Just another “I think I failed step 3” post”

[kk95]

Just took Step 3. Wanted to share my experience and maybe get a shred of validation from someone because at this point I’m absolutely certain I failed. I studied pretty hard for this test (uworld x2, 60% on first pass and 85% on second, went through all CCS cases, read MTB) and felt good going into it. Here’s my experience:

Day One: felt okay-ish. Lots of bio stats which I think I crushed, no issues with timing. But the medical questions were super weird. Felt like I was making an educated guess for all of them. Marked like half the questions for every section.

Day Two MCQ: Like everyone says, more like Uworld, but still way harder than I’d hoped. Marked about a third of the questions on each block.

CCS: Horrendous. I made some of the dumbest mistakes you could possibly imagine. Completely missed the diagnosis and management for two. Like, did not order the right screening test, was not remotely thinking about the right differential. In retrospect they were both incredibly obvious and I’m kicking myself for missing them. Another one I still didn’t know what was wrong with the patient but she seemed to get better. Another one I thought I knew what was going on but the patient refused to get better, so maybe I didn’t. And another one I tried to do an invasive procedure that the family refused and the patient never got better. So all in all five out of thirteen cases were COMPLETE s*** shows. Several others where I did ok but definitely made a few small mistakes regarding health maintenance/gold standard treatments.
I’m preparing myself for failure and trying to convince myself that wouldn’t be the end of the world. But if someone could tell me you screwed up this badly and still managed to pass I’d much appreciate it.

Also for reference: Step 1 221 Step 2 242. But those tests didn’t have CCS

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[SNAMJ]

Just took Step 3. Wanted to share my experience and maybe get a shred of validation from someone because at this point I’m absolutely certain I failed. I studied pretty hard for this test (uworld x2, 60% on first pass and 85% on second, went through all CCS cases, read MTB) and felt good going into it. Here’s my experience:

Day One: felt okay-ish. Lots of bio stats which I think I crushed, no issues with timing. But the medical questions were super weird. Felt like I was making an educated guess for all of them. Marked like half the questions for every section.

Day Two MCQ: Like everyone says, more like Uworld, but still way harder than I’d hoped. Marked about a third of the questions on each block.

CCS: Horrendous. I made some of the dumbest mistakes you could possibly imagine. Completely missed the diagnosis and management for two. Like, did not order the right screening test, was not remotely thinking about the right differential. In retrospect they were both incredibly obvious and I’m kicking myself for missing them. Another one I still didn’t know what was wrong with the patient but she seemed to get better. Another one I thought I knew what was going on but the patient refused to get better, so maybe I didn’t. And another one I tried to do an invasive procedure that the family refused and the patient never got better. So all in all five out of thirteen cases were COMPLETE s*** shows. Several others where I did ok but definitely made a few small mistakes regarding health maintenance/gold standard treatments.
I’m preparing myself for failure and trying to convince myself that wouldn’t be the end of the world. But if someone could tell me you screwed up this badly and still managed to pass I’d much appreciate it.

Also for reference: Step 1 221 Step 2 242. But those tests didn’t have CCS

Did you do UWSA? if so what is your scores

 

[kk95]

Did you do UWSA? if so what is your scores

No, didn’t do UWSA. Was worried it would psych me out, but now I’m definitely wishing I’d done it

 

[BazingaHero]

No, didn’t do UWSA. Was worried it would psych me out, but now I’m definitely wishing I’d done it

CCS is a totally different beast unlike MCQs. I would rather deal with the beast I know. You can actually prepare for MCQs but CCS is totally different. Yes, cases will never be exactly the same from UW or CCScases and overall feel is just totally different int he real test. I have been told to memorize standard tests to order for a particular condition so then condition pops up, you like a robot just type all of the tests you memorized and case should end. Initially, I thought well if you practice cases then you shouldn't really need to go out of your way to memorize but I do see the value in just memorizing. Its safer and less likely to miss common test.

 

[kk95]

CCS is a totally different beast unlike MCQs. I would rather deal with the beast I know. You can actually prepare for MCQs but CCS is totally different. Yes, cases will never be exactly the same from UW or CCScases and overall feel is just totally different int he real test. I have been told to memorize standard tests to order for a particular condition so then condition pops up, you like a robot just type all of the tests you memorized and case should end. Initially, I thought well if you practice cases then you shouldn't really need to go out of your way to memorize but I do see the value in just memorizing. Its safer and less likely to miss common test.

