Just wanted to post my exam experience because I have always found it helpful when others did so.
Background:
I'm a prelim-medicine intern going into PM&R next yr. Step I in the low 200's. Step 2 CK in the high 230's-low 240's. Step 2 CS pass all on the first attempt. Overall definitely not a genius.
Study method:
I studied for about 4 weeks while I was on a gen med rotation. It was an awful idea. I would recommend scheduling it at the end of an easy rotation (ie clinic, consult month, etc) so that you ensure you have adequate study time. I chose not to because I'm getting married this summer and I wanted to get the exam out of the way early in order to have my winter and spring free to help my fiancee plan. I just ended up having to sacrifice sleep for a while.
In any event, I bought Master the Boards and rarely used it, if at all. Overall, I would say that you don't need it. Doing the UWorld qbank was plenty for me. I would have liked to have gotten through the entire qbank, but due to time constraints, I only got through about 2/3 of the questions. Typically did blocks of 10 questions, random, in untimed mode. I didn't really read over the ones I got right, just made sure to read the explanation for all the questions I answered incorrectly (as well as correct answers where I wasn't sure what the answer was). My overall percentage correct was about 62%.
The first 3 weeks of prep consisted of trying to do as many questions as possible without burning out too hard. The last week I still did some questions here and there, but for the most part, I spent it getting familiar with the CCS software and completing those CCS UWorld cases. THESE ARE ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL. I can't stress that enough. You don't need anything other than this to adequately prepare for CCS. I did all of the cases twice and I was more than prepared for the real deal.
I took the NBME form 4 practice exam 1 week out and got a 370. Not sure what that means because they don't convert it into a 3-digit score estimate. However, I read on some forum somewhere that you should be scoring above 400 in order to comfortably pass the real thing so then I panicked and had a mild-freakout that drove me to ratchet up my studying. 2 days before the real exam, I took the UWorld sim exam and got like a 210ish or something? Not great, but at least was passing, so that made me feel a little better.
I barely looked at biostats while I was studying because it's one of those subjects that I just can't seem to keep straight in my head for longer than a few days at a time. Because of this, I just waited and then memorized all of the formulas the night before my exam (NNT, PPV, ARR, RR, etc).
Test day experience:
On day 1, I thought that the questions were rough, but manageable. I did find that the question stems were a little longer on the real exam than they were in UWorld, so I usually found myself finishing each section right before time expired without much more than a few seconds to go back and check my work. Lots of biostats that was relatively straight forward, and a few drug adds some of which I thought were reasonable and others where I had no idea what I was reading. Overall, I remember leaving the first day thinking "meh... wasn't too bad... not sure why everyone was complaining about it."
On day 2, however, I was absolutely MISERABLE. No biostats or drug ads on this day. The questions were seemingly more straightforward, however, I felt like every single question had like 2 or 3 reasonable answers. I would make sure that you know the guidelines for treatment of common diseases as well as how to risk stratify someone with multiple risk factors for a certain condition. I finished those question sets and distinctly remember feeling like I bombed that section.
CCS was a breeze. All of the cases were relatively common stuff. I messed up the first case by accidentally advancing the clock much farther than I wanted to and the guy got sicker, and then I messed up the second case because of a similar issue (nerves, I guess... plus being upset about how awful I felt about the multiple choice questions I had just finished). But after that I was able to settle down and get through the remainder of the cases quickly and without issue. I felt like I knew what was going on the entire time, but I was afraid that the two mistakes I made early on would cost me. All in all, day 2 felt horrible for me. I left with absolutely NO perception of how well (or poorly) I did.
Score:
I took the exam 10/22/15 and 10/23/15. Just got my score report at midnight today (11/11/15) so a little less than 3 weeks. I scored in the mid-220's, a good 15 points higher than what my Uworld practice exam predicted. Overall, I didn't get as much prep in as most other people, I probably freaked out way more than I needed to, but I passed comfortably and I never have to sit for another Step exam in my entire life!
I hope that others find this post helpful. I tried to hit all the things that I wanted to know when looking at people's Step 3 posts while I was prepping. Please feel free to ask any questions. Good luck, guys!
