For physicians in training, licensure exams are often make or break to their careers, so test prep is critical. Yet there are countless study aids out there, and each promises some unique benefit. So, what is one to do, buy them all?
The truth is learners who perform best on these exams don’t necessarily study more than others do—they just study more efficiently. They don’t buy every tool available. Instead, they find ways to connect their clinical training and exam prep into a single framework.
The AMA has partnered with AMBOSS, a medical education reference tool used by 2 million medical professionals in more than 170 countries, to give medical students and residents access to a more efficient test-prep service.
“Students juggle patient care and exam prep using multiple tools,” said AMBOSS physician editor and consultant Dr. Ryan Colaço and Dr. Niklas Büscher, editor-in-chief and product lead at the company, in a written statement in response to the AMA’s questions.
“The AMBOSS system ties them all together: Each Qbank question links to the Library, creating a cycle of active recall to targeted review to clinical application. With the Chrome [web browser] extension, Anki and GPT integrations, even outside tools work together to save time.”
AMA members get a 10% discount on the AMBOSS Library subscription and the optional Qbank upgrade. With AMBOSS you get:
- Unlimited access to the Knowledge Library, with hundreds of high-yield articles, as well as interactive content, covering the entire United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) curriculum.
- 50 Qbank questions per month, with the option to upgrade your subscription to full Qbank access.
- Anki add-on and smart study tools.
- Histology images with overlays, captions and Smart Zoom.
- Performance analytics to keep your study efforts focused.
- Free Chrome extension and a free mobile app with offline access.
The Qbank upgrade is a one-time purchase on top of your AMBOSS Library membership. By upgrading, you get all 11,000-plus available questions, including those for the USMLE Step 1, Step 2, Step 3 exams and the National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME) “shelf” exam.
Ready to access your AMA-member AMBOSS discount? Learn more now.
Focused on integration
The AMBOSS Knowledge Library includes more than 2,000 clinical and pre-clinical articles across a range of topics peer-reviewed by some 100 physicians. Personalized study recommendations, performance analytics, interactive images and charts, as well as Qbank and Anki add-ons, are included.
“AMBOSS is arguably the most integrated resource available for Anki,” wrote the two physicians at the Berlin-based AMBOSS, who noted that it helps students get more from each flashcard.
For example, learners can:
- Look up any unfamiliar term instantly in the AMBOSS articles and media library.
- Find Qbank questions related to their Anki progress.
- Jump from practice questions back into related flashcards.
The AMBOSS question bank is a study aid that covers 100% of USMLE exam content—more than 11,000 questions—coaching leaners to strategically approach questions like a diagnostician does.
Support at every step
AMBOSS is built for learners in every phase of medical education. For example, students at MD-granting schools enjoy numerous USMLE resources, while osteopathic medical students have access to corresponding COMLEX-USA Level 1, Level 2 and Level 3 resources.
The USMLE study prep resources include:
- Step 1—questions with side-by-side views of related articles and the ability to highlight essential information or condense to key points.
- Step 2—more than 3,300 questions and corresponding articles encompassing neurology, surgery, internal medicine and other high-yield topics.
- Step 3—a study plan with 50-plus core topics, more than 2,000 questions and a digital library of more than 25,000 textbooks, medical journals, guidelines and papers distilled into one platform.
In addition, AMBOSS’ NBME Shelf exam resource helps learners prepare for the end-of-clerkship exam, with more than 1,200 articles and over 3,500 challenging Qbank questions.
“AMBOSS isn’t designed to replace every tool but to act as the integrating hub,” said Drs. Colaço and Büscher. “With AMBOSS, all the other things students must do to become better doctors—presenting on rounds, keeping up with in-house exams, learning how to write notes—can reinforce their board-prep foundation.
