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.

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The developer of USMLE Buzz Flash Cards App, Andrew Yu, has graciously given us some promo codes to distribute to our readers. We’re in the process of reviewing this application, but so far we really like it. These flashcards are quick hitting facts that are high yield and useful for Step 1. I’d compare them to the quick hitting facts you’d find at the end of First Aid. I can’t emphasize how high yield these flash cards are. The app itself has over 3,000 flashcards.

Continue on if you’re interested in the free promo codes for the App. We’re giving them out on a first come, first serve basis.

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Modality develops a few different types of USMLE Q-Banks for the iPhone. They have a nice You-tube video where you can see these Q-banks in action. If you want an in depth review of the Lange Q-banks Modality has to offer check out our review from earlier in the week.

If you type “USMLE Step 2″ into the App Store, you don’t get many results. One of the applications that shows up is the recently released Lange Q&A: USMLE Step 2 CK app, produced by Modality, and costing $33.99. We’ve reviewed other USMLE study apps for the iPhone in the past, such as the USMLE disease deck, and not been huge fans.

This time I was hoping for better results. I’m just a few weeks removed from taking step 2 CK (hooray!), and figured it would be the perfect time to review this app. I’ll admit, I’ve been a fan of Lange products since using their Pharmacology flashcards for Step 1 studying. I found the flashcards to be well written, concise, and high yield.  I wrote this review in the hopes that this question bank on the iPhone would give me similar results.

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