what Q bank should I use

[PatsMan1]

Hi guys,

I am a 4th year dental student doing 6yr combined MD oral and maxillofacial surgery residency. Took CBSE (comprehensive basic science exam -- which is basically like taking an NBME at a testing center) in february 2019 (required for applying to oral surgery programs) and I used Uworld as my Qbank. I wrote down information from uworld into a 180 page document at the time to learn.

Now I am studying for step1 i am taking it early june and have been doing content review. My content review has consisted of my annotated/edited B&B slide sets + pathoma + the 180 page uworld info document.

Do you suggest I use kaplan Qbank this time around (never have seen questions before) or Uworld again (my concern is that I did questions + I've been learning the uworld info this time around via my created document) or another Q bank all together. Thanks for the advice!

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[iforget2]

I finished Kaplan and thought it was a great Qbank! Very comparable to UW in terms of difficulty, and I'd say has a slightly heavier emphasis on anatomy (CT scans, brachial plexus, brain imaging, etc.)

 

[Deecee2DO]

Agree with @iforget2 Kaplans great. UW Kaplan and Rx are highly reliable. Rx is good for learning content in question style but not really good for dedicated. As far as dedicated goes UW and Kaplan are VERY good. If you were going to prioritize Id say always do questions you havent seen before over ones you have. When you take the real deal itll be how well you can adapt to and answer questions youve never seen before so brute force memorizing UW if youve done a first pass isnt as effective as doing Kaplan questions youve never seen before. Howeever, make sure you get through UW 1x at least. One of the few things that has consistently been proven as positively correlating with high board score is number of questions youve done and reviewed. Dont think ive ever met anyone who has done 6500-7000+ questions with review get below a 240. Anki is also good but if youre pressed for time prioritize questions

 

[PatsMan1]

Agree with @iforget2 Kaplans great. UW Kaplan and Rx are highly reliable. Rx is good for learning content in question style but not really good for dedicated. As far as dedicated goes UW and Kaplan are VERY good. If you were going to prioritize Id say always do questions you havent seen before over ones you have. When you take the real deal itll be how well you can adapt to and answer questions youve never seen before so brute force memorizing UW if youve done a first pass isnt as effective as doing Kaplan questions youve never seen before. Howeever, make sure you get through UW 1x at least. One of the few things that has consistently been proven as positively correlating with high board score is number of questions youve done and reviewed. Dont think ive ever met anyone who has done 6500-7000+ questions with review get below a 240. Anki is also good but if youre pressed for time prioritize questions

thanks so much for responding! Really good advice

so the way I went about studying last time was I went all in content review fully memorized b&b then hammered out Uworld in 2 weeks - wrote down info I wanted to learn after each question in a doc then memorized info after I finished questions. Worked out well for me got 80% first pass all questions mixed. Then got 96 on CBSE which equated to 265+ on old official conversion key but now equates to closer to a ~255 which is probably more accurate (new conversation key came out aug 2019 and I took exam before that in feb 2019).
When I took CBSE I definitely noticed that approx 15% were questions I didn’t know and I’d need to answer based on process of elimination. I knew that was coming from my uworld experience and practice NBMEs and felt that uworld helped me buildup my process of elimination skills needed to be successful.
It seems that 2 other types of tricky questions NBME loves to write are those short/broad Qs where you need to base your answer on that one mini fact they insert/are implying and Qs where they give you classic feature of disease in vignette but then gives you another “confounding” piece of info to try to sway you away from choosing the right answer.
Anyway my plan is to brute force memorize b&b + my uworld doc which I’m well on the way doing then hammering Kaplan to learn some more info.
Wanted to double confirm that ppl actually believe in Kaplan Qbank as a source thanks so much!

 

[Deecee2DO]

thanks so much for responding! Really good advice

so the way I went about studying last time was I went all in content review fully memorized b&b then hammered out Uworld in 2 weeks - wrote down info I wanted to learn after each question in a doc then memorized info after I finished questions. Worked out well for me got 80% first pass all questions mixed. Then got 96 on CBSE which equated to 265+ on old official conversion key but now equates to closer to a ~255 which is probably more accurate (new conversation key came out aug 2019 and I took exam before that in feb 2019).
When I took CBSE I definitely noticed that approx 15% were questions I didn’t know and I’d need to answer based on process of elimination. I knew that was coming from my uworld experience and practice NBMEs and felt that uworld helped me buildup my process of elimination skills needed to be successful.
It seems that 2 other types of tricky questions NBME loves to write are those short/broad Qs where you need to base your answer on that one mini fact they insert/are implying and Qs where they give you classic feature of disease in vignette but then gives you another “confounding” piece of info to try to sway you away from choosing the right answer.
Anyway my plan is to brute force memorize b&b + my uworld doc which I’m well on the way doing then hammering Kaplan to learn some more info.
Wanted to double confirm that ppl actually believe in Kaplan Qbank as a source thanks so much!

Looks like youre set bud. OMFS is dope good choice

 

[hungrydoc710]

How far away is your test? If it's within 2 months, just hit UW again.
I did Rx, it was nice, and I learned majority of FA from it - but UW is obviously fire, and I plan to run it 2x thru rather than get a diff qbank.

Highly rec doing Zank bchem deck (2500 cards) and it'll get you those points that most others don't get, propeling your score.

Maxillofacial surgery - had the honor of shadowing one before med school, amazing experience. Went from taking out wisdom teeth in his practice to cancer removal in the hospital. Great guy - let me drive is turbo porsche to pick of pizza for the office once!