Online Preparation

As new books are coming in, old books are being sold. The cycle seems a little ridiculous when we have so much technology available. How long will it be before there is an online medical degree for physicians?

Online Medical School

Although it may not be too far into the future before medical degrees come via online schools, at least online resources are a great place to study for such degrees. Whether a student or simply intrigued you can get a feel for questions that are asked on board examinations at WikiTestPrep. It is a free question bank composed to help students prepare for Step 1 (after second year) and Step 2 (near fourth year) board exams.

It doesn't take much time to answer a couple questions making this a simple addition to board prep exercises. Detailed explanations help to give a better understanding of difficult concepts. Add this to your routine as early as possible and reap the benefits when boards come around. Question banks are useful but can have expensive subscription fees which is why the above link is provided. Below are a few qbank offerings:

• USMLE World - ($185, 3 months, 2000 ?s) Good reviews
  
• Kaplan - ($189, 3 months, 2400 ?s) Most popular
  
• Exam Master - ($99, one month, 7900 ?s) Commonly free through school libraries
  
• USMLERx - ($129, 3 months, 3000 ?s) Similar to the Kaplan service but with a free trial
  
• Score95 - ($59, 3600 ?s) Poor reviews
  
• Scrub Notes - Blog post with an insightful qbank opinion

There may be other question banks available, but these tend to be the standard. I have been using Exam Master through Touro's library in addition to the WikiTestPrep just to get started. Getting in the right mindset to approach the boards has been a challenge, and the little time spent using these programs has been helpful in exploring the process. It may not get me a degree, but the internet has been my online medical school this summer and definitely keeping me busy.