STEP 3 Score VS USMLE WORLD AVERAGE

[FirstMANdown]

There is a great thread for Step 2ck VS UW%. I though it might be helpful if anyone out there can give us there input with there Step 3 VS UW%...etc as well. Anyways Thanks for the contribution.

I'm do to take Step 3 in the next month. Will update this thread as well. For better or for worse.

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[Eta Carinae]

I gotta say, I'm actually enjoying these UWorld questions

 

[Termwean]

Eta's Hot, anyways.....my STEP 3 results..got 'em today. I read FA Step 3 a few months ago. Did all USMLEWorld questions on tutor..went thru once. Did all the USMLE cases once (last few I just read discussion).
I am pretty sure that my average was something like 56%
results today (took it 11th-12th April): 214/90
Good Luck!
Now it's time to Celebrate Cinco De Drinko!

I gotta say, I'm actually enjoying these UWorld questions

 

[Nuriko]

I got my score back on wed, much quicker than I had expected it. I was pleasantly surprised.

Step 1: 215/89
Step 2: 211/87

I went into step 3 after having a pretty crappy intern yr. To make things worse, Im a prelim who knows little about medicine. People kept telling me not to study because this test is stupid. I didnt listen. I studied for a good month, and did USWorld pretty consistently, and Im glad I did. I only studied with USWorld and every now and then, First AID (which I thought was awful for this one). I did not take any actual practice exams.

USMLE World: cumulative ~49% (9th percentile??)

Step 3: 193/78 (PASS)

In hindsight, I guess it was pretty ballsy of me to go into the test so underprepared. My score on Step 3 is shyt compared to Steps 1 and 2. I was 6 pts away from failing (3 pts based on 2 digit score). I dont care. I passed, and thats all that matters. Permanent license, here I come!!

 

[stookie]

I just got done taking the exam. I didnt feel like crap at the end of the first day. The second day started off well. Then came the cases....I messed up horribly on one. The case ended right away. I did everything else correct. Oh and for the final diagnosis screen, I entered more orders like the idiot I am. Honest mistake. One other case was so hot either. Does anyone know if one mistake will negate the entire case even if everything else was done correctly? The other cases went well with very little errors (as far as I believe).

As far as the questions go, MTB was good enough. I didn't see any UWorld questions appear on the exam but the concepts were definately there. I found for alot of questions you really can't study for. I guess it's medical common sense? Whatever...

Anyone else with horror stories involving CCS and still passing? I just want to pass the damn thing.

 

[Old_Mil]

How do the test questions compare to UW questions?

Personally, I found the USMLE World Step 3 questions to be inferior to those in the Step 1 or Step 2 question banks. There were a number of questions that were flat out wrong (for instance: blaming a symptom that began 2 weeks before a patient was given a particular medication on the medication) or failed to give you the particular physical exam finding, vital sign, or test result in the question stem that you needed to accurately distinguish between two possible answer choices. There were several glaring mistakes in verb tense and language usage. I have to wonder if a good number of the questions were written by FMGs looking for work...

...still, it's the best question bank out there. The CCS review was excellent, as was Crush.

 

[markglt]

what did you use as a study source other than uw?
recommend any book..not happy with the options out there hitherto

 

[QuinnB]

Finished step 3 today. More than anything, I'm just happy to be done with these. What a run. Will post results when I get them. I felt that this was easily the hardest of all of the steps - I think people just say it's easier because they care less, but the questions asked for some fairly specific answers that were difficult to intuitively determine. I probably guessed on 40-50% of the MCQs.

Anyway, my test had more pediatrics than I expected and was more geared toward the outpatient/office setting, which was also a little unexpected (for me). To be honest, I'm not sure if what I studied really helped that much. Here are the numbers:

Step I: 254/99
Step II: 264/99

-UW step III (83% of ?s, unused, timed, blocks of 48, random): 64% (~60th percentile?); also did ~ 19 of the ccs cases
-Other: Reviewed the 5 ccs cases from the USMLE website and scored 80/101 correct for their free ?s

I'm an intern in IM and studied for ~ 1 hour daily for 2 wks, then ~ 3 hrs daily for another 1.5 wks and then ~ 5 hrs daily for 5 days in between ED shifts. I'm pretty exhausted these days and couldn't handle anymore studying than this. Only used UW ?s, reading all explanations (paying more attention to the ones I got wrong). Tried to look at a few pages in FA, but didn't get too far.

