Last edited:
Step 3 Experience and Results
- Thread starter waterkey
- Start date
- Joined
- Nov 26, 2013
- Messages
- 1,349
- Reaction score
- 193
Thanks for posting your experience, congrats!
PGY2 IM... I might get my result this coming Wednesday... I will definitely get drunk that day if I pass.
First day was a disaster. I can't believe they still expect us to remember mechanism of drugs and mode inheritance of diseases we learned in MS1/2. I just chose an answer and move on for the biostats drug advertisement/research questions because they were so long.
Second day: I was slowly getting back my confidence in the first two blocks and then I got hit in the face in the next two. The last 2 blocks were like mehhh...
CSS: 7 or 8 out of the first 10 CCS cases were ok, but the last 3 were rough.
I am just hoping for a generous curve.
First day was a disaster. I can't believe they still expect us to remember mechanism of drugs and mode inheritance of diseases we learned in MS1/2. I just chose an answer and move on for the biostats drug advertisement/research questions because they were so long.
Second day: I was slowly getting back my confidence in the first two blocks and then I got hit in the face in the next two. The last 2 blocks were like mehhh...
CSS: 7 or 8 out of the first 10 CCS cases were ok, but the last 3 were rough.
I am just hoping for a generous curve.
Last edited:
- Joined
- Nov 26, 2013
- Messages
- 1,349
- Reaction score
- 193
Thanks for the post, please let us know how you did.
- Joined
- Nov 26, 2013
- Messages
- 1,349
- Reaction score
- 193
How did it go?
Hi!
I found other people's comments reassuring while preparing for step 3, so I will post mine to balance the reporting bias.
I realized I seldom had time to study and that I should prioritize in-training exams, so I bought the yearly Uworld. I had a steady 62 percentile for months and then at the end cramming (2 days) it dropped to 55 when I was doing some category I can't remember and started running out of time in the tests. I think the percentage was in the 60s. I trained myself to stop overthinking and to think about the context and how it is practiced by current doctors. When I knew I didn't know the answer, I used pathophysiology to take an educated guess.
I agree with the advice above only if you have recent clinical experience and you have not been doing research for years. That is the reason I waited. I decided to learn from my colleagues in other specialties by reading their notes and learning patient by patient for the past 2 years. Technique-wise, I just did the interactive cases of Uworld to figure out how it worked. I think I made a mistake by not realizing I was in the outpatient setting and ordering IV medications (In the real world, nurses would have surely let you know what they don't do in their unit/clinic!). I corrected it when trying to advance the clock. I felt very comfortable about the CCS cases otherwise.
If I had had more time, I would have done the other half of uworld that I never went through, gone through my wrong answers, the other practice cases and a review of flashcards. Alas, residency is busy and it is more important to prevent Mr. X from losing his ability to walk than scoring high on a test with my short term memory.
My score was 224, SEM 216-232, very average.
Neuro PGY-3
I found other people's comments reassuring while preparing for step 3, so I will post mine to balance the reporting bias.
I realized I seldom had time to study and that I should prioritize in-training exams, so I bought the yearly Uworld. I had a steady 62 percentile for months and then at the end cramming (2 days) it dropped to 55 when I was doing some category I can't remember and started running out of time in the tests. I think the percentage was in the 60s. I trained myself to stop overthinking and to think about the context and how it is practiced by current doctors. When I knew I didn't know the answer, I used pathophysiology to take an educated guess.
I agree with the advice above only if you have recent clinical experience and you have not been doing research for years. That is the reason I waited. I decided to learn from my colleagues in other specialties by reading their notes and learning patient by patient for the past 2 years. Technique-wise, I just did the interactive cases of Uworld to figure out how it worked. I think I made a mistake by not realizing I was in the outpatient setting and ordering IV medications (In the real world, nurses would have surely let you know what they don't do in their unit/clinic!). I corrected it when trying to advance the clock. I felt very comfortable about the CCS cases otherwise.
If I had had more time, I would have done the other half of uworld that I never went through, gone through my wrong answers, the other practice cases and a review of flashcards. Alas, residency is busy and it is more important to prevent Mr. X from losing his ability to walk than scoring high on a test with my short term memory.
My score was 224, SEM 216-232, very average.
Neuro PGY-3
- Joined
- Nov 26, 2013
- Messages
- 1,349
- Reaction score
- 193
Just found this post form USMLE website: United States Medical Licensing Examination | Announcements
Review of USMLE Step 3 minimum passing performance
Posted: September 03, 2019
The USMLE Management Committee is scheduled to review the minimum passing score for the USMLE Step 3 examination at its meeting on December 4-5, 2019. The Management Committee includes physicians drawn from medical education and licensing as well as members of the public.
The committee establishes and monitors Step 3 performance and completes an in-depth review of the minimum passing standard for each USMLE Step or its component every three to four years.
For the 2019 Step 3 review, information from multiple sources will be considered, including:
Review of USMLE Step 3 minimum passing performance
Posted: September 03, 2019
The USMLE Management Committee is scheduled to review the minimum passing score for the USMLE Step 3 examination at its meeting on December 4-5, 2019. The Management Committee includes physicians drawn from medical education and licensing as well as members of the public.
The committee establishes and monitors Step 3 performance and completes an in-depth review of the minimum passing standard for each USMLE Step or its component every three to four years.
For the 2019 Step 3 review, information from multiple sources will be considered, including:
- Results of content-based standard setting exercises conducted with three independent groups of physicians in 2019;
- Results of surveys of various groups (e.g., state licensing representatives, medical school faculty, samples of examinees) concerning the appropriateness of current pass/fail standards for Step examinations;
- Trends in examinee performance; and
- Measurement precision near the cut score.
