BOTH Thoughts on using UWORLD during M2 (before dedicated)

[surfguy84]

I'm conflicted on how to best utilize UWORLD. On one hand I'm using it as a learning tool, and I think more passes, the better. On the other hand, I don't want to be able to remember a bunch of answers when I'm hitting it hard during dedicated next spring.

Right now I'm starting to go through some M1 material on UWORLD, while also annotating FA when I miss things.

Any opinion on this?

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[MelMcT2009]

I'm conflicted on how to best utilize UWORLD. On one hand I'm using it as a learning tool, and I think more passes, the better. On the other hand, I don't want to be able to remember a bunch of answers when I'm hitting it hard during dedicated next spring.

Right now I'm starting to go through some M1 material on UWORLD, while also annotating FA when I miss things.

Any opinion on this?

I spent a bunch of time reading people's thoughts on this, but think starting in January of MS2 was one of the best things I did. I did it only with classes (when we were doing cardio I did all the cardio questions), and my main focus was always on classes (didn't mess around with world until I felt super solid with my class work). I was able to finish world once before dedicated, and did it once more during dedicated. I don't think there were really any questions that I "remembered". I did near 13,000 questions by the end of dedicated, so everything starts to run together anyway, and the topics repeat over and over. If there were any questions that I remembered, it wasn't a big deal, because I was using it as a learning tool anyway. Always a ton to learn from the explanations. I picked up a ton of info on my second pass that i would have otherwise missed, so I don't think it was a waste of time at all.

My baseline NBME at the start of dedicated was 254, and I attribute part of this to the time I spent with world during the semester.

Good luck!

 

[surfguy84]

I spent a bunch of time reading people's thoughts on this, but think starting in January of MS2 was one of the best things I did. I did it only with classes (when we were doing cardio I did all the cardio questions), and my main focus was always on classes (didn't mess around with world until I felt super solid with my class work). I was able to finish world once before dedicated, and did it once more during dedicated. I don't think there were really any questions that I "remembered". I did near 13,000 questions by the end of dedicated, so everything starts to run together anyway, and the topics repeat over and over. If there were any questions that I remembered, it wasn't a big deal, because I was using it as a learning tool anyway. Always a ton to learn from the explanations. I picked up a ton of info on my second pass that i would have otherwise missed, so I don't think it was a waste of time at all.

My baseline NBME at the start of dedicated was 254, and I attribute part of this to the time I spent with world during the semester.

Good luck!

Thanks so much for that detailed reply.

You mentioned you did 13k questions. Which other qbanks would you recommend? I'm considering usmlerx flash facts to really help get FA down.

Do you think starting fall semester M2 is too early?

 

[MelMcT2009]

Thanks so much for that detailed reply.

You mentioned you did 13k questions. Which other qbanks would you recommend? I'm considering usmlerx flash facts to really help get FA down.

Do you think starting fall semester M2 is too early?

Welcome! I started Kaplan in August of M2. Didn't touch world until that December. I did about 40% of Rx and liked it a lot, especially since it has the FA pages right there for you to see. Kaplan was good, but so many of their questions are way beyond the scope of step. I liked Kaplan pharm better than world (thought they were more challenging), and their path was also really good.

I'm a DO student, so also did some COMBANK

Starting in August (with a different bank) is a great idea, but I think it's key to remember to maintain your focus on classes. Questions are the most important way to prepare for boards in my opinion, but nothing makes up for a poor foundation, so youve just got to find a good balance.

Another thing I did was keep a Uworld journal. Not sure if you've read about this, but I'll spare the details in case you have it was crucial for retaining the massive amounts of info in world

Edit: oops just saw the part about flash facts. I used it a bit during dedicated and it's great. I would say if you can incorporate that into your classes then go for it, but if it's taking away from class time I wouldn't mess with it until dedicated. I made quizlet cards during the school year

 

[alein]

If your looking for more opinion I did Kaplan Qbank starting in the fall, I did a steady 10-15 questions a day, these questions I did by subjects so it wasn't randomized, I thought that was really helpful in the beginning to get used to the way they asked the questions, and along side I watched Pathoma which was a huge help!
I started Uworld after winter break and did 20-30 questions a day, and couple month before I ramped it up to 2-3 blocks a day, these I mixed up the questions, I did Uworld 1 and a half times, didn't really think doing them over really helped since I remembered too much of the questions.

