Do residencies allow a “chill” month for Step 3?

[VA Hopeful Dr]

Pathology is the least “narrow” field in medicine (FM is probably #2).

I know very little about pathology, would you mind expanding on this a little bit?

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[JP2740]

I’ve never personally heard of this

 

[LunaOri]

I know very little about pathology, would you mind expanding on this a little bit?

Basically, you have to know everything about everything! All conditions, all ages. Clinical (lab tests), surgical (biopsies, cytologies, excisions), anatomic (autopsies). In order to do clinical pathology well, you need to know physiology and some pharmacology, transfusion medicine, hematology, microbiology, chemistry/toxicology, molecular biology/genomics. It's an enormous body of knowledge.

 

[Taddy Mason]

I’m not aware of any programs that routinely offer dedicated for Step 3 and it usually just comes down to coordinating lighter rotations and vacation, which are program dependent. That said, I’m of the opinion that you should try to take it as soon as possible and get it over with. It hardly differs from Step 2 beyond the clinical case portion, and the closer you are to having taken Step 2 and shelf exams the less that material will have atrophied and you’ll save yourself some time and effort with respect to studying. By no means is it a challenging exam and you can essentially view it as P/F unless aiming for a more competitive IM or Surg fellowship; however, having Step 3 hanging over my head throughout most of residency was easily one of the most stressful aspects of residency and taking it sooner is towards the top of the list of things I would do differently if I were to hypothetically go back to the end of med school/beginning of residency. Unfortunately, as others have said, you can’t register for it until you have officially graduated, orientation dates can vary considerably between programs, and not all programs are the greatest at communicating schedules, vacation policies, etc. prior to residency starting so that you can plan ahead (I didn’t get my intern schedule until less than a week before orientation, didn’t realize/wasn’t informed by seniors that my schedule had been randomly front loaded with all of the easy rotations literally back to back that people usually use to take Step 3 until I was almost done with them, and my program had an unnecessarily complicated vacation policy).

 

[Lexdiamondz]

Most residencies AFAIK don't have dedicated Step 3 study time. You have your block schedule and generally you just schedule your exam during or immediately after one of the easier blocks.

Truthfully, unless you're of below-average test taking ability (for physicians) you really don't need much dedicated, intensive study time for Step 3. Obv don't blow it off completely because people do fail, however it shouldn't be difficult to pass.

 

[eteshoe]

I think those 6 weeks are probably less special for me since I have spent a fair amount of time enjoying life. What I really don't want is to come home from a long day at the hospital during intern year and say "wow, I would really like to sit down with my girlfriend and my dog, perhaps have a bee.... oh wait I have to study broad swaths of medicine that aren't specialty related." I think my life would be less stressful without step three looming. Just a thought. If I'm going to fail step three if I take it too early, then sure... but if I am able to pass step three at the end of fourth year I am inclined to take it.

As a non-trad thats doing a dual degree I very much agree with this outlook. I've had plenty of time to enjoy my 20s and early 30s interspersed with the annoyances of med/grad school. My 4th year should be pretty front loaded so I'll likely do vacationing/studying on the back half. I'd rather just get this annoying hurdle out the way ASAP so I can enjoy the little free time I have intern year w/ my wife and friends.

 

[aldol16]

Depends on the residency but for me, Step 3 was just something you took when you had a free couple of days (or were on a rotation that allowed that). Definitely didn't get a lot of dedicated study time for it but then again, score doesn't really matter so why spend that extra time on it.

 

[mistafab]

Bro, step 3 is such a pathetic joke. Just do your job and you’ll be prepared. Most intern years arent going to be chill, but many interns take step 3 and have zero issues with no dedicated time. Please dont be a loser and use up your only vacation for the year to study for this exam.

If your specialty-> subspecialty depends on your score, then by all means work your butt off in your down time studying, but otherwise just do the minimum and pass it.

 

[Med Ed]

Bro, step 3 is such a pathetic joke. Just do your job and you’ll be prepared. Most intern years arent going to be chill, but many interns take step 3 and have zero issues with no dedicated time. Please dont be a loser and use up your only vacation for the year to study for this exam.

With the increase in anxiety over, well, everything, that's not how it works anymore.

Take Step 1. It used to be that students took it right after the end of second year. Then a period of dedicated study became customary. Now you need to develop a coherent 18-month plan that involves strategic, tailored deployment of third party resources with precisely timed NBME practice exams.

The same is happening with Step 2. Not long ago, students simply took it during a slow month in fourth year. Soon it will be normal to have dedicated Step 2 time, pre-dedicated study time, pre-pre-dedicated assessment and planning time, and a test-day ritual that involves anabolic steroids, novocaine, Nyquil, Darvon, and some sort of fish paralyzer.

 

[Billiam95]

With the increase in anxiety over, well, everything, that's not how it works anymore.

Take Step 1. It used to be that students took it right after the end of second year. Then a period of dedicated study became customary. Now you need to develop a coherent 18-month plan that involves strategic, tailored deployment of third party resources with precisely timed NBME practice exams.

The same is happening with Step 2. Not long ago, students simply took it during a slow month in fourth year. Soon it will be normal to have dedicated Step 2 time, pre-dedicated study time, pre-pre-dedicated assessment and planning time, and a test-day ritual that involves anabolic steroids, novocaine, Nyquil, Darvon, and some sort of fish paralyzer.

Just responding to incentives...

 

[Dantes]

Not that I'm complaining, but I was always surprised why Step 3 held so little weight for fellowship applications when it's the most recently taken and most clinically oriented of the USMLEs.

 

[deleted1139416]

test-day ritual that involves anabolic steroids, novocaine, Nyquil, Darvon, and some sort of fish paralyzer.

Thanks for the recommendation Dr. Med Ed - now I'm gonna spend the next few months hunting these down for Step 2 day 😉