method, and i vouch for it as well.

I'm doing Uworld random/timed in the morning and Robbins Q's by system at night....this approach has been pretty doable so far and I'm definitely learning a ton and hammering home the info.....the NBME I took (#4) actually felt kind of easy after doing these questions

 

[kate0834tkjn]

Excellent. That's what I shall do, then. 🙂 Thanks for the advice!

 

[N-Surge]

👍 This is what I decided on doing as well. Robbin's Q's and UW. And I am liking it!

Robbin's Q book is great for matching problems against Goljan RR, almost chapter for chapter. I like the instant testing per Pathology subject to reinforce things I just reviewed. There are a few chapters that don't correlate, e.g. Infectious Diseases (Goljan hits this sort of subject throughout his book when relevant), but it's still all good imo.

Yeah, I added a shout out for Goljan RR because I think it's that good. I too now have around 5 weeks left and I am using the following;

Robbin's Q Book (Review of Pathology)
USMLE World

FIRST AID
Step Up
Goljan RR/HY
Pathophysiology for the Boards & Wards
Lange Flash Cards (The Dr. Flash series...)

And then a few other things lying around like Costanzo's Physiology book (figures and tables) and things like HY Embryo and Neuroanatomy, if/when needed.

I know, this was more than asked. But I figured I'd share the books I am using along with the two question sources you asked about.

 

[cdql]

Is Robbins just pathology questions?

 

[N-Surge]

Is Robbins just pathology questions?

The thing is, Pathology is pretty inclusive of everything, no?

With regards to the book, there are questions on things like which Cdk's control what parts of the cell cycle (Mol Cell), Immunology, cell signaling (more Mol Cell), Childhood Dx's (which make one recall embryology), a whole chapter on Infectious Diseases (Micro), a whole chapter on Genetics, and so on... Oh, and those diseases we learned in Biochemistry? Yeah, that's there too. And I think there may even be some references to Anatomy and Pharmacology as well!

 

[esposo]

I own the Robbins Path book and I used it to study Path this year. Use this book only to learn. They are not indicative of real board questions because the questions are too long and difficult. However, the explanations are great and they really teach concepts well. My only criticism of it is it can take a long time to do questions because each questions sees like it's 1-2 paragraphs long and the explanations are nearly that long as well. It would honestly take me 2-3 hours to go through the questions and read the explanations for a block of 50 questions.

 

[N-Surge]

I am going through this Robbin's problems book right now for STEP 1, and it rocks!

"Time yourself" and "test your knowledge". Reinforce what you review/learn from the review books! Do not use Robbin's problems book to learn from without first having reviewed the material in your favorite review sources. That would suck! Use the Robbin's problems to get good at quickly grabbing the "important" information. This can only be advantageous come test day, imo.

The problems are actually single paragraph format and aren't that daunting. Sure, they can be hard. This is bad? And they can also force you to integrate! If anything, they give your brain some stretching exercises. This is good!

 

[Medikit]

At this point I would use both, then during the last two or three weeks I would drop Robbins

 

[esposo]

I am going through this Robbin's problems book right now for STEP 1, and it rocks!

"Time yourself" and "test your knowledge". Reinforce what you review/learn from the review books! Do not use Robbin's problems book to learn from without first having reviewed the material in your favorite review sources. That would suck! Use the Robbin's problems to get good at quickly grabbing the "important" information. This can only be advantageous come test day, imo.

The problems are actually single paragraph format and aren't that daunting. Sure, they can be hard. This is bad? And they can also force you to integrate! If anything, they give your brain some stretching exercises. This is good!

If a student is accurately trying to gauge their knowledge of path, the Robbins questions are not a good indicator of how they will do on the boards because they are more difficult than the real questions. That's all I was saying.

Most review books won't teach you to ace the Robbins questions because Robbins rarely uses buzzwords which most review books teach. You have to do the Robbins questions and learn from the explanations which are invaluable. I have read BRS Path and Goljan RR and I still struggled with the Robbins questions. But again, as an objective and fair writer, I have to be honest by admitting that the Robbins questions do require additional time to complete versus other questions IMO

 

[Taus]

If a student is accurately trying to gauge their knowledge of path, the Robbins questions are not a good indicator of how they will do on the boards because they are more difficult than the real questions. That's all I was saying.

