STEP 3 Score VS USMLE WORLD AVERAGE

[FirstMANdown]

---

Members don't see this ad.

There is a great thread for Step 2ck VS UW%. I though it might be helpful if anyone out there can give us there input with there Step 3 VS UW%...etc as well. Anyways Thanks for the contribution.

I'm do to take Step 3 in the next month. Will update this thread as well. For better or for worse.

 

[CyberKnife19]

I found this thread to be helpful, so I wanted to give back...

US American medical gradate, two months into my preliminary internal medicine year (I prefered to stay where I graduated from medical school for my intern year rather than taking a cushier TY) and headed into the beautiful field of Radiation Oncology in 10 months 🙂

Like some of the previous posters, I thought that the MCQ portion of the exam was very difficult, and in some circumstances, unfair. I am pretty good at objectively looking at exams and being able to assess the number of good questions vs. bad questions. I found both Step 1 and Step 2 to have a large majority of questions where there was only one correct answer. It seemed like on this exam that you could narrow it down to 2 answers, but once you got to that point you could either make a case for either answer or not enough information was present to answer the question fully. So, in a sense, I thought there were a lot of questions that were not able to accurately assess your knowledge/thought process, but were kind of "B.S." questions. As one previous poster mentioned, I don't know how much more it would have helped if I had studied more. Furthermore, the vignettes were incredibly long and time consuming. On Step 1 and Step 2, I finished nearly every block with 5-10 minutes to spare. On Step 3, I used almost the entire alloted time for every block so don't feel frustrated/disappointed if you are in a similar situation.

That being said about the MCQ portion of the exam, I thought that the CCS cases were very straight forward and very fair. I finished the second day at 1:30 or so, as compared to taking the full eight hours on day one. The second day was a breeze compared to the first day, so be prepared for a rough first day with LONG vignettes.

USMLE World MCQ: 82% complete, 61% correct.

USMLE World CCS: I went through the CCS cases twice/each, though I merely read the explanations both times b/c I didn't think that it was very efficient use of time to actually work through each case. In retrospect, you could probably do without buying the USMLE World CCS and just familiarize yourself with the software on the USMLE website.

Books/other resources: None. I am sure that they would be helpful, but I simply didn't have the motivation to do anything more than questions.

Step 1: 238
Step 2: 252
Step 3: ? (will report back in three weeks)

 

[markglt]

did u use any other study source besides uw....or, can u recommend one s/p sitting for the exam?
gl.
thanks in advance

 

[CyberKnife19]

did u use any other study source besides uw....or, can u recommend one s/p sitting for the exam?
gl.
thanks in advance

No, I just used USMLE World. I didn't have the motivation to use anything other than that. Best of luck.

 

[PlutoBoy]

😱

I passed STEP 3, guys! What a relief! The exam is not as easy as people make it look. You need to study! It´s full of random questions!

Kaplan QBANK: 65%
USMLEWorld: 61%

I only did questions and read about my misunderstandings. I think that common sense is as important as clinical knowledge for the exam. Some things you don´t learn in books. This is what is hard about the test. You probably have most of the CK you need to pass.

USMLE STEP 3: 94/222. The mean is 215 ± 17.

You can probably blow a case or two of the CCS. I did 😀.

 

[anoz]

Just got my score report. Took exam roughly 3 weeks ago.

Studied x 5 days for 3-4 hours/day, and 2 days for 7-8 hours. Used only USMLE World, finished 50% with ~60-61% correct, and finished most of the CS cases. Taking Step 2CK late last year probably helped me a lot since I didn't have much time to study, and just needed to pass. Previously posted exam experience. My advice is to take it ASAP after CK... I definitely didn't learn much more about management of adults, OB/GYN, radiology, etc during my first few months of peds intern year and did just fine.

Step 1 234
Step 2 244
Step 3 212

Bye-Bye USMLE.

 

[PlutoBoy]

Just got my score report. Took exam roughly 3 weeks ago.

Studied x 5 days for 3-4 hours/day, and 2 days for 7-8 hours. Used only USMLE World, finished 50% with ~60-61% correct, and finished most of the CS cases. Taking Step 2CK late last year probably helped me a lot since I didn't have much time to study, and just needed to pass. Previously posted exam experience. My advice is to take it ASAP after CK... I definitely didn't learn much more about management of adults, OB/GYN, radiology, etc during my first few months of peds intern year and did just fine.

