USMLE World – USMLE Experiences

How Many Qbank Should You Do For USMLE Step 1?

As you already heard Step 1 is getting harder and harder every year. Even though the number questions are decreasing per block, the concepts are still the same. This makes it more difficult.

Fewer questions per block mean each question worth more point. And this is why you have prepared very well to score high on Step 1.

In my previous blogs, I talked about sticking to just USMLE World and First Aid. Don’t get me wrong I scored very high by sticking to this source. So it basically depends on the person. If you have a strong foundation, then UW and First Aid should be sufficient. Otherwise, you must do 2 Qbanks.

However, over the years Step 1 is getting harder and harder. And people who are just using USMLE World are scoring average. And, this is why I recommend doing two Qbanks to get a higher score and solid foundation.

Here is the structure you should follow:

First 2 Months: USMLE World and First Aid; following by an NBME
Third Month: Kaplan Qbank and First Aid; following by an NBME
Fourth Month: USMLE World and First Aid; following by an NBME
Fifth Month: Repeat USMLE World and First Aid; following by an NBME

Now, take the average of your NBME scores, and that should be a rough estimate of your real exam score.

Again, the moral of this post is that USMLE World will make you an average student, but if you combine it with Kaplan QBank, you will score very high. And trust me on this!

If you find it difficult to study for Step 1 and doing Qbanks, feel free to contact me for help. I offer tutoring session over Skype, and my students score more than 235+ on Step 1.

Good Luck!

How To Use USMLE World Multiple Times Without Buying The Subscriptions

USMLE World is undoubtedly the best question bank for medicine. It helped so many medical students to pass the boards. But, it is pretty expensive and since some of us like to repeat it multiple times to score high on step 1 we end up paying more.

Medical students are usually broke paying off the tuition. So today I am going to show you how you can repeat USMLE World once your “Reset” option is gone. USMLE World usually gives you 2 reset options for 1 year subscription.

So if you run out of those reset options or if you only signed up for 3 months subscription and want to repeat USMLE World multiple times then you can still use the entire UW without paying anything.

Here is how you can repeat USMLE World without buying new subscriptions.

Follow the steps:

Click on Tutor Mode
Select any Main Divisions (e.g. Anatomy)
Select any Sub Divisions (e.g. Blood Vessels)
Input 46 Questions
Click Generate Test
Mark Every Single Questions
Click End Block
Now go back to the main page and you should be able to see the number of Marked Questions on the bottom left

If a sub division has more than 46 questions, you have to keep repeating steps 1 – 7 multiple times to get all the questions marked. Don’t get frustrated, it will take you an hour and half to mark the entire USMLE World. And you will save lots of money.

Once you are done marking the entire UW you can now do the blocks normally. Just make sure to select the “Marked” option when you create a block. And every time you finish a block, it will automatically unmark the questions that you just did. This way you wouldn’t repeat any questions.

Enjoy studying!

How To Take Good Notes From USMLE World

USMLE World is undoubtedly the best study material out there for USMLE. Taking notes from the USMLE World can be little challenging.

I am sure most of you who are reading this post probably facing difficulty taking notes from UW. When going through the question it is hard to figure out what is important and what is not.

It’s even hard to ignore anything and you end up writing almost everything from the explanation, which is not productive at all. So, to deal with this I have a simple solution that worked wonderfully for me.

This usually works perfectly with kaplan lecture notes. But, it shouldn’t be a problem with any other materials.

What I usually do when going through UW is have my book ready, doesn’t matter which book you use, just have it open.

And whenever I go through a question first I try to answer the question and then I try to read that concept from the book before I read the UW explanation.

So let’s say I had a question about hyperthyroidism, after answering the question whether I get it wrong or right, I usually look it up in the book and then read the entire hyperthyroid section from the book.

And then I go back to UW and read their explanation. Once I am done reading both the book and UW explanation, I go back to the question stem and see what are the clue words for the right answer. I then circle those in the book and put a star next to them.

And then I go back to the question again and see what the right answer is and circle the right answer in the book and then I write next to that circle “ans”.

This way when I am going to read the book again I will know what UW asked and how they asked and what they wanted.

When it comes to the wrong answer choices, I usually read the UW explanations and don’t bother reading the book because I know UW usually asks something with those wrong answers in different question.

Some of the UW materials wouldn’t be in the book and I usually write the concept in the margin section of the book. Now this process can take time if you are doing UW for the first time.

And the good thing is, once you do UW second time, you wouldn’t have to take any notes since you will have most of the materials written down on the book.

I personally found this method very useful and it works perfectly. If you have any questions feel free to leave it in the comment section.

Good luck studying!