Get 10% off the Quesmed Qbank and OSCE Platform!

Use the Code RRS10 at Checkout for 10% Off!

This is not a paid banner but I get a commission for every person who uses my code.

Quesmed Review: More Than Just a Medical School Question Bank (2022 Updated)

In this article, I explore a relatively new medical school question bank that has been brought to my attention. Does it live up to the bold claim of being the “Next Generation” of medical school question banks?

Quick Summary

Here’s a quick summary of the article so save you some time.

Questions

Questions are well made and relevant with and mistakes are less common than Passmed.

Difficulty

There is a good variety of both easy and difficult questions ensuring all students can benefit.

Design

The design is beautiful on mobile but the layout can be confusing on desktop.

Social

Questions have a fantastic social presence on Instagram, Facebook and YouTube.

Pricing

Pricing is similarly priced to other question banks (especially if you use my discount code).

Other

Their paid mock tests and masterclasses are additional features unique to Quesmed (but cost extra).

Overall

Quesmed is a great choice for any medical student. Much improved from last year, they offer a huge number of questions and provide a beautifully designed app that other question banks don’t have.


Disclaimer

I would like to state that I did not get paid to write this review. I get a commission for everyone that uses the 25% off coupon, but Quesmed had no input on this review and my comments.

I used Quesmed for 2 months and did 1900+ questions (mainly clinical questions). This gave me enough information to write this review.

Update: Quesmed have started sponsoring Revising Rubies, however, this did not influence the 2022 review update.

What is Quesmed?

Let’s first get on the same page and find out what Quesmed is.

Quesmed is a question bank that has been made with medical students in mind.

The offer over 1200+ basic science questions and 4900+ clinical questions.

TypeNumber of Questions/Cards
Basic Science1249
Basic Science Ques Cards2122
Clinical Questions4959
Clinical Ques Cards12108
Anatomy Question Cards791
Data Interpretation160
Data Interpretation Cards363
This information is accurate as of March 2021. The questions offered will likely have increased by the time you read this.

This shows the number of questions they advertise they have

However, they don’t just do questions.

They also hold workshops, webinars and mock tests. They even have a YouTube channel in which they upload explanations of diseases and exam advice.

Some of these come for free, but some you will have to pay for.

What Makes Quesmed Unique?

Here are some of the things which makes Quesmed stand out.

They Focus On Medical Students

They don’t do any other set of question banks like UCAT, BMAT or MRCP.

Other sites like Passmed have diversified over the years to include these other papers in their library, but Quesmed has kept its core strength.

Whether they will start to expand their offer list over the coming years remains to be seen.

Daily Feed

They offer Anki style learning option. Other question banks do this, but from what I have seen, Quesmed offers the most extensive and detailed number of cards.

This is something which I will be talking about more later on.

YouTube Channel

They are always uploading more videos on their channel which is a free resource that anyone can access.

They have a great YouTube channel where they post long-form informative content

Android and IOS App

Their apps are well built, if slow. I found myself doing a lot of the questions on the app.

Mock Exams

They offer mock exams every year. This is something you have to pay extra for, but I can easily see it being a valuable resource for future cohorts.

I attended their first-ever mock. It was good, but it needs a few more years of iterative improvement before I would recommend it.

Again, this is something which I will discuss in more detail later.

Webinars/Masterclasses

They offer both free and paid webinars that you can access via their Facebook group.

They are all help on Zoom and are run by experienced clinicians.

Facebook Group

They have an extremely active Facebook group where they post updates on what they are working on, have their webinars and other events listed.

They have an active Facebook group where they post a lot of updates

They Are Always Working On More…

Quesmed was found in 2017, but it seems likely that in the next few years they will offer more than may of their competitors.

While preparing for this review, I contacted them. They said that I should wait a few weeks as they had a new and improved web design coming out soon.

It shows their commitment to constantly improving (even if the improved web design still hasn’t come out).

Pricing

What does Quesmed charge for their services?

Price of the Quesmed Question Bank

Here are the pricing options that they offer:

The cost of buying their question bank.

But if you use the code RRS10, you get 10% off Quesmed subscriptions!

For this, you get:

  • Basic science questions and cards (useful for pre-clinical medical students)
    • There are also anatomy questions that are separated from this group
  • Clinical questions and cards (for clinical medical students)

Quesmed does offer a referral scheme where if you type in a friends email you get an extra two weeks added to your plan for free. Not the most generous of offerings but still a good incentive to refer to a friend.

Note that the subscription renews automatically so you should set a date in your calendar when you want to cancel it. However, if you check your email you will be fine as they send a reminder email before the renewal occurs.

Other Costs to Be Aware Of

Price of Mock Tests

Once a year, they offer a mock test.

They currently offer a medical school finals mock test and a PSA mock test. I believe they also offered an SJT test earlier in the year (however, I am not certain sorry).

