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The Graduate Health & Life Sciences Research Library at Georgetown University Medical Center

Test Preparation Guide

This LibGuide is to direct patrons to the our current resources to help them prepare for their various certification exams. This includes three institutional USMLE test preparation resources and a myriad of texts (online/print) for various specialties

What is BoardVitals?

BoardVitals is the latest addition to DML's collection of interactive and customizable question banks for USMLE Steps 1-3 and more.  

This test prep resource also features with question banks (including explanations) for Shelf Exams or select questions by specialty.

BoardVital Basics: Creating account, Logging in, Looking Around

If you have accessed BoardVitals before, you can login by clicking the link above. To create a new account CLICK HERE. Once you've set up your account, go the login page (see the first link above) to access BoardVitals.

BoardVitals Home landing page

 

You will need to use your Georgetown email address (ending in either @georgetown.edu or @gunet.georgetown.edu) to create your account.  For those associated with MGUH that are unsure of their Georgetown email,  please see this DML FAQ for further information.  Once you have created an account and have logged in you will be presented with the Dashboard featuring a My Question Banks list.  As you scroll down the alphabetically listed page, you will see the various domains and specialty Shelf options, as well as the USMLE banks with green "Go" buttons to select the desired bank:

User dashboard

 

The left hand icon menu also features Categories, Exam Stats, Flagged Questions, and Search options:

Personalized question bank sets for users

 

Creating and Reviewing Exams

With your account up and running and having a good handle on the basic navigation, it's time to look at the question bank and exams.

You can start by selecting from any of the question bank options on the Dashboard. Again, the USMLE Step exams/questions are at the bottom of the list:

Question banks available

 

You can now customize your exam by choosing from the subject list, which tells you how many questions there are in a given subject. There are three tabs in this page, "All", "Unanswered", and "Incorrect". The default tab is "Unanswered", which allows you to first look at what you haven't answered/tried. 

Custom Exams

Next you select a single or multiple subjects, followed by Exam type (either Review or Timed). Select the number of questions you want and click the Create Exam button:

Select Create Exam to create your exam

 

These steps will take you to your exam:

Exam set up and ready

 

After exams have been created and taken, you can review your work and progress on the Exam Statistics page. As you work through the various subjects you can track your progress and see where you excel and where you may need further review.