USMLEworld answer choices

[standup man]

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Everyone says how the usmleworld questions are like the real thing, but how about the answer choices??? There are a lot of questions on there that I feel I can get either by process of elimination or by common sense as there is one choice completely different from all the others. Any thoughts??

 

[Rogue Synapse]

Oh, yeah, that's because USMLE World is too easy. Duh.

 

[It'sElectric]

What an odd thread (at least in my opinion). I originally opened it expecting the OP to remark on how difficult the questions can often be as a result of the answer choices...
I'm 85% through it all, and I've definitely been under the impression that questions are more often than not tricky as a result of the answer choices. There certainly are your occasional questions where only 1 answer choice has even the correct mechanism, but those are few and far between in my opinion.

 

[45408]

There are a lot of questions on there that I feel I can get either by process of elimination or by common sense as there is one choice completely different from all the others.

I would say that only applies for about 10% of the questions I've done.

 

[lilnoelle]

When that happens to me, its generally because I only know one thing about the item the question is covering, and I'm lucky enough to have that be the right answer. Then I go through and read the explanation and had no idea that it was so tricky.

 

[standup man]

Maybe it could be that I'm only thinking about the ~10% ones that prowler talked about. The reason It struck me that way was I just felt that the NBME questions had more confusing and rather unexpected choices in there.

 

[Hurricane95]

I find the opposite. Usually when I do Q' I read the Q first and then formulate an answer in my head. I then look for that answer amongst the choices. I do very little eliminating. If I read the Q and have no clue or if the answer I mentally pick isn't there, I'm usually SOL. It's funny because with the mcat it was almost all about eliminating choices to get the right one. Process of elimination is also a much slower way of answering questions (although necessary if you really don't have a clue) and very time-consuming.

 

[45408]

There have been a few where I think it's obvious - like the patient who was having trouble hearing low frequency sounds, and the question asked where the injury was.

A. oval window
B. stapes
C. round window
D. base of cochlear membrane
E. helicotrema

Now, you'll notice that four of them are at one end and one is at the other. Even if you didn't know it, you should've seen that pattern, but only ~30% of people got it, I think.


Most other questions....not obvious. It'll ask about the side effects of a drug and then list six drugs, two of which we NEVER covered in my pharm class.

 

[hsans23]

i would say the main difference b/w uworld and any other quesitons i've ever done on 2nd yr tests or the one nbme i took was the LACK of being able to reason out answer choices. so i feel the opposite big time!!

 

[agranulocytosis]

There have been a few where I think it's obvious - like the patient who was having trouble hearing low frequency sounds, and the question asked where the injury was.

A. oval window
B. stapes
C. round window
D. base of cochlear membrane
E. helicotrema

Now, you'll notice that four of them are at one end and one is at the other. Even if you didn't know it, you should've seen that pattern, but only ~30% of people got it, I think.


Most other questions....not obvious. It'll ask about the side effects of a drug and then list six drugs, two of which we NEVER covered in my pharm class.

If a person is able to pick out where exactly those structures are in relation to one another, I think they should be able to know that little factoid about hearing. But I do agree with you on that one, it's kinda obvious.