We'll find out soon.

 

[markglt]

now im more scurd
a double 99er sayin it's the hardest, yikes
anyways, i'm sure you did fine. GL

 

[jokerabc]

the double 99er probably got another 99. it is impossible to say how you did, no one usually says the exam is easy! good luck everybody.

 

[Friendly]

Step 1: 220/91
Step 2: 228/95
Step 3: 198/81

I studied for Step 3 for around 8-10 hours for four days right before the test using WORLD in tutor mode with a 69% average (50% complete); my score reflects my preparation. Most of the questions on test day I tried to reason through by thinking about cases I had an as intern this year. I refused to give these stupid exams any more time or money, and the goal was a pass on Step 3. FWIW, Step 3 felt fairly easy while taking it (so easy that I was relaxed and ran out of time on a couple of blocks), while I felt my inservice exam was really hard this year and I rocked it.

Do not buy WORLD CCS cases or any other resource. Just learn how the software works using the free cases online. Unless you are an FMG/IMG, nobody knows or cares about your Step 3 score.

Good luck.

 

[La Tipsoh]

First year surgical subspecialty resident. Step 3 really crept up on me...I only got to study for 3 days. I got thru 15% of the UW questions at a score of around 70% right, and then read only pedi and obgyn FA sections.

I did get thru about 80% of teh CCS cases..and I am glad i did!!!

Numbers:
Step 1 262 - 6wks studying FA, UWorld, Goljan
setp2 273 - 2wks studying UW questions only (got thur ~85% with 73%right)

Took the NBME form which gave me a 730.

just finished Step3....Will post score. Of 11 blocks of question i thought 2 of them we insanely harder than the other 9. Literllay on one block I had over 50% of the questions "marked" as difficult. I usually mark ~10-15%.

The CCS cases were easy...ONLY b/c I did the ccs cases on UWorld. What a huge help!!! i would have tanked that portion if it wasn't for UWorld practice. You MUST be familar with teh software and how to manage the clock. You really have no option but to purchase their practice version b/c it is so good.

 

[north2southOMFS]

just got my score back wed.

little background...

A pgy IV oral and maxillofacial surgery Chief in (obviously) a dual degree program, who hasnt been in med school or general surg intern for 3 years. -yep waited way to long to take this thing. I graduate in 1 month so i had to get this done so i can get my license.

Studied about 1-2 hours per day for 3 weeks, but prior to that 3 weeks i would go to starbucks occasionally and paruse through the master the boards book, but i only got through about half of it. 2 weeks before the test i sold my house, moved my family north where we are going after i graduate, bought a new house, and finalized my future job (very busy time). I did 90% of UW questions in 30q untimed tutor mostly, but some were in 48q untimed non-tutor. I got about a 52% average with crazy ranges from 35%-66%. I did some of the CCS cases but read through all of them twice.

I came out of that test almost 100% sure i failed that darn thing. I had so many questions marked it was embarrasing. And some i had no clue on so i didn't even bother to mark them. That test takes some serious stamina to complete, i wouldn't wish that thing upon my worst enemy.

Results 4 weeks later.....

Step 3 - 200/82

Crazy happy with that. I'm convinced CCS can save you completely. I'll take it and never look back. Bye bye USMLE. Good luck to all you.

 

[Pernio08]

I took Step 3 on May 4-5th. I agree with resonse posted earlier by QuinnB. I have yet to receive my score (prob this week) and will post it then. In my experience, Step 3 appeared somewhat tougher than 1 &2, I was not really sure of the adequacy of my prep.
I spent 11 days studying for this exam. 6-7 hrs each day. I read through Crush Step 3 - it is somewhat shallow in terms of expanse of materials to cover. I did 85% of USMLE world averaging 58% (range 46-79%) on unused random timed blocks. I also did half of the CCS cases and read through the remainder.
I felt traumatized after my first day. I found that time was an issue for me which wasn't the case when I was practicing w/ UWorld. I would find myself with 10 qs and 8mins left more frequently than not. My question stems were longer than uworld ones. There was quite a few easy questions but there was aton of questions I could narrow to two choices and get stuck....I marked nearly 40% on questions and just didn't mark some coz after a while I was just thinking wtf!
My second day was much better, MCQs appeared more manageable, did better with timing and CCS cases were quite fair and classic. I was very grateful for going through the Uworld CCS cases. I saw an earlier post where someone stated do not buy uworld CCS cases. I think the more practice you have the more coonfident you get....both with approach to the software and knowledge/appropriate work-up of the cases.
I am a prelim intern. I know not much emphasis is placed on Step 3 performance but I would be lying if I said I don't care about my score. Will post my score when I get it.