For sure. I’m just so bummed with myself because all the knowledge to do well on CCS was already in my brain but I just failed to retrieve it. Like, the second I walked out of the exam room all of the answers immediately came to me. I’ve been a sad sack of potatoes ever since.

 

[kk95]

Happy ending: passed quite comfortably. Hope someone reading this in the future can take comfort. I scoured the internet and couldnt find a single poster who had screwed up CCS the way I had: still ended up scoring “same” on CCS. This test is a sadistic money grab and shouldn’t exist. But I’m soooo glad I don’t have to worry about it anymore!

 

[kranium44]

Happy ending: passed quite comfortably. Hope someone reading this in the future can take comfort. I scoured the internet and couldnt find a single poster who had screwed up CCS the way I had: still ended up scoring “same” on CCS. This test is a sadistic money grab and shouldn’t exist. But I’m soooo glad I don’t have to worry about it anymore!

Congrats!! I was hoping to receive my scores today as well. Can you tell me when you took your exam?

 

[kk95]

Congrats!! I was hoping to receive my scores today as well. Can you tell me when you took your exam?

Yep, June 5 and 6! Score report was available at midnight on fsmb interactive website

 

[drmak89]

Congrats! Just took part 2 today and I was just elated to be done. Now panic has set in. Definitely made major mistakes on CCS and ALL my cases ended early. Then coupled with the step 1 style questions, my head is spinning.

 

[kk95]

Congrats! Just took part 2 today and I was just elated to be done. Now panic has set in. Definitely made major mistakes on CCS and ALL my cases ended early. Then coupled with the step 1 style questions, my head is spinning.

Thank you! Don’t miss that feeling one bit. I walked out of that test wondering if it would actually be in the public’s best interest for me to never get my license because of the horrendous malpractice I committed on those poor fake patients. Yet here I am. I hope you can do a better job than I did of relaxing, treating yourself and trusting the curve

 

[Langerhans of Islets]

Just took Step 3. Wanted to share my experience and maybe get a shred of validation from someone because at this point I’m absolutely certain I failed. I studied pretty hard for this test (uworld x2, 60% on first pass and 85% on second, went through all CCS cases, read MTB) and felt good going into it. Here’s my experience:

Day One: felt okay-ish. Lots of bio stats which I think I crushed, no issues with timing. But the medical questions were super weird. Felt like I was making an educated guess for all of them. Marked like half the questions for every section.

Day Two MCQ: Like everyone says, more like Uworld, but still way harder than I’d hoped. Marked about a third of the questions on each block.

CCS: Horrendous. I made some of the dumbest mistakes you could possibly imagine. Completely missed the diagnosis and management for two. Like, did not order the right screening test, was not remotely thinking about the right differential. In retrospect they were both incredibly obvious and I’m kicking myself for missing them. Another one I still didn’t know what was wrong with the patient but she seemed to get better. Another one I thought I knew what was going on but the patient refused to get better, so maybe I didn’t. And another one I tried to do an invasive procedure that the family refused and the patient never got better. So all in all five out of thirteen cases were COMPLETE s*** shows. Several others where I did ok but definitely made a few small mistakes regarding health maintenance/gold standard treatments.
I’m preparing myself for failure and trying to convince myself that wouldn’t be the end of the world. But if someone could tell me you screwed up this badly and still managed to pass I’d much appreciate it.

Also for reference: Step 1 221 Step 2 242. But those tests didn’t have CCS

Congratulations! Thank you for sharing with us. Were the day 1 questions from step 1 more clinical or more about the organism and mechanism and stuff? (organism related features like shape/capsule/strands/catase/oxidase etc)

 

[anUt88]

Just took Step 3. Wanted to share my experience and maybe get a shred of validation from someone because at this point I’m absolutely certain I failed. I studied pretty hard for this test (uworld x2, 60% on first pass and 85% on second, went through all CCS cases, read MTB) and felt good going into it. Here’s my experience:

Day One: felt okay-ish. Lots of bio stats which I think I crushed, no issues with timing. But the medical questions were super weird. Felt like I was making an educated guess for all of them. Marked like half the questions for every section.

