Statpearls is a question bank and medical library which contains 8, 500 peer reviewed articles accompanied by multiple choice questions . Altogether there are over 80, 000 questions.  The questions in the Statpearls database are for not only doctors, residents and medical students but also have a variety of content specific to students and  healthcare pofessionals working in nursing, pharmacy, and dentistry. Each question has been indexed to to specific board exams or certification such as USMLE, COMLEX, NCLEX etc.

Pros of Statpearls Question Bank

The major benefit is the sheer volume that this question bank provides. It without a doubt is the largest resource in terms of questions on the market. Additionally, it covers many areas such as board certification exams and also basic science exams. For medical students, the question banks that would be relevant would be the USMLE question banks as well as the continuing medical education question banks. In addition to these board-specific banks which can be purchased separately, there are also question banks which are topic-specific and contain questions only on one subject. For example, For medical students, there is a question bank specific for Anatomy, a question bank specific for physiology, and a question bank specific for histology. Other topics include subjects such as Pathophysiology, pharmacology, histology, and embryology.

Another very positive aspect of this question bank is customer service. Although this doesn’t necessarily relate to the question bank itself, the technical support team responds immediately and almost always has a solution to any problem you are having on the platform. Additionally, they are very understanding when it comes to problems with pricing or applying refunds if the product is not what you expected. This alone makes Statpearls worth buying.

StatPearls Question Bank Interface

The Statpearls interface has been newly updated. Before the interface was a bit difficult to navigate and was hard to find on the left side of the screen. Now you can access it. your question bank simply by pressing dashboard which then takes you to your question bank and gives you the relevant stats on how you’re doing. 

Pricing

The pricing varies depending on which question banks you purchase. $99.00 is the price for one month of the step 2 question bank whereas $49.00 is the price for one month of use of the step 1 question bank. This likely is because the step 2 bank comes with more questions.

Cons of Statpearls Question Bank

One of the bad features of statpearls is that some of the question banks have overlapping questions. What exactly does this mean? Say you purchase the question bank specific to anatomy and also purchase the USMLE step 1 question bank. It may be the case that many of the questions that  are already in the USMLE qbank will appear in the anatomy q bank. To my knowledge, I believe that this overlap occurs in a lot of statpearls q banks, and without purchasing multiple q banks you have no way of knowing which one you should buy because you cannot see the questions before you make a purchase. 

Another thing that needs to be improved in this question bank is the feedback. When you get questions wrong, many question banks will go through and tell you why each wrong answer was wrong and why the right answer was correct. Statpearls however only includes a few bullet points which provides a brief overview description of the topic being tested. I think this arguably there biggest area that needs improvement

Another issue with this platform is that during the quizzes, there is no ability to go back to a question. So basically once you answer it you cannot go back to it otherwise an error message shows up. This appears to happen more with the CME section. I believe however this is an issue that can be fixed rather easily if bought to the attention of technical support.

How do I access the Statpearls question bank and create a custom quiz?

To access the question bank or create your own quiz, go to the section which says article quiz and this will bring you to a section with a search bar  where you can type in the name of the  article that covers the particular topic that you want to take a quiz on. if you have multiple question banks purchased then you can choose from the questions out of a particular question bank. This is a useful tool if you have both the Step 1 or step 2 question banks purchased. You can get a more detailed look at the navigation by watching the video below

What are alternatives to statpearls

Stat pearls offers many features not offered by other question banks. Finding an appropriate alterantie depends on what you are looking for specifically. One are where statpearls is very strong in is clinical “next best step” type questions. The only other question bank which could substitute in this are is amboss because amboss is known to have very good clinically based questions. Online Med Ed as well as Osmosis are also good options for seeking qbanks with more clinical questions.As far as looking for a good substitute for basic sciences, Medbullets  Boards and Beyond, Anatomy Bootcamp and Picmonic might be suitable good alternatives.

Additionally Some other good resources to add later on in your studies are board vitals as well as USMLE Rx.

How to use the StatPearls Question Bank for medical school classes?

There are a variety of ways you can use Stat pearls with other resources. generally speaking, I think Stat pearls is good to use as a way of introducing yourself to new topics. For example, If I were learning about Abdominal Aortic aneurysm for the first time, I would make a quiz with only questions from the Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm article. This allows me understand how the questions are structured around this topic and lets my brain begin the process of pattern recognition of this certain question type.

Once I have done this. I would then go to the lecture and reinforce the information in my head again

Additionally if you do not necessarily want to use the question bank, you can also just use StatPearls for their reference articles, because they have over 10, 000 peer reviewed articles. The search interface is completely free!

Do the StatPearls Question Bank have institutional Plans?

Yes. The StatPearls Question Banks have Institutional Learning management systems which are available for Medical Schools, Hospitals, Residency Programs, and medical associations. Additionally, Statpearls can seamlessly integrate with systems such as Canvas, Band Blackboard which enables Progress tracking, and the assignment of tests and quizzes. To find out more information on the StatPearls Institutional plans you can visit here.

Is StatPearls a Reliable Resource?

StatPearls has over 8000 Peer Reviewers and Authors

The Content which the StatPearls Content is based offers been Indexed by Pubmed as well as peer reviewed by over 8000 authors and editors. This alone is evidence that StatPearls is trusted resource by the entire medical community.

StatPearls Frequently updates their content

In addition to having a large number peer reviewers and editors, StatPearls is consistent in how often they update the information that which the questions are based off of. According to the Website, they provide some very compelling evidence of just how often they fact check all of the information and questions.

As you can see below they update this information as frequently as every 6 months with over 20 500 Questions being updated or created in this time period as well as 8,380 articles also having been updated or created in this time period.

You can rest assured that they do their due diligence when it comes to ensuring accuracy as well as staying up to date.

How to use the StatPearls Question Bank with other Resources?

• Using it with Truelearn: True learn is a question bank that is known as a smart bank because it tracks user data to pinpoint your weaknesses. You can read more about True learn here With True learn, the best strategy would be to use Stat pearls to learn the individual pieces of new information in an organ system, and then use True learn as a way to test myself on the entire organ system.
• Using it with Human Anatomy Course: Human Anatomy Course is one of the most comprehensive video courses on Human anatomy which includes a playlist of video lessons, as well as practice tests and solutions, labeled diagrams, and detailed lectures. You can read more on it here. The best way to use Stat pearls with this resource would be to first go through this course, or go through the relevant organ system that you are currently studying, and then test yourself with extra practice problems using the stat-pearls quiz maker which allows you to take tests on only anatomy.

Who should use StatPearls Question Bank

Statpearls question bank is perfect if you fall into any of the following categories

• you learn better from doing practice questions
• your school does not provide you with enough exam practice questions
• you are preparing for your boards

Does the StatPearls Question Bank have a Free Trial?

Yes, StatPearls does have a free trial which gives you 10 questions. All you have to do is sign up here. Additionally, you ca sign up to receive a free Question of the Day via email.

Should you buy the StatPearls Question Bank

Stat pearls is 100% worth purchasing especially if you are in your pre clinical years. As far as sheer volume is concerned, no other question bank as anywhere close to the amount of questions. This combined with the great customer service make this a great addition to study materials for medical school.

If you found this article helpful, then you might find some of these articles helpful as well

• 7 ways to use true learn with Picmonic
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• Best Question Banks for Healthcare Professionals and medical Students
• Best Video Courses for Anatomy for Medical Students