Step 1 - 252
Step 2 - 249
Step 3 - ?

 

[Mountain43]

UW avg 1st pass all questions = 46%
UW avg after redoing only missed Q's = 53%
UW assesment exam = 220
Step 3 actual = 196

Good luck, study like you mean it.

 

[Pernio08]

I got my score today and was elated. See previous post for details.

Step 3 - 231/99

Big relief to be done with USMLEs. All the best to everyone preparing to take Step 3.

 

[R Sterling]

I just got my score.

220/93!!!!

That's surprising considering both Step 1 and 2 scores were in the high 80's and I'm not even a resident yet.

Oh yeah, time to pay it forward.

I studied on my own for a long time during 4th year. I read MTB 3 times and did UW. My average for UW was 58% and I completed the entire question bank and redid my wrong questions. I also used Step Up to Medicine for reference on points that weren't so clear. MTB is gold! Good luck to everyone else in the struggle.

 

[markglt]

so mtb and uw.. did you think exam was like uw...same concepts?
go party!
congrats

 

[Femtochemistry]

Did all UW questions, final avg 55%, re-did most of the wrong Qs and bumped average to 65%. Did the UW self assessment and scored a 219....did the real thing 4 days later and got a 94 (223)....happy as a pig in **** I tell you.
I did about 1-2 hours a day for 2-3 weeks; mostly sitting in front of my TV w/ a beer. Weekends did about 5-6 hours. I spent a lot time on UW (Q and cases) but I did read MTB once. I believe the cases really helped me get that score...I had SUPER easy cases; bread and butter stuff. For steps 1 and 2, I had >90 on both of them and never failed a board exam.... thankfully. No more USMLEs!!!!!!

cheers

 

[fakin' the funk]

Posting another datapoint for y'all

Read through Crush Step 3 one time, did maybe 600 USMLEWorld questions, at first averaging 50-55%, later 60-62%.

My test day experience was, I felt I did pretty well and definitely felt I crushed the CCS part. My experience corresponded with the score.

Step 1 - 250's/99
Step 2 - 250's/99
Step 3 - 228/97

I wouldn't say it's "2 months, 2 weeks, #2 pencil" but if you have a good internship and study your weak spots with Crush and UW you'll have no prob.

 

[JHMartinMD]

Just finished Step 3 today, pretty anxious about the whole thing , but guess I will wait a few weeks and see what happens.

AMG/IM PGY-2 going into PGY-3
Step1: 201/84
Step2: 216/90

Studied for about 3 weeks at night after work
UW MCQ: Did 80% of Q's untimed tutor in 30Q blocks: 56%
NBME: 520 1 wk prior to exam
UWSA: 550/229 3 days prior to exam
Did about 40/52 UWCCS cases
Skimmed FA OB/Gyn/Peds/Endo/MSK
Skimmed FA CCS cases

The questions definitely felt like UW questions, some were almost verbatim.
Seemed like a TON of HemeOnc on my test
ED/In-Patient questions definitely seemed harder/longer than Office/HC
CCS was just like the UW cases - Def important to practice this

Step3: ???

Hopefully I won't have to retake this darn thing, I think these tests take months if not years off my life span. Will post my score in a few weeks. Best of luck to everyone taking it.

 

[sarabara]

time to give back:

stats: IMG, starting psych residency in july.

studied 5 weeks for step 3; 3 weeks in earnest. watched old kaplan videos for the first 2 weeks - not very efficient use of time. would not do this again. read crush 3xs ( great book) , did UW questions ...cumulative average was 48% ( seriously). i didnt let this get me down, as i tried to learn from the mistakes i was making and read the explanations for every question i got wrong. had 3 days b4 the exam and UW was all used up- so i bought the kaplan q bank -of which i did about 60 percent, scoring @ 65% correct, if i remember correctly. UW is harder than the real exam , kaplan is easier.