For 2021 (the year in which I am writing this), the price was £7.50.

Price of Masterclasses

Quesmed offers regular masterclasses which can vary in price.

They can be about £10.50.

ItemCost
1 Month Subscription£10
6 Month Subscription£30
12 Month Subscription£40
Mock Test£7.50
Masterclasses£10.50
These costs will vary with time. Please check their website for the most up-to-date prices. Psst…remember there is that 10% off discount (code: RRS10)! This is the last time I mention it, promise.


As you can see, getting involved in all of the masterclasses/mock tests can get quite expensive.

So although they offer some things for free, it is offset by the high price you have to pay for each masterclass.

To put it into perspective, you are getting specialist advice from an experienced clinician. Considering the £9250 you pay for your university, these extra few bucks can go a long way.

Design and Layout

A great design can help distinguish between question banks as it allows users to easily navigate and understand the different things offered. How well does Quesmed fair?

The initial website that you are met with when you go to Quesmed is beautifully designed. It is modern and easy to navigate.

Quesmed homepage (without logging in)

When you have signed up and are using the questions themselves, the original simplicity of the homepage continues into the main website.

You are left on the dashboard that looks like this.

Quesmed’s dashboard when you first log in

It is still nicely organised though and gives you all the information you need. On the left-hand side, you have a list of options that you can choose from.

Scrolling down the dashboard you can see statistics

Scrolling down the dashboard, you are able to see how you are progressing and what your percentages are over the previous quizzes.

There is even a university leaderboard which is an interesting addition! I am not sure what it looks at or how to get your university higher up the leaderboard, but it’s definitely a unique concept that I haven’t seen anywhere else and will help students compete with their peers!

The Questions

The most important part of any question bank is the questions. So how good are they?

You can choose topics as shown in the gif below.

GIF showing how to choose topics in Quesmed

There are plenty of topics that cover all of the specialities that you would expect.

When you select a topic to do questions from, you get the choice of doing unseen questions or questions you have gotten wrong. Then, when you open the question page you are left with the screen below (the left dashboard is collapsable).

How questions look in Quesmed

How Hard Are the Questions?

The questions are of varying ability which is a great thing.

However, although I can’t verify this, it seemed there weren’t many cards of medium difficulty.

From my experience of other questions banks like Passmed and Pastest, it seemed as if Quesmed had a lot of easy questions and a lot of hard questions.

This is not necessarily a bad thing. You can still learn a huge amount from the questions. And there are so many questions that completing a speciality will result in you knowing it very well.

One thing I noticed, which once I saw was hard to unsee, was how some questions had two opposite answers.

For example in the screenshot below you can see how there is “reduction of mucus secretion” and “excessive mucus secretion” both listed as answers.

“Reduction of mucus secretion” and “excessive mucus secretion” are both listed as answers.

This indicates that the answer is between these two options (as they are trying to catch out the people who don’t know if it’s a decrease or increase but know that the answer is related to mucus).

Luckily though, these sorts of problems were few and far between.

On the whole, I think that Quesmed offers a wide range of questions of varying difficulty.

Explanations

The explanations that Quesmed offers are great as they explain why each and every option is right/wrong.

I think that is one place which Quesmed stands out above other question banks. Every question offers an explanation for why each option is incorrect.

This GIF shows the information you get after answering each question.

Below that they have a section that is similar to the notebook in Passmed. They give some general information about the disease which the question was about (see above GIF). I do wish there were more detailed and/or gave useful mnemonics which would help in the exam.

Anki-Style Flashcards (aka Ques Cards)

Another great feature of Quesmed is their “Ques Cards”. This integrated well with their questions by having a “daily feed”. But how well does it work? Can it replace Anki?

Below is an example of a Ques card.

Quescard example

For those that want an all in one solution that has flashcards and questions, Quesmed is perfect. Although I would personally still prefer to use Anki for its power and flexibility, this is still a great option for those that want a simple but working flashcard app.

Daily Feed

I have to be honest, I didn’t use the daily feed much.

However, it wasn’t just because I was being lazy (although that might have been part of it). Here are some of the reasons I didn’t use it:

  • The back of the cards had way too much information – Although some people might like it as it helps connect concepts in your brain, I found it too long to try and remember 3+ bullet points of information. However, not every card is like that.
  • The questions are too broad – The topic might be “risk factors” for a disease or “treatment” for this condition. Similar to the above point, it is challenging to answer when there is so much you need to remember for each card.
  • Cards start piling up – New cards are added to your daily feed every time you get a question wrong. In principle, this is excellent. It should help you learn the topics that you get wrong. However, in practice, it results in a large number of cards being needed to be done every day.

Below is an example of a card before you reveal the answer.

Quesmed card before you reveal the answer

Note how broad the question is.

After you reveal the answer, you get to choose how well you know it on a scale of 1 to 5.

