Picmonic is a library of video lectures on a variety of clinical and basic science topics. In addition to videos and topic articles it contains thousands of multiple choice quizzes each topic making it a  popular question bank among Medical Students, as well as  Nursing, PA, and Dental students. 

Pricing

Picmonic  offers subscriptions monthly for $29.99 Every 6 months for $24.99 per month 1 year for  18.99/month 4 years for 12.49 per month and 9.99 for ten years.

Free trial 

Those who are not subscribed are given two free video watches per day in addition to 20 quiz questions. These questions along with video watches are renewed after 24 hours have passed.

What should be improved about Picnomic?

They could do more include more questions on Histology and Radiology and Anatomy. There are not a lot of image based questions on these topics. Additionally there is no atlas or anatomical images to go with the anatomy topics. Additionally I think that some of the physiology questions could be improved. For this section the Picmonic questions still only test basic identification. This isn’t quite as helpful when there is a concept that requires you to use an equation such as the alveolar gas equation. For example, Instead of asking something like “What does A stand for in the A-a gradient” It would be more usefull if Picmonic used actual clinical scenarios which required you to use you knowledge of an equation to calculate the correct answer. 

 Additionally, I think Picmonic would benefit from adding some microcopy images to their questions on microbiology. For example, instead of a question saying that a species of bacteria is “comma shaped” it would also be helpful to include a microscopy image of this species and ask users to be able to identify this species. This is not a dealbreaker but so many question banks that have microbiology questions rarely if ever include microscopy images to follow along with the question stem.

Organization

Clicking on the home button takes you to the library which shows all of the various organ systems

Volume

In terms of volume Picmonic covers both basic science information as well as clinically relevant information which is likely to be tested on Step 2. This  separates it from a lot of the other question banks. In total, with a Premium membership, there is unlimited quizzing over 21, 000 multiple choice questions and there are more than 1,8000 Picmonic videos.

Filtering

Picmonic has a decent ability to filter because it does allow you to search up a specific topic and only study or quiz yourself on that topic. FOr example if I wanted to quiz myself on cryptococcus neoformans, instead of showing me a page on all fo the fungi or all fon the opportunistic fungi it will take me directly to the piconic quiz on that specific fungi. Here is an example of what comes up when I type Cryptococcus into the search bar. 

In addition to giving me specifically what I want which is crpytococcus, it also provides me with the relevant playlist which that topic came from. This is definitely a very good feature of the platform and puts it ahead of other question banks which do not allow for such filtering capacity

Spaced Repetition feature

Picmonic contains a Daily Quiz feature which basically shows you questions that you have already done in a randomized quiz.

This feature tracks when you answer quiz questions and shows them to you at a later date. This is to ensure that you are being exposed to the same material over spaced out intervals in time. There are plenty of studies out there showing why this is effective for studying.

Picmonic also gives you the option to customize the Daily quiz. For example you can set the amount of questions you want in the Daily quiz .

Additionally, you are able to go into specific organ systems and take Daily quiz questions from just that organ system. To do this, click on browse. This will then take you to the page with all of the organ systems.

Once you reach this page then select an organ system that you want to be quizzed on.

Once you have selected an organ system to be quizzed on click on the green button that says quiz

You can than customize a quiz from the questions specific to that organ system.

This article here goes into detail about how you can access the Daily quiz

Suggest improvement feature

Just below each quiz question there is a box which says Suggest improvements which can be accessed by users to edit, add, or delete  a component fo the question  that could improve its quality. 

Other Unique Features

At the bottom of each video is a key facts which lists all of the points of video and also has a brief paragraph to accompany each of the points. Additionally each video has summary transcript underneath it which allows you to read along as you are watching the video. This is useful if you benefit from slowly going through each topic to better process the information.There is also  a community Resource section which includes videos from other sources such as Lecturio and Osmosis. Some of the features that are useful for keeping track of your studying are the bookmark feature which allows you to bookmark videos that you find important to review again later, as well as the playlist feature which allows you to create your own personal. 

Do the Questions mirror USMLE format

The quizzes do not mimic USMLE format. Although they are multiple choice like the USMLE exam they typically test at the level of basic identification. An example of a question is something like what is shown below. This is in contrast to USMLE exam style questions which are normally clinical scenarios, or short paragraphs.

Should you buy it?

Yes, this question bank is worth spending money on. Although it is lacking in some content areas, it can benefit those who prefer a platform which tracks user data and implements spaced repetition.

If you decide to purchase, you may use the link to receive a discount.