NBME = 400 = passing
UW assesment = 430 = 82=passing

actual exam ...drum roll..... 80 = PASS!!!

also, the UW CCS cases/explanations are gold- buy these- they can reallly help you. and dont forget to review the 100 or so mini cases in first aid.

good luck everyone!!!!

 

[kip44]

what did u get on step 1 and step 2?

 

[JHMartinMD]

Got my score today, 20 days later. View above for my stats and what I did to prepare.

Step 3: 219/92

Adios USMLE!!

 

[panerai1]

Figured I'd contribute since I found the thread helpful:

Background: US grad, EM Residency, end of year I.


Previous Tests:
Step I: 238
Step II: 261

Studied off and on for approx. 4-6wks, doing 1-4 UW blocks in tutor mode, 48 questions, then creating blocks of the incorrect questions and finishing those. Last 3 days I reviewed all the incorrect blocks I made up. First pass % was 58%.

Step III: 244/99

I definitely studied harder than I needed to, but in the end I passed and don't have to shell the money out to take it again. What I found was UW was definitely more detail oriented than the real deal, similar to how Kaplan was for Step I when I took it.

 

[markglt]

wow good score, no book for you just uw?

 

[dmbkappasig1]

so, you peeps on here really scared me. I looked at this forum the week before my test & suddenly was in fear of failing. alas, this fear was unfounded. I just finished 3rd year med/peds, which I suppose prepares you fairly well. I studied off & on for about 1 month- flipped through Crush very quickley (only about half of it), & did all of UW. I hit UW hard in the last week & a half & actually finished it. My overall score was about 64%. I also did all the cases. Here are my scores:

Step I- 208/86
Step II- 243/98
Step III- 240/99

Leaving the test, I didn't think I did all that well. The cases were easy- so glad that I did the cases on UW, as this helped me through this a lot. Most of my cases ended after 4-5 minutes- I assume that's because I had the diagnosis & treatment right. I didn't even have time to order any follow-up because the cases ended before I could do it. If you are an American grad & passed the previous steps, and you do all of UW, I don't see how you cannot pass. So far, I don't personally know anyone in my program that failed- and I know some very questionable characters who passed.

Good luck to all. Please do not sweat this. You will do well!

 

[markglt]

to all u peeps who used mtb....
being that no stats is in there, what did you use for stats?
did u find uw and mtb comprehensive enuff?
was uw like the real thing?

 

[Glasair MD]

Hey guys, I just joined (and subsequently typed a long post that timed out and lost all of it!! ARG!). I've never been a forum reader, but really found these experiences with Step 3 to be very helpful. Hopefully I can pay it back by posting my scenario.

I just graduated in May, and wanted to get this test out of the way and not have it hanging over me during residency. Whether or not that was a good decision will remain to be seen. I just completed the exam last week (July 8-9). Here are my stats / impressions:

Step 1: 222
Step 2: 228

I was a Kaplan user for Step 1, and UW for 2&3. I "studied" (I use that term loosely) for 3-4 weeks. This will probably equate to 2-3 weeks for most of you. I did complete 100% of the UW MCQs in tutor mode. Avg was like most here, and was around 54%. I also read Crush. I skimmed First Aid very lightly, and although I have really liked FA throughout school and the other Steps, I didn't find it very helpful for this one. The 100 mini-cases in the back were great though. I also used the UW CCS software and found that very helpful. There are also 42 reading cases with the 52 simulations and I checked those out as well. Needless to say, I was over-prepared for the CCS portion if that's possible.

Day 1: LONG! Like some others, it seemed like I was marking about 50% of the q's on the first couple of blocks, but it seemed to get better from there. I am usually not pressed for time, but I felt that I was on the first couple of blocks. I think I just needed to get in the groove. I think this day seems so long due to our knowing that we have the treat of getting another day of it immediately afterwards. The vignettes can be long, and looking at the question first will probably help.