Step 1 234
Step 2 244
Step 3 212

Bye-Bye USMLE.

I pwned you 😀

Now that I see your post, I realize I forgot to say the famous words:

BYE BYE USMLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 😀

 

[NOsquid]

I'm a 2010 AMG though not currently in residency. I studied for 6 weeks, probably 4 in earnest. The backbone of my studying was USMLEworld, I finished in tutor mode at about 63%, then did all the ones I got wrong again. Went through the cases once or twice. Also did the practice Q's provided by the USMLE. I did not systematically go through a review book, but I did often refer to Pocket Med, Pocket Peds, Kaplan ObGyn, Step Up to Med, Goljan, Nelson, Cecil, and whatever else is on my shelf. Basically I like to stick to books I'm already familiar with, but that's a personal preference.

_USMLEworld assessment 2 weeks out - 229 (this was after a "light" week where I did only CCS and not questions)
_NBME a few days before exam - 560
_Step 3 - 240ish (strong performance on the CCS

Pretty much the same experience as everyone else. Day 1 is exhausting, Day 2 much better. Take a nice break and psych yourself up before the ED question blocks, they tend to be longer/harder than the office questions.

In general I felt the test had more ICU/outpatient focus than Step 2, things one might learn in residency that weren't really taught in med school where it's all about the wards. But for sure a lot of the same stuff creeps up.

Study tips? I think USMLEworld is great if you use it for what it is - a branching off point. If you have a Q on a pedi respiratory problem, review them all: pathophys, Dx, management. I don't think you'd be well served relying solely on the Qbank and its explanations. There's just too much medicine that the USMLE is able to draw from to make questions at this level, a Q bank can't teach you everything like Step 1 and basic sciences. Also consider that this test has a lot more questions while the Q bank is much smaller. The CCS is DEFINITELY high-yield. You're screwed if you go in there not knowing how to play the video game.

Best of luck to everyone!

 

[markglt]

how did u do so well w/o having done residency and only the qbank?
do u think FA step2ck book and uw is enuff.
if you had to use 1 book, what would it be?
congrats...👍

 

[rvca1981]

Got my score yesterday as well

IMG no residency. Prepped for ~6 weeks, about 4-5 hours of solid studying. Used MTB and UW. Did all of UW with a 57% first pass on random. I thought this was a little low but seeing how everyone is scoring on here, high 50's is probably on the better end for scoring well on step 3. Reread the questions a second time around. Did all CCS cases

uworld practice test was a 215

step 1: 232/97
step 2: 219/90
step 3: 222/94

Good luck to everyone!

 

[NOsquid]

how did u do so well w/o having done residency and only the qbank?
do u think FA step2ck book and uw is enuff.
if you had to use 1 book, what would it be?
congrats...👍

Harrison's? 😀

I'm not sure about FA, I've never used it except for Step 1 like everyone else. I personally don't like limiting myself to one book, if I did I'd probably use MTB or Crush since that's what everyone seems to recommend. The book I used most was Pocket Medicine, but I wouldn't really recommend it unless you're already familiar with it and like the format. It's just the first thing I reach for out of habit.

UW is great, but like I said I'd suggest using it as a backbone. You need to go a bit beyond the explanations IMO. It probably doesn't matter much which book you use, just pick one you like. I had at least 6 open on my coffee table at any given time for the month I was studying.

Good luck 🙂 Sorry to make you read 2 paragraphs without giving you an answer!

 

[markglt]

how much biostats was on ur exam??

 

[NOsquid]

Not very much, I think I had one on absolute risk reduction similar to what is taught on USMLEworld. Of course, my exam composition means nothing to you 🙂

Personally I didn't study anything beyond the qbank for biostats.

 

[markglt]

now what? good enuff to pass?
some of those questions...wacky, seemed like a couple of those answers could be right....
cant find those in books...
some questions...totally random, couldn't figure out the concept to save my life (or the patients 😆)
maybe 1 more month of study.

 

[NOsquid]

I would study more if you're up to it...and yeah some of the questions on that NBME were ridic. I remember finding very few described cases in a pubmed search on some of the vignettes.

 

[markglt]

you are right squid. i will continue to study, albiet painful. seems like this exam might have a lot to do with confidence in ur answer picking. i need to work on that.

