Student Success Resource Page
Getting Started with ScholarRx
At its core, ScholarRx is an innovative digital learning platform for medical schools. Founded by Dr. Tao Le, series editor of First Aid, ScholarRx helps medical schools create a consistent, engaging learning experience that better prepares students for long-term success.
As a mission-driven organization serving more than 150,000 medical students and physician learners annually, ScholarRx has developed a unique, modular, multi-competency curricular platform enabling medical schools to create high-quality learning education experiences, even in resource-constrained areas. Let's dive in!
Your Role in Student Success
Faculty play a pivotal role in shaping the success of medical students. Your guidance, mentorship, and support are essential in helping students navigate the challenges of medical school and achieve their academic and professional goals. You can significantly impact student outcomes by fostering a supportive learning environment and providing timely feedback.
Faculty Development Resources
We'd love to help your faculty develop and learn to use ScholarRx more effectively. Join us for our Office Hours, where we will help you learn how to utilize the Qmax Management platform and our Rx Bricks. These are also great opportunities to enhance your skills or brush up on your ScholarRx knowledge.
Student Success Metrics
We know the best way to help your students is to monitor their performance. The ScholarRx platform features enhanced analytics (and we're always improving them) that will help you catch students who need remediation, as well as keep an eye on who is answering questions, reading Bricks, and more.
Proven Strategies to Enhance Student Performance
Institutions worldwide have been putting ScholarRx to the test for years. Explore a few of the eye-opening and inspiring ways they support students with the help of our case studies. We'd love to hear if these inspire you to deploy the same tools or if they remind you of ways you've used ScholarRx at your school.
Getting to Know the ScholarRx Tools
ScholarRx offers a powerful suite of tools designed to enhance the learning experience for both students and faculty. By effectively utilizing ScholarRx, you can streamline your teaching efforts, provide personalized support, and track student performance.
Rx Bricks
Rx Bricks are a repository of curricular materials and learning frameworks that can be rapidly deployed and customized to suit your unique curriculum needs and goals.
Bricks break content into the smallest cohesive learning units (called "Bricks") and are organized around basic science topics or clinical concepts. They use clear language to explain and contextualize key topics, most in fewer than 20 minutes.
Bricks Create
Faculty and learners are invited to create their own Bricks with Rx Bricks Create. Bricks Create allows you to easily develop and share interactive multimedia Bricks suited to the ever-evolving needs of your students.
Whether you're looking to repurpose old material, adapt an existing Brick, or build new content, Bricks Create saves you precious time creating compelling learning experiences.
Brick Exchange
Discover, create, and distribute valuable learning experiences through our open-access digital platform, the Brick Exchange. We aim to establish sustainable and inclusive medical education for learners and educators worldwide. The Brick Exchange provides a space to exchange and develop ideas and curricula, gain insights from prominent experts, and apply their expertise in your teaching.
Qmax
Qmax is a comprehensive question bank that empowers your students from day one through Step 2 CK.
Featuring self-assessment exams and 4,600+ board-style questions covering Step 1, Step 2, and shelf exams, Qmax features a meticulously updated and expanded Step 2 CK bank with clinically realistic question stems, step-wise explanations, and new high-yield summaries.
Everything Your Students Need to Ace their Exams
The Rx Podcast
With the Rx Bricks Podcast, students can build their foundation of medical knowledge and close their learning gaps brick by brick. This immersive audio experience turns downtime into high-yield learning time and is perfect to take on the go.
Your prescription for success in medical school and your board exams from the team behind USMLE-Rx and ScholarRx. Nothing helps you understand a topic quite like having someone who’s already figured it out explain it to you, step by step as if you were having a one-on-one conversation. Our videos are like having your own personal guide for the important topics in medical school, available any time, day or night.
