When to start Uworld?

[elitehacker1337]

I was wondering if Uworld should be best used outside of dedicated AAMC material or closer to the test date (~2mos out)

I personally think it is best to do it 3-4 mos out of test date while starting practice exams and then segway into pure AAMC the last 1.5-2 mos. Then be done with FL4 a week before test date in case anything sketchy may happen.

Any thoughts on this?

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[Cornfed101]

That seems fine. UWorld is really great for solidifying content because their explanations are the best by a wide margin, but the AAMC is the most accurate in terms of replicating the MCAT. You want to eat, sleep, and breath the AAMC for the last couple of months.

 

[Blueprint Med School]

I was wondering if Uworld should be best used outside of dedicated AAMC material or closer to the test date (~2mos out)

I personally think it is best to do it 3-4 mos out of test date while starting practice exams and then segway into pure AAMC the last 1.5-2 mos. Then be done with FL4 a week before test date in case anything sketchy may happen.

Any thoughts on this?

That is actually a beautiful plan and I echo some of the points made above. UWorld will be your best friend for a long time because they are so damn comprehensive and it is as much a learning system as it is practice questions. An old med school adage is "If it is not on UW, then it is not important". Then, yes, crush the AAMC exams and collect your well deserved good score.

You got this!

David D, MD - USMLE and MCAT Tutor
Med School Tutors

 

[anniekat2025]

I was wondering if Uworld should be best used outside of dedicated AAMC material or closer to the test date (~2mos out)

I personally think it is best to do it 3-4 mos out of test date while starting practice exams and then segway into pure AAMC the last 1.5-2 mos. Then be done with FL4 a week before test date in case anything sketchy may happen.

Any thoughts on this?

I studied for 16 weeks while working full time. I used UWorld from when I finished content review (around the 6 week mark) right up until a few days before my test. I did AAMC material in the last four weeks prior to my test, with UWorld Sprinkled in as well.

Weeks 6-12: One practice test per week + 90-120 UWorld questions
Week 13: Section bank (60 questions/day for five days) + 1 AAMC practice test
Week 14: UWorld questions daily + 1 AAMC practice test
Week 15: UWorld questions daily + 1 AAMC practice test
Week 16: Little bit of UWorld, whole lot of chilling.

Is this any help?

 

[PlsLetMeIn21]

If you are committed to building a study plan around UWorld, then you should fit them in after your comprehensive review. That is where they'll be most useful. The plan above is excellent in terms of timing, but you need to pick the right materials for weeks 1-8. I'm in the minority here, but I didn't find their questions to be as helpful (realistic) as other resources and while their explanations are definitely much better than AAMC's, they are not the best ones you'll find. Maybe my situation is different than most but I don't have the greatest GPA and took it after my sophomore year. Review and learning the concepts was what I needed most. I benefited the most from starting with questions that scaled up in difficulty as you did them and that had explanations which combined conceptual material and test reasoning. Because I used great materials for the first half of my review, by the time I got to UWorld I found them easy and eventually stopped using them. I did about half of their questions and moved on to AAMC.

Pre-Week: Read the AAMC MCAT book cover to cover. Get a big picture of what you need to do.
Week 1-8: TPR for P/S adding the 300-page doc in around half way. TBR for the sciences. That is where you will find truly the best explanations. Use anything for CARS you can find.
Weeks 9 and 10: AAMC Q packs, TBR Phase 3s, UWorld questions, AAMC Section banks.
Weeks 11-14: Two FLs per week including one day to take the exam and the following to thoroughly review EVERY question.
Week 15: EK questions for rapidfire reviewing. Take your last AAMC FL.
Week 16: Go back to the AAMC MCAT book and make sure you know about every topic they list. Write out review notes for each topic.