Step III Cram or postpone for Step 3?

Started by koolaidkid
Get help with your application

Use all the free resources available to you from SDN: articles, guides, expert advising, forums discussions, and school research.

Browse articles Compare schools My application plan Read Interview Feedback
Practice for interviews Ask an Advisor
koolaidkid

koolaidkid

Oh Yeah!!!!
10+ Year Member
15+ Year Member
sorry to bother but kind of stressing out and wanted advice.

taking step III in a 2-3 days.
done 35% of UW Qbank (avg 50-55%)
did 25% of UW CCS
read half of crush

AMG, passed steps 1&2 but with much more preparation.

Cram? if so, what would you suggest in the next 2-3 days.
Don't really want to postpone but rather postpone than fail it.
thanks for your advice.
 
Sort by date Sort by votes
koolaidkid said:
sorry to bother but kind of stressing out and wanted advice.

taking step III in a 2-3 days.
done 35% of UW Qbank (avg 50-55%)
did 25% of UW CCS
read half of crush

AMG, passed steps 1&2 but with much more preparation.

Cram? if so, what would you suggest in the next 2-3 days.
Don't really want to postpone but rather postpone than fail it.
thanks for your advice.
Click to expand...

My advice would be that you should do all the UWorld Questions and CCS cases esp. the interactive ones.A score of greater than 57 would be very good if you are good at CCS as well.
Read First Aid instead of Crush.
If you had plenty of time, then Premiere review would be the excellent study material.
Good Luck.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
thanks for the advice. I'll just try to study hard, pray hard, and try to get as much done as possible and hopefully (with God's help) pass this week. I'm not a fan of studying, but I hope that it will make me a better physician. Good luck to all those taking Step 3!
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
koolaidkid said:
thanks for the advice. I'll just try to study hard, pray hard, and try to get as much done as possible and hopefully (with God's help) pass this week. I'm not a fan of studying, but I hope that it will make me a better physician. Good luck to all those taking Step 3!
Click to expand...

As an AMG I think you will be set. If still scared, just pay for the NBME test online and it will predict your score fairly accurately. The step 3 isn't a hard test, most of the people you see freaking out about it are FMG's. Due to a multitude of reasons these tests are harder for them. 👍 I did 50-55% on the World ?'s and got 600+ on the nbme (should be good for 240+ on the real thing). The NBME is much more accurate as a predictive tool than anything else.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
koolaidkid said:
thanks for the advice. I'll just try to study hard, pray hard, and try to get as much done as possible and hopefully (with God's help) pass this week. I'm not a fan of studying, but I hope that it will make me a better physician. Good luck to all those taking Step 3!
Click to expand...

Well said,studying for this test will definitely make u a better physician.
Good Luck.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
RexMorganMD said:
As an AMG I think you will be set. If still scared, just pay for the NBME test online and it will predict your score fairly accurately. The step 3 isn't a hard test, most of the people you see freaking out about it are FMG's. Due to a multitude of reasons these tests are harder for them. 👍 I did 50-55% on the World ?'s and got 600+ on the nbme (should be good for 240+ on the real thing). The NBME is much more accurate as a predictive tool than anything else.
Click to expand...

It does not matter whether one is an AMG or an FMG.It all depends on a person's style of preparation for the standardised tests.Though we can standardise exams,but we can never standardise the methods of preparation which vary widely amongst the test takers.
So, one should take exams only when one feels fully prepared.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Bad news on the results...they are saying that if you take the test starting this week that score reporting will take longer than usual due to the change in the test software. Apparently they installed it this past week so those of us taking it starting this week (me included) will be the unlucky ones to suffer longer wait times. Good luck everyone! Koolaidkid--make sure you do the USMLE CD that they put out. I've heard the exam is like the CD and if anything doing the CD gave me more confidence (I can only pray the exam truly is more like the CD than UW).
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
RadOncRudy said:
make sure you do the USMLE CD that they put out. I've heard the exam is like the CD and if anything doing the CD gave me more confidence (I can only pray the exam truly is more like the CD than UW).
Click to expand...