 

[QuinnB]

finished step 3 today. More than anything, i'm just happy to be done with these. What a run. Will post results when i get them. I felt that this was easily the hardest of all of the steps - i think people just say it's easier because they care less, but the questions asked for some fairly specific answers that were difficult to intuitively determine. I probably guessed on 40-50% of the mcqs.

Anyway, my test had more pediatrics than i expected and was more geared toward the outpatient/office setting, which was also a little unexpected (for me). To be honest, i'm not sure if what i studied really helped that much. Here are the numbers:

Step i: 254/99
step ii: 264/99

-uw step iii (83% of ?s, unused, timed, blocks of 48, random): 64% (~60th percentile?); also did ~ 19 of the ccs cases
-other: Reviewed the 5 ccs cases from the usmle website and scored 80/101 correct for their free ?s

i'm an intern in im and studied for ~ 1 hour daily for 2 wks, then ~ 3 hrs daily for another 1.5 wks and then ~ 5 hrs daily for 5 days in between ed shifts. I'm pretty exhausted these days and couldn't handle anymore studying than this. Only used uw ?s, reading all explanations (paying more attention to the ones i got wrong). Tried to look at a few pages in fa, but didn't get too far.

We'll find out soon.

232/99.

 

[markglt]

i mean, those are just sick scores.
damn, i wish i was smart.
quinn, how did you deal with not being sure about half of the questions...i mean, how did you narrow it down... and how did u not change ur answers all over the place if u werent sure about so many of them?
congrats👍

 

[PlutoBoy]

Mark! Relax, you will do fine! It´s a hard test, no doubt about it, but is not impossible. If you´ve been studying you will do just fine. If you got up to this point, it is because you are smart 🙂

Don´t change your answers unless you are pretty sure of why you are doing it. The questions are kind of "aerial", but you just have to use common sense and trust your clinical judgement. Good luck! 👍

 

[markglt]

thanks pluto.🙂

 

[Flighty]

Hi All,

This thread was helpful, so I am going to post my experience as well. I am a PGY1 in pathology (so I was pretty worried about not actually seeing patients 😛 ). I studied 4 weeks. Although, for the first 2 weeks only *really* lightly. I only used USMLE World, used 100% of the questions, and scored 58 or 59%. I totally recommend going thru all of the cases on usmle world!

Got the scores yesterday:

237/99

DONE!

😎

 

[cgk]

Hi All,

This thread was helpful, so I am going to post my experience as well. I am a PGY1 in pathology (so I was pretty worried about not actually seeing patients 😛 ). I studied 4 weeks. Although, for the first 2 weeks only *really* lightly. I only used USMLE World, used 100% of the questions, and scored 58 or 59%. I totally recommend going thru all of the cases on usmle world!

Got the scores yesterday:

237/99

DONE!

😎

I heard that the USMLE cases were great, but that the USMLE questions weren't that helpful. And so, I was planning to read Master the Boards as well as go through all of just the USMLE cases ( not the USMLE questions). Do you that will be sufficient to pass the exam? I am presently doing a preliminary medicine internship. thanks for the feedback.

 

[Flighty]

I heard that the USMLE cases were great, but that the USMLE questions weren't that helpful. And so, I was planning to read Master the Boards as well as go through all of just the USMLE cases ( not the USMLE questions). Do you that will be sufficient to pass the exam? I am presently doing a preliminary medicine internship. thanks for the feedback.

The cases were good. I think I had 2 which were straight from USMLE World, but just knowing the format is key. I did think the q-bank wasn't hot. The step 3 had a lot of weird ambiguous questions... lots of what is the *best* answer and almost no straight diagnosis questions. I had a ton questions along the line of 'what is the biggest risk factor' & I hate that carp 😛 The test seemed poorly written too-- I had the same question 3 times in one part!

The cases were nice tho. I finished them all in ten minutes or less & got out really early that day 🙂

 

[CyberKnife19]

I just received my scores, so I thought that I would give back. See post #151 for complete exam thoughts/experience.

Step 1: 238
Step 2: 252
Step 3: 212 (forgot two digit number and don't have report with me)

As you can see, your previous Step scores are not always indicative of how you will do on Step 3. Nonetheless, mission accomplished as I am officially done with the USMLE forever. Now, I have the great pleasure of having to pass FOUR board exams to become a certified Radiation Oncologist (sarcasm ).

