StatPearls Question Bank vs Boards and Beyond Question Bank for Medical Students
StatPearls and Boards and Beyond are two learning platforms which provide medical a variety of tests and quizzes and articles that contain the necessary information to gain mastery of medical knowledge as well as pass board exams. Both platforms have many pros and cons. Which one is better depends on the individual needs of the student and what their learning preferences are. This article will provide a comparison of StatPearls as well as Boards and Beyond as well as my recommendations with regards to which question bank I would purchase.
Pricing
StatPearls: There are various options for StatPearls. for step 1 StatPearls contains packages of $49.00/month, or $99.00 per year. For step 2, StatPearls contains packages of $99.00/month, $199.00 for 6 months, or $299.00 annually.
- Boards and Beyond has pricing for as little as $24.00 for 1 week to as high as $399.00 for 2 years. This price is the same for the step 1 and the step 2-3 question banks
Learning format
- Boards an Beyond contains a series of video lectures accompanied by video notes and quizzes. Additionally you can get the video in powerpoint format. I go into further detail on the format in my Review of the Boards and Beyond Question bank
- StatPearls contains articles, and article quizzes are which are a part of the question bank
Question format
- For Both StatPearls and Boards and beyond you have to purchase both of the Step 2 and Step 1 Question Bank separately.
- For StatPearls: Most of the questions are written in a clinical vignett style however there are some questions which are more direct and have a single sentences
- For Boards and Beyond: All of the questions are written are written in a USMLE vignette style format
Filtering ability
Both StatPearls and Boards and Beyond have pretty good filtering ability.
- In order to find a specific topic in StatPearls, all you have to do is go to the top of the search and type in the particular question that you want. I go into further detail about this ability
- So if you wanted to do questions on Aortic dissection you would just type that into the search. I talk more about these features and many others in a separate post.
- For boards and beyond you have to go into the library of topics and then scroll down to a particular video you want. Once you do that, you have the option of selecting whichever topic you want to do.
Alternatively you can use the side bar, and then press the option which says question bank. This will then allow you to go through and pick out which questions you want to do.
Subjects
- StatPearls covers a larger range of diseases. And also has a lot more options in terms of variety of topics covered. However, Statpearls does have a tendency to include a little more information than is needed per topic covered.
- However Boards and Beyond while it does not cover the breath of topics that Statpearls covers, It offers more depth and board relevant information into the topics that it does cover. I do think however that Boards and beyond does need to cover a wider range of topics.
How many Questions per topic?
- The amount of questions per topic varies. For Boards and Beyond, each video contains anywhere from around 5-10 questions on average.
- StatPearls has less questions per article as you can see below, but they cover a larger range of topics.
How do you use StatPearls and Boards and Beyond?
Use StatPearls Question Bank for Targeted Practice
- There are a lot of ways you can use StatPearls. Personally, I think the best way to use Stat Pearls would be to use it as a way to do extremely targeted practice. For instance if you are struggling with radiology, then I would recommend buying the Radiology question bank, (which has 100s of questions) and completing those questions. Not only dies stat pearls have a large selection of question, but more importantly it contains a large selection of questions that test on the same topic or subject. While this may sound like a bad thing at first, it actually isnt. That is because one of the best learning tools to master a subject and do well on boards and medical school exams is your brains ability to recognize patterns. Because Stat Pearls has such a high volume of similar questions types, it is an ideal tool for targeted practice in a particular subject area.
Use Boards and Beyond as an Assessment tool
- Because Boards and Beyond contains a broad range of subjects and does not contain the question volume of stat pearls, I would recommend using this resource sparingly and closer to when your exam is. For example if you are taking step 1 in a month then I think that would be an ideal to begin using the Boards and Beyond Question Bank to assess where you stand. One thing that I think Boards and Beyond does a good job is that it really delivers a good dose of high yield questions. None of the questions
Free trials
- StatPearls: Stat pearls does have a free trial which gives you a limited amount of questions included in the question bank
- Boards and Beyond: Boards and Beyond offers free sample questions from the question bank on their website. You can find this free trial by scrolling to the sidebar on the left hand side of the screen
Are there discount codes
- Boards and beyond: using the Discount code EM_D8U-BDL8IE7 will give you 10.00% off
- StatPearls: using the discount code ericm20 will give you 20% off
Interface
Both StatPearls and Boards and Beyond have a very good interface which are every User Friendly.
- The StatPearls interface has a search menu and then shows you your dashboard on the left hand side of the screen.
- For boards and Beyond, the main page basically has all of the topics and and you just click on the topic and it will show a scroll down menu of the videos as well as questions.
Which should you buy?
You really cannot go wrong with either of these question banks. Personally I like StatPearls for learning specific topics and getting exposed to the question type. I think Boards and Beyond is better used for mixed review in my opinion. Either way, adding either one of these question banks to your current student regimen is sure to improve your performance on medical school and board exams.
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