UWorld, tips on going faster?

[badasshairday]

So I just got UWorld and completed my first block. It is awesome stuff.

My problem is that it is taking forever to read through the explanations. I am trying to read through all of them, wrong and right answers. There is so much to be learned from them. I'm not really annotating much, just some one line chicken scratch stuff here and there on a blank notebook. No way can I flip through FA and do it.

I just realized that the highlights remain, so I am just going to use the highlight feature rather than annotation of info that I didn't know. I can always go back to old tests and scan through them reading highlights. Good idea?

Another question I have is about redoing wrong answers. If you select to make tests of wrong answers only, will the program cycle you through all your wrong answers after you complete the qbank? Or will it just choose questions from your wrong answer pool at random, and you may end up doing those questions multiple times?

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[MilkmanAl]

How long is "forever?" I'd say a decent pace for a complete pass through a tutor mode block is about 3 minutes per question. That'd get you through a block in around 2.5 hours. A decent time saver would be to just ignore the wrong answer explanations to questions you know really well. However, I'd advise always reading the general explanation and educational objective.

will the program cycle you through all your wrong answers after you complete the qbank? Or will it just choose questions from your wrong answer pool at random, and you may end up doing those questions multiple times?

This I'm not sure about. My cumulative performance tells me I've gotten 936 questions incorrect, but the little "[incorrect]" box at the bottom of the test creation screen says I've missed 621. My bet is that once you've gotten a question correct, it gets removed from the test making option.

 

[Rabbit Hole]

So I just got UWorld and completed my first block. It is awesome stuff.

My problem is that it is taking forever to read through the explanations. I am trying to read through all of them, wrong and right answers. There is so much to be learned from them. I'm not really annotating much, just some one line chicken scratch stuff here and there on a blank notebook. No way can I flip through FA and do it.

Are you doing the questions timed or tutor mode? Maybe you can start out by doing 1/2 tutor followed by 1/2 timed. I'm doing UW by systems like this.. but not strictly.

If you keep annotating down to a minimum you will save a lot of time. Just take notes from the educational objective if really necessary.

I just realized that the highlights remain, so I am just going to use the highlight feature rather than annotation of info that I didn't know. I can always go back to old tests and scan through them reading highlights. Good idea?

GREAT idea. Make good use of the highlight tool and keep annotation down to a minimum and I think you will be able to get through explanations at a good rate. If you're really really eating up a lot of time then just review your wrong answers carefully and skim over the ones you get correct.

Another question I have is about redoing wrong answers. If you select to make tests of wrong answers only, will the program cycle you through all your wrong answers after you complete the qbank? Or will it just choose questions from your wrong answer pool at random, and you may end up doing those questions multiple times?

No idea about this one.

 

[badasshairday]

By forever, I mean it took it almost 3.5 hours to review a random timed block of 48 (which I completed in 50 minutes). So that is well over 4 hours to do and review a blcok of 48. I actually scored well on that block too, 77%, but still took forever to review. Who knows how long I will take when I have a block I do bad on! I read EVERYTHING, including the wrong answer choices, there is so many pearls to learn it seems like. I don't over highlight either, I try to keep it down, but still find myself highlighting explanations for wrong answer choices too, at times.

I hope I can start going faster. It is my first block thus far, took like 4 hours and 15 min. I'm really shooting to be at maximum of 2.5-3 hours to do and and review a random block of 48.

I felt like I was spending time reading things I already knew, but were phrased really well and helped me completely understand why I was thinking in the right direction. It is kind of addicting.

 

[kryptik]

yeh you will pick up speed ~20-30% in, when the "damn thats a really cool question" effect wears off, was in the same situation when i started and am already close to 50% done

 

[jmcappleby]

Also, eventually as you get concepts really well you may review just the educational objective and move on. For example, I barely even review Biostats or Behavioral questions anymore... and even for other topics, after a certain point in your review if you get a question on villous atrophy in Celiac disease, you sort of just gloss over it and move on. Or the mechanism of action of Aspirin or a p450 induction/inhibition question.

I think I try to move through a block in about 2 hours. 45 mins to take the actual test and the rest to review it. But I'm in my last 2 weeks... so eventually it does speed up.

 

[MilkmanAl]

I barely even review Biostats or Behavioral questions anymore

True. By the way, if any of you are part of the 30%(!?) who missed the question that asks what the median of a 6-value data set is, I'll hunt you down and...I dunno...steal your food or something. That is one explanation I totally skipped.

 

[natureboy]

This I'm not sure about. My cumulative performance tells me I've gotten 936 questions incorrect, but the little "[incorrect]" box at the bottom of the test creation screen says I've missed 621. My bet is that once you've gotten a question correct, it gets removed from the test making option.

Strange that you mention this...it's different for me too, and I haven't gone through the entire qbank yet. I've only been doing new questions, except for the first 2 blocks of that I ever did. I accidentally chose "all" questions instead of "unused" questions, but even taking the number of questions I missed in those 2 blocks doesn't completely account for the difference. Not sure what it is due to.

 

[badasshairday]

Better this time. Finished solving/reviewing my second random timed block of 48 in 3.5 hours.

