UWorld before initial review a waste?

[BeastInfection]

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I want to start doing practice questions, but I'm concerned about essentially "wasting" Uworld. I'm afraid that--without at least a first-pass review of FA--I'll basically just be guessing, then reading answers for a lot of the questions.

An alternative would be to start with Kaplan or USMLERx, but responses from people who have used these seem to be overwhelmingly "meh". Really have not seen anyone able to muster enthusiasm over either...and I don't really want to blow a couple hundred dollars and countless hours on something that's simply *nice* but won't do much for my test score.

Thoughts?

 

[Phloston]

Start with Rx while you do your first pass of FA.

Then go on to Kaplan.

Save UWorld for last.

Yes, it's a waste to use UWorld questions too early.

 

[BeastInfection]

Start with Rx while you do your first pass of FA.

Then go on to Kaplan.

Save UWorld for last.

Yes, it's a waste to use UWorld questions too early.

Hm, you think all three are possible if I'm taking the thing in early June? From what it sounds like, most people take 4-ish hours just to do around 50 Uworld questions...that would basically mean I could *maybe* get 50 questions in a day during the semester (minus exam weeks) while still being able to do FA and whatnot. Six weeks of dedicated study time (really five since I scheduled early) doesn't seem like enough to make up for that.

Did you find either Kaplan or Rx to be particularly useful and, if so, which one was more effective? I can start with that and cut the other one out if short on time.

Of course, an alternative is to go through Uworld more than once which some say is a good idea...

 

[calvnandhobbs68]

Hm, you think all three are possible if I'm taking the thing in early June? From what it sounds like, most people take 4-ish hours just to do around 50 Uworld questions...that would basically mean I could *maybe* get 50 questions in a day during the semester (minus exam weeks) while still being able to do FA and whatnot. Six weeks of dedicated study time (really five since I scheduled early) doesn't seem like enough to make up for that.

Did you find either Kaplan or Rx to be particularly useful and, if so, which one was more effective? I can start with that and cut the other one out if short on time.

Of course, an alternative is to go through Uworld more than once which some say is a good idea...

Well by the time you start doing UWorld during dedicated study time I think the idea is you should be going through the questions rather quickly (shooting for more of the testing environment). This is why people will tell you not to "waste" UWorld questions during the year because you should be using them to simulate testing. You shouldn't be having to go back and look up the answer in FA in detail for almost every question like you'll probably be doing while doing a qbank right now.

People are taking 4 hours to do 50 questions (I'm assuming) because you get the majority of them wrong during this time and even the ones you get right you might want to review the answers and why the other choices were wrong.

 

[Phloston]

4 hours to do 50 UWorld questions is extremely fast. It took me around 6-8 hours to get through 50 questions + annotating into FA.

And yes, getting through all three QBanks by June is doable if you start putting in long hours now.

Your prep should go something like: 1st pass FA, Rx, FA 2x, Kaplan, UWorld, FA 3x, NBMEs --> exam.

 

[BeastInfection]

Thanks for the replies.

I'm seriously driving myself f*cking nuts here going back and forth between starting with Kaplan or USMLERx qbanks. In the ideal world I will get through both in addition to UWorld, but I also know that I often set loftier goals than I am able to complete--so while I hope to do a three qbanks, I work at pretty slow pace, so am trying to decide between the two as if I were only going to be able to complete one bank other than UWorld.

Well by the time you start doing UWorld during dedicated study time I think the idea is you should be going through the questions rather quickly (shooting for more of the testing environment). This is why people will tell you not to "waste" UWorld questions during the year because you should be using them to simulate testing. You shouldn't be having to go back and look up the answer in FA in detail for almost every question like you'll probably be doing while doing a qbank right now.

People are taking 4 hours to do 50 questions (I'm assuming) because you get the majority of them wrong during this time and even the ones you get right you might want to review the answers and why the other choices were wrong.

Just to clarify, is this how most people do the qbanks? Looking up answers they don't know? Or is it recommended you answer what you can off the top of your head then read the explanations and reference FA if additional details needed?...

 

[startswithb]

Just to clarify, is this how most people do the qbanks? Looking up answers they don't know? Or is it recommended you answer what you can off the top of your head then read the explanations and reference FA if additional details needed?...

I've been setting up tests according to materially I've covered in second year so far. That includes all major systems but GI, reprod, and endo. I click "all main divisions" so I get first year material in there, too. Then I try to answer the ones I should know based on what I've covered, but if it's something I've never heard of, I may try to dig up the info in an outside resource first and then answer to test my question answering abilities vs just recall. Tutor mode is best because you can immediately gauge your reasoning abilities according to the explanations. Basically, I'm using world as a learning tool now, and I'm glad I am because there are a lot of subjects I wouldn't be reviewing adequately this early such as physio, anatomy, immuno, etc. I just want to be exposed to the information as much as possible.

I struggled with when to start the qbank but ultimately decided to follow the advice of a few high scoring upperclassmen and use it early as a learning tool. Besides, questions motivate me- passive reading does not.

 

[sharklasers]

I've been setting up tests according to materially I've covered in second year so far. That includes all major systems but GI, reprod, and endo. I click "all main divisions" so I get first year material in there, too. Then I try to answer the ones I should know based on what I've covered, but if it's something I've never heard of, I may try to dig up the info in an outside resource first and then answer to test my question answering abilities vs just recall. Tutor mode is best because you can immediately gauge your reasoning abilities according to the explanations. Basically, I'm using world as a learning tool now, and I'm glad I am because there are a lot of subjects I wouldn't be reviewing adequately this early such as physio, anatomy, immuno, etc. I just want to be exposed to the information as much as possible.

I struggled with when to start the qbank but ultimately decided to follow the advice of a few high scoring upperclassmen and use it early as a learning tool. Besides, questions motivate me- passive reading does not.

this is exactly my experience too

 

[calvnandhobbs68]

Just to clarify, is this how most people do the qbanks? Looking up answers they don't know? Or is it recommended you answer what you can off the top of your head then read the explanations and reference FA if additional details needed?...

Oh that's what I meant, sorry for not being more clear. I meant do the questions and then read the explanations and reference the page numbers in FA that Kaplan gives you to annotate or get additional info (although they have most of the info in the explanations in tutor mode).

I just meant that once you start using the questions to test yourself, you probably won't be taking so much time to read every explanation because the questions you get right you should know "why" they're right and you (hopefully) should be getting less questions wrong.

 

[Morsetlis]

Unless you're rote-memorizing uworld's thousands of questions I don't see how you can "waste" it.

 

[OneMoreRound]

Unless you're rote-memorizing uworld's thousands of questions I don't see how you can "waste" it.

I agree. Everyone is unique. Claiming one path to success is lunacy.

 

[BeastInfection]

Unless you're rote-memorizing uworld's thousands of questions I don't see how you can "waste" it.

My logic was this: I think I've forgotten a fair amount that I need to some serious refreshing on. So without the immediate knowledge base necessary to reason through a question, I'm guessing there will be many that I simply cannot answer and would just be me reading the question, then reading the answer. This is similar to just reading a page of information and seems like it would kind of defeat the purpose of the question-answer format.

Obviously if you feel like you have a strong background this doesn't apply, but I'm not terribly confident in my knowledge base, which is why I was asking.