Most review books won't teach you to ace the Robbins questions because Robbins rarely uses buzzwords which most review books teach. You have to do the Robbins questions and learn from the explanations which are invaluable. I have read BRS Path and Goljan RR and I still struggled with the Robbins questions. But again, as an objective and fair writer, I have to be honest by admitting that the Robbins questions do require additional time to complete versus other questions IMO

mostly agreed...but if you learn to handle the Robbins Q's there shouldn't be much path that you can't handle on the boards.... but to save time I don't read the answers in as much depth as I do on the computer based Qbanks.....only really for the ones I got wrong or didn't flat out know the answer to immediately

 

[N-Surge]

If a student is accurately trying to gauge their knowledge of path, the Robbins questions are not a good indicator of how they will do on the boards because they are more difficult than the real questions. That's all I was saying.

Most review books won't teach you to ace the Robbins questions because Robbins rarely uses buzzwords which most review books teach. You have to do the Robbins questions and learn from the explanations which are invaluable. I have read BRS Path and Goljan RR and I still struggled with the Robbins questions. But again, as an objective and fair writer, I have to be honest by admitting that the Robbins questions do require additional time to complete versus other questions IMO

And I disagree. On average, you can do these problems in under a minute and score ~70% without reading more than Goljan RR, FIRST AID, and perhaps bringing in a few things you recall along the way from M1 and M2 (test your distant memory as well). I am not sure what you mean by acing Robbin's problems. That isn't the point.

What I do agree with you on is that these problems are indeed hard. However, why would this prevent you from answering easier problems with confidence and speed?

Push yourself past buzzwords and force yourself to do problems that require integrating your knowledge and problem solving skills and you have a really good measure of how well you will do, imo. Sure, know the buzzwords and such. We must, there's no question about it. But also know how to use them when they aren't merely sitting in front of you.

 

[dentate_gyrus]

robbin's was the closest to actual board questions that I found. a little more difficult, but really similar. the author writes the step1 path Q's.
Qbank & usmle world weren't very close to the real thing - important for practicing though.

 

[esposo]

And I disagree. On average, you can do these problems in under a minute and score ~70% without reading more than Goljan RR, FIRST AID, and perhaps bringing in a few things you recall along the way from M1 and M2 (test your distant memory as well). I am not sure what you mean by acing Robbin's problems. That isn't the point.

What I do agree with you on is that these problems are indeed hard. However, why would this prevent you from answering easier problems with confidence and speed?

Push yourself past buzzwords and force yourself to do problems that require integrating your knowledge and problem solving skills and you have a really good measure of how well you will do, imo. Sure, know the buzzwords and such. We must, there's no question about it. But also know how to use them when they aren't merely sitting in front of you.

You still don't understand the purpose of my post. Some people learn from review books and do questions for the sole purpose of gauging their success on the boards and will avoid BSS and other q-banks that are more challenging for that reason. I'm trying to respect those types of testers who prefer to do questions that resemble what they will see on the real exam. I understand that you think even those students will benefit from doing more difficult problems as do I. However, I'm not here to argue with their approach. If they are seeking a q-bank that closely resembles the questions on the boards, I don't think Robbins fits that bill. And based on conversations I've had with other medical students, they tend to agree. If you read SDN, there are several threads that verify that. They all say that Robbins is a valuable source but is more challenging than the real thing.

For those who do questions for the sake of learning, I agree that I think Robbins is great to learn from. We are both in agreement that these questions are valuable and that students should do them. Isn't that good enough for the readers? I simply offerred my experience when doing these questions. If you did each one under a minute and got 70% correct, hey that's great but that wasn't my experience. At this point it seems like you are contradicting me for the simple sake of doing so. Now before you respond to this reply, stop and think, do you really believe anything you say at this point will benefit readers and positively contribute to this thread? Probably not, so leave it alone. We both made our points. Let's not hijack the thread.

 

[N-Surge]

robbin's was the closest to actual board questions that I found. a little more difficult, but really similar. the author writes the step1 path Q's.
Qbank & usmle world weren't very close to the real thing - important for practicing though.

esposo, you actually stated that the Robbin's problems are not a good gauge of the real thing and it should simply be a source of learning and not a gauge. And with this I disagree.

dentate_gyrus' message is the final word on Robbin's problems, imo...