Quesmed card after you reveal the answer

Overall, I can imagine a certain type of person getting a huge amount of value from it, so I understand why they have implemented it.

However, for me, it just wasn’t worth the effort.

Statistics

Quesmed’s statistics aren’t’ on par with the rest of the services they offer. Here’s why…

Quesmed does have some statistics. Although not particularly detailed, they offer an okay amount of information for the average user.

You have to go to the dashboard to view the statistics which are present.

The statistics which Quesmed gives you access to.

They are limited, showing you how many questions you have answered and what percentage you answered correctly.

It would be nice to see more detailed statistics in the future, however it is certainly much improved from the last time I reviewed Quesmed.

The App

The Quesmed app is one of the best things that they offer. It has a superb design and is a joy to use.

Easily one of the best things that Quesmed offers is their app.

A lot of question banks don’t have anything like an app, so this offering by Quesmed is truly a USP.

The design is easily one of the most gorgeous apps I have used and it puts the desktop version of the question bank to shame.

It also allows for offline use of the question bank which is always a positive!

Homescreen of Quesmed android app

Medical School Finals Mock Exam

Let’s conclude everything we have been talking about.

Potential for the Future

Quesmed does things slightly differently from most Question banks. That is, they aren’t just a question bank.

They offer plenty of other things, with their yearly mock exams having huge potential.

I can see it becoming an essential buy in 5-10 years. Others have probably attempted it, but Quesmed has the reach to be able to make it a “standard” resource in the future.

Unfortunately, you do have to pay extra as it doesn’t come with the standard Quesmed subscription package (a discount for Question Bank users would be nice to see).

However, for the cost of £7.50, I don’t think you can go wrong.

Improvements Needed

This was the first year that they ran the mock exams, and it was plain to see.

Starting Up

The sign-up process was easy enough, with they sending you a link to join their Zoom meeting.

However, when I joined I was surprised that the exam was using a PDF document. You could keep track of the questions yourself, but it was requested you use the Google Form so they could accumulate everyone’s scores.

The Exam

Obs and Gynae was a section that was neglected. This was admitted during the session and it is unlikely to happen again.

Other than that, the questions were reasonable enough. Although marketed as “Medical School Final Realistic” questions, they were on par with the questions that they offer in their question bank.

Overall

Ao overall, although there are a lot of things that need to be improved, it is certainly something worth buying if you want to see how you perform in a more structured, exam-style environment.

Tips on Using Quesmed Effectively

Before I give my overall thoughts on Quesmed and conclude this article, let me give you some general tips on how to use Quesmed to its full potential.

Do Quesmed Every Day

Consistency is one of the best habits you can have when it comes to doing exams in medical school.

Start early and be consistent. If there was one sentence I could say to all medical students it would probably be that.

Another reason to do Quesmed every day is if you are going to be using the “Daily Feed”.

Daily Feed

Daily feed is an excellent and unique feature of Quesmed.

The algorithm will select relevant questions/cards for you to do on those days.

Although I didn’t use it, it is something that you should at least try for a few days to see if you find any benefit from it.

Because of the daily feed feature, you should try to aim to do Quesmed every day.

Use Anki

Anki is a fantastic resource that works wonders in medical school. Combining it with Question banks is a great way of using scientifically proven techniques like active recall and spaced repetition.

Don’t Worry About Getting Questions Wrong

If you don’t get a question right, then don’t worry!

Just put that information in Anki and you will learn it in no time.

If you want to know what Anki is, then check out this article of mine where I explain what it is and why it’s so good.

My Overall Thoughts

Here is what I thought of using Quesmed.

Here are some of the pros and cons of using Quesmed.

  • It has a well thought out App that I can see myself using for studying
  • The feedback given after each question is much better than given by other question banks – there is an attempt to explain why each answer is wrong
  • The daily feed is a unique feature that other Question Banks don’t have
  • A great choice for pre-clinical students who have less choice than those in higher year groups
  • Has a specific anatomy section
  • Offer mock exams and masterclasses
  • Very active social presence (YouTube and Facebook)
  • If you only want it for 1 month it can be expensive
  • Spelling and grammar mistakes are common (but much improved since the update)
  • Ques cards have too much information on the back
  • Mock exams and masterclasses aren’t included in the question bank subscription
  • No detailed statistics provided

Conclusion – Should You Use Quesmed?

Let’s conclude everything we have been talking about.

I do think that Quesmed is a good question bank.

You could combine it with other Question banks like Passmed. After all, the best way of studying is by testing yourself and doing questions, so using two Question banks is always going to be better than one (I have also made a review for Passmedicine that you can check out here).

To conclude, Quesmed has some great features and so I have no problem recommending this awesome question bank.


If you enjoyed this article then share it with your friends and colleagues who might find it useful.

Have a good day!

Similar Posts