USMLE Develop Study Plan, Resources for Step 3

[trollaway]

Is there somewhere good for FMGs or those taking step 3 that are out of practice for a long time? Recent posts here seem limited overall and outdated.

Nice to compile:
Study schedule ideas for those in residency/busy
Study schedule ideas for those with dedicated time like not in residency or big block free
Like when to take self assessments at start, middle, end, which ones, and doing CCS and biostats review.

Also in study schedule, how people used self assessments from UW & NBME and timing.

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[trollaway]

I want pass, but more than pass to do as well as I can
I have 2 months to study full time. I did average, not great not bad on first 2 steps with average amount of studying.

My questions to you:
Feel overwhelmed on books, want to choose to buy asap.
If you only had one book to read for test? MTB is gold standard? FA isn't good? Torn on MTB, Secrets, Crush, Step Up To.
If only one book in addition for CCS? Thinking Crush CCS look like gold standard

Comments on following ideas I got from SDN about studying:

Have UWorld package with CCS, biostats, 2 SA, both NBMEs, USMLE free paper practice qs, USMLE 6 practice CCS
Goal to do UWorld at least once, read ALL explanations.
Redo all wrong and marked if not all questions once.

When should I do self assessment? One as baseline? Which one?
How would you space out your self assessments? When would you do them? One towards the beginning and one towards the middle and one towards the end makes sense to me, but over 2 months, which ones and when?

 

[DocSpy332]

hey! I am also preparing for step 3! Non US IMG full time studying.

My step 2 was 6 months ago at 250s and my plan for step 3 is as follows:

Doing 5-6 blocks of UW just to understand the difficulty of step3 (having done that)
Going over my step2 materials (Doing this now)
Doing the first step3 assessment. (here is one big checkpoint if I do well I will continue my plan, if not I really dont know)
3-4 days of UW CCS
7-8 days of UW (2 blocks per day)
2nd assessment +/- review of my notes (if I decide to do a review, it will be +7 days)
3-4 days of UW CCS
1 day of "CCS assessment" (I will do 13 CCS that day)
7-8 days of UW (2 blocks per day)
3rd assessment
review of my notes (7 days)
DAY 1 of examination
3-4 days of UW CCS & 1-2 blocks of UW
DAY 2 of examination

I hope to have taken the exam by early May.
I dont know if I will need to change this program or not but currently I think that it is a decent preparation.

Any advice is greatly welcome!!!!!

 

[Ryuzaki]

hey! I am also preparing for step 3! Non US IMG full time studying.

My step 2 was 6 months ago at 250s and my plan for step 3 is as follows:

Doing 5-6 blocks of UW just to understand the difficulty of step3 (having done that)
Going over my step2 materials (Doing this now)
Doing the first step3 assessment. (here is one big checkpoint if I do well I will continue my plan, if not I really dont know)
3-4 days of UW CCS
7-8 days of UW (2 blocks per day)
2nd assessment +/- review of my notes (if I decide to do a review, it will be +7 days)
3-4 days of UW CCS
1 day of "CCS assessment" (I will do 13 CCS that day)
7-8 days of UW (2 blocks per day)
3rd assessment
review of my notes (7 days)
DAY 1 of examination
3-4 days of UW CCS & 1-2 blocks of UW
DAY 2 of examination

I hope to have taken the exam by early May.
I dont know if I will need to change this program or not but currently I think that it is a decent preparation.

Any advice is greatly welcome!!!!!

Nice, I think going over Step 2 material is underrated, I will likely do the same and even maybe a bit on Step 1 stuff I felt weak on (e.g. Genetics).

 

[DocSpy332]

Nice, I think going over Step 2 material is underrated, I will likely do the same and even maybe a bit on Step 1 stuff I felt weak on (e.g. Genetics).

I have not seen any genetics question in UW until now. If I do I will maybe do the same.

