USMLE World questions: too generous?

[DrMetal]

Hello,

I noticed that when doing some of the clinical vignettes in UW--the sets of 2 or 3 questions in a row, all based off of the same patient presentation, and where you're allowed to toggle back and forth between the questions---that sometimes the question stem of the second question divulges the answer to the first.

For instance, the 1st question of the vignette was asking for a diagnostic study, the correct answer was a swallow study. The stem of the next questions begins with, "After obtaining the swallow study you notice bla bla bla . . . ". So in essence, you could go back and answer the 1st question, picking swallow study, if you hadn't already done so.

Is the real test like this? Anybody know? This is seems awfully easy, I'm worried that UW is being too generous here. Thoughts?

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[Notanerd]

the test is 100% not like that. UWorld is way to generous across the board with this test. I thought it was the hardest of the all the USMLE's

 

[DrMetal]

the test is 100% not like that. UWorld is way to generous across the board with this test. I thought it was the hardest of the all the USMLE's

Really. Do others here feel the same? UW was so good for Step 1 and 2, not the case for 3? Would you suggest another qbank?

 

[Notanerd]

i think people use uworld and like it. I just thought there was a lot on the test that didnt show up on Uworld. there was so much crap on there that was just so random and totally WTF. It seems though that alot of people walk out of this test thinking they failed it.

 

[CDI]

the test is 100% not like that. UWorld is way to generous across the board with this test. I thought it was the hardest of the all the USMLE's

That's what we say after each exam...

 

[austenaddict]

i think people use uworld and like it. I just thought there was a lot on the test that didnt show up on Uworld. there was so much crap on there that was just so random and totally WTF. It seems though that alot of people walk out of this test thinking they failed it.

I think most residents in my program used only UWorld - sort of a "you'll learn enough by the sheer number of questions" approach. I don't have my Step 3 score back yet, but I didn't feel as prepared by UW this time as I had with the prior Steps. A lot of material wasn't touched upon in UW (then again, there is a lot to know when thinking about all areas of medicine). Plus, in the real thing, the vignettes were longer, more vague, and most of the time I felt like two answers were equally plausible (and usually I chose the wrong one).

While other posters have noted that 11/12 or 12/12 of their CCS cases were represented in the UW simulation, I think literally 2 or 3 of mine (on test day) were at all similar to UW cases. And all my cases ended at the most unexpected times! I sincerely hope I did not fail this exam.

 

[DrMetal]

Ok thanks for the discussion all. Well, aside from UW, what else can we do? Does kaplan have a qbank? Is it any better?

 

[Mace1370]

Ok thanks for the discussion all. Well, aside from UW, what else can we do? Does kaplan have a qbank? Is it any better?

I think most people use UWorld to prep. I haven't taken it yet, but that's what I'm doing. If you want more questions, I know that Kaplan has a question book that is pretty cheap and has several hundred questions in it.

 

[alshamsi2000]

just did my step 3 today and i can say with confidence some questions in the real exam were EXACTLY same concept and answer as UW for the MCQ.

the CCS in UMW was excellent , when i did the real exam today i felt VERY familiar with the software , some questions were similar concepts , it didnt matter to me , as the most important being safe and efficient.

in another note , the real CCS software in the exam is super fast c/w UMW...u will be impressed with how fast that thing was ! and it does help to finish fast and furious !

good luck to me and to all

 

[DrMetal]

just did my step 3 today and i can say with confidence some questions in the real exam were EXACTLY same concept and answer as UW for the MCQ.

the CCS in UMW was excellent , when i did the real exam today i felt VERY familiar with the software , some questions were similar concepts , it didnt matter to me , as the most important being safe and efficient.

in another note , the real CCS software in the exam is super fast c/w UMW...u will be impressed with how fast that thing was ! and it does help to finish fast and furious !

good luck to me and to all

Cool, thanks for input, good to know.