USMLE Consult Feedback

19652 Views 20 Replies 13 Participants Last post by Mondoshawan, Apr 4, 2011

StepTaker

Discussion Starter · Aug 3, 2010

In July 2010 we started offering free USMLE Consult monthly subscriptions to our Top Posters as part of our Monthly Contest.

In this thread we ask the winners to leave their feedback regarding USMLE Consult in it's various version (Step 1, Step 2 CK, and Step 3 Qbanks).

I am also adding a poll to see how good USMLE Consult as a qbank.

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1 - 20 of 21 Posts

DRFP

· #2 · Aug 3, 2010

Doing the USMLE Consult Step 2 CK Q Bank now, so far so good

its a little picky, reminds me of Kaplan.

But there is worth to it so far.

Two blocks done and will let you know what I think when I do more this week.

Reactions: 2

doctorF

· #3 · Aug 3, 2010

gunnertraining feedback first!!!

well at the moment, some feedback for 3month Gunnertraining subscription that i won from this site... it was good, the flash cards were quite useful because they were FA flashcards, they made me memorise the FA for a number of topics... especially the bone cancers in the musculoskeletal portion, the parasitolgy and microbiology, the immunosuppressant drugs... are a few thing that i just used to forget alot, they just made me learn right to the bed of my brain and revising again and again the same things by asking the openended questions is a good practise although it became a bit hectic and time consuming.... but it was a damn good retention practise....

in the month of july i started doing their question bank... the questions were also useful practise... a few questions were xtremely good and i have put a few on the forums aswell... they reminded me of usmlerx type questions... for practise and complementing primary banks like uworld it is very good!!! i plan to do a lot of questions before going to the real show, the usmle xam... so that there i donot panic...

usmle consult i ll start after a bit of book revision because i want to revise goljan and a few more things a bit... then i will definitely give the feedback.... thank you usmle_forums for such a great help.... God bless u guys...:happy:

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DRFP

· #4 · Aug 3, 2010

I'm on my 5th block of general since yesterday ( I like general mixed questions because this is how the boards are)

So far at 8% of the Q bank, I find the questions of mixed difficulty, for instance "Boot Shaped heart" for Tetralogy of Falot is easy and pitted nails only for Psoriasis is new for me and did not know that one.

So far I'm finding a good exercise is thinking and learning.

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DRFP

· #5 · Aug 6, 2010

So far at 20% the bank is challenging ( I'm taking step 2)
It is a little picky for answers but that may be good.

Good explanations

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Seetal

· #6 · Aug 10, 2010

feedback

USMLE consult questions (step 1) are definitely useful in preparation for the usmle i think. the questions are detailed somewhat but not off the high yield notes from kaplan. so if u have read kaplan notes, the usmle consult is a great practice.

i would like to agree to disagree with doctorF on the feedback for the GunnerTraining Program. i found the flashcards rather lengthy n not very high yield. it seemed rather detailed in depth. nonetheless,, the questions are a good practice although without reading their flashcards, it is hard to answer their questions because they dont have many clinical vignette questions but more short questions-straight to the point type questions.

HOWEVER, if u could spare 2 hours each day running through some of the flashcards on the gunner training program (if u have the time), it will be HIGHLY useful in helping you study. but if u are racing through time n need some solid good prep questions, then go for usmle consult instead.

Reactions: 2

DRFP

· #7 · Aug 10, 2010

So far I have done over 500 Questions, the bank has 2400 + questions for Step 2 CK

It's going OK it frustrates me at times, Dr. Constanza is one of the contributors to the bank.

I think its too detailed at times yet is the test this detailed? I will tell you after I take the real thing! Its harder then the two NBME's I have done.

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DRFP

· #8 · Aug 11, 2010

Found out the scorelator tool allows you to take a mock test with new questions 3 blocks of 46 each timed and you can take it unlimited times, each time you get new questions! WOW

I did my first attempt and wanted to do another attempt and noticed a new question set. to start so I'm pretty sure about this. If this ends up different I will let you know.

You can review the whole test after you finish too.

Reactions: 1

DRFP

· #9 · Aug 31, 2010

I think this Q bank is worth the money
I look forward to another month but At this point I would recommend this Bank.

drmodi44

· #10 · Sep 11, 2010

well m doing consult now...hmmm...u guys r right...explanation is too long....
ya but makes concept clear...like i was not able to understand the mechanism of lateral pterygoid till now....but now its clear...

....thanks to images they put...
well m getting percentile rank of 88%...to get 99 is it good??
i think its not that much reliable as they consider tutor mode too in calculation...n in tutor mode u can correct ur answer...

