UWORLD + KAPLAN OR UWORLD X 2

[breakdancerj]

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I know this question has been addressed to some extent, but time will be a limiting factor. Ideally, I would like to get through USMLE Rx once, Kaplan once, and UWorld twice by mid June, but I have a feeling that might be easier said than done. From what I have read, USMLE Rx seems like a good option for learning First Aid, so I am planning on doing that first. If I only have time for two Qbanks after that - should they be two passes of UWorld or Uworld and Kaplan? I would be interested to hear any experiences or feedback. I also would be interested to know if the practice exams and diagnostic included with Kaplan increase the worth of the Qbank. I don't see people talking about their Kaplan scores on SDN very much.

 

[breakdancerj]

I guess another important question to ask - is it feasible to get through 4 qbanks (including the second pass of UWorld) by mid June? My classes end at the end of April and I will have dedicated study time until mid-June. I plan on Qbanks being the central focus of my study time. I feel like a predominant focus on qbanks has been the greatest commonality I have noticed in reading successful students' experiences.

 

[bulldogmed]

I would say that you should save your money on Kaplan. Instead buy the NBME exams if you really need more questions. Other people with more insight into Kaplan's qbank can weigh in, but it seems like those questions would be more low yield.

 

[ulikedaggers]

4 qbanks in 14 weeks sounds like a suicide mission.

 

[bulldogmed]

4 qbanks in 14 weeks sounds like a suicide mission.

I agree.

 

[Modeselektor]

It has been done before.

Ok so here is my advice for step: My usmle score was 269/99. Main advice is DO MASSIVE AMOUNTS OF QUESTIONS!! Not once did I read/study goljan rapid review, goljan audio or BRS physiology. I spent the vast majority of my time doing questions. I know its hard to tell on forums which people are just geniuses but let me tell you I am NOT one of those people. In terms of intrinsic IQ/memorization skills I am very average for a medical student. I have to study much harder to get the same grades as those "genius" people in my med school class.'​

Refer to my previous posts for what I was scoring on NBME's, uworld percentage etc. ​

More Hx-I have had about a year of clinical experience before taking the step.Yes it helped a little bit. When I first started clinics I studied my ass off
but still performed very average on shelf exams (70's range). But my last clinic (medicine) I switched to a new system where I only did questions to study and I did NO reading whatsoever-only questions. My shelf score for medicine=99. So, I continued this method for step and as you can see it paid off immensely.

No only do questions, but whenever you miss a question or learn something from a question write it down on a separate sheet of paper. This is SO important and valuable and high yield-because later on you can read over these notes (write maybe a sentence max for each question short notes-they add up quickly) and remember what you learned from a question a month or two ago.


Now yes you should still go through first aid because this is the most high yield of any source. But go through it fast-limit yourself to ONE WEEK going through first aid. No you are not going to learn even 50% of it in that week but you will learn a little bit and reinforce and learn more by doing questions. I used goljan/brs only to look up things I was unsure about from questions I did-I repeat-use these only as a reference! Question banks (except for uworld) are notorious for having errors so if you aren't sure about something yes look it up in goljan/first aid/brs or Wikipedia (my personal favorite).
After the first week of going through first aid my advice is the following: do 200 questions a day. This is very doable and you will still have time to write
short notes for the questions you do. I would do the following question banks in this order

1st: UsmleRx-an easier question bank, has some errors but relatively fewish compared to other qbanks. In the explanation for the question it has the first aid page image to view. Good for learning more from first aid

2nd: Kaplan. Also fewish errors compared to other banks. Questions more picky but overall a good qbank.


3rd: robbins rapid review qbank. Would recommend purchasing online subscription so you can go back and do the questions you missed. DON'T purchase subscription to usmleconsult. This qbank is SO INCREDIBLY ERROR FILLED. I started doing this qbank and got frustrated after 1 day because of the incorrect questions and massive amounts of errors. I don't care that goljan approved it, he has obviously never done a single question from this bank. It is a horrible question bank I repeat don't waste your money. If anything your score will decrease by doing these questions because the answers are incorrect and the explanations are WRONG.

4th: Uworld. Do this one last so it is fresh. MARK the questions you got right but only because you guessed or weren't really sure about the answer. Go back and do these in addition to the ones you missed.

While doing qbanks do ALL of the nbme's, the free 150 as well as the two uworld assessments. In the beginning I did these tests every two weeks. Towards the end I did a couple of week including two full length test simulations

Ok that is my advice. Not saying this will work for everyone, but for me as a student who has a hard time memorizing information this is finally the system that worked for me. As you can tell I'm not one of those superstars that has always done amazing on shelf exams etc that test knowledge. (if anyone wants to know my MCAT score was 34). After doing average on shelf exams I took a risk and changed the way I study and it has paid off. Please let me know if you have any questions about this method-but I think many people would benefit from studying this way.

