USMLE UWorld now or later?

[donkism]

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Hello everyone,

I'm currently an M2. I have a few more organ systems left before our dedicated time (~5 wks) for step1. I plan to take the step around May.

My school has NBME final exams at the end of each organ system. Up until now, I have been using Rx as my main qbank to help study for the exams (along with FA, pathoma, BRS physio, few course lectures, etc.).

I have read/heard that UWorld is the gold standard of qbanks, and that I should do 2 passes through it before my step exam. But I also read/heard people say that you should save UWorld till the end of your studies.

Seeing that I'm about 6~7 months away from my step 1 exam, should I switch over to UWorld now and use it as my qbank while I study for my organ system course? (That is, my next organ system is Repro. So, should I use UWorld to study for Repro instead of Rx?) Or, should I save UWorld for the 5 weeks of dedicated time. I'm just worried I will not have time for 2 passes of UWorld with only 5 weeks dedicated. Please take into consideration that I read/write slightly slower than the average student.

Thank you for your time and help in advance...

 

[malin]

This topic is debatable, and you'll hear legitimate points from different people. I strongly, strongly, recommend you start now. There's too much valuable content in UWorld to wait until later. I started actually right about around this time and finished before my dedicated study time, and then did a 2nd pass of UWorld during dedicated. Ended up with 250+

Lots of people say that you shouldn't start UWorld until you "master" the information, but you can't truly master any information until you take practice questions. Starting UWorld now enables you to spend quality time with questions. You certainly don't have to do this, but I would spend nearly 10 mins per question by reading the corresponding part of First Aid, then reading the UWorld explanation, and then annotating into First Aid anything that was in UWorld but not in First Aid (and highlighting how they asked questions, what the answers in UWorld were, etc). This enabled me to integrate the two and know them inside out b/c then I just studied my First Aid [filled w/ all of UWorld] during my dedicated study time.

Use UWorld as a learning tool and really try hard to understand the concepts and develop the critical thinking skills to answer boards-style questions. Don't use it as an assessment of your performance and worry about your % correct or anything like that.

UWorld questions and their answer explanations appear all over Step 1. Start early and you'll do awesome. Good luck!

 

[PhillyMed777]

This topic is debatable, and you'll hear legitimate points from different people. I strongly, strongly, recommend you start now. There's too much valuable content in UWorld to wait until later. I started actually right about around this time and finished before my dedicated study time, and then did a 2nd pass of UWorld during dedicated. Ended up with 250+

Lots of people say that you shouldn't start UWorld until you "master" the information, but you can't truly master any information until you take practice questions. Starting UWorld now enables you to spend quality time with questions. You certainly don't have to do this, but I would spend nearly 10 mins per question by reading the corresponding part of First Aid, then reading the UWorld explanation, and then annotating into First Aid anything that was in UWorld but not in First Aid (and highlighting how they asked questions, what the answers in UWorld were, etc). This enabled me to integrate the two and know them inside out b/c then I just studied my First Aid [filled w/ all of UWorld] during my dedicated study time.

Use UWorld as a learning tool and really try hard to understand the concepts and develop the critical thinking skills to answer boards-style questions. Don't use it as an assessment of your performance and worry about your % correct or anything like that.

UWorld questions and their answer explanations appear all over Step 1. Start early and you'll do awesome. Good luck!

u have officially convinced me. im starting with one question tonight.

 

[seminoma]

260+ and I strongly, strongly, recommend you don't touch UWorld until dedicated.

Spend too much time on it now and you're limiting your eventual volume of knowledge.

 

[howdysang]

260+ and I strongly, strongly, recommend you don't touch UWorld until dedicated.

Spend too much time on it now and you're limiting your eventual volume of knowledge.

Some people say to save it until dedicated to prevent memorizing the questions. But isn't it true that while you remember the questions, you also remember the explanations as well hence further consolidating your knowledge? And how does starting it early "limit eventual volume of knowledge?"

 

[awared2]

260+ and I strongly, strongly, recommend you don't touch UWorld until dedicated.

Spend too much time on it now and you're limiting your eventual volume of knowledge.

280+ and I strongly recommend you don't even use UWorld. Let the force be with you; if it's meant to be, it's meant to be

 

[seminoma]

Some people say to save it until dedicated to prevent memorizing the questions. But isn't it true that while you remember the questions, you also remember the explanations as well hence further consolidating your knowledge? And how does starting it early "limit eventual volume of knowledge?"

You're going to learn everything in UW during dedicated. Time spent on UW during the school year is time that could've been spent on other resources. Hence, you lose out on learning the information in those other resources.

 

[worldbeater]

I think it depends how strong your foundation is. If you have a great foundation, then save it for the "dedicated" as people like to say, because you know you will be able to hit >75% during that crucial period right before the exam.

If your foundation is weak, I think you should start UWorld as soon as possible to start learning from the questions, and keep doing full rounds of UWorld until you get to that 75% level. If your in this situation, you have to be honest with yourself and know it's going to take more time to get to that level, so it's better to start your rounds early.