Part of any good medical student's preparation for boards includes a bank of practice questions that not only helps you simulate the real deal, but tutors you along the way. QBanks give you a team of experts who dedicate their lives to mimicking the logic, knowledge base, and testing style of the Step tests. For just $135 dollars, I have USMLEworld on my side, quizzing me and telling me why I'm wrong every step of the way.
But the purchase of a QBank gives you more than computerized flashcards. They keep track of everything for you. Though I might wince at the fact that I get less than 50% of the questions on pharmacology right, it's still comforting to know that if I get tired of studying, I can procrastinate by analyzing my weak areas. I can see how I'm doing by subject or question type. They even give me a percentile based on all the other USMLEworld QBankers that are out there. This also means that for every explanation, I get a percentage of other users that answered this question right. If I get a question wrong, I can take comfort in the fact that 78% of other students also got it wrong. In general these percentages vary from the hardest questions, ~20% answered correctly, to the highest I've seen: 77% got it right.
Recently as doctors come under more and more scrutiny with respect to our humanity - you know, those fuzzy things like bedside manner, healthcare inequalities, and ethics - these topics have also worked their way into the Step.
I was shocked to find that as I waded through a problem set on cardiology, a question popped up about my ethics. The scenario: you recently treated and saved the life of one of your patients who had suffered a myocardial infarction. In order to show his gratitude, he shows up at this next appointment with an expensive antique watch to thank you. What do you do? I was excited. STEP I WAS TURNING INTO A CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE!
However, unlike past chose your own adventure books, times when no one is looking and you can indulge the guiltiest pleasures, USMLEworld was watching. I dutifully chose the option to "thank the patient for the gift, but politely decline." I suppose I should credit my parents as, at least according to the Step I, I was a morally upstanding citizen.
When I went to review my questions, like the rest of its friends, the ethics question also told me how many of my colleagues had chosen the right answer: 58%.
But the purchase of a QBank gives you more than computerized flashcards. They keep track of everything for you. Though I might wince at the fact that I get less than 50% of the questions on pharmacology right, it's still comforting to know that if I get tired of studying, I can procrastinate by analyzing my weak areas. I can see how I'm doing by subject or question type. They even give me a percentile based on all the other USMLEworld QBankers that are out there. This also means that for every explanation, I get a percentage of other users that answered this question right. If I get a question wrong, I can take comfort in the fact that 78% of other students also got it wrong. In general these percentages vary from the hardest questions, ~20% answered correctly, to the highest I've seen: 77% got it right.
Recently as doctors come under more and more scrutiny with respect to our humanity - you know, those fuzzy things like bedside manner, healthcare inequalities, and ethics - these topics have also worked their way into the Step.
I was shocked to find that as I waded through a problem set on cardiology, a question popped up about my ethics. The scenario: you recently treated and saved the life of one of your patients who had suffered a myocardial infarction. In order to show his gratitude, he shows up at this next appointment with an expensive antique watch to thank you. What do you do? I was excited. STEP I WAS TURNING INTO A CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE!
However, unlike past chose your own adventure books, times when no one is looking and you can indulge the guiltiest pleasures, USMLEworld was watching. I dutifully chose the option to "thank the patient for the gift, but politely decline." I suppose I should credit my parents as, at least according to the Step I, I was a morally upstanding citizen.
When I went to review my questions, like the rest of its friends, the ethics question also told me how many of my colleagues had chosen the right answer: 58%.
