CCScases.com

[usmle0713]

Hey everyone. I am taking my step 3 during 1st week of September.
I purchased ccscases.com and have done a few cases. I was wondering if it's a good enough software for the real deal? I am also using UW CCS but I do like to get graded. I am averaging around 80% in the cases so far. But since I am not in residency, I am very scared about ccs. Any insight on ccs and on CCScases.com will be greatly appreciated! Thank you!

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[steveme]

No, the scoring system is very wrong on that software because there have been a few people that I know ended up failing because of CCSCASES' incorrect scoring system. It scores you positively for out of sequence orders and penalizes for the sequence that is necessary. If you entered full physical exam orders before emergency intervention in 10 min ER cases, it scores you positively which is very incorrect. It wants you to do a physical on a crashing patient and credits you for that wrong sequence. It scores screening on 2-min when it is unnecessary and maybe potentially, invasive. Rather than changing the scoring protocol from case to case, it imparts incorrect scoring to potentially harmful approaches and suggests that you do erroneous procedures.

Please remember there is no use of getting a grade for wrong things that you do -- it is better not to be graded on software like that because once you get a positive score, it imprints in your mind that such approach is the correct approach. It guides you towards the wrong approach. It is important you know the approach rather than looking to get an unscientific grade. This is why popular trustworthy companies did not impart grading to their Softwares or courses.
The ones that are standard for CCS are ********** and UWORLD. These two courses have been around for 10 years now and are trusted highly. If you want to be graded and supervised live by an expert while you do CCS on exact exam software, see if Archer is still offering live CCS Workshops, they used to offer live sessions all the time. You can briefly get an idea on what exactly is scored on CCS in this free YouTube clip

I have answered your question about this ccscases.com software and their scoring system in detail in a different thread here

 

[Mastac741]

Hello, I am a consultant for CCSCases.com. We have received a lot of criticism from this individual above on student doctor. We have not responded as of yet, but feel that due to the repetitive posting, we should respond.

Lets take for instance the criticism that you will not be marked down for doing a full physical exam during an emergency. This is not true. The grading accounts for time to intervention just like the real test. If you do a full physical exam and use 15 minutes, you will definitely be marked off for time delay to intervention. You will receive credit for the portions of the physical exam that were completed, but what the previous poster is missing is that things are weighted differently. The main point of the case regarding diagnosis and treatment will be weighted the most and small things done correctly will be weighted less. In the case of the emergency, you will definitely not do well if you delay prior to intervention regardless of what is done (including a full physical exam). It appears that some do not understand this and feel that all orders have equal weight which is not accurate.

Also regarding screening during the 2 minute warning. The USMLE states that “Addressing health maintenance issues” is part of grading on the USMLE Step 3. Although we include this which includes counseling, good bed-side manner, appropriate vaccinations, cancer screenings which are all recommended and should be done in real life, this is a minor portion of your grade on the test. People criticize us that we overemphasize this, but really it’s not a major part of your grade. You can easily pass with a high score if you choose to ignore this and correctly manage the patient in the case. As stated above, the major portion of the grade is getting the diagnosis and treatment of the patient.

It also states that the scoring protocol does not change from case to case. This is not accurate. Each case has a different scoring protocol depending on the situation. Yes, there are consistently low portions of your grade dedicated to the aforementioned health maintenance issues.

Just a food for thought: if you were to go to a CCS Workshop and do a case in front of an expert, and they were to critique you, wouldn’t this be grading? Telling you things that you are doing well and things that you are not doing well. They wouldn’t give you an exact score but they would give you a ballpark of how you’re doing. Isn’t this what is done here?

We also have issues with his allegation that “I know people who have failed because of CCSCases.” We have many many students who have failed previously and then passed and shown us their scores of vast improvement before using ccscases.com and after using ccscases.com.

Having said all of this, there will be the purist who thinks grading is wrong no matter how much effort goes into it. For these people, we have an option to turn the grading off. You will not receive a score.

 

[usmle0713]

Hello, I am a consultant for CCSCases.com. We have received a lot of criticism from this individual above on student doctor. We have not responded as of yet, but feel that due to the repetitive posting, we should respond.

Lets take for instance the criticism that you will not be marked down for doing a full physical exam during an emergency. This is not true. The grading accounts for time to intervention just like the real test. If you do a full physical exam and use 15 minutes, you will definitely be marked off for time delay to intervention. You will receive credit for the portions of the physical exam that were completed, but what the previous poster is missing is that things are weighted differently. The main point of the case regarding diagnosis and treatment will be weighted the most and small things done correctly will be weighted less. In the case of the emergency, you will definitely not do well if you delay prior to intervention regardless of what is done (including a full physical exam). It appears that some do not understand this and feel that all orders have equal weight which is not accurate.