Seriously almost every question I had on my actual exam I felt like I had encountered a question testing similar concepts before. I had very few WTF questions but had I not done so many questions I would have had many many more WTF questions. A theme I saw on usmle forums is people who
were scoring around 270ish all did at least 3 or 4 question banks-not just
uworld.

Good luck to everyone!

 

[notbobtrustme]

I just talked to an M4 yesterday and he said that Kaplan was "****ing garbage" and a complete waste of time. This dude was calculating as ****, so he knew his **** (scored >250, matched urology). He said that Uworld is so much better than Kaplan and anyone who buys Kaplan is an idiot. Save yourself the money and forget that Kaplan even exists. He did Kaplan in a month and it didn't help him one bit.

Dude kept it real real and I liked that about him.

 

[ulikedaggers]

I just talked to an M4 yesterday and he said that Kaplan was "******* garbage" and a complete waste of time. This dude was calculating as ****, so he knew his **** (scored >250, matched urology). He said that Uworld is so much better than Kaplan and anyone who buys Kaplan is an idiot. Save yourself the money and forget that Kaplan even exists. He did Kaplan in a month and it didn't help him one bit.

Dude kept it real real and I liked that about him.

Interestingly, I have a friend (scored >250, AOA) who thought Kaplan was worthwhile. Not as good as UW, but worth using in addition to UW.

 

[addy]

Interestingly, I have a friend (scored >250, AOA) who thought Kaplan was worthwhile. Not as good as UW, but worth using in addition to UW.

This is what I hear all the time, too. Kaplan is not as good as Uworld, but definitely worth the time.

 

[Transposony]

I really don't understand how people can be so sure about what they did and did not learn from a particular resource? 😕
I mean do people actually remember what they learned from each resource and out of those which one actually helped on the test?

 

[Polymyxin]

Modeselektor, thanks for that repost.
Questions, Questions, Questions - That is the one common suggestion from actual high scorers that I personally know. And specifically, I've heard to only use FA and UWorld/Rx +/-Kaplan QBank, nothing else. I personally can't follow that advice. I need the extras BRS Physio, Pathoma, etc.

But....should I heed the advice of maryjane85 and jettison the review material and focus on finishing 4 QBanks? Does anyone else feel uneasy about cutting out the extra review book and solely doing QBanks.

 

[ulikedaggers]

Modeselektor, thanks for that repost.
Questions, Questions, Questions - That is the one common suggestion from actual high scorers that I personally know. And specifically, I've heard to only use FA and UWorld/Rx +/-Kaplan QBank, nothing else. I personally can't follow that advice. I need the extras BRS Physio, Pathoma, etc.

But....should I heed the advice of maryjane85 and jettison the review material and focus on finishing 4 QBanks? Does anyone else feel uneasy about cutting out the extra review book and solely doing QBanks.

I'm planning on doing FA, Pathoma, Rx, Kaplan, and UW next year. Still on the fence about trying to work FC into my schedule. I have a bunch of the recommended books laying around, but I'll probably only look at them when I need more explanation than what's in UW.

 

[Modeselektor]

Modeselektor, thanks for that repost.
Questions, Questions, Questions - That is the one common suggestion from actual high scorers that I personally know. And specifically, I've heard to only use FA and UWorld/Rx +/-Kaplan QBank, nothing else. I personally can't follow that advice. I need the extras BRS Physio, Pathoma, etc.

But....should I heed the advice of maryjane85 and jettison the review material and focus on finishing 4 QBanks? Does anyone else feel uneasy about cutting out the extra review book and solely doing QBanks.

You should do what you are most comfortable doing and in the manner you know you will learn it best. Some like me, have to brute force through 3 qbanks and use a single resource. Others learn best from multiple books. If you're uncomfortable doing it one way, its probably not the right way for you.

Also for the record I will say Kaplan's Qbank is worthwhile. They have a stronger emphasis on anatomy/radio, biochem/genetics, cell-bio than the other 2 qbanks. I do recall them having fairly decent immunology questions as well.

 

[Donald Juan]

Modeselektor, thanks for that repost.
Questions, Questions, Questions - That is the one common suggestion from actual high scorers that I personally know. And specifically, I've heard to only use FA and UWorld/Rx +/-Kaplan QBank, nothing else. I personally can't follow that advice. I need the extras BRS Physio, Pathoma, etc.

But....should I heed the advice of maryjane85 and jettison the review material and focus on finishing 4 QBanks? Does anyone else feel uneasy about cutting out the extra review book and solely doing QBanks.

I'm seriously thinking about jettisoning all non-question materials. I'm feeling uneasy about it, but I don't feel like I get much out of reading a review book from cover to cover. Luckily, I've got until late June, so for the next month or so I'm just going to focus on questions and my anki decks. I might go through Pathoma one more time at 1.5x, but that will take a lot less time than a pass through any Qbank will.

 

[intheworkings]

Any advice on which order to do the three major qbanks or to just focus on UWorld?

 

[W19]

Uworld (x) 1.5 + Kaplan...