Day 2: Much better. 4 blocks of 36q's followed by the 9 CCS's. Like another post I read, I too had racked up like 2 hours of break time after doing a few. They were really straight-forward bread and butter type cases, and the UW CCS will definitely have you ready to knock these out. I probably only spent 5-7 minutes on most before it kicked out, and you know when you have managed the patient correctly. I only went through the UW CCS once, which was plenty. I think I was out by 1:30 or so on the second day.

Per usual, I really have no idea on performance. These Step exams have that effect on me.

I'll report back when I receive scores, and I'm hoping that I don't have to do it again!

 

[ohio FMG]

I've been monitoring this thread throughout my Step 3 process and thought I'd take this opportunity to give back. Here goes:

UW MCQs x 1 (all questions/ tutor) avg. = 55%
UW CCS x 1 (interactive only)
MTB: read x 2
NBME assesment exam = 420
Took the exam on 6/14 & 15
Score report rec'd today (7/14)

Step 3 score = 201/83

Good luck to all. Goodbye USMLE forever!!!!

 

[smellies]

ohio, congrats. given ur results it seems uw and mtb are enuff to pass this exam. would you agree that most of the concepts are in mtb and uw?
would you do anything diff.(other/more sources) if you had to take it again?
was it like step 2?

 

[saltydog2005]

I also just got my score back. Passed. Major, Major Sigh of relief. My background: last year of radiology residency- haven't touched clinical medicine in many years but too busy with call and radiology boards to take test earlier.

Studied for 17 days 8-12 hours a day. I used kaplan's MTB, Crush Step 3 and USMLE world both question bank and CCS interactive. Looked over first aid for step 3 just for the CCS help. Completed 55% of Usmle world scoring around 50-65%, took a practice exam by usmle world 1 week before exam and scored a 190. At first I used MCQ tutor mode, then swirtched it realizing my first instinct was just as good as perserverating. Actual score 194. Just happy to pass and be done with the USMLEs all factors considering. Pass was the goal for me as fellowship contract was already signed.

The MCQs were so very random or really obvious. Time was a major issue for me. On the actual exam I randomly guessed the last 8 questions of the 1st section because I ran out of time! I was quicker later on, but always felt pressed.

I thought usmle world CCS interactive was very representative, along with those first aid pages (only for CCS). Score way above average for CCS, so that likely gave me the golden pass. I took lots of breaks during the CCS just to really clear my mind and give it my best shot. The MCQs were Very difficult to study for.... definitely some random trivia, mixed in with really easy questions. If I were a better test taker I would have realized this sooner and skipped/guessed on the crazy hard ones so I could get to the easy ones.

Good Luck! Just wanted to post a success story of studying for it in really minimal time (2.5 wks) and with minimal clinical experience (my internship yr was in general surgery 4 yrs prior to taking the exam). Maybe radiologists have some clinical intuition : )

 

[smellies]

congrats, thanks for the feedback!
did you think the exam was like step 2 at all ie., most likely diagnosis questions?
what do you think is the best way to prepare for the mult. choice?'s... do you suggest many many questions, possibly 2 qbanks or voracious reading?
lastly, was mtb worth it?

 

[apar01]

Just got my results from Step 3, three weeks to the date of my first exam day. I'm a second year peds resident that is so out of touch with internal medicine and ob/gyn, which I had a ton of on the exam. Did not do as great as Step 2, but I passed, and am so relieved. Finally done with Steps!

Step 1 - 194
Step 2 - 246
Step 3 - 207

Weird score patterns, but my test taking ability changes on a daily basis
My USMLE World average was 59%, reviewed all the answer explanations, and reviewed about half of the CCS cases on World. Read First Aid once through.

 

[PartyPants]

Hey guys - I got some good advice from this thread and wanted to give back!

Just got my score this morning:

Step 1 - 236/99
Step 2 - 246/99
Step 3 - 233/99

I'm a PGY-2 in internal medicine and took the exam at the very end of my intern year. I took about a month to study during a call month (unfortunately I didn't plan ahead for an elective month earlier in the year, but I wish I had), and my studying was inconsistent ... sometimes sitting down for 1-2 hours at a time and some days not studying at all secondary to fatigue.

