FIP on UWorld

[amilewide]

Hi all!

My first post here and I'm so appreciative of this community, thanks for any tips!

I am taking step3 in the next month, and I was wondering:

If I did all 540 Foundations of Independent Practice (FIP) on UWorld, and knew those answers well, could I do well on the FIP (day 1) section of the actual step3 exam? Why or why not?

I don't understand how the actual exam has 233 Day 1 questions but UWorld had only 540 -- does that mean that UWorld is high yield enough that it has all these questions covered?

Thanks much for any advice!

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[alpinebrook]

I don't understand how the actual exam has 233 Day 1 questions but UWorld had only 540 -- does that mean that UWorld is high yield enough that it has all these questions covered?

I didn't even think of that... it's a little scary, isn't it? I agree... Hoping UW is good enough!

That said, I don't think you should save the Advanced Clinical Medicine questions until after Day 1. I'd do them ALL before Day 1 and then if you have a week in between, maybe only do ACM (at least, skip the biostats, because from what I hear it's only on Day 1).

 

[amilewide]

Thanks!

Does anyone know from their experience, if one only does the 540 FIP questions on UWorld and knows them well, that they would do well on the FIP on the real exam? It just seems like there are so few FIP questions...

 

[RedSoxSuck]

Hi all!

My first post here and I'm so appreciative of this community, thanks for any tips!

I am taking step3 in the next month, and I was wondering:

If I did all 540 Foundations of Independent Practice (FIP) on UWorld, and knew those answers well, could I do well on the FIP (day 1) section of the actual step3 exam? Why or why not?

I don't understand how the actual exam has 233 Day 1 questions but UWorld had only 540 -- does that mean that UWorld is high yield enough that it has all these questions covered?

Thanks much for any advice!

Absolutely not.

Uworld FIP is nothing like real exam FIP. I took mine few weeks ago.

UWORLD: fairly simple biostats (decent amount of calculations such as sensitivity, specificity, or etc etc). Barely any mechanism of actions type of questions. Barely any type of receptors where the drug acts or pathway type of questions.
Real exam (my exam): not a single biostat calculation question. Need to understand meaning of sensitivity, specificity and how it can be manipulated to to mean something else. Meaning, you have to really understand this and not just memorize the equation where you can just plug and chug. Alot of mechanism, receptor type of questions.

If i were to re do, i would probably spend 3-5 days just on first aid step 1 to go through all of pharmacology section that talks about different receptors, bio availability crap and all. Also go through micro and just basic stuff.

 

[amilewide]

Wow thanks, so UWorld is peddling an inaccurate preparation product (at least for its FIP questions)?

 

[RedSoxSuck]

Wow thanks, so UWorld is peddling an inaccurate preparation product (at least for its FIP questions)?

Well, i am not sure if i would say that. It is still THE BEST prep product out there. Uworld is fine like everyone else has stated over and over but they can definitely do a better job of incorporating basic sciences (mechanisms etc). But then again, how much content on basic sciences is enough to satisfy "our" need? Should they combine entire step 1 content into step 3 question bank? So i'm not sure what they can do? What's high yield? Isn't everything high yield (atleast when it appears on "our" exam and we didn't review it). So i am not sure..


I mean the best thing "you" can do is to make sure to ace CCS and atleast day 2 content. But it's not as easy as it seems.

 

[NarcolepticPenguin]

Took my exam about 3 weeks ago and just got back the results Wednesday. Can confirm that UWorld felt lacking for Step 3 preparation. Also did MTB and First Aid Step 3 (both of which felt like terrible resources, TBH). I, too, got a bunch of mechanism of action questions that I was no longer familiar with, which UWorld and the books generally didn't cover. Overall, the biostats on Step 3 felt quite do-able, and there were a few calculation questions (but my undergrad major was in stats, so YMMV). Main complaint for day 1 was the quantity of esoteric questions you wouldn't think you needed to know.

Day 2 questions were shorter and completely bio-stats free. UWorld CCS is definitely high-yield in understanding workflow, and you should go through all the simulated cases as well as the additional written cases.

 

[amilewide]

Thanks, is there any resource for reviewing high yield mechanism of action/basic science pearls for Day 1?