The Comprehensive USMLE Guide For Pakistani Medical Students (Part 5: UWorld)

UWORLD specializes in providing effective question banks covering all topics found on USMLE Exams written by practicing physicians who excelled in the USMLE exams. UWORLD’s USMLE Step 1 Question Bank (Q-Bank) has 2,350 questions and costs $129 for 30 days and up to $599 for 2 years. UWORLD also provides Q-Banks with practice exams for an additional fee.

Free Trial

UWORLD provides a 10-question free sample test for users to test out the platform and product.

Progress Tracker

UWORLD tracks users’ progress and compares individual test scores, the average of other users, and the user’s cumulative performance. Each individual question also shows the percentage of people that chose each answer option. 

Customer Service and Feedback

UWorld has a link to FAQs, forums for each exam, and 24/7 customer service via email.

Content

UWORLD is the most similar (of these three) to the actual exam. The calculator, laboratory values and even the coloring of the program mirror the test.

The Q-bank also has “timed,” “tutor” and “timed tutor” modes.

How to use:

If you’re studying for STEP 1 by just pouring over FA and not using a Q-bank (most preferably UW) then you’ve making a huge mistake. The thing is First Aid is a very difficult book to understand and commit to memory plus all the facts in FA aren’t examined on STEP1 in a straight forward manner. You’ll need to apply the info you’ve attained from FA, and you wont be able to do that until understand the material and UW is an excellent Q-bank. It will not only prepare you to apply FA but also prep you up to answer the clinical vignettes in STEP1 efficiently. You need to be used to read the questions, understand what they’re asking, take that bit of info out of your brain and then apply it, all in the space of 1 minute and 18 seconds. Many students say that the vignettes they encountered in the exam are on the exact same pattern they’re encountered in UW. If you can afford it I’d suggest you take an online 6 months subscription and integrate it in your study schedule. Otherwise you can get it offline.

However, You should not do USMLE World OFFLINE for the following reasons:

1) It's outdated and they have changed many of the questions since the most recent offline version.
2) It's illegal and considered a crime in the United States which is the country where you want to build your future in.
3) It has no means of assessing your performance and it does not compare you to other UW takers.
4) If you want to do offline than online, then you will ruin you on online USMLE World as many concepts are repeated but in a different style and so this renders your practice invalid.
5) You cannot do timed blocks and this is very important to have adequate practice for the exam.
6) You cannot do subject-wise questions and so you miss the opportunity of hitting on your weak subjects.

Try to complete it once at least. Annotate the new facts you encounter and review them to commit them to memory. UWorld is a huge question bank and it will take commitment from your side to complete it. Once you’ve done one question read the explanations carefully, annotate if its something new. Read the answers of questions even if you got them right. The explanations are amazing and you’ll be learning loads. Most students read one section of FA and then do the questions in UW on that section. For example: you’ll read cardiology from FA and then do the cardiology portion from UW to assess your mastery of the topic. This is a great tool to point out your weaknesses and strength. Once you’ve pinpointed a weakness work on it until it becomes your strength.

Source: USMLE Forums