Last updated September 1, 2026
Free questions are genuinely useful for two things: judging whether a resource's explanation style suits you, and getting practice when paying is not an option. They are a poor substitute for a full question bank as your primary resource.
The USMLE programme publishes free sample items and a practice session that runs in the real exam software. These should be the first free questions you do, for a reason that has nothing to do with content: they show you the actual interface, timing and question formatting you will meet on the day. Find them at usmle.org.
Most commercial banks offer a free sample. Use them deliberately rather than collecting them: do the same handful of topics across two or three providers and compare how the explanations read. Explanation style varies more between banks than question quality does, and it is the thing you will spend the most time with.
Our own free tier includes limited quizzes and untimed review sessions, and every question comes with an explanation for each answer choice. We also publish sample questions with full explanations across every Step 1 topic, with no account needed.
Two things you cannot get for free in any useful quantity: a large enough question bank to complete a full pass, and realistic full-length exam practice. Both matter, and at some point most students pay for one or both. Free material is best used to decide what to pay for.
Yes. The USMLE programme publishes free sample items and a practice session in the real exam software, and most commercial question banks offer free samples. We publish sample questions with full explanations across every topic with no account required.
It is difficult. Free material rarely provides enough volume for a full question-bank pass or realistic full-length exam practice, which are the two things that matter most.
A clinical vignette rather than bare recall, an explanation covering every answer choice rather than just the key, and a sensible spread of correct answers across the letters.
Ten full length exams, fourteen blocks each, with a simulated score. Free to start.
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