Background:
I'm a prelim-medicine intern going into PM&R next yr. Step I in the low 200's. Step 2 CK in the high 230's-low 240's. Step 2 CS pass all on the first attempt. Overall definitely not a genius.
Study method:
I studied for about 4 weeks while I was on a gen med rotation. It was an awful idea. I would recommend scheduling it at the end of an easy rotation (ie clinic, consult month, etc) so that you ensure you have adequate study time. I chose not to because I'm getting married this summer and I wanted to get the exam out of the way early in order to have my winter and spring free to help my fiancee plan. I just ended up having to sacrifice sleep for a while.
In any event, I bought Master the Boards and rarely used it, if at all. Overall, I would say that you don't need it. Doing the UWorld qbank was plenty for me. I would have liked to have gotten through the entire qbank, but due to time constraints, I only got through about 2/3 of the questions. Typically did blocks of 10 questions, random, in untimed mode. I didn't really read over the ones I got right, just made sure to read the explanation for all the questions I answered incorrectly (as well as correct answers where I wasn't sure what the answer was). My overall percentage correct was about 62%.
The first 3 weeks of prep consisted of trying to do as many questions as possible without burning out too hard. The last week I still did some questions here and there, but for the most part, I spent it getting familiar with the CCS software and completing those CCS UWorld cases. THESE ARE ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL. I can't stress that enough. You don't need anything other than this to adequately prepare for CCS. I did all of the cases twice and I was more than prepared for the real deal.
I took the NBME form 4 practice exam 1 week out and got a 370. Not sure what that means because they don't convert it into a 3-digit score estimate. However, I read on some forum somewhere that you should be scoring above 400 in order to comfortably pass the real thing so then I panicked and had a mild-freakout that drove me to ratchet up my studying. 2 days before the real exam, I took the UWorld sim exam and got like a 210ish or something? Not great, but at least was passing, so that made me feel a little better.
I barely looked at biostats while I was studying because it's one of those subjects that I just can't seem to keep straight in my head for longer than a few days at a time. Because of this, I just waited and then memorized all of the formulas the night before my exam (NNT, PPV, ARR, RR, etc).
Test day experience:
On day 1, I thought that the questions were rough, but manageable. I did find that the question stems were a little longer on the real exam than they were in UWorld, so I usually found myself finishing each section right before time expired without much more than a few seconds to go back and check my work. Lots of biostats that was relatively straight forward, and a few drug adds some of which I thought were reasonable and others where I had no idea what I was reading. Overall, I remember leaving the first day thinking "meh... wasn't too bad... not sure why everyone was complaining about it."
On day 2, however, I was absolutely MISERABLE. No biostats or drug ads on this day. The questions were seemingly more straightforward, however, I felt like every single question had like 2 or 3 reasonable answers. I would make sure that you know the guidelines for treatment of common diseases as well as how to risk stratify someone with multiple risk factors for a certain condition. I finished those question sets and distinctly remember feeling like I bombed that section.
CCS was a breeze. All of the cases were relatively common stuff. I messed up the first case by accidentally advancing the clock much farther than I wanted to and the guy got sicker, and then I messed up the second case because of a similar issue (nerves, I guess... plus being upset about how awful I felt about the multiple choice questions I had just finished). But after that I was able to settle down and get through the remainder of the cases quickly and without issue. I felt like I knew what was going on the entire time, but I was afraid that the two mistakes I made early on would cost me. All in all, day 2 felt horrible for me. I left with absolutely NO perception of how well (or poorly) I did.
Score:
I took the exam 10/22/15 and 10/23/15. Just got my score report at midnight today (11/11/15) so a little less than 3 weeks. I scored in the mid-220's, a good 15 points higher than what my Uworld practice exam predicted. Overall, I didn't get as much prep in as most other people, I probably freaked out way more than I needed to, but I passed comfortably and I never have to sit for another Step exam in my entire life!
I hope that others find this post helpful. I tried to hit all the things that I wanted to know when looking at people's Step 3 posts while I was prepping. Please feel free to ask any questions. Good luck, guys!