Also regarding screening during the 2 minute warning. The USMLE states that “Addressing health maintenance issues” is part of grading on the USMLE Step 3. Although we include this which includes counseling, good bed-side manner, appropriate vaccinations, cancer screenings which are all recommended and should be done in real life, this is a minor portion of your grade on the test. People criticize us that we overemphasize this, but really it’s not a major part of your grade. You can easily pass with a high score if you choose to ignore this and correctly manage the patient in the case. As stated above, the major portion of the grade is getting the diagnosis and treatment of the patient.

It also states that the scoring protocol does not change from case to case. This is not accurate. Each case has a different scoring protocol depending on the situation. Yes, there are consistently low portions of your grade dedicated to the aforementioned health maintenance issues.

Just a food for thought: if you were to go to a CCS Workshop and do a case in front of an expert, and they were to critique you, wouldn’t this be grading? Telling you things that you are doing well and things that you are not doing well. They wouldn’t give you an exact score but they would give you a ballpark of how you’re doing. Isn’t this what is done here?

We also have issues with his allegation that “I know people who have failed because of CCSCases.” We have many many students who have failed previously and then passed and shown us their scores of vast improvement before using ccscases.com and after using ccscases.com.

Having said all of this, there will be the purist who thinks grading is wrong no matter how much effort goes into it. For these people, we have an option to turn the grading off. You will not receive a score.

I really like the software! I have now completed most of it and even made a YouTube video on it! I am incorporating both UW and CCS cases.com and I think it's great. Thank you for your clarification!

 

[steveme]

@Mastac741 ...since you are a consultant, you have every right to defend your product. But no...you can not order INVASIVE UNNECESSARY interventions on 2-min screen in a patient presenting with an emergency problem. If a person was admitted with an acute MI or aortic dissection and you are blindly putting in screening orders without regard to "simulated time", you will receive a failing grade. USMLE particularly reports invasive interventions that are unnecessary will be punished. I have a good grasp of CCS and have advised my peers here. I only responded because people posted queries under my thread regarding your software and many people think it does not represent real exam simulation because it is asking them to do something that does not follow guidelines.
It is important that those who are studying for CCS understand the difference between 10 min ED cases and 20 min office cases -- your software deals with every case as though there is a luxury of time. It asks and misguides people to do interventions that are not necessary by placing emphasis on them --- this distracts a person from putting in life-saving orders on the software and using that 10-min limited time to their maximum benefit.

Some of our peers posted concerns about how your software is encouraging out of sequence orders. Please see the concerns under the other CCS tips thread. Everything I posted under my thread here USMLE - CCS step 3 Tips and Tricks discussion is oriented towards how to make the best use of "SIMULATED" time. If your software disregards that, the essence of the CCS will be lost. Best wishes!

 

[Mastac741]

Again, we feel you are misrepresenting how our product works. Of course we disagree with your assessment. The author of this threat likes the software as well as thousands of our customers. We do not recommend invasive interventions unless they are indicated for the case. If you are referring to ordering CBC, CMP, EKG, troponin levels at the beginning of a chest pain case. This can easily be ordered. If you've ever worked in an ER, this can all be ordered in about 5 seconds in real life. Our recommendation is to just to try out the program, if you like it great, if you don't then don't use it.

 

[tdod]

I am MS4 preparing to take Step 3 ASAP after graduation. CCScases.com is awesome. Tons of cases, specific scoring, concise explanations, and very affordable. I 100% recommend for anyone nervous about the CCS component.

 

[Redpancreas]

Hey everyone. I am taking my step 3 during 1st week of September.
I purchased ccscases.com and have done a few cases. I was wondering if it's a good enough software for the real deal? I am also using UW CCS but I do like to get graded. I am averaging around 80% in the cases so far. But since I am not in residency, I am very scared about ccs. Any insight on ccs and on CCScases.com will be greatly appreciated! Thank you!

Good question. I have taken USMLE Step 3 and used UWorld CCS and CCSCases and the free 6 cases off the official software. I will review each.

1.) UWorld:
Pros: On the real deal, there is an awkward phase where you need to do something to trigger the next step to move the case forward. UWorld simulated this nicely. It also it the same screen/feel as the real deal.
Cons: I felt the feedback was terrible. I think it's critical to receive feedback on what you're doing and UWorld provided a page of very general feedback. I do not remember if the order sets for UWorld were similar for CCS cases.

2.) CCSCases:
Pros: The feedback. As you know they grade you and give you a sense of what you're doing right and wrong.I think this is a big pro.
Cons: The cases are a little too obvious for the real deal. They give you every sign in the book for an MI. On the real test, things present atypically something and they don't give you every sign in the book. Keep that in mind. UWorld didn't give as many hints on dx as CCSCases did. Also, the order sets for CCSCases were not the same as the real deal.

3.) 6 Free Cases
I dont remember there being feedback. I just used them to familiarize myself with the order sets. Didn't use them much for learning.

Hope this helps! I personally recommend CCSCases just because I feel they're good learning. UWorld may be a slightly better simulation of the actual cases (they're not that much harder) but they don't give nearly as much feedback.