 

[greg1184]

Regarding redoing wrong answers, I think the only way you can do questions consecutively without repeats is by resetting UWorld. There is no record of "wrong answers" that you have re-done already... unless I am wrong.

 

[IM Substance P]

Better this time. Finished solving/reviewing my second random timed block of 48 in 3.5 hours.

I never read explanations for questions I got right. Why would you need to? You got it right because you knew it.

Don't waste that precious time bro!

 

[username456789]

I never read explanations for questions I got right. Why would you need to? You got it right because you knew it.

Don't waste that precious time bro!

Conversely, it's actually not allthat uncommon for me to get a question right, only to find out that my reasoning was wayyyy off (i.e. I got lucky).

 

[Sol Rosenberg]

I never read explanations for questions I got right. Why would you need to? You got it right because you knew it.

Don't waste that precious time bro!

I do something slightly different. I mark questions that I'm unsure of and only review the answer choices for questions that I either get wrong or mark. For questions that I don't mark AND answer correctly, I just read the learning objectives and move on. This speeds things up a lot, and I don't feel that I am glossing over anything.

 

[MilkmanAl]

I never read explanations for questions I got right. Why would you need to? You got it right because you knew it.

Don't waste that precious time bro!

I find that the explanations give a whole lot of good peripheral info that's worth reading for. I also worry that some of this stuff that I currently know might get lost in the shuffle as I study if I don't keep reviewing it. Given how much info I'm trying to jam into my brain in these 6 weeks, the possibility of forgetting things is quite high, I'm sure.

 

[realjara]

Another question I have is about redoing wrong answers. If you select to make tests of wrong answers only, will the program cycle you through all your wrong answers after you complete the qbank? Or will it just choose questions from your wrong answer pool at random, and you may end up doing those questions multiple times?

If you select the filter for incorrect answers, you will only get a test a questions that you answered incorrectly. If on that new test, you now get the question correct, it is removed from the incorrect question filter. Therefore, you will not get repeat incorrect questions unless you answer it wrong for a second time. Likewise, if you do a test from all questions and you get a question wrong that you previously answered correctly it will be added to the incorrect questions filter.

 

[psych]

With 4 weeks left, I'm about to start going through world. I don't know if I have time to annotate into fa like I wanted nor will I have time for a second pass. I'm definitely going to read all the explanations but should I also take notes in a notebook? I doubt ill have time to go through marked questions but I guess ill see how fast I move.

 

[turkeyjerky]

i take notes in a notebook if i notice something that I didn't know, think i won't remember and seems high yield. imo, it takes too long to flip through first aid to find the relevant section also, I think it's impt to go through questions you got wrong at least once to make sure you get it

 

[username456789]

i take notes in a notebook if i notice something that I didn't know, think i won't remember and seems high yield. imo, it takes too long to flip through first aid to find the relevant section also, I think it's impt to go through questions you got wrong at least once to make sure you get it

Same.

If I had all the time in the world, I'd annotate them directly into FA. But it takes forever to flip to the pages and find the right spot, even after becoming familiar with FA.

 

[greg1184]

Same.

If I had all the time in the world, I'd annotate them directly into FA. But it takes forever to flip to the pages and find the right spot, even after becoming familiar with FA.

Yeah that is one of many reasons why I been doing UWorld subject based. Makes annotating much easier.

 

[aashkab]

so do you think its reasonable to say that it takes about 17 - 18 days to go through UWORLD once. and then 12 - 15 days to skim through it again?

 

[metalrex]

Another query:

When you guys do a second pass, do you re-set the whole thing or revise all the blocks over again or solve the incorrect items again?

Gonna start my second pass coming week , with 3 weeks out I wanted to know how best I can optimize my second pass.

 

[badasshairday]

Another query:

When you guys do a second pass, do you re-set the whole thing or revise all the blocks over again or solve the incorrect items again?

Gonna start my second pass coming week , with 3 weeks out I wanted to know how best I can optimize my second pass.

For me personally, I am just going to redo my incorrect items. Then if I have time, I will do the flagged items... but for the most part my incorrect tend to be flagged anyways, unless I had a lucky guess. I don't think redoing questions that I know I can answer well is worth my time. I rather read FA instead.

 

[twofer]

Another query:

When you guys do a second pass, do you re-set the whole thing or revise all the blocks over again or solve the incorrect items again?

Gonna start my second pass coming week , with 3 weeks out I wanted to know how best I can optimize my second pass.

I did the whole thing system based on first pass, and reset so am now doing it random (~100 qs per day, little less than 3 weeks). Doing it on random let's me see what areas I need to focus on (uuuuggghhh renalllll, neuro). But then I wasn't focused review of what I'd done that day, and didn't want to burn those UW practice questions so I ended up getting qbank to do focused review of my weak spots. Neurotic but I really felt like I needed both the focused and broad question sources.

But now I feel all pressured to get through UWorld again, so am definitely skimming the answers and not reading them that closely. I've budgeted a few days at the end to review/redo marked questions, if I can still read at that point. I definitely feel like I'm not getting 100% out the explanations, but there are only so many hours to be put in and that'll just have to be good enough...