My study tools of choice were Kaplan's Master the Boards and UW (both MCQs and CCS). I read through MTB once and then crammed the peds and OB chapters for a second time the night before the exam. I completed 40% of the MCQs and averaged around 53%, with tests ranging from 43 - 68%. After reading people's stats and UW performance on this thread, I was starting to doubt my prep and wondered if I should switch resources, but I was broke and decided to stay the course. For CCS prep, I practiced 7 UW cases from start to finish, and I didn't get a solid handle of the software until the 4th case or so. I read through the other cases but wrote out the presenting problem and all of the orders UW presented, considering the scoring boxes in terms of what I should pay attention to and what really doesn't matter. I spent perhaps 2 evenings going through UW CCS, and the night before the CCS portion I reviewed my CCS notes again while watching reruns of Law and Order.

The exam days were not very pleasant, and I hadn't taken full length practice tests to build stamina. I had a similar experience to other posters on here in the sense that I was really rushed and barely finished the first few blocks on time. I think I marked around 40% of the questions to go back and think about them, but I didn't have time to do so. By the first afternoon I picked up the pace a bit and didn't mark as many questions. The second day was less painful - the question blocks were shorter. I didn't take any breaks during the CCS portion, but I am certain I messed up 2 CCS blocks - the first one I forgot to advise a cards patient to stop smoking, and on the last one I flipped out because the case was never ending, and I ended up canceling a lot of orders I should have left alone. I left the test center fairly convinced I had only a 50/50 chance of passing, and I hadn't felt this lack of confidence for the first two step exams.

Most of my score came from doing well on the MCQs; my CCS portion actually wasn't that great but was solid. I guess despite my feeling that I had possibly failed, things had worked out well, so I encourage all of you out there still studying for Step 3 to choose ONE study plan and stick to it, and not to flip out if the exam days are difficult - you probably will end up doing better than how you feel afterward!

Best of luck, guys! So happy to be done with USMLE forever!

 

[markglt]

wow, triple 99's....awesome
did you think that:
1. mtb was enuff?
2. uw was representative of the real exam?
3. that it was like step2/had "most likely dx"/pathophys. questions?

thanx in advance

 

[PartyPants]

wow, triple 99's....awesome
did you think that:
1. mtb was enuff?
2. uw was representative of the real exam?
3. that it was like step2/had "most likely dx"/pathophys. questions?

thanx in advance

Hi there -

1. I think that MTB was enough as a book source, although maybe my CCS portion would have gone better if I had read through the first aid CCS cases. I enjoyed the MTB format, which I found easy to follow. I actually didn't bother reading the errata thread, so learning whatever is in there now won't cause you to fail.

2. I think that UW was a little more tricky than the actual exam in terms of semantics. Granted, I didn't even get through half of UW, so maybe the other questions I didn't see were more representative.

3. I barely remember what Step 2 was like, but I think there were more questions related to management on Step 3 rather than pathophys.

My advice to you would be to stick with MTB and UW if that's what you have now. If you have First Aid, that should work fine too (I know people who used it and did great). Changing resources rather than just studying the actual material really well would be counterproductive at this point. If you are in internal medicine, you'll do just fine. If you're just starting out as an intern, then you'd probably have to study more since you don't have much wards experience under your belt. If you're not in internal medicine, definitely study medicine, because it's primarily a medicine test with some pre-natal medicine and peds sprinkled in. I found the surgery questions to overlap with what you would know from medicine, and the psych/neuro questions were pretty straightforward. Good luck!

 

[stargirl50]

Found this thread interesting as I was studying for step 3. So here's my info:

- I'm in categorical anesthesiology residency; took test in June of intern year (had rotations in medicine, surgery, and peds, including ER and ICU).
- Read Crush Step 3 x1 over the few months prior to test. Did USMLE World, probably 15% of questions and 1/2 of CCS cases. Averaged 55-60% on questions.
- Did all CCS cases posted on USMLE website.
- Really didn't have time to do much else.

Step 1: 247
Step 2: 257
Step 3: 232

I agree with other posters who thought that USMLE World for step 3 was of much poorer quality than steps 1 & 2. That being said, I'd get it again, especially for the CCS cases. The big hurdle with those is learning how to manage the computer program, which is NOT intuitive. I also think my intern year more than anything prepared me pretty well for this test.

