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Hey, thought I would post yet another step 3 experience thread, just to help anyone out who is taking it soon.
Quick background, I am a transitional year resident going into radiology. Previous scores were 251 on step 1 and 260 on step 2ck. I had easy electives in the 2 months preceding the test and used my free time to study. Personally I used UW Qbank/CCS, MTB3, and DIT Step 3 to study. I took the NBME CCMSA approx 1 week out and got 680 on that.
Day 1:
This day was somewhat surprising for me. It had a lot more basic science/step 1 type stuff then I expected. Drug mechanisms of action/classification of pathogens/histology were some of the stuff that stood out. Often there would be a normal clinical stem then they would ask some basic science related question about the disease/treatment/pathogen instead of the more typical questions I was used to seeing in UW.
There was a decent amount of biostats, but not an overwhelming amount. I tend to do well on these questions in UW, so it's possible they just don't stand out for me as much. Also a decent amount of ethics type questions with some scenarios I hadn't seen before, but most were still straightforward. Nearly every block had a research abstract or drug ad, but the questions on these tended to be softballs compared to UW.
Another thing to mention, questions stems were long. It is a slog to get through everything in time. I was cutting it close on several blocks, though I never ran out of time or had to guess. There were times I had to hurry though, which could have lead to some misses. I never have issues with time on practice sets, so this was different.
Day 2:
-MCQ: Questions felt very similar to UW on day 2. Overall, I felt it was harder on average than UW though. (Similar to a hard block of UW, i.e., individual questions weren't harder, just greater ratio of hard to easy questions). There were some questions out of left field, but overall, not too much surprising on this section. Stems were still somewhat long, but I didn't have as much of a time crunch compared to day 1, I was able to go back and review marked questions adequately on most blocks.
-CCS: This was the one part of the exam that was easier than I expected. Overall, cases were very straightforward. Every case ended early for me with the patient doing well. Even 20 minute cases mostly ended in less than 10. In general, cases required less workup and management compared to UW and would frequently end as soon as you ordered the correct treatment. There was one specific case that I couldn't figure out what was going on at the time, but it still ended early with broad symptomatic-type treatment. (I now think I know what it was and my treatment was mostly correct). Nearly every other case was similar to one in UW, so if you do all the practice cases, you should be fine.
One thing I don't see people mention is how many 10 v. 20 minute cases there are. I can't remember the exact number but it was roughly half and half.
There was a snafu with my test freezing up right after I ended the last case (before the ending survey), so that left a bad taste in my mouth, but from speaking with prometric staff on location and over the phone, it seems like it shouldn't be a big issue.
Overall, I would say the test was slightly harder than expected with regards to MCQ and easier with regards to CCS. I don't feel amazing about it, but I am also not worried about failing. I think UW Qbank and CCS is sufficient to pass. I don't think I needed to do MTB3 and DIT. The NBME CCMSA is probably the most similar to actual exam content, so I would imagine it is the best way to gauge where you stand. As far as the step 1 type content on day 1, I don't really know the best way to prepare for it. It's not really adequately covered in UW, but using any specific step 1 study book would be way overkill. I mostly just relied on holdover knowledge, which may or may not be feasible if you are taking it further out from med school.
I'll update with my actual score once I know it.
Edit:
Ended up with a 246, very happy with how I did. My overall performance was best in Day 2 MCQs, then day 1 MCQs, then CCS. CCS passed barely into borderline performance, nothing else did. Glad to finally be done with USMLE!
Quick background, I am a transitional year resident going into radiology. Previous scores were 251 on step 1 and 260 on step 2ck. I had easy electives in the 2 months preceding the test and used my free time to study. Personally I used UW Qbank/CCS, MTB3, and DIT Step 3 to study. I took the NBME CCMSA approx 1 week out and got 680 on that.
Day 1:
This day was somewhat surprising for me. It had a lot more basic science/step 1 type stuff then I expected. Drug mechanisms of action/classification of pathogens/histology were some of the stuff that stood out. Often there would be a normal clinical stem then they would ask some basic science related question about the disease/treatment/pathogen instead of the more typical questions I was used to seeing in UW.
There was a decent amount of biostats, but not an overwhelming amount. I tend to do well on these questions in UW, so it's possible they just don't stand out for me as much. Also a decent amount of ethics type questions with some scenarios I hadn't seen before, but most were still straightforward. Nearly every block had a research abstract or drug ad, but the questions on these tended to be softballs compared to UW.
Another thing to mention, questions stems were long. It is a slog to get through everything in time. I was cutting it close on several blocks, though I never ran out of time or had to guess. There were times I had to hurry though, which could have lead to some misses. I never have issues with time on practice sets, so this was different.
Day 2:
-MCQ: Questions felt very similar to UW on day 2. Overall, I felt it was harder on average than UW though. (Similar to a hard block of UW, i.e., individual questions weren't harder, just greater ratio of hard to easy questions). There were some questions out of left field, but overall, not too much surprising on this section. Stems were still somewhat long, but I didn't have as much of a time crunch compared to day 1, I was able to go back and review marked questions adequately on most blocks.
-CCS: This was the one part of the exam that was easier than I expected. Overall, cases were very straightforward. Every case ended early for me with the patient doing well. Even 20 minute cases mostly ended in less than 10. In general, cases required less workup and management compared to UW and would frequently end as soon as you ordered the correct treatment. There was one specific case that I couldn't figure out what was going on at the time, but it still ended early with broad symptomatic-type treatment. (I now think I know what it was and my treatment was mostly correct). Nearly every other case was similar to one in UW, so if you do all the practice cases, you should be fine.
One thing I don't see people mention is how many 10 v. 20 minute cases there are. I can't remember the exact number but it was roughly half and half.
There was a snafu with my test freezing up right after I ended the last case (before the ending survey), so that left a bad taste in my mouth, but from speaking with prometric staff on location and over the phone, it seems like it shouldn't be a big issue.
Overall, I would say the test was slightly harder than expected with regards to MCQ and easier with regards to CCS. I don't feel amazing about it, but I am also not worried about failing. I think UW Qbank and CCS is sufficient to pass. I don't think I needed to do MTB3 and DIT. The NBME CCMSA is probably the most similar to actual exam content, so I would imagine it is the best way to gauge where you stand. As far as the step 1 type content on day 1, I don't really know the best way to prepare for it. It's not really adequately covered in UW, but using any specific step 1 study book would be way overkill. I mostly just relied on holdover knowledge, which may or may not be feasible if you are taking it further out from med school.
I'll update with my actual score once I know it.
Edit:
Ended up with a 246, very happy with how I did. My overall performance was best in Day 2 MCQs, then day 1 MCQs, then CCS. CCS passed barely into borderline performance, nothing else did. Glad to finally be done with USMLE!
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