Step 3 Next Week

[thelegend23]

Step 3 is in 7 days. Here are my stats:

- UWSA 1 (took 7 weeks prior) - 207
- UWSA 2 (took today - 7 days prior) - 207
- UWorld Step 3 - finished 1st pass yesterday, all on tutor untimed mode - 65% correct

I'm very frustrated as I made no improvement in my score. My biggest problem is the time limit. For UWSA2, for the first three blocks, I still had 4-5 questions left before the time was about to run out, so I made random guesses on those. For the last block, I had to make random guesses on the last 8 questions!!! again I was out of time.

Do other people find the time limit challenging? How to deal with this?

I tried to do my best by skimming over irrelevant information in the question stems... it is still had to finish the entire block on time.

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[DocSpy332]

I also had problems with the time in my UWSAs and surprisingly in NBMEs too.
Things were better in the real exam. I didnt have time to recheck my flagged questions but at least I did not left any questions unanswered.

I think that the fact that we take the assessments at home, relaxed and less focused results in these time problems. Personally I also used to cheat in couple questions during the assessments which was also very time consuming.

I dont think there is much you can do about it, apart from doing as many questions as possible AND of course I dont think that changing any test taking techniques would help you (having in mind that you have now your own- best way of approaching questions after going through step 1 and step 2).

 

[thelegend23]

I also had problems with the time in my UWSAs and surprisingly in NBMEs too.
Things were better in the real exam. I didnt have time to recheck my flagged questions but at least I did not left any questions unanswered.

I think that the fact that we take the assessments at home, relaxed and less focused results in these time problems. Personally I also used to cheat in couple questions during the assessments which was also very time consuming.

I dont think there is much you can do about it, apart from doing as many questions as possible AND of course I dont think that changing any test taking techniques would help you (having in mind that you have now your own- best way of approaching questions after going through step 1 and step 2).

Thanks for your reply. How did you find the actual exam in terms of time limit? Was it similar to UWSAs?

 

[DocSpy332]

Things were better although not perfect.
As I noted above, I didnt have time to get through my flagged questions.

 

[thelegend23]

I just finished Step 3. I don't know if I passed. I feel like I got wrecked.

Day 1 - it was an absolute sh** show. There were too many wtf questions to count. The time limit was an issue. I have to really rush through the last 3-4 questions to be able to finish the block. I did flag questions but obviously did not have time to review them. I had many drugs ads and abstracts that were too long to read. I basically had to guess on those and move on for the sake of time. There were tons of basic science questions from step 1...and I could not remember most of them. I felt horrible after Day 1.


Day 2 - MCQ was much better and more straight forward compared to Day 1. The difficulty level was very similar to UWorld. CCS style was similar to UWorld but I did not get one single straight forward case I was hoping for. I had no idea what the hell was going on in at least 3 of my CCS cases so I kept on ordering more and more tests to get clues, but it got me nowhere. And some of my cases ended too early i.e. one of my 20 min case ended in less than 10 min.

In conclusion, I am really scared.

 

[APA 32]

I just finished Step 3. I don't know if I passed. I feel like I got wrecked.

Day 1 - it was an absolute sh** show. There were too many wtf questions to count. The time limit was an issue. I have to really rush through the last 3-4 questions to be able to finish the block. I did flag questions but obviously did not have time to review them. I had many drugs ads and abstracts that were too long to read. I basically had to guess on those and move on for the sake of time. There were tons of basic science questions from step 1...and I could not remember most of them. I felt horrible after Day 1.


Day 2 - MCQ was much better and more straight forward compared to Day 1. The difficulty level was very similar to UWorld. CCS style was similar to UWorld but I did not get one single straight forward case I was hoping for. I had no idea what the hell was going on in at least 3 of my CCS cases so I kept on ordering more and more tests to get clues, but it got me nowhere. And some of my cases ended too early i.e. one of my 20 min case ended in less than 10 min.

In conclusion, I am really scared.

did you pass?

 

[MudPhud20XX]

I just finished Step 3. I don't know if I passed. I feel like I got wrecked.

Day 1 - it was an absolute sh** show. There were too many wtf questions to count. The time limit was an issue. I have to really rush through the last 3-4 questions to be able to finish the block. I did flag questions but obviously did not have time to review them. I had many drugs ads and abstracts that were too long to read. I basically had to guess on those and move on for the sake of time. There were tons of basic science questions from step 1...and I could not remember most of them. I felt horrible after Day 1.


Day 2 - MCQ was much better and more straight forward compared to Day 1. The difficulty level was very similar to UWorld. CCS style was similar to UWorld but I did not get one single straight forward case I was hoping for. I had no idea what the hell was going on in at least 3 of my CCS cases so I kept on ordering more and more tests to get clues, but it got me nowhere. And some of my cases ended too early i.e. one of my 20 min case ended in less than 10 min.

In conclusion, I am really scared.

I felt the same and found out I actually failed lol! I've never failed although I came close failing CS and step 2 CK and doing an internship in surgery did not help at all. Taking the beast again in Dec and trying to juggle with my busy residency, would really appreciate any advise I can get. Thanks!

 

[Qrio]

did you pass?

yeah, he did.

"Passed! Feeling blessed!! UWSA1: 207 UWSA2: 207 Real deal: 223"

 

[MudPhud20XX]

Congrats man!

 

[APA 32]

I felt the same and found out I actually failed lol! I've never failed although I came close failing CS and step 2 CK and doing an internship in surgery did not help at all. Taking the beast again in Dec and trying to juggle with my busy residency, would really appreciate any advise I can get. Thanks!

Good luck