With all the questions I read the explanation and wrote my own notes/anki cards. NBME is a really good indicator of your actual score, and for reference I got 240+

 

[surfguy84]

If your looking for more opinion I did Kaplan Qbank starting in the fall, I did a steady 10-15 questions a day, these questions I did by subjects so it wasn't randomized, I thought that was really helpful in the beginning to get used to the way they asked the questions, and along side I watched Pathoma which was a huge help!
I started Uworld after winter break and did 20-30 questions a day, and couple month before I ramped it up to 2-3 blocks a day, these I mixed up the questions, I did Uworld 1 and a half times, didn't really think doing them over really helped since I remembered too much of the questions.

With all the questions I read the explanation and wrote my own notes/anki cards. NBME is a really good indicator of your actual score, and for reference I got 240+

The last thing you mentioned was something I'm wondering... when I miss a card, or maybe even when I'm iffy on something in FA, should I make an anki card for it? Keep a notebook with notes?

Trying to figure out the best way to learn from these resources....

 

[LChristmas]

Welcome! I started Kaplan in August of M2. Didn't touch world until that December. I did about 40% of Rx and liked it a lot, especially since it has the FA pages right there for you to see. Kaplan was good, but so many of their questions are way beyond the scope of step. I liked Kaplan pharm better than world (thought they were more challenging), and their path was also really good.

I'm a DO student, so also did some COMBANK

Starting in August (with a different bank) is a great idea, but I think it's key to remember to maintain your focus on classes. Questions are the most important way to prepare for boards in my opinion, but nothing makes up for a poor foundation, so youve just got to find a good balance.

Another thing I did was keep a Uworld journal. Not sure if you've read about this, but I'll spare the details in case you have it was crucial for retaining the massive amounts of info in world

Edit: oops just saw the part about flash facts. I used it a bit during dedicated and it's great. I would say if you can incorporate that into your classes then go for it, but if it's taking away from class time I wouldn't mess with it until dedicated. I made quizlet cards during the school year

Fellow DO student here.

Our school purchased COMBANK for us and I was just planning on using that as a Q bank until January. Do you think that's sufficient or should I get another bank like Rx as I work through each system?

 

[MelMcT2009]

Fellow DO student here.

Our school purchased COMBANK for us and I was just planning on using that as a Q bank until January. Do you think that's sufficient or should I get another bank like Rx as I work through each system?

Hmmm I think it may be ok. COMBANK had some decent questions (I only did about 50% of this bank though). They are mostly pretty easy, but IMO the best part about any Qbank is its explanations, and COMBANKs were ok. Our school bought us Kaplan and COMBANK, so I used Kaplan which has excellent explanations as well, but I probably wouldn't have bought it if it wasn't provided (would have just done rx) because so many of their questions were way beyond scope for step. Definitely not one to waste your time with as you near dedicated. It was a great bank for fall though and went along well with classes.

Rx is great because it goes along with FA. I used it a lot during fall semester, and during dedicated when I was tired of reading FA I would do Rx because each explaination provides a picture of the full FA page(s) associated with the question. So I would do the question, read the explanation, then read those FA pages (so that I was still doing some reading). These questions are also a lot easier though.

Long story short, all of the banks have their strengths but I think COMBANK would be alright for fall. However, If none of them were purchased by the school and you had to buy one yourself, then COMBANK wouldn't be the one I would recommend. Hit world in January.

 

[alein]

The last thing you mentioned was something I'm wondering... when I miss a card, or maybe even when I'm iffy on something in FA, should I make an anki card for it? Keep a notebook with notes?

Trying to figure out the best way to learn from these resources....

Yeah I would definitely recommend anki cards, my study partner used them and she got 250+ on step 1

 

[Vans42]

I used UWorld just during designated study time with the exception of Psych (I used those questions to study for my Psych block). I ended up doing about 175% of it with 3x FA passes. I got a 250+. I think it really depends on how hard you think you will be able to push during designated study time. Normally I am more of a marathoner than a sprinter when it comes to this kind of thing, but by the time I sat down to seriously study I didn't feel burnt out at all from trying to do Step study AND school study at the same time. But I really think it depends on what you think is best for YOU. I had a lot of friends start studying at the beginning of MS2 year - and for both types of studiers some got higher and some got lower scores.

Annotating FA with Uworld was probably one of the best things I did.

Also, you probably won't remember most of the questions. I did 175% in about 6 weeks and I still didn't remember most of them, and would still get some of them wrong.