Andrew Yu
USMLE Step 1 iBank App: Lowest Cost Question Bank for the iPhone [App Review]
USMLE step 1 studying will soon be in full gear for many second year medical students. Step 1 is by far the toughest in the USMLE series, and definitely the hardest to study for. To all second years, there’s light at the end of the tunnel, Step 2 is significantly easier to study for because you’ll feel the information is more clinically relevant, whereas Step 1 has a greater focus on the basic sciences.
With that said, Step 1 Q-banks are an absolute must for every medical student’s study chest. Trying to pick which USMLE question bank to go with is often the toughest decision to make before your study month. I’m personally a fan of USMLE World, but they have yet to translate any of their questions to mobile form. In the past we’ve reviewed several other USMLE study apps, such as Lange’s Q&A Step 2 CK Question Bank, USMLE Buzz Flash Cards, and the USMLE Disease Deck.
Shockingly, there aren’t many USMLE Step 1 question banks to choose from in the App Store, the main two being First Aid and the Lange Q-bank. Both of these apps are priced at a little over $40 each. Now there’s another choice, the significantly cheaper and recently released USMLE Step 1 iBank, priced at just $4.99 with 300 questions. This review will go over the layout of the application, along with a few example questions from this USMLE step 1 app.
USMLE Buzz Flash Cards App Aims to Help You With USMLE Step 1 Studying [App Review]
One of the biggest surprises in the App Store is the lack of legitimate USMLE study resources. I thought one of the biggest markets in would be medical education. There are a good number of Q-banks available for USMLE studying, but most can’t be accessed on the iPhone. Can you imagine if Kaplan or USMLE World had an app with their Q-banks? I would think this wouldn’t be hard to implement, and I know many people who would jump at the chance to have their personal Q-banks mobile.
Right now the four main players in the App Store are First Aid Q&A series, Lange Q bank, Dr. Conrad’s Disease Deck, and USMLE Wiz Flash Cards. We’ve reviewed the Lange Q bank(step 2 version) and Dr. Conrad’s Disease Deck. These apps will cost you 33 dollars and 20 dollars, respectively. But now you have the USMLE Buzz App crashing this sparse party. The app usually costs $2.99, but is currently on sale for 99 cents. It’s significantly cheaper than the other Q-banks and offers a different type of question answer format. This review will cover the features of USMLE Buzz along with the best way to use it for USMLE step studying.