Good luck to everyone!

 

[markglt]

congrats, nice scores
1.did u find on the exam that most questions were indeed managment ?'s and not alot of pathophys...did they give u the diagnosis in the question?
2.did u find the exam much diff. than step2.
(studying right now just feels like studying for step 2 all over again.)
3. thanks in advance.

 

[Glasair MD]

215 guys! No more USMLE for me. Thanks again for the input. Got scores back last wed, so only 3 weeks.

 

[markglt]

how did u prepare.
what was the exam like
what were ur sources
congrats

 

[Glasair MD]

Thanks! Glad to be done. Scroll up to post #128 and those were my methods.

Best of luck.

how did u prepare.
what was the exam like
what were ur sources
congrats

 

[Gordon Sims]

 

[zestdoc]

I read through this thread before starting preps for step 3. Really helpful input folks!
As I expected, exact 30 point drop from step 2 scores.

Prep: UW Q bank (57%- random timed)
MTB

Exam date: 26th and 27th July

Score reported: 18th August- exact 3 weeks.

Step 1: 249/99
Step 2: 244/99
Step 3: 214/90

Glad to be done!

 

[MikeyK]

Contributing:

2.5 Weeks Studying
75% UWorld, random Timed w/ 64% Correct first pass
Crush X 1
U World CCS cases (Did about 25, read through explanations of remainder)

First day was HARD. Long, brutal, so much stuff that even after getting home and googling the answers still don't know what is correct. Felt kinda devastated after day one. Prolly didn't fail but damn I felt unprepared.

Day 2 much better. Questions seemed more straightforward. CCS cases were pretty easy, ended early on all cases. Did have one ID case that despite my large infectious work-up it ended in real time 13 minutes and Simulation time 24 hours before I had gotten any cultures or serologies back, leaving me with a total guess on the final diagnosis... WTF? Assuming I missed a simple order but why would it let me finish early then? Any similar experiences?

Anyways,
Step I-259
Step II-254
Step III-????

 

[markglt]

y must those with such awesome scores scare thee
so what is the key to doing well if most answers go unfound....mass questions, voracious reading???
was it mostly medicine or a solid mix??
i'm sure u did fine! gl.
thanks in advance!!

 

[anoz]

Contributing:

2.5 Weeks Studying
75% UWorld, random Timed w/ 64% Correct first pass
Crush X 1
U World CCS cases (Did about 25, read through explanations of remainder)

First day was HARD. Long, brutal, so much stuff that even after getting home and googling the answers still don't know what is correct. Felt kinda devastated after day one. Prolly didn't fail but damn I felt unprepared.

Day 2 much better. Questions seemed more straightforward. CCS cases were pretty easy, ended early on all cases. Did have one ID case that despite my large infectious work-up it ended in real time 13 minutes and Simulation time 24 hours before I had gotten any cultures or serologies back, leaving me with a total guess on the final diagnosis... WTF? Assuming I missed a simple order but why would it let me finish early then? Any similar experiences?

Anyways,
Step I-259
Step II-254
Step III-????

I just took the exam a couple of days ago. Definitely agree with above. First day was ROUGH. Really got into some serious minutiae on a few specialties. Only finished Uworld ~50% with 60% correct overall, but not sure that much more Uworld would've made any difference.

Second day not so bad. MCQ's were pretty similar to the first day, but the shorter blocks are a little easier to get through. CCS cases were awesome. I think all of them but a few I timed out in 10 min or less. I probably got the same ID case you got above, and ended up using all of my time on that one (this was my first case, so I got a little worried the rest would be like that). I did get a diagnosis that could account for the presentation, but I'm not convinced that was actually the right answer. I think in terms of scoring the diagnosis matters less than how much of the algorithm tree you are able to hit, so I doubt you failed the case if you went through most of the motions.

