UWorld Biostatistics & Epidemiology Review

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i asked about this a couple of days ago but didnt get any feedback, if biostats is still one of my weakest after a couple of practice exams i will probably sign up for it. Also are those a fresh set of questions or same ones in the qbank with better explanations?
 
That's what I'm trying to figure out. I will probably get it so I will let everyone know what I think.

There's probably only going to be like one biostats question on my stupid test if I get it.
 
buy me a 12pack instead and I'll teach it to you..


just do practice questions on them from the qbanks you already have and change the numbers around and do them again.. learn the 2x2 chart, it helps a lot if you have trouble calculating odds ratio and stuff.. a solid few hours and you will learn these things. def dont waste $90 on it.


i just googled 'practice biostatistics questions' and a ton of stuff came up for free. see if you can find stuff in there to do.. shouldn't take too much time.
 
I read through HY Biostats a few weeks ago and highly recommend it. It took me a few hours, but was definitely worth it since our class sucked so hard. I don't think I've gotten a single UWorld question wrong since I read it.
 
I read through HY Biostats a few weeks ago and highly recommend it. It took me a few hours, but was definitely worth it since our class sucked so hard. I don't think I've gotten a single UWorld question wrong since I read it.

I'll second this. Great book
 
I did the UW biostat and I must say that its worth every penny I paid. I highly recommend it . It made me get a better grasp of the subject. The great thing is you can finish the qbank in half a day.
 
I did the UW biostat and I must say that its worth every penny I paid. I highly recommend it . It made me get a better grasp of the subject. The great thing is you can finish the qbank in half a day.
so the setup is just like the regular bank, or does it have any other features or extra explanations?
 
I read through HY Biostats a few weeks ago and highly recommend it. It took me a few hours, but was definitely worth it since our class sucked so hard. I don't think I've gotten a single UWorld question wrong since I read it.

I have the 2001 edition of this book and was going to read it. It is short (I think it's like 120 pages). But, it is dense especially statistics isn't your forte. I saw myself reading it for a day and a half minimum to fully grasp it. So I decided to read the last 2 chapters of BRS Behavioral science. Do you think HY is a bit overkill or is the last 2 chapters of BRS (epidemiology and biostats) insufficient?
 
I have a feeling that USMLE WORLD's biostats questions are just exceptionally hard. But then again I am terrible at biostats... partially because when I was a first year taking biostats I had no clue that they would test us on it for the USMLE. I was like, 'wtf, why are they wasting our time with this class, I've got biochem to study'. I never knew it would bite me in the ass like this later on. :laugh:

But hey, at least I am rocking on biochem, so I guess it cancels out my crappy biostat score.
 
I have the 2001 edition of this book and was going to read it. It is short (I think it's like 120 pages). But, it is dense especially statistics isn't your forte. I saw myself reading it for a day and a half minimum to fully grasp it. So I decided to read the last 2 chapters of BRS Behavioral science. Do you think HY is a bit overkill or is the last 2 chapters of BRS (epidemiology and biostats) insufficient?
I've never looked over brs behavior, so I can't comment. HY biostats isn't really that dense though, it only took me about 3 hours or so to read--it's not like the other HY books where it's in quasi outline form, it's in prose. I just thought it was a really well written overview directed at exactly the level we need.
 
so the setup is just like the regular bank, or does it have any other features or extra explanations?

No the setup is different than the regular bank. It doesn't use that same software which hijacks your screen. The layout is broken down into sections with subsection in each one. Its kind of like an online book.
 
No the setup is different than the regular bank. It doesn't use that same software which hijacks your screen. The layout is broken down into sections with subsection in each one. Its kind of like an online book.
ok so if i get correctly, it is like an ebook where the topics are explained and then followed by questions
 
ok so if i get correctly, it is like an ebook where the topics are explained and then followed by questions

Close but not exactly, each section has tabs with 3-4 subsections under it. There are about 15 sections.

each subsection is divided into a block of 3-5 questions. After solving the questions in the subsecion you get an integrated thourough explanation to read! You can always go back to reread.
 
I'm working through it now. I think it's far inferior in quality to the regular UW Q bank. You don't get explanation per question as you do in UW Q bank. Rather after 3-5 questions there is an explanation section that addresses the concept of those questions. The thing that makes it a little more difficult to use than the regular UW Qbank is that sometimes you have to 'hunt' for the section of the answer portion to find out why one of your answer was incorrect or correct. Actually, on one of the questions I'm not even sure where the answer section addresses that question. I'm sure it's in there....I just have to take time looking for it.
 
how long to do the entire review from start to finish, would you estimate?

I think I'm about 40% done and it's been about 2 hours (I've been super sleepy though 😴). It doesn't tell you the total number of questions available. So, I have no exact way of telling how far I'm into it.
 
OK, another update.
I think some of the questions are worded badly.
A question states in a paraphrase, that a pregnant woman is given a test's ability to detect a disease 50% of the time while a second test is able to detect a disease 90% of the time. The woman decides not to run either test and give birth to a baby with the disease. What did the physician specifically counsel the woman while comparing the 2 tests?
I thought that the question had something to do with the reason why the patient decided not to perform the test given the info regarding the two tests. But as it turns out it was simply referring to how the second test has a higher sensitivity! In addition, again for the third or the fourth time in like 25 questions I have no idea why an answer to a question is correct.
I'm not impressed so far.
 
OK, I finished it.
Here are my thoughts on it.

You can't use this qbank as a source to practice very much since there is only 1 question per concept. So, it's more or less a learning tool rather than practicing tool. The explanations are so so. It's not super user friendly since many answers do not exactly tell you which question it pertains to. You can figure them out by reading. But, sometimes when you are trying to work on epi/stat at night when you are sleepy so that at least you are working on something rather than dozing off, you need all the help you can get to make things easier for you to read/comprehend 😳.

Sometimes I'd read the explanation and still don't understand the concept. That I think happened about 5 times out of about 70+ questions.

Is it worth it? Probably....I mean it's only $25. If epi/stat is your weak point, any additional resource can only help you.

OK, I hope that helps.
 
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