How Long Should I Study For Step III?

[Coastie]

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Thanks.

 

[yaah]

Get a review book (kaplan questions, whatever). Go through it. Practice the CD they send you. Don't go nuts unless you have problems taking tests for whatever reason. I'm in path and I didn't have any trouble. I had one review book (Kaplan book I think). And I also looked through someone's "Crush" book to remind myself on all the pregnancy and childhood milestones stuff that I know nothing about. Don't think I studied more than a couple of weeks total.

 

[Blade28]

Depends on how fresh all of that non-residency-field stuff is in your head.

I'm in G Surg, so I especially needed to brush up on Peds/OB/Psych. I spent a long weekend skimming Crush and reviewing the clinical cases at the back of First Aid. I also did the official practice CD. That's it.

 

[yaah]

Yeah, just make sure you practice the scenarios that they give you on the CD so you know what your different options are.

 

[cali-ob]

Get a review book (kaplan questions, whatever). Go through it. Practice the CD they send you. Don't go nuts unless you have problems taking tests for whatever reason. I'm in path and I didn't have any trouble. I had one review book (Kaplan book I think). And I also looked through someone's "Crush" book to remind myself on all the pregnancy and childhood milestones stuff that I know nothing about. Don't think I studied more than a couple of weeks total.

I'm glad to hear you say this....on some other threads people are talking about taking review courses, and tons of books etc. Maybe you don't just need to bring the proverbial "number two pencil" but I'm glad to hear people say it's not as serious as others seem to make it out to be. I mean, I'm no genius, but I'm pretty good at taking standardized tests, and it's not like this stuff is all new at this point right?

 

[guy_incognito]

I think so long as you have passed the first 2 without much trouble, you probably could easily get away with not even studying. However, some minimal studying (<3hrs) for a week is what most people seem to do. I'm taking it tomorrow, and we'll see how that goes. But definitely do some of the practice cases just to learn how it works and what your options are.

 

[bigfrank]

Thanks.

<1 vacation day. < 8 hours total

no biggie.

 

[yaah]

I'm glad to hear you say this....on some other threads people are talking about taking review courses, and tons of books etc. Maybe you don't just need to bring the proverbial "number two pencil" but I'm glad to hear people say it's not as serious as others seem to make it out to be. I mean, I'm no genius, but I'm pretty good at taking standardized tests, and it's not like this stuff is all new at this point right?

I think it depends on your individual situation. Personally, I probably studied a little more than the average resident for two reasons: 1) I'm anal and 2) (more importantly) I'm in path and somewhat divorced from a lot of clinical stuff. However, I still didn't study very much. Like I said, I got a question book and borrowed someone's "crush step III" so I could review pediatrics and OB.

If you, as was said above, have had success on I and II without taking a year off to study for them, you are unlikely to have too much trouble with III. The style of questions is similar, the topics are predictable. A review course is unlikely to offer you much unless you are a foreign graduate or are several years removed from step II. Get a question book, see how you do. If you get them all wrong, then you might want to consider doing more!

 

[sia_simba]

I spent 2 weeks reading Crush step 3 while I was on labor and delivery.

I took 2 weeks vacation to do questions, kaplan qbook and usmleworld. However... I do pretty well on kaplan questions but usmleworld questions are just very anal.

i'm taking it april 28th, so I'll let you know after the exam.