Hmmm...I never received a CD in the mail. Is it possible they are putting it all online available for download now? Online they have 3 practice blocks of MCQs and 5 CCS cases. What is available on the CD?
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
thanks for the advice. the stuff on the website should be the same as the CD. I think it's Fred version 2 or something like that. I almost never feel prepared for anything. Good luck Rudy and everyone else taking step 3. I'll check out the CD.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
RexMorganMD said:
As an AMG I think you will be set. If still scared, just pay for the NBME test online and it will predict your score fairly accurately. The step 3 isn't a hard test, most of the people you see freaking out about it are FMG's. Due to a multitude of reasons these tests are harder for them. 👍 I did 50-55% on the World ?'s and got 600+ on the nbme (should be good for 240+ on the real thing). The NBME is much more accurate as a predictive tool than anything else.
Click to expand...

I'm scheduled to take the exam in about a week, and just started doing USMLEWorld questions a week ago. Haven't read anything or studied, though I'm doing a transitional year at a... minimally academic program. I say if you're getting 55%+ there's no reason to reschedule, assuming you are a decent test taker. I'm averaging 60% so far, so I'm just going to keep doing a couple practice sets a day until next week, no worries. Maybe I'll read up a bit on the CCS cases, and perhaps OB (it's the one subject I haven't had any experience in for the last 2 years).
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
winner123 said:
It does not matter whether one is an AMG or an FMG.
Click to expand...

If this was the case, the pass rate for AMG's and FMG's would be similar. The pass rates are not even REMOTELY close.

Again, for a multitude of reasons, this test is more difficult for FMG's, as evidenced by the pass rate posted by the NBME.

If you are an FMG, you have reason to freak out and study balls. If you are an AMG, you have a ~97% passing rate backing you.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
why r u guys in a rush to take Step 3?? If you are AMGs then you surely dont need it for visa purposes right??
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
RexMorganMD said:
If this was the case, the pass rate for AMG's and FMG's would be similar. The pass rates are not even REMOTELY close.

Again, for a multitude of reasons, this test is more difficult for FMG's, as evidenced by the pass rate posted by the NBME.

If you are an FMG, you have reason to freak out and study balls. If you are an AMG, you have a ~97% passing rate backing you.
Click to expand...

This also shows that most FMG's take this exam in a rush without fully preparing for it.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
pugsly said:
why r u guys in a rush to take Step 3?? If you are AMGs then you surely dont need it for visa purposes right??
Click to expand...

AMG's rush to take the step 3 because after our intern year, most of us will have faily limited exposure to the primary care material stressed on the exam. Can you imagine a 4th year radiology resident trying to answer clinic setting questions on preventative medicine?
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Hope you guys are right about this. I have done >90% UW with 56% correct. This corresponds with the 30th percentile of UW Qbankers. That is kinda freaking me out. Plus I have not really done much on the cases. I'm taking it in 4-5 days and definitely do not want to put off taking this thing. I'm also doing a minimally academic transitional going into rads next year.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
RexMorganMD said:
AMG's rush to take the step 3 because after our intern year, most of us will have faily limited exposure to the primary care material stressed on the exam. Can you imagine a 4th year radiology resident trying to answer clinic setting questions on preventative medicine?
Click to expand...

FMG's mostly take it in a month's time in order to get the H1B visas.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
jpro said:
Hope you guys are right about this. I have done >90% UW with 56% correct. This corresponds with the 30th percentile of UW Qbankers. That is kinda freaking me out. Plus I have not really done much on the cases. I'm taking it in 4-5 days and definitely do not want to put off taking this thing. I'm also doing a minimally academic transitional going into rads next year.
Click to expand...

Do U World Interactive CCS before taking the exam.
Good Luck.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
well dudes and dudettes, this test was harder than I expected. For those who freaked out like me near the end, I think the NBME practice test helps to chill you out.
In terms of cramming, I think probably bare minimum is 50% of UW and 25% of CCS. If you do the disk that is sent and you feel comfortable through all this, that should hopefully help you pass in terms of cramming. This is what I'd recommend as bare minimum for an AMG. You'll probably walk out feeling horrible but my guess is you'll probably pass, since stats being stats, 97% of AMGs pass this thing, though quite a few feel bad afterwards.
If you're spazzing out like I did at the last minute, do the NBME practice test. It will help gauge whether you can take the test or you should post-pone because you'll blow that big wad of cash on an F.
good luck to all.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.