STEP 3 Score VS USMLE WORLD AVERAGE

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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. :scared:
 
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I am interested as well how long grades have been taking. I've heard people say it's the 3rd Wed after you take the test, so I was secretly hoping to get a grade today. I took mine Oