Why save UWorld?

[BeTheBallDanny]

Question, why does everyone say save U-world? After speaking with an advisor they say their best students have used it throughout the systems (we have 2 years of systems) as a learning tool then went through it again during dedicated prep time. If it is the best question bank, why not just use it twice instead of a slightly inferior one once then the best once?

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[pericardium]

I doubt that I'm qualified to legitimately answer the question with any authority, but from what I've heard, there is a lot of multi-system integration in UWorld, which requires you to know multiple systems and downstream effects

 

[Perpetually Perplexed]

Use it while you learn the material. Don't listen to people that say wait.

 

[Anti-PD1]

The only reason I saved it was so I had an organic assessment of my performance leading up to the test. That correlation chart is real af. Close friend used it throughout. We both had similar averages and scores. Go figure.

 

[Azete]

The only reason I saved it was so I had an organic assessment of my performance leading up to the test. That correlation chart is real af. Close friend used it throughout. We both had similar averages and scores. Go figure.

This. I did UWorld twice, once throughout second year and again through dedicated. In my opinion, it's best used after you've finished learning a system as a true assessment of your knowledge; and if you don't remember a lot, then UWorld will identify and fill those gaps all at once.

 

[JamesPotterMS-3]

Use Kaplan or USMLE Rx during systems. Your UWorld score during your first pass in dedicated (assuming you do timed and random) is a very strong indicator of performance and improvement. Very few other banks correlate as well as UWorld. Also, each NBME is scored differently and, as the forums say, some are harder than others. So UWorld is also a great way to see if you are improving during dedicated. Finally, most of the questions integrate multiple systems so no point in doing it after just 1 system.

 

[Stagg737]

Use Kaplan or USMLE Rx during systems. Your UWorld score during your first pass in dedicated (assuming you do timed and random) is a very strong indicator of performance and improvement. Very few other banks correlate as well as UWorld. Also, each NBME is scored differently and, as the forums say, some are harder than others. So UWorld is also a great way to see if you are improving during dedicated. Finally, most of the questions integrate multiple systems so no point in doing it after just 1 system.

A lot of this. Basically it's the best QBank out there for Step 1 and the best way to assess your preparedness. The argument for saving it is that if you use it during the year and remember some of the questions on the second pass, you may artificially score better than you actually should. I agree with using Kaplan or Rx during the year and saving UWorld for dedicated time. You should be aiming for 4,000-5,000 total questions anyway, so might as well save the best resource for when you're really focusing on boards.

 

[Donald Juan]

It helps some people from a behavioral/motivational standpoint to use the "best" resource during their dedicated time and after they have been exposed to all the subjects during M2 year. If that doesn't resonate with you, I don't think that there is any magic to do UW last. I think most people should be doing more than one qbank either way.