UWorld is raping me

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Yes, I've seen them and they are in depth. I'm only a 1st year, and I have PDF format Uworld questions from 2009.. planning on purchasing online access when 2012 rolls around.

Question: Have any of you guys ever utilized past question banks for material? Any tips for going through the banks? Thanks in advance..
 
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SOML said:
Yes, I've seen them and they are in depth. I'm only a 1st year, and I have PDF format Uworld questions from 2009.. planning on purchasing online access when 2012 rolls around.

Question: Have any of you guys ever utilized past question banks for material? Any tips for going through the banks? Thanks in advance..
Click to expand...
Unless you are on a systems based curriculum, you shouldn't touch USMLE world. If you want to start doing it in MS2 for each path section, then go for it.
 
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I'm doing question blocks on untimed tutorial mode and honestly it takes me 8 hours to get through 60-65 questions, while reading the explanations, and taking notes with their handy app. I've got to finish UWorld by the end of this month. Time to read only the educational objectives. I started on the 2nd and am only through 218 questions.
 
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On a sidenote, it's seems like 95% of the people on here go through 100% of UWorld, while reading all the explanations and annotating. I honestly don't know how you manage to get it done within a months time. It takes a lot of time to go through things thoroughly. I think I'm going to sacrifice that in return for more exposure to different questions.
 
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thepoopologist said:
My average is 40% now. Hopefully that increases by my 1000th question.
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I'm going to give my 100% honest opinion and hopefully you won't take offense to it.

If you're getting a 40% that means you have a general lack of knowledge especially in the fundamental areas. Going through UWorlds bank of obscure and sometimes irrelevant questions isn't going to get you where you need to be.

You need to get Goljan RR/ First Aid/ Goljan audio and sit down every day with all 3 at the same time and do at least 1 chapter a day. With this you are going to improve all your basic knowledge plus get a super strong working knowledge of pathophys... One of the most highly tested subject areas on the test.

If you really want to jump 15-20% in about a month, and if you really work your ass off I guarantee that will do it.

Open up rapid review and first aid at the same time, and whenever Goljan talks about something new, pause... read it in RR and annotate the **** out of First Aid. By the time you get through the book you'll feel like you're smarter than you've ever been.

EDIT: If you just go through UWorld, you're going to feel overwhelmed and lost... Goljan will make you understand WHY you are picking the answer you're picking. Not just some random reflex reaction based on some buzz words you see. Because guess what, on step 1 day... there are no buzz words my friend. (Ohhh I got winged scapula but they still managed to word it in a way that I was nervous about my choice lol.)
 
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je355804 said:
I'm going to give my 100% honest opinion and hopefully you won't take offense to it.

If you're getting a 40% that means you have a general lack of knowledge especially in the fundamental areas. Going through UWorlds bank of obscure and sometimes irrelevant questions isn't going to get you where you need to be.

You need to get Goljan RR/ First Aid/ Goljan audio and sit down every day with all 3 at the same time and do at least 1 chapter a day. With this you are going to improve all your basic knowledge plus get a super strong working knowledge of pathophys... One of the most highly tested subject areas on the test.

If you really want to jump 15-20% in about a month, and if you really work your ass off I guarantee that will do it.

Open up rapid review and first aid at the same time, and whenever Goljan talks about something new, pause... read it in RR and annotate the **** out of First Aid. By the time you get through the book you'll feel like you're smarter than you've ever been.

EDIT: If you just go through UWorld, you're going to feel overwhelmed and lost... Goljan will make you understand WHY you are picking the answer you're picking. Not just some random reflex reaction based on some buzz words you see. Because guess what, on step 1 day... there are no buzz words my friend. (Ohhh I got winged scapula but they still managed to word it in a way that I was nervous about my choice lol.)
Click to expand...
I've already gone through FA via DIT and Pathoma. I'm only 200 questions in; I don't think it's a lack of the fundamentals at this point, although there are admittedly huge gaps of knowledge where Embryo and Biochem are concerned. Many of the questions are about things I know, presented obscurely. I think it's about filtering the question down fast at this point, and training myself to do so.

But if I'm halfway through and still at 40%, I'm stopping and hitting FA again because at that point you're correct.
 
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thepoopologist said:
I've already gone through FA via DIT and Pathoma. I'm only 200 questions in; I don't think it's a lack of the fundamentals at this point, although there are admittedly huge gaps of knowledge where Embryo and Biochem are concerned. Many of the questions are about things I know, presented obscurely. I think it's about filtering the question down fast at this point, and training myself to do so.

But if I'm halfway through and still at 40%, I'm stopping and hitting FA again because at that point you're correct.
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Goljan man... goljan. FA isn't going to get you any decent score on step.
 
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Now, I don't know how accurate this is, but a friend of mine sent me this chart as a rough score converter between UW, Kaplan Qbank, NBME, and Step I scores. From the looks of it, you can be missing quite a bit (albiet not 60% of the questions), and still do quite well if this converter is in anyway reliable.

http://usmle-score-correlation.blogspot.com/
 
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After much wrangling, I've decided to take a more integrative approach since I have the whole month off.

I've split up each day into:
1. Two DIT lectures
2. 1 chapter of Pathoma lectures
3. 30 Q UWorld

I'm going to take an NBME at the end of November. By then I should have done 2 complete passes of FA via DIT, 2 complete passes of Pathoma, and 1000 Q of UWorld.
 
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I don't expect to finish UWorld with this approach, obviously, but it should help make the information stick while keeping me fresh with the question format.

December 1st to 17th will be reviewing blue notes/images of Goljan and little crappy details of FA, and another NBME.

December 18th: Test Day
 
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FiestyFutureDr said:
Now, I don't know how accurate this is, but a friend of mine sent me this chart as a rough score converter between UW, Kaplan Qbank, NBME, and Step I scores. From the looks of it, you can be missing quite a bit (albiet not 60% of the questions), and still do quite well if this converter is in anyway reliable.

http://usmle-score-correlation.blogspot.com/
Click to expand...
Thanks, I'll use this as a rough benchmark.
 
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