Studying experience:
I studied for this test for 10 months. Literally from mid January to mid November, with varying intensity throughout. I didnt have the benefit of experience as I have remained unmatched and unemployed since MD degree graduation in 2008... so I aquired my knowledge strictly from reading. My sources for this were two review books (Kaplan and Triage) and a little from the Harrison's on a couple of systems I felt I needed some extra help, as I focused by far most intensly on IM. On my first pass of reading I also wrote a big fat comprehensive review using all these sources, and on second pass I just read my thoroughly compiled review and condensed the nastiest of the most unlearnable into micro-reviews (no more than ONE page long for each system). I really felt comfortable that I had mastered quite well that knowledge after this regimen.
Did about 75% of UW questions with a 57% average, these were all unused/timed in 48 question blocks over a one month period, which seems to me like a pretty average average as far as UW users. I was increasingly worried as my scores initially increased, plateaued, and then actually started to decrease! How was I getting
dumber??!
So my average fell from 60% to 57%. This was my main reason for worrying about my future performance. My absolute range was within 42%-72%, but had mostly high fifties, and fourties only in my last few tests. I felt that the knowledge gained from reviewing these questions was so random and full of minutiae that it was probably going to be pretty useless, but pressed on diligently. By far the greatest benefit of doing UW questions was learing to use time judiciously.
I did all 52 or so UW cases, which I found infinitely more enjoyable and straightforward than the questions, not too difficult, just dissapointed that they werent automatically scored. Knowledge of how the software works is priceless and MUST be mastered prior to the test.
Exam Experience:
DAY I: "Is this what I studied ten months for??? I cant even tell WTF this question is even about...!"
were my actual initial thoughts. Maybe my first block was harder than normal, I can assume in hindsight, because later on I could tell what most of the questions were about. Every block had about 4 'related questions' bits, with about half being the kind you cant change the answer to the initial question (exceedingly rare in UW). I found the questions far more difficult to dissect than UW ones, having also to pick the 'best' out of 5 really poor options. Timewise I mostly did ok, nearly ran out of time in one block. Needless to say, the first day had beat me up pretty bad... it was a real bruiser.
DAY II: For the second day I had prepared myself for another bloodbath, but instead it felt a lot better. I dont know if it was the 36Q blocks, or if they were actually less difficult, or what. The cases were mostly all-new to me, only one or two of which I had practiced on UW. I really felt I did pretty well on most of them, running out of time on only one, but it was almost over anyway. Though I felt better about my performance on this day I wasnt too sure it would be enough to salvage the absolute and utter massacre from day 1...
Status Post:
Since I did terrible on Step 2 I wanted a good grade on this exam to offset that one. My results arrived three weeks later, 201/78, so I was understandably very dissapointed and frustrated.
After the ammount of studying that I had put into this I really feel that I should have done much better, though I was relieved that at least I hadnt failed.
What do I blame? I suppose that my conclusion is that the question format here is mainly meant to confuse, mislead, and waste your time much more than to actually probe your practical medical knowledge. I feel they are quite malicious and unfair with that. I dont expect easy questions by any stretch, but I do feel they are very inefficient at measuring what is most important. On the other hand I may also just be dumb and/or a poor test taker. I wish the test had been all cases, not simply because I did quite well on them, but because at least those approximate real life experiences much more closely than multiple choice questions, and importantly account for correct/acceptable decisions or actions that are not 'the absolute best', such that a good management is not grouped among the atrocious but rather is rightly recognized as closer to the optimum than to the unacceptable.
So cases aside, after taking it, I dont think there is any specific way to study for this exam, period. Literally, if I had to take it again I have no idea what else I could do to get a better score. Even the difference in my performance (as measured on my score report) between topics that I had tripled down on and ones that I almost didnt even touch when studying was indistinguishable!
Step 3 only tests exceedingly random stuff, not unlike UW, just totally different random stuff from UW (I found
near zero overlap), and not core medical knowledge by any means.
If I have anything resembling advice it would be this: Learn generally as much as you can (include the rarest, next-to-useless knowledge clinically), and be a speed demon when answering questions. But if you did good on the other Steps you probably dont really need to study too hard at all from what I see on the other posts.
Also, for some reason up to Sept 2011 (2 months prior) my score of 201 would have corresponded to an 83 instead of a 78... Would have at least made me feel
a little better...
[According to
http://usmle.org/transcripts/score-conversion.html#step3exams
something to do with a higher pass/fail score now.]
In Summary:
Step 1: 208/85
Step 2: 184/75
Step 3: 201/78
Study Time: 10 months
UW Average: 57% (with 75% of bank completed in 1 month)
Test dates: Nov 14/17, score reported on Dec 8
So... have fun!