 

[ilovepath]

I wanted to thank the contributers of this thread, i appear to be doing about mid 50% in uw, and that seems to be ok to take the exam. I'll post my results when I take it in dec.

 

[percysmith]

US grad, pgy-2 in psychiatry
Scored 52% average on USMLE World.
USMLE World self-assessment score was 215.

Step 1: 224
Step 2: 228
Step 3: 220

I thought the CCS was the easiest part of the whole ordeal.

 

[markglt]

your prep?
thoughts on the exam?
did you do all 93 ccs cases on uw, or are the 52 interactive ones enuff?

 

[ilovepath]

how do you get to the 40ish non interactive uw cases? I only see the 50 on uw that are interactive.

 

[markglt]

you have to go the website and log in, and launch it from there.

 

[ilovepath]

I do that for ccs, and it puts the icon on the desktop with only 50ish cases. Where are the 40 or so non interactive cases you're talking about?

 

[markglt]

go back to where you orignally launched it from, the usmleworld.com site and you will see a link that says launch readout cases

 

[ilovepath]

.

 

[markglt]

you find it?

 

[FregoliDelusion]

Regarding USMLE STEP 3, first attempt

US grad Psychiatry Resident PGY3, passed Step 1 and 2 first attempts

I was freaked out about the fact that I didn't study as much as I would have liked for this exam, and did not feel prepared walking into the exam, but somehow I couldn't fester up the motivation to put in more study effort.

-Studied 2-3 weeks, 1-3 hours per weekday evenings, and 1 weekend of 7-8 hour days of studying right before the exam.
-USMLE world 57% cumulative avg, did 40-50% of the questions once in timed, random mode, read through answers
-did 20 of the CCS interactive cases, read through the remaining in the 42 set; I felt this helped me a TON in preparing for the real thing
-did not do any other assessment exams
-quickly read through Crush Step 3

Exam experience on the multiple choice part: sucked, as the USMLE steps all do... I had the same feeling on this exam as I did on the others- did not feel confident with most answer choices, felt like a guessing game, lots of nitty gritty, walked out feeling like I had bombed the thing.

Experience w/ CCS: was constantly annoyed with the set-up of figuring out how to move the time forward appropriately, felt like I was slow getting in everything. Writing down thoughts quickly on the whiteboard helped me remember what tests to order. Felt like I had no idea what was going on in 2 of the cases and was worried I had surely killed a patient.

End Result:
Passed!!!! wooooeeee! fyi this rumor worked for me- the scores come out on the third Wednesday after you take the exam at 12:01am Eastern time (therefore Tuesday 11:01pm Central time).

Score: 213 (lower than step 2 score, similar to step 1 score)

Based on the score report, looks like I rocked CCS. I overlapped into "borderline performance" on many of the subjects covered by multiple choice, so I'm guessing CCS helped me out. I do think it's much easier to improve your overall score w/ CCS vs practicing multiple choice q's- more bang for your buck to do cases if crunched for time.

Good luck peoples!

 

[ilovepath]

yes thank you, appreciate it! 🙂

 

[astrolabe]

I wanted to give back after reading this thread while I was studying.

PGY-2
Step 1 240's
Step 2 200's
Read through MTB once, quickly, to be reminded of various diseases I haven't thought of in a while.
Used USMLEWorld questions, did about 50% of them in blocks of 10-35, each block of questions was from a single category. All in tutor mode. Read all of the explanations. Average was about 58% I think.
NBME self assessment was 460 two days out.
Spent about a day working through CCS prep material. Started out by doing the simulated cases including all of the NBME ones, but found that to be lower yield than just reading the explanations bc I was running short on study time toward the end.
Step 3 215/90🙂

 

[Law2Doc]

I do that for ccs, and it puts the icon on the desktop with only 50ish cases. Where are the 40 or so non interactive cases you're talking about?

FWIW, the 50ish are plenty, if you actually take the time to go through them. People spend an inordinate amount of time focusing on this portion of the test, but to be honest, if you do the 50 cases and have already done some semblance of an intern year, this should be the easy part of the test. If you are taking the test as a med student though, you might need more practice, since your familiarity with what you will order in various scenarios might be lacking.