 

[markglt]

yikes
did u just use uw...no mtb or any book?
what do u think would be the best prep.
gettin nervous
gl
thanx in advance

 

[ucbdancn00]

i havent posted to this site in eons...but i def kept an eye out for step1,2 and now 3. i'll play:

study time: ~4.5 weeks (in a 6 week time frame); i studied on average about 6-8 hours a day. some days i went for 13-14 hours straight, other days i'd sit down, start downloading music and that would be the end.

first 2.5 weeks were doing a combo of questions/reading through the sections of first aid. the latter two weeks, were focused on doing questions. i also read through first aid again--reading my annotations from the questions. I re read ob/gyn & peds, because they are heavily focused in on on the exam.

materials: i think you just gotta find a book and use it. no book is complete. I used first aid for step 3 and boards & wards (step 2/3) and first aid for step 2. the latter two were for reference. i focused my efforts at FA for step 3, but i think in retrospect, FA for Step 2 was more complete. i took advantage of the "rapid review" and images from the FA step 2 and boards & wards book. i /was happy to go through the images , b/c there were some random ones that i knew immediately having gone through those pics.

questions: usmleworld. i went through just about all of it. my averages timed were 50-75% to mimic the exam i did blocks of 48 timed for the most part. some days i did tutor mode. i pretty much annotated every single question explanation into first aid and probably learned alot just doing that. in the last 2 weeks. i started going back through all questions again...my averages were 85-93%.

cases: i did over the course of the last two weeks some of the usmleworld ccs cases; i read through about 25-30 of them to get the flow of the program. i went through the FA mini cases twice...that help reinforce stuff for both day one and for the cases on day two.

exam days: took it in DC, went smoothly. (8/16-17). first day was decent i felt, i marked on average about 10-15 per section....some random info...but i flew through most of the questions and had about 5-10 minutes at most to review marked questions. but i def didn't feel crushed. day two..questions were a little more challenging i felt, and the cases were fairly staightforward. i think i prob got my a** kicked on two or three of them.

i will post my score when i get it back...
step 1:>230
step 2: >230

 

[MikeyK]

y must those with such awesome scores scare thee
so what is the key to doing well if most answers go unfound....mass questions, voracious reading???
was it mostly medicine or a solid mix??
i'm sure u did fine! gl.
thanks in advance!!

The questions are much longer than anything on UW, full of useless destractors. Lots of minutiae including WAY too many questions that begin with 26 yo G2P1... Lots of Peds, not a whole lot of Surgery IMO. But the odds are with you passing, if I have to guess a score for myself I'm gonna say 212 solely because I think I did well on CCS. Anyway don't stress too much you will be fine but it is an asskicking

 

[FDoRoML]

Took the lovely thing that is step 3.

Day 1 - long day with loads of question blocks. Minutia for sure, on a few... like, we're talking random step 1-ish type stuff that we would all look up if we thought a patient might have it. LOADS of Ob/Gyn, quite a bit of Peds (but maybe the same amount, but I dislike Ob/Gyn and noticed it more... as another poster said, loads of Qs starting with __yo G_P_... blah blah blah)

Day 2 - short day, and I do mean short! The question blocks were short, I thought more straight-forward than day 1 but perhaps I was just less fatigued? The cases were very straight-forward. Mine all ended in 6 minutes or less, and I got to take my time with the follow-up orders because I didn't feel very stressed. In hindsight, I know I made one mistake, and hope it isn't a huge score-subtracting one!! Other than that... bread and butter cases for the most part. Good mix of disciplines and organ systems. The day ended before 12:30PM. Wow! It was like vacation.

Score... and I wait....................

As for how I thought the prep went...
UW Qs about 78% complete, 77% correct random untimed on tutor
UW CCS, did about 40, read through all explanations at least once
FA mini-cases (didn't even glance at the rest of it!)
MTB read through 60% very thoroughly, the rest glanced over, glanced over the whole thing once more before the exam

What I am most happy with: cases (especially the UW ones, which really prep you for the real thing despite some flaws in the software) and MTB. UW MCQs are always useful but I don't know how much I re-learned from them and how useful it was other than getting back into the groove of doing countless blocks of MCQs.

What do I wish I had done more? Probably more detailed reading in Ob/Gyn, ID, and Derm... especially Derm, believe it or not. Random rashes related to random disorders in various systems. It would have helped on at least 10-15 questions total. Oh, and of course, I wish I wasn't an intern trying to find time in my over-hours weeks to study. Some things are just out of our control.

As for those random super-specific step 1-type questions? No way to predict or prep for them. You either know it or you don't or you're a darned good guesser if you're lucky.