USMLErx vs. B&B?

[Doc_Ock]

Second year, currently using USMLErx (companion website to first aid) and love it. Great videos, pre-made high-yield flashcards, and questions that do a great job testing my understanding imo. Currently also using picmonic and getting pathoma soon. Wondering if I should add Boards and Beyond, or is that just too much? Everyone talks about it so just wondering if I should throw it in. Would love to hear from someone who did both and has taken Step 1.

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[NecrotizingFasciitis]

BnB is probably the most comprehensive & best resource you can use. I would even argue it can entirely replace school lectures. Wish I would have used it more during school. Used it during dedicated while annotating First Aid for anything I didn't understand & it worked really well.

n = 1 but I used Robbins practice questions in the fall semester & did my first pass of UWorld from December through May. I know everyone says to save UWorld for dedicated, but it is the gold standard when it comes to Step 1 knowledge, & if you are using it to learn & not to assess knowledge (which is the point of UWorld), I would argue the more time you spend with it, the better.

 

[hungrydoc710]

Second year, currently using USMLErx (companion website to first aid) and love it. Great videos, pre-made high-yield flashcards, and questions that do a great job testing my understanding imo. Currently also using picmonic and getting pathoma soon. Wondering if I should add Boards and Beyond, or is that just too much? Everyone talks about it so just wondering if I should throw it in. Would love to hear from someone who did both and has taken Step 1.

BnB is a million times better than Rx vids. It also follows FA very closely.
Sketchy >> Picmonic.
Pathoma is gold.

 

[SkepticActivist]

Pathoma is amazing!! I would for sure recommend using it and it isn't very expensive.

I ended up using Picmonic instead of Sketchy and it was mainly due to the cost. Picmonic has a free account, but the premium account is around $25 and it is quick and easy to use.

If anyone wants to use Picmonic they give premium members a sign up code that gives 20% off

Nurse Practitioner Mnemonic Learning Tool by Picmonic

Learn more faster with our visual platform of 1,800+ nurse practitioner mnemonics. Improve your retention and get higher test scores with Picmonic.

www.picmonic.com

Also, OnlineMedEd is amazing as well. I just do the free videos and not the full monthly program.

 

[Isoval]

Boards and Beyond easily has the best videos of all (including Pathoma) USMLE resources in my honest opinion. Dr. Ryan does an excellent job tying in memory hooks to the content and covers it at a reasonable speed. The questions on B&B, while I think are mediocre, are alright to check your knowledge as you go through the videos.

USMLE-RX really shines as a non-Uworld question bank. The only reason I would recommend USMLE-RX is if you’re trying to go through questions but you’re not in dedicated yet. Save Uworld for after you’ve finished all of your medical school material.

 

[Oligodinero]

Boards and Beyond easily has the best videos of all (including Pathoma) USMLE resources in my honest opinion. Dr. Ryan does an excellent job tying in memory hooks to the content and covers it at a reasonable speed. The questions on B&B, while I think are mediocre, are alright to check your knowledge as you go through the videos.

USMLE-RX really shines as a non-Uworld question bank. The only reason I would recommend USMLE-RX is if you’re trying to go through questions but you’re not in dedicated yet. Save Uworld for after you’ve finished all of your medical school material.

Yeah I agree: Rx shines as a Qbank to use during systems.....especially if you don't know how they're going to ask questions about the material you're covering....I mean there's only so many ways to ask questions regarding the subject manner....especially if your school tries to make all test questions follow USMLE/COMLEX question format, like mine does.
Going thru Rx while covering the material in class, and right before the exams helped me immensely when it came to my preclinical tests.

Uworld and TrueLearn were what I used for Step and Level 1.

 

[Oligodinero]

Yeah I agree: Rx shines as a Qbank to use during systems.....especially if you don't know how they're going to ask questions about the material you're covering....I mean there's only so many ways to ask questions regarding the subject manner....especially if your school tries to make all test questions follow USMLE/COMLEX question format, like mine does.
Going thru Rx while covering the material in class, and right before the exams helped me immensely when it came to my preclinical tests.

Uworld and TrueLearn were what I used for Step and Level 1.

That being said, B&B saved my ass on biostats.....which was the only class I got a C in (and I'm damn proud of that C).

 

[hungrydoc710]

I didn't even use Rx for classes. I used it during 6th and 7th block, before dedicated to do content review alongside BnB vids and FA.
Was great work flow and was able to hit the ground running when I started my UW blocks during dedicated.

And anki of course.

 

[DameJulie]

My M2 is system based. Should I use Rx or Kaplan as my main Qbank?

 

[hungrydoc710]

My M2 is system based. Should I use Rx or Kaplan as my main Qbank?

Either. I liked Rx bc it linked you to FA page, and you could annotate directly into your copy.

It doesn't matter. These qbanks are just warm-up's until you do the only proper bank... UWorld.