Comments on: Using Q Banks Effectively for USMLE Review – II

By: usmel

usmel — Sat, 13 Nov 2010 21:15:26 +0000

hi
I am failed twice in step 2 ck .
Did UW/Kaplan q banks…twice
did again twice for 2nd attempt….total 4 times…
yet failed step 2 ck ….

where to start now????.
correct knowledge bank. or knowledge recall….?

By: askdoc

askdoc — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 08:54:58 +0000

Hi becky,

Good luck. Keep me informed.

Askdoc

By: becky

becky — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 12:58:23 +0000

Thanks for answering Askdoc,
I’ll try it and let you know how it goes
Becky.

By: askdoc

askdoc — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 13:40:38 +0000

Hi Becky,

For Step 2 CK, I did not do per chapter quiz. The best method is to review is to write out algorithms both for diagnostic workup and therapeutic management. You can use Kaplan Q Book for the per subject quiz. Always reserve qbank after initial review.

Askdoc

By: Becky

Becky — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 14:14:42 +0000

Hi,Askdoc,
Thanks for this post.I started my preperation for usmle step 2 a month ago.
I have been reading a chapter/topic from internal medicine and doing the corresponding questions in usmle world.Is that a good study method?
But from your other posts, i gathered that online q banks are done after entire review.Can you please suggest some good q banks for chapter wise review, which will help me in mastery of that particular topic/chapter?
Thanks.

By: askdoc

askdoc — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 00:09:02 +0000

Hi jonyc,

The way to distinguish between KA and KR is whether you know the answer but can’t think of it during the exam. If after looking at the answer, you know the missing piece but failed to recall it, it is a KR problem. However, if you know the missing piece but was unable to connect it to the main question and was surprised that they can be connected that way, it is a KA problem. You failed to integrate and correlate your knowledge. Of course, if you don’t know the missing piece that is a KA problem. If KA problem, you need to reboot and start from the beginning and prep correctly this time.

Askdoc

By: jonyc

jonyc — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 18:01:49 +0000

never mind! I read on your other post about UW vs Kap, that the qbanks may require more mastery of a topic and knowing multiple details, not just a few to do well on the 2 to 3-step questions. I think i will work on my mastery of topics; is that KA or KR problem?

By: jonyc

jonyc — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 17:23:37 +0000

hi askdoc, great post by the way as always!
I’ve done most of UW but only scored at most 50% right. I noticed that i got many questions wrong because I was unable to answer the final step of the 3 step questions: I got all other steps leading to the final answer right, except for the final piece of info I needed to choose the right answer. I want to start my prep all over again, start from scratch. How do u suggest I go about fixing the problem?

By: smita

smita — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 20:03:43 +0000

Hiii,

i have 20 days for my step 1, if everything goes right!

I am left with 500 questions on uworld qbank. Because of inconsistency in study, the scores on the uworld tests till now cannot be used for assessment. so i wish to use the 500 questions left(10 tests) to know whether i am ready to give exam.

The problem is, I also wish to reuse the used questions of uworld for my system wise last review and this is not possible as uworld allows either unused questions or all questions but not used questions.

So, I am thinking of using up remaining uworld for review and buying Kaplan Qbank for assessment ( instead of 500 unused uworld questions) of whether i am ready for test. This extra money spent may cause my inability to buy NBME.

What do you suggest?

If you suggest taking kaplan, then what should be the scores on last 10 random, unused, timed tests for 1) passing 2) above 90 3) 99percentile.

It will be great if you can tell the similar scores for uworld too; as all this info is not given at one place on your site.

Thank you so much for your time.
Smita.

By: askdoc

askdoc — Thu, 07 May 2009 14:28:37 +0000

Hi JLee,

The problem with your plan is that you have skipped mastery altogether. There are 3 phases to the preparation, not 2 and the key to high scores is Mastery and Test Prep. But of course you cannot master what you have not learned therefore, you need the learning phase to make sure you know the concepts. Please read up on my blog on what learning, Mastery and test prep phase are. You can get some more detail about those 3 phases on my post about my Step 1 prep course.

Askdoc