 

[Baklava118]

hey guys. Have you taken step 3 exam? If yes how was it? I have 2 months to study full time. Is that enough? Took CK june 2019. And scored average. Please guide me. Is only UWORLD enough?

 

[Baklava118]

hey! I am also preparing for step 3! Non US IMG full time studying.

My step 2 was 6 months ago at 250s and my plan for step 3 is as follows:

Doing 5-6 blocks of UW just to understand the difficulty of step3 (having done that)
Going over my step2 materials (Doing this now)
Doing the first step3 assessment. (here is one big checkpoint if I do well I will continue my plan, if not I really dont know)
3-4 days of UW CCS
7-8 days of UW (2 blocks per day)
2nd assessment +/- review of my notes (if I decide to do a review, it will be +7 days)
3-4 days of UW CCS
1 day of "CCS assessment" (I will do 13 CCS that day)
7-8 days of UW (2 blocks per day)
3rd assessment
review of my notes (7 days)
DAY 1 of examination
3-4 days of UW CCS & 1-2 blocks of UW
DAY 2 of examination

I hope to have taken the exam by early May.
I dont know if I will need to change this program or not but currently I think that it is a decent preparation.

Any advice is greatly welcome!!!!!

hey. Have you taken step 3 exam? If yes how was it? I have 2 months to study full time. Is that enough? Took CK june 2019. And scored average. Please guide me. Is only UWORLD enough?

 

[DocSpy332]

hey. Have you taken step 3 exam? If yes how was it? I have 2 months to study full time. Is that enough? Took CK june 2019. And scored average. Please guide me. Is only UWORLD enough?

Hi!

STEP 3 Score VS USMLE WORLD AVERAGE

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...

forums.studentdoctor.net

 

[Baklava118]

Hi!

STEP 3 Score VS USMLE WORLD AVERAGE

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...

forums.studentdoctor.net

Hey. How are you? Have you taken step 3 or studying for it? My only question is one to two months preparation time enough?

 

[tylander]

Hey. How are you? Have you taken step 3 or studying for it? My only question is one to two months preparation time enough?

"Enough time" is however long it takes to get through UWorld. That could be 2 weeks if it's all you're doing or 3 months if you're on demanding rotations. I used UWorld alone, made "one-liner" notes of all the tough questions to review later, went through their CCS cases twice, and ended up scoring really well (257)! If you have any specific questions, I'd be happy to answer.

 

[Baklava118]

"Enough time" is however long it takes to get through UWorld. That could be 2 weeks if it's all you're doing or 3 months if you're on demanding rotations. I used UWorld alone, made "one-liner" notes of all the tough questions to review later, went through their CCS cases twice, and ended up scoring really well (257)! If you have any specific questions, I'd be happy to answer.

Thank you so much @tylander one more question.
How important is basic science part from step 1 for preparation of step 3?
And do you mind sharing your Uworld first Pass correlations, UWSA correlations to real exam? Thanks in advance

 

[tylander]

Thank you so much @tylander one more question.
How important is basic science part from step 1 for preparation of step 3?
And do you mind sharing your Uworld first Pass correlations, UWSA correlations to real exam? Thanks in advance

There were maybe 6-8 Step 1-like basic science questions that were pretty much a shot in the dark. I knew some of the answers and the rest were a total guess. I don't think it's worth going over all that material for just a few extra questions, since they could be ANYTHING. Very low yield. You could spend 100 hours studying Step 3 material and really nail down most of the questions vs. 100 hours Step 1 material with hopes they happen to toss that in there. If you do feel very driven to study the basic science stuff, I will say that heritability was like 2-3, so those DirtyUSMLE videos with the songs may be good to listen to a few times.

Study time: Casually over 4 months (5-10Q/day), then intense (4-6h/day) x2weeks
UWorld first pass: 74%
UWSA 1: 233 (2 weeks before)
Real: 257

 

[Baklava118]

thank you so much @tylander I really appreciate your help.