 

[blz]

Ive been doing the robbin's questions and after reviewing all of FA, reading Goljan, BRS Phys, and every other book out there and after having finished about 50% of QBank - i don't think these questions are that hard. im finding it very easy to fly through these questions. I can understand though if you're learning this for the first time it would take a while to get through them. But if you've done all your homework and just want a little something else to look at - there's no harm in flying through this book. it doesn't require that much time to fly through. Just do two chapters a day when you got time and you'll be done in no time.

 

[esposo]

esposo, you actually stated that the Robbin's problems are not a good gauge of the real thing and it should simply be a source of learning and not a gauge. And with this I disagree.

dentate_gyrus' message is the final word on Robbin's problems, imo...

His message is the final word because he happens to agree with you, okay that's fair 🙄

dentate gyrus is entitled to his opinion and I respect that. However, be aware that there is also a significant numbers of students on SDN who have stated they value the Robbins questions and recommend them but also admit they are not representative of the questions on the boards because they are more difficult.

In regards to guaging, I'm referring to students who want to practice questions that are as close to the real thing in terms of difficulty. That means they try to avoid questions that are too easy (USMLErx) and ones that are too difficult (USMLEworld or Robbins) so that they can determine how they will perform on the real exam. I understand your view. You are saying that if one can do the more challenging questions, he or she will be able to do the easier questions but that is a different point altogether. I don't think you see the distinction. Regardless, I personally recommend that everyone should do the Robbins questions but I disagree with the idea that they should be used to guage the types of pathology questions one will see on the USMLE because they are generally considered to be more difficult than the real thing.

 

[Taus]

Ive been doing the robbin's questions and after reviewing all of FA, reading Goljan, BRS Phys, and every other book out there and after having finished about 50% of QBank - i don't think these questions are that hard. im finding it very easy to fly through these questions. I can understand though if you're learning this for the first time it would take a while to get through them. But if you've done all your homework and just want a little something else to look at - there's no harm in flying through this book. it doesn't require that much time to fly through. Just do two chapters a day when you got time and you'll be done in no time.

Some questions give you way too many diagnostic clues to the disease and make it relatively simple if you know your stuff....but some are defintely harder then then the other question banks I've done...

 

[N-Surge]

His message is the final word because he happens to agree with you, okay that's fair 🙄

dentate gyrus is entitled to his opinion and I respect that. However, be aware that there is also a significant numbers of students on SDN who have stated they value the Robbins questions and recommend them but also admit they are not representative of the questions on the boards because they are more difficult.

In regards to guaging, I'm referring to students who want to practice questions that are as close to the real thing in terms of difficulty. That means they try to avoid questions that are too easy (USMLErx) and ones that are too difficult (USMLEworld or Robbins) so that they can determine how they will perform on the real exam. I understand your view. You are saying that if one can do the more challenging questions, he or she will be able to do the easier questions but that is a different point altogether. I don't think you see the distinction. Regardless, I personally recommend that everyone should do the Robbins questions but I disagree with the idea that they should be used to guage the types of pathology questions one will see on the USMLE because they are generally considered to be more difficult than the real thing.

You have officially hijacked this thread... Way to take your own advice, lol.

Wow! Someone actually shares a real life story regarding how Robbin's problems match up to the real thing (the look and feel and all that) and you have the guts to throw it back in his/her face and say, no they don't.

dentate_gyrus' word is pretty much final because it is based on a REAL LIFE EXPERIENCE! dentate_gyrus' opinion means more than mine or yours...

PS- dentate_gyrus, if you are not a "he", sorry about that.

 

[N-Surge]

I have just under 5 weeks until my test, and am wondering if USMLE world questions or Robbins questions are better to focus on. I am getting increasingly frustrated w/ Kaplan qbank (finished about 1/3 of it) and want to add an alternative question source.

Thanks for your help! Sorry to ask so many questions recently!

Take blz' advice and use both. He's right. Take dentate_gyrus' experience and go from there.

Good luck to you on your STEP 1 exam! Good luck to all of you! 🙂