uworld

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surftheiop

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sorry if this comes up a lot, but I searched for like 10 minutes and couldnt seem to find the answer.

Approximately how many hours does it take to do uWorld?

I have a 6 month subscription I bought awhile back because our school had a deal, but I haven't activated it yet and just trying to figure out what to do with it.

basically wondering if I did uworld questions for like 15-30 minutes a day, how many months would it take to get through it?

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There are approx 1500 questions.

Figure ~30 sec- 1 min per question for while taking the test and 1-3 minutes per explanation on review.

i may be totally incorrect but i thought the question number was low 2000's. can anyone confirm?
 
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I took the USMLE a couple weeks ago. There were 2136 by December 14th.

Then the two UWSAs were each 184. And the biostats package had 75.

So 2136 + 184 + 184 + 75 = 2579.

If you do 25 questions a day...you can do it in a month and a half
 
Can someone tell me how they personally used Uworld if they used it during dedicated step time?

Should I just do as many timed blocks set on random as possible each day and review the next day? what's the best way to do it?

Like, how did your dedicated step time build around uworld?
 
Can someone tell me how they personally used Uworld if they used it during dedicated step time?

Should I just do as many timed blocks set on random as possible each day and review the next day? what's the best way to do it?

Like, how did your dedicated step time build around uworld?

Personally I did random untimed tutor mode for almost of not all of the questions. Timing typically is not an issue for me when it comes to taking tests, and I want to know right then and there if I was correct or incorrect in my thinking and why. I would then add the info as necessary to FA. I would alternate question blocks with some sort of reading (FA, RR path, insert-your-poison-here).

I used practice tests to "simulate" the real deal.
 
I did UWorld random, timed.

I had done one or two blocks in tutor-mode to start off with, but I didn't like that once you click a letter it instantly reveals the answer. Obviously sometimes you click something but are still thinking and might change your answer. So I abandoned their tutor-mode right away.

My real USMLE was almost identical to UWorld, both appearance-wise and with regard to question-style. Having done the QBank timed prepped me better than anything else.
 
Personally I did random untimed tutor mode for almost of not all of the questions. Timing typically is not an issue for me when it comes to taking tests, and I want to know right then and there if I was correct or incorrect in my thinking and why. I would then add the info as necessary to FA. I would alternate question blocks with some sort of reading (FA, RR path, insert-your-poison-here).

I used practice tests to "simulate" the real deal.

So basically, do as many questions blocks per day as possible while reviewing what I got wrong for each block? How long did it take for the first pass at UW doing that?
 
So basically, do as many questions blocks per day as possible while reviewing what I got wrong for each block? How long did it take for the first pass at UW doing that?

If you do 100q/day you can finish the Qbank in one month'ish.
Two hours to do two blocks. and then 2.5hrs to go over each block. so you're looking at about 7 hours/day for a whole month. Don't be surprised if going over some blocks takes longer than 2.5 hours.
 
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So basically, do as many questions blocks per day as possible while reviewing what I got wrong for each block? How long did it take for the first pass at UW doing that?

I only made it 75% of the way through uworld before I decided I was ready for the test. I ended up moving up my test by a week. I probably spent about 3 weeks to make it through 75% of uworld. That included reading FA 1-2 more times plus RR path once.
 
I'm saying I only did 3/4 of all the questions (not percentage correct). None of this through uworld 2 times nonsense (IMO).

It served me extremely well.

what was your starting percentage in uworld if you don't mind me asking?
 
Anyone know what most people say as far as going through UWORLD once vs. more than once? I am still not sure on this or when it is recommended to get it. Better for dedicated study time or before if you can manage it?
 
Along with the topic with UWorld... how beneficial are the UWSA 1 and 2s? Do we (or should we) do them and how close to the actual step should we take them? (this is for someone who's also taking 5 NBMEs in a 5wk dedicated period)
 
Anyone know what most people say as far as going through UWORLD once vs. more than once? I am still not sure on this or when it is recommended to get it. Better for dedicated study time or before if you can manage it?

Bump.

Anyone care to comment on this? I think I will have time to make at least 2 full passes though UWorld, but if people have found that the second pass isn't worth the time then I'll probably just get a shorter subscription and spend that time hammering out additional passes of FA. Thoughts?
 
