Whats best way to do U World questions: randomized or based on what you studied?

[drmedstudent]

I have 9 weeks....and i want to keep 5 hrs each day to do questions. So my question is, whats the most efficient way to do questions, just randomize it or do questions based on what you have studied?

The advantages of randomized qs is that it forces you to think outside of what you r studying at the moment. But disadvantage is that sometimes u get a question about something u have long forgotten.....imagine studying biochm and getting a q on trigeminal nucleus...???? lol

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[greg1184]

Personally, I did it on what I studied. I find no use on doing random questions on something I haven't studied. The only psyche I would have is "oh I could have gotten it right if I would have studied it." Then I would have to flip all over FA to annotate. Using USMLE World as study material, I just use it along with the subjects I have covered. Now other people may prefer to do random questions. It is really what you feel comfortable doing.

 

[jmayer]

I went with a 2nd qbank (kaplan) for this reason. I'm doing Kaplan questions based on the subject/organ I'm studying and then I do some random UWorld questions at night to keep other topics fresh.

By the time I'm done with my first pass (~3 weeks) I should be all done with Kaplan and should have a solid foundation to tackle more UWorld in the final 3 weeks.

I would highly recommend getting Kaplan or Rx so you can hammer in the details and major concepts of what you are studying without "wasting" UWorld

 

[ChiDO]

My first pass through material, I did 50q based on what I studied, then an additional 50 with everything I covered thus far.

Day 1: Resp - 50 RespQ
Day 2: Cardio - 50 cardio, then 50 cardio/resp
Day 3: Renal - 50 renal, then 50 renal/cardio/resp
ect,

I've done all that now, so now I'm at 100q everything random, tutor, untimed.

 

[gman33]

I felt like UW is best used after you have a good understanding of the material. It's more about integrating, less straight facts. If the material is "rusty", you are going to be wildly guessing on a lot of questions.
Not really good for learning.

I started timed, random and was guessing way too much.

I switched to USMLE Rx and went through blocks of questions based on what I had just studied. This helped reinforce the material I was thinking about. Did that for a week or two and then went back to UW for random/timed. I was doing a lot better on the questions and was getting more out of it.

There is no BEST way to do it. Just try a couple of different things and see what it most helpful. The point of the question banks is to reinforce the material and get you to think about it in different ways. As long as you are learning, you are using it correctly for you.

 

[lildave2586]

I do mine on random, 48 timed. After I'm done with the test I review what I've missed and things I'm not sure about.

This might not work for everyone. I did 90% of Kaplan Qbank before I started my study period (while classes were still going on), so I've already got most of my "first pass" studying out of the way. This was the best thing I ever did as I'm able to use Uworld for complete integration, time management, ect.

 

[metalrex]

I felt like UW is best used after you have a good understanding of the material. It's more about integrating, less straight facts. If the material is "rusty", you are going to be wildly guessing on a lot of questions.
Not really good for learning.

I started timed, random and was guessing way too much.

I switched to USMLE Rx and went through blocks of questions based on what I had just studied. This helped reinforce the material I was thinking about. Did that for a week or two and then went back to UW for random/timed. I was doing a lot better on the questions and was getting more out of it.

There is no BEST way to do it. Just try a couple of different things and see what it most helpful. The point of the question banks is to reinforce the material and get you to think about it in different ways. As long as you are learning, you are using it correctly for you.

 

[MilkmanAl]

I felt like UW is best used after you have a good understanding of the material. It's more about integrating, less straight facts.

That's actually why I like it as a learning tool. Yeah, I've definitely thrown out my fair share of guesses on the questions, but it's nice to get something explained to you in a holistic fashion. That's how I learn, though, so it's exactly what I need.

So far, I've done the questions by subject (pharm, path, phys, biochem, etc.), am in the middle of doing them by system (pulmonary, cardio, etc.), and plan to do them twice through on random.