 

[markglt]

law2doc, what other books do you recommend other than mtb, which i am using and hate?
also, can you just put stat for office orders to save time?

 

[Law2Doc]

law2doc, what other books do you recommend other than mtb, which i am using and hate?
also, can you just put stat for office orders to save time?

I looked at MTB and Crush. Neither was great, each were probably adequate. The test really isn't as focused on factoids as Step 2, so I wouldn't personally recommend more books or more detailed books you are less likely to wade through cover to cover. You are better off reading one of these light books to completion, and spending the bulk of your time working through problems, IMHO. (Then again, I was only shooting for a passing score).

I think you want to use stat for anything emergent or things you are anxiously waiting on before ordering other studies. I don't think you want to order stat labs for someone with what likely appears to be a chronic, outpatient problem. But nobody really knows how they decide what to give/deduct points for.

 

[markglt]

👍

 

[ilovepath]

mark I'm going through the 40 extra cases, did you find them helpful?

 

[markglt]

kind of.
i like the interactive ones better for obvious reasons.

 

[DocCartman]

My Stuff:

PGY-1 Emergency Med, US MD Grad

USMLE World: 100% completed on tutor mode, avg 61%
Read First Aid Step III one time about a week before Step III

Step I: 244
Step II: 258
Step III: 236

I found the questions on day 1 to be pretty straightforward with a lot of simple "kid with sausage mass and currant jelly stool...what's the diagnosis?" type questions. The MCQ on day 2 on the other hand...holy crap- tons of epidemiology "what would reduce her breast cancer risk the most?" type questions.

The cases were pretty straightforward overall: STEMI, PE, Rheumatoid Arthritis, among others.

All in all, I stressed way too much for step 3, and am stoked to be done with all of the boards. Now I just have to sweat the EM inservice exam

 

[Trooth]

step 1 240s
step 2 240s
step 3 230s

usmleasy all but 200Qs done
read FA cases in back
did 41 print out cases.

 

[Amiroz]

PGY4 - anesthesiology.

Read 3 chapters off crush usmle book (peds, obgyn, surgery). did all of the usmleworld questions in tutor mode with a 54% average on 1st pass, 63 after re-doing the questions i had gotten wrong.

USMLE WORLD= 54%
Step 3 = 215/90



BYE BYE USMLE!!!!!

 

[JHU1984]

Intern - surgical subspecialy

Graduated from top 5 medical school this year. Took step 3 4 months into intern year. Did the majority of my studying Sat, Sun, Mon before Tue-Wed exam. Completed 50% of UW with 62% correct. Finished 25 cases. No other prep books. Thought step 3 was the hardest given the paucity of study time. Studied 5 weeks for step 1, 2 weeks for step 2. Lots of random questions that a surgical internship does not help with.

Stats:
Step 1 254/99
Step 2 259/99
Step 3 233/99

bye bye usmle.

 

[markglt]

 

[PhilGrammer]

Did all the UW questions, 51% first time through, and repeated all the ones I got wrong. Finished all the CCS cases. Took the UWSA about three weeks before the real thing and scored a 210.

Day one was rough and two much the same. The cases were pretty much like the ones on UW. I took one the distance and definitely messed up the management of another, but that case ended early which I thought was weird. Now it's the waiting game. This whole ordeal was draining. It's about 50/50 (I hope...ha.) that I passed. We'll see....

 

[Pontifex Maximus]

Just got my score back here too. Prelim in Medicine going into Rads, only rotations of note that I had done were ER, a ward month and ICU month. Basically ended up doing questions sporadically throughout a 4-5 week span, finishing UW and the interactive cases, then briefly perusing MTB about twice in the week prior. Did all my questions in random tutor mode before reading the book just because I didn't want to prime my brain for particular sections by reading them that day. Got somewhere in the 75% range correct but that doesn't mean anything because I changed answers if I disagreed with the answer or didn't want to see certain questions again. I also read 3-4 of the UW written cases. I did go through all the interactive ones (at least reading explanations) before the test one more time.

UW sim exam was 235, actual score 249/99. Definitely more than I hoped for. And this is with sucking wind in OB questions.

 

[ilovepath]

,

 

[PhilGrammer]

Results are back. Passed with a 194, just sliding in safe. (UWSA 210).