US IMG here, class of 2020 and still unmatched so here’s hoping this is what puts me over the top. Since grad I've been scribing for pain management and covid swabbing/vaxxing for the school district, so I had to relearn a lot for this exam. This thread comforted me and helped me make a last week study plan that kicked me into high gear, so here’s my humble contribution:
Numbers:
Step1: 197 (a family member fractured C1-2 the week I took it, I’m proud of the score under the circumstances, but I’ve got something to prove)
Step2: 221
Step3:
226
Study:
-2 months on and off with 2 jobs and 1 post-grad rotation of 50+ hours per week. 2 weeks dedicated (tho tbh I worked 8 of those days)
-Uworld 58% untimed tutor first pass. Went subject by subject to learn, redid all my incorrects until I understood why I was getting them wrong. Second pass, random timed mode 89%. Also did MtB and their 4 Correlations and Clinical Scenarios books which have the basic science correlates intermixed with CCS cases, and Step 3 Clinical Judgement. Skimmed FA1 pharm the night before.
-Crush CCS x2, one time learning, one time practice ordering on the FRED software. Cannot overstate how helpful this was. FRED 6 x2, and Archer vids 1,2,3, and the first part of 4 x1. I did a few UWorld interactive and written cases, but tbh the errors in the software stressed me out too much so I switched to using the FRED software instead.
UWSA1: 196, 55% correct 7 days before (had really bad PMS that day, so decided it was a fluke)
UWSA2: 227, 70% correct 5 days before (that's more like it, and pretty much identical to my real score)
NBME 5: 430, ~70% correct 2 days before
FRED: 80% the day before each test day, 87% FIP before day 1, 74% ACM before day 2
Per
@music2doc ‘s equations, these correlate with scores of:
UWSA1: 220
UWSA2: 235
FRED: 260
If I had to guess, I'd blame CCS for my score being on the lower end of what's predicted by these equations. I should have started practicing it earlier, and I had one case where I panicked hard and made many mistakes. Score report said my performance was 'same' on CCS as everything else, but what does that even mean lmao
Test day:
Day1:
~2-3 WTF questions each block, step1 type content you either know or don't; some syndromes I'd never seen before, or weird 2nd or 3rd order correlations.
-Lots of stats, was sure for most of them. Those step 1 biostats vids are fire!
-Drug ads and abstracts were definitely a trip. I realized after the first block that doing them in block order was throwing me off when I went back to clinical questions, so I started saving them for the end.
Day2:
-the MCQs were more straightforward like everyone says. Having done the FRED questions was very useful, some of my question stems were identical to FRED questions with a variation in the answer choices, like they asked the name of the disease on FRED and asked the next step in management in the real exam.
- CCS were very straightforward once you get into the swing of it. Apart from the first two 10 min cases where I ran out of time, they all ended early, even the one where I panicked and couldn’t figure it out for way too long but got the answer when tests resulted.
- I had an epic cheat sheet, developed with the help of posts on this forum and tweaked for my own use. Wrote it out between MCQ blocks, and then had my paper confiscated mid case for accidentally ripping it (… I know…) so had to write it out again. I had mnemonics for general, surgical, emergent, admitted, and routine orders, as well as one for the life-saving drugs in MI. Overkill maybe, but saved my butt a few times.
I only had 1 day off in between and wish I’d had 2, but I would not have wanted to space them out a week like some have done. Better to have it over with. The weight that came off my shoulders the second I walked out of there, can't even tell you... First time I've ever been confident that I passed a step. Hope this helps someone as much as I have been helped by this thread!
