My long path to passing that Exam and the Exam Experience - Page 3

gebbils · #21 (**permalink**) 04-24-2007, 08:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mapleLeaf

Congratulations on Passing !!!

Now for a question

What do you guys think?

Regarding Qbank (eg. USMLEWorld, Kaplan) scores being an indication of doing well on Step 1 - do your scores doing the Qbanks the second time around mean anything? I mean if you do USMLEWORLD the first time and get terrible scores but do it again after studying the answers and get decent scores is that indicative that you learned material you had to and you'll be okay or just that you remembered answers and that it doesn't mean anything?

One of the reasons I'm asking this is because I was wondering whether starting USMLEWorld even without finishing studying properly would "waste" the qbank as a valuable resource and indicator of doing well on step 1. Seeing how important you guys think it is I'm tempted to start it ASAP.

I would definitely not waste time and start doing UW right away. Because I also thought just like you that let me read the material and try to understand things and then move onto UW. But as it happened with me, and Im sure others will agree, I was reading the material, but since there is so much of it, after a 100 pages or so, you start to forget things. So what the UW questions do, they reinforce that knowledge, because they make you think and recognize different patterns of questions that you are presented with. So yes I agree that sometimes you would get a question and you wouldnt know what they are talking about, but that's why you write that stuff out and then go over it later.
As for UW to go over twice and being the whole indicator of your performance, I know what you're saying and I also thought that I might remember all the questions going over them twice. But trust me with 2000 questions and let's say 40% of them you got wrong, you will not remember many of them, so definitely do go over the questions more than once if you have time.
But one negative thing that I found when going over the questions, was that when you are looking at a question and you know the answer, but you are doubting yourself because you think that this is how you thought last time and you got it wrong.
So going over the questions twice will definitely help you out as you will remember the concepts.

mapleLeaf · #22 (**permalink**) 04-24-2007, 01:26 PM

Okay, I'm gonna sign up and start the USMLEWORLD qbank now. I was dreading this moment. Reading and rereading the review books felt so satisfying. Oh well I guess the real studying has to start sometime. Thanks for sorting out my confusion.