Day Two MCQ: Like everyone says, more like Uworld, but still way harder than I’d hoped. Marked about a third of the questions on each block.

CCS: Horrendous. I made some of the dumbest mistakes you could possibly imagine. Completely missed the diagnosis and management for two. Like, did not order the right screening test, was not remotely thinking about the right differential. In retrospect they were both incredibly obvious and I’m kicking myself for missing them. Another one I still didn’t know what was wrong with the patient but she seemed to get better. Another one I thought I knew what was going on but the patient refused to get better, so maybe I didn’t. And another one I tried to do an invasive procedure that the family refused and the patient never got better. So all in all five out of thirteen cases were COMPLETE s*** shows. Several others where I did ok but definitely made a few small mistakes regarding health maintenance/gold standard treatments.
I’m preparing myself for failure and trying to convince myself that wouldn’t be the end of the world. But if someone could tell me you screwed up this badly and still managed to pass I’d much appreciate it.

Also for reference: Step 1 221 Step 2 242. But those tests didn’t have CCS

I just posted a thread about my CCS experience which also went awfully bad. I feel good about 6 cases, I feel blah about 2 but the remainder cases I have no idea. I missed 2 really easy cases but I was just so over it that the diagnosis went over my head. I haven't been able to sleep since then.

 

[TNKay]

Hello everyone!

I gave my Step 3 two days back and I am freaking out a lot. I left all the drug ad questions on day 1 and drained out my time in one of the blocks leaving out 6 questions. The mistakes are haunting me- some very easy infectious disease questions, one stat question, 1 peds, three coupled question stems (where you instantly know if you did the first question right), and so many other questions (some I can recall, some I cant). I scored a 225 on UWSA1, have decent scores in Step1 and CK. I had failed my CS and wanted to leverage Step 3 by scoring well in it and using it to compensate for my failure in the CS.

Please tell me if someone had a similar experience in Step 3 and still managed to score well?
I will immensely appreciate the inputs.

P.S. An IMG here trying desperately to get into residency

 

[KeenJohnson]

I literally felt terrible about 5/13 cases as well. I thought I actually killed 2-3 patients. Ended up with 241. It’s all a sham

 

[Creed_Bratton]

Hello everyone!

I gave my Step 3 two days back and I am freaking out a lot. I left all the drug ad questions on day 1 and drained out my time in one of the blocks leaving out 6 questions. The mistakes are haunting me- some very easy infectious disease questions, one stat question, 1 peds, three coupled question stems (where you instantly know if you did the first question right), and so many other questions (some I can recall, some I cant). I scored a 225 on UWSA1, have decent scores in Step1 and CK. I had failed my CS and wanted to leverage Step 3 by scoring well in it and using it to compensate for my failure in the CS.

Please tell me if someone had a similar experience in Step 3 and still managed to score well?
I will immensely appreciate the inputs.

P.S. An IMG here trying desperately to get into residency

I felt like crap walking out of this test and definitely recalled multiple mistakes I made. In fact I spent the next few days looking up everything I missed😂
Scored alright. I know it's easier said than done but try to just keep your cool and not work yourself up till the scores come out

 

[TNKay]

I felt like crap walking out of this test and definitely recalled multiple mistakes I made. In fact I spent the next few days looking up everything I missed😂
Scored alright. I know it's easier said than done but try to just keep your cool and not work yourself up till the scores come out

Thank you for your support! I shall certainly try to calm myself down!

 

[dontknowusername]

Thank you for your support! I shall certainly try to calm myself down!

I guess u will also get result next Wednesday

 

[Dr. Bob Loblaw]

To those who think they failed, I straight up intubated someone, had a “family refusal” to two of my invasive procedures, and still don’t know what happened to one of the kids I might’ve killed in a CCS case. Yeah... the CCS section was my highest bar score and I passed step 3 comfortably. The curve is real lol.

 

[TNKay]

I guess u will also get result next Wednesday

Yes, I will!

 

[TNKay]

Wanted to update the viewers of this thread on my score! I got 230! Feel utterly blessed! Immense thanks to all who gave me hope! Feel free to reach out to me for any help, whosoever may need it!