The USMLE-Rx Blog
The USMLE-Rx blog is an invaluable resource for medical students, serving as a comprehensive guide from day one of medical school all the way through match day. It provides proven strategies, expert advice, and a wealth of resources to help medical students excel in their studies and beyond. Whether it's preparing for the USMLE Step 1, Step 2 CK, or seeking guidance on various aspects of medical education, the USMLE-Rx Blog is a go-to platform for students pursuing success in their medical careers.
First Aid Team
If podcast episodes and videos aren't your preferred learning style, head to First Aid Team for resources, tools, and more to help you master medical school.
Unlocking Student Success with Data-Driven Learning
ScholarRx goes beyond providing effective study tools – we're committed to continuous improvement based on research and data. Understanding how students learn allows us to constantly refine ScholarRx products and support faculty in maximizing student success. This section highlights some research findings that demonstrate the positive impact of ScholarRx on student performance. We'll explore how factors like practice question volume, early study habits, and utilizing ScholarRx resources like Qmax contribute to improved USMLE outcomes.
Step 1 Qmax Can Raise Step 1 Scores
In research conducted by Dr. Jesse Burk Rafel (MD, MRes at New York University), he observed that the number of Qmax practice questions completed and the percent correct significantly correlated with USMLE Step 1 exam performance. However, even the completion of 260 unique questions was associated with a 1-point increase in USMLE scores, even when controlling for the GPA and MCAT scores of the student.
For every 10% increase in the Qmax Percentage of Correct Answers, a student is predicted to improve their USMLE Step 1 score by 8.40 points.
Early Study + USMLE-Rx + First Aid® = Improved Step 1 Scores
In a 2017 study led by Dr. Burk-Rafel, he found that students read First Aid for the USMLE Step 1 an average of 2.1 times and completed an average of 3,597 practice questions prior to taking USMLE Step 1. He found that initiating study before the designated study period, reading First Aid, and attempting more practice questions were all associated with higher Step 1 scores.
The research team found that even when controlling for MCAT scores, preclinical exam performance, and self-identified score goals, early study + First Aid + Qmax were associated with Step 1 performance:
- Early study resulted in a 4.2-point Step 1 score increase
- Cover-to-cover “First Aid for USMLE Step 1” reading = 2.3-point increase
- 500 additional unique practice questions = 1.8-point increase
USMLE-Rx Helps Raise Pass Rates and USMLE Outcomes at the University of North Carolina SOM
Following a period from 2013 to 2016 when the school's USMLE Step 1 scores fell below the national average, the University of North Carolina implemented a curricular change, introducing greater alignment with high-yield Step 1 topics. As a part of this strategy, the school purchased students' subscriptions to USMLE-Rx and UWorld. The results were described as impressive:
"The first-time pass rate for the class matriculating in 2016 was 99.4%. The mean scores for the class were 3 points over the national average. The dedicated focus on preparing students for USMLE Step 1 resulted in improved numeric outcomes."
- Beck Dallaghan, G.L., Byerley, J.S., Howard, N. et al. Med.Sci.Educ. (2019) 29: 1141. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40670-019-00822-1
- Burk-Rafel J, Santen SA, Purkiss J. Study behaviors and USMLE Step 1 performance: Implications of a student self-directed parallel curriculum. Acad Med. 2017;92;S67-S74.
- Kumar AD, Shah MK, Maley JH, Evron J, Gyftopoulos A, Miller C. Preparing to take the USMLE Step 1: A survey on medical students’ self-reported study habits. Postgrad Med J. 2015;91:257-261.
- Deng F, Gluckstein JA, Larsen DP. Student-directed retrieval practice is a predictor of medical licensing examination performance. Perspect Med Educ. 2015;4:308- 313.
- Johnson JH, Jordan EJ, Burton W, Silbiger S. Are questions the answer? The effect of popular study resources on USMLE Step 1 performance. Oral abstract presented at: Association of American Medical Colleges Annual Meeting; November 1-7, 2012; San Francisco, CA.
- USMLERx Qmax as a Predictor of USMLE Outcomes.pdf