VUSMLE Vault←All guides
For IMGs about to pay for a second qbank. Read this before you do.
By Dr. Marish Asudani · Published
UWorld is S tier: the question engine for Step 1. AMBOSS and the USMLE Vault MCQs are A: AMBOSS for biostats, ethics and communication, the Vault MCQs to prepare you for UWorld, page by page. MedSchoolGuru and free question sources are B. USMLE Rx is C.
Read this firstWe have so many qbanks: UWorld, AMBOSS, MedSchoolGuru, Rx, USMLE Vault, and whatever else is online. More questions don't fix a score. The right questions in the right order do.
So this list ranks each qbank by its job, not by its question count. Every name opens it. Here is how to read the tiers:
1 gold standard, 2 that do a job it can't, and the rest. Tap any name to open it.
All of this is way better than UWorld. UWorld is still good, and it's still your main Qbank. AMBOSS High Yield Study Plans are also a Step 3 core resource.
Before the Vault, I used to recommend USMLE Rx. It turned out Rx wasn't as good as I wanted it to be, so I created my own resource.
Try the page-by-page MCQs on renalMCQs under every First Aid page, so UWorld feels familiar. Renal is free.
Open renal →The NBME forms, the CMS forms and the Free 120 aren't on this list on purpose. They're assessments, not qbanks. Take every NBME offline: blocks of 20, the real exam's conditions, a score you can trust. For Step 1, only the NBME 31, 32 and 33 trend predicts. For Step 2 CK, the NBME 13, 15 and 16 trend and the Free 120, which is the most predictive. For a full 14-block day before the real exam, there's the Vault assessment.
A full 14-block day before the real oneThe Vault assessment: full length, the real exam's structure, a verdict before exam day.
Take the assessment →Want a day-by-day schedule that tells you exactly what to study next? The Vault builds it around your exam date.
Build my schedule on usmlevault.com/schedule →
The RPSR method — how to do UWorld.
When UWorld isn't enough — what to add, and when.
NBMEs offline — why the online score lies.
The Step 1 resources tier list — the whole stack, ranked.