Comments on: Using Q Banks effectively for USMLE Review

By: askdoc

askdoc — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 04:08:44 +0000

Hi drmg,

You are wrong. Kaplan is enough to get high 90′s but not the high 99′s you want. To get high 99′s you need to know a lot. Rapid Review is not enough to get high 99′s too. so if you are not ready to do the necessary work to get a 99, you should not even attempt it.

Askdoc

By: dr.mg

dr.mg — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 04:41:35 +0000

hi sr
i need yr help i am an img graduated 2.5 years ago
i aim for 99 actually one of my elder friends got 262 which before i thought those results were impossible
my exam is in last week september i need ur advice and a plan plz
i am using kaplan – actually i didn’t use firstaid yet – i don’t think will use it much -i may only depend on doing kaplan well
i have rapid review third edition but i am not sure…………….. it is soo huge and full of data – i think not needed for step 1 – am i wrong?

so doing those with usmleworld will it be enough
thnks for ur help

By: askdoc

askdoc — Thu, 21 May 2009 16:04:33 +0000

Hi s.r.

First, when I took my Step 1, I only used Kaplan q Bank since there is still no UW q bank at that time. I got a 99 / 256. However, if you are aiming for a higher score than that, then maybe uw will help

But if you are aiming for a 99, then what are you doing using FA for review only? If you read most of my post, if you just want to pass, FA is fine, If you are aiming higher than that, high 80′s to 90′s then you need Kaplan notes. If you want 99′s, you need to do more than Kaplan Notes or FA.

So the question you need to ask first is what score you are aiming for?

Askdoc

By: s.r.

s.r. — Wed, 20 May 2009 10:54:10 +0000

I am extremely frustrated because everywhere I go I find students telling me Uworld is so much better. I currently have 5 weeks left, I’ve done about 400 questions from kaplan and I dont know whether I’ll do ok. My study plan is such, because FA is so choppy and not fluent, I read BRS path and phys before doing any questions. Whatever I got wrong or points about the right questions I didn’t remember, I annotate in FA. But I rarely get a chance to get through FA again because I try to do 100 questions a day (or get through 60-70 questions). I end up scoring about 60s-70s on those qbanks but my sister keeps saying, kaplan has allowed people to pass in the past, why do you doubt you wont? should i buy uworld to see why everyone’s going crazy about it? or should I continue with kaplan? the biggest benefit i see to kaplan, is the fact it tells me where in FA they got the information (i’d miss that part on UW), it has audio (very useful in the cardio and resp system since I’d never be able to recognize it if it was my first time on the real thing) and then it gives hints for studying: “if you see this symptom + this symptom = think this disease” but I usually know most of these. i’m worried only because i failed two blocks in my 1st year of med school and only passed everything in my second year. i just dont want to fail step 1 hence i’m so worried please help?

By: Y.S.

Y.S. — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 16:28:53 +0000

I get it.

By: askdoc

askdoc — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 15:45:21 +0000

Actually, I had the option of writing vertically, that is exhaust a topic thoroughly before moving to the next or horizontally, that is touch each topic lightly and go through a whole lot of topics before going back to previous topics and tackling them in more detail. I’ve decided to do the latter, since different people have different priorities and topics of interest. For example. UW vs. Kaplan QBank could stand 3 to 4 more posts. While each of the section of my eBook How to create a study plan could from 2 to 5 posts each to be considered “exhaustively” covered. So please be patient.

By: Y.S.

Y.S. — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 16:21:00 +0000

Yes, I know. I just thought Ill keep things flowing.

Thanks for your effort.

By: askdoc

askdoc — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 13:04:34 +0000

That would actually be covered in future posts. Talking about everything in a single post would be too long. : ). The details again depends on when he is using the Q Bank and for what purpose. It’s different if it is used as a learning tool and different if it is used as an assessment and preparation tool. Probably need 3 to 4 post to complete everything though. So be patient.

By: Y.S.

Y.S. — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 10:11:21 +0000

OK, one is done with his first read. He read all his review books and is familiar with Step 1 content. What is the most affective way to actually use Q banks as a study tool? Blocks of 50? Random questions or subject wise? Read all question explanation or just of those that he got wrong? Should one take notes or not?

By: askdoc

askdoc — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 06:53:01 +0000

Depends on what you are using Q Banks for. If you are using Q Banks for studying, UW is better and you need to verify that you’ve learned the concepts and you can use Kaplan Q Bank to do that. Using UW to verify that you’ve learned the concepts in UW is not recommended as you may just have memorized the exam style and actual questions of UW. Again Kaplan Q Bank is less effective (though still quite effective) as learning tool and doing it the other way around will be less efficient although still possible.