Bump.

Anyone care to comment on this? I think I will have time to make at least 2 full passes though UWorld, but if people have found that the second pass isn't worth the time then I'll probably just get a shorter subscription and spend that time hammering out additional passes of FA. Thoughts?

I think it really depends. I'm not going to do a 2nd pass. Before I go to bed, or while laying in bed, I usually read a block of old UWorld questions so I can get that information stored in my head. I was talking to a friend from another forum. He had done this, and scored above a 250 on his step. My classmate is doing this same thing, but she's making a .doc since you can't print screen the questions - which is mad mad mad mad stupid of Uworld.

She saw a 19 point bump in her score from her last NBME, which was NBME 7 to NBME 12.

Doing this, it's kinda like looking at one big random flashcard, and reading the notes off of there. Hope it helps!
 
I think it really depends. I'm not going to do a 2nd pass. Before I go to bed, or while laying in bed, I usually read a block of old UWorld questions so I can get that information stored in my head. I was talking to a friend from another forum. He had done this, and scored above a 250 on his step. My classmate is doing this same thing, but she's making a .doc since you can't print screen the questions - which is mad mad mad mad stupid of Uworld.

She saw a 19 point bump in her score from her last NBME, which was NBME 7 to NBME 12.

Doing this, it's kinda like looking at one big random flashcard, and reading the notes off of there. Hope it helps!

Thanks for the response!

I've considered a similar strategy. I would make a Word document with all the key points from each subject area in UWorld as I work through the bank, trying to re-write the "take home points" (or whatever they're called) at the end of each question in my own words as reinforcement. It seems time consuming and tedious, but like I said before I'm willing to omit a second pass of UWorld in lieu of a more efficient strategy, if one exists.
 
My strategy for USMLEworld was to do random questions in timed blocks of 25 or 50 depending how much time I would then go through and review both correct and incorrect answers taking notes in a word document. After that I would review this word document over and over. Time consuming but served me well!

Survivor DO
 
My strategy for USMLEworld was to do random questions in timed blocks of 25 or 50 depending how much time I would then go through and review both correct and incorrect answers taking notes in a word document. After that I would review this word document over and over. Time consuming but served me well!

Survivor DO

Did you have any issues with the UWorld interface while switching back and forth between your Word document and UWorld? I haven't actually started UWorld yet, but I've read others' grumblings about getting kicked out of their session while trying to look things up on Wiki/PubMed. Didn't know if I would run into a similar issue while typing up my doc.
 
Straight off, I use a Mac if that has anything to do with anything. That being said, I haven't had an issue with taking notes with Word while UWorld is up. I can't adjust the size of the UWorld interface but I can overlay a horizontal half page of Word over UW and transcribe what I need to. Can't copy and paste though.
 
I'm just annotating notes/key points of Uworld into FA. No sense in splitting up the content into multiple documents.

Uworld is kind of a pain as far as opening other programs with it, at least in Windows 7.
 
Straight off, I use a Mac if that has anything to do with anything. That being said, I haven't had an issue with taking notes with Word while UWorld is up. I can't adjust the size of the UWorld interface but I can overlay a horizontal half page of Word over UW and transcribe what I need to. Can't copy and paste though.

There's actually a way around it. When you get to the screen which shows the previous tests...you know where the score percentage is. Hold on command and shift. While having those two held down, you can enter a previously taken exam. While still holding down command and shift, if you press "4" it'll actually screen shot the question bank.

You can do it a few times until the system picks up on it.
 
I'm just annotating notes/key points of Uworld into FA. No sense in splitting up the content into multiple documents.

Uworld is kind of a pain as far as opening other programs with it, at least in Windows 7.

I did that for a while, but it takes forever. By time I annotate the stuff I haven't seen before, I think is important, a few hours have gone by. I think typing it up onto a separate document, printing it out, and reviewing it time to time is a better strategy. Granted, not as effective in consolidating it like yours, so both methods have their trade-offs.
 
I just take notes in the notes app within the program about key points that I may have missed. Later when you generate the notes it's great cuz you can sort then by topic or by question ID. It really helps in reviewing and has definitely helped my overall progress.
 
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