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atr88

· #11 · Oct 29, 2010

i've completed my one month contest for usmle consult,i took about 1700 tests from 2400+ questions of this site and in comparing with kaplan qbook they were harder and more useful,i'm sure that so much images in question stems will help to deduce better results in real exam,about explanations i should say that some of them are so lengthy but if you have time it's worth to read all of explanations, some tables and images in explanations are very useful and help you remember important materials.
thank you usmle-forums staff, it was useful and beneficial.
good luck.

Reactions: 2

Seetal

· #12 · Oct 29, 2010

atr88 said:
i've completed my one month contest for usmle consult,i took about 1700 tests from 2400+ questions of this site and in comparing with kaplan qbook they were harder and more useful,i'm sure that so much images in question stems will help to deduce better results in real exam,about explanations i should say that some of them are so lengthy but if you have time it's worth to read all of explanations, some tables and images in explanations are very useful and help you remember important materials.in contrast with usmle world you can "copy paste" some text of explanations and make a useful notes for yourself for future reviews.
thank you usmle-forums staff, it was useful and beneficial.
good luck.

really? hmm... i kinda found it too easy. because i was getting a 55% on UW at the same time when usmleconsult was showing 60% n above. n kaplan q bank also only about 25% of the time i will get 65-67%. the rest i averaged 55-60%.

atr88

· #13 · Oct 30, 2010

Seetal said:
really? hmm... i kinda found it too easy. because i was getting a 55% on UW at the same time when usmleconsult was showing 60% n above. n kaplan q bank also only about 25% of the time i will get 65-67%. the rest i averaged 55-60%.

dr seetal please note that i've written kaplan qbook not online qbank infact i don't have any idea about qbank and i didn't have a subscription of qbank, maybe it's harder,i don't know, but qbook has easy questions in it.

Seetal

· #14 · Oct 31, 2010

atr88 said:
dr seetal please note that i've written kaplan qbook not online qbank infact i don't have any idea about qbank and i didn't have a subscription of qbank, maybe it's harder,i don't know, but qbook has easy questions in it.

yes q book is definitely easier than the qbank. u should definitely subscribe the qbank. its worth ur money. also UW (dont miss out on that).

kundra

· #15 · Dec 2, 2010

so what will you all suggest??

so all of u who have used usmle consult and if any have used kaplan along/after/before what wud u suggest?? i have to start my subscription in a couple of days before i start with u world and i have around 40 days to do kaplan/usmle consult/rx and i plan to do it organ system wise as i am not yet confident enough to do the random blocks and also i have still unfinished stuff to cover up like behav havent even touched it yet ! so what will u guys suggest which qbank will allow me to grasp the subjects and make me better wen i start uworld??

dazzles

· #16 · Jan 8, 2011

Overall, I think USMLE Consult is a good question bank. I learned a lot, but some of the questions seemed repetitive or maybe it was just that the same concept was being tested and that's why I felt that way. I would definitely recommend this as a question bank for the CK. I thought it was a good start for my preparation. I didn't feel like opening my books yet so I just did the questions as practice. Thanks for the subscription. I don't think I would have studied anything this past month if I didn't have these questions. You kept me on track! I think I'll read the Kaplan books next and then start the UWorld Qbank.

JJtheMD

· #17 · Feb 4, 2011

I like it alot, the questions are pretty decent and some can be plain tricky... Which is the why i like it. I learn best when i know i just got tricked. I think the repetitive nature of these qbanks such as consult/kaplan/usmle rx is necessary to cement the information in your head to better your grades when you are doing the real thing on the USMLE.

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chulady

· #18 · Feb 13, 2011

Usmleconsult

I am using pathology Q bank. It's helped alot for patho study. I would recommend to use patho Q bank from USMLE constult.

7802

· #19 · Feb 24, 2011

More of a teaching Qbank

I finished Step 2 and made a great score. I used UW & UC but only got through 60% of Q on UConsult. I thought UW was way more Step2-like material than UC But UC is still good because it emphasizes certain connections in your head and if you ask me, id tell you its better used as a teaching Qbank than a test simulation and thus would prove most useful if you do it while in the middle of studying, e.g. do GI Qs right after you study GI. another thing to note, they're USMLE correlator is pretty good, measured my score pretty accurately & VERY USMLE-like material much more than the Qbank itself. Overall, an enjoyable experience if you know how to utilize it correctly & also, a reasonable price 75$ the Qbank+correlator, beats UW on that one

Reactions: 2

harlesmd

· #20 · Apr 4, 2011

I am using the USMLE Consult Qbank today and using the Scorrelator features. It gives similar result with my current USMLE World performance, just 1% higher than my UW percentage. Overall this qbank is good, it has comparable numbers of hard and easy questions in each block but some questions are extremely difficult and too picky. The explanations are better written in UW so I will stick to UW for now and use USMLE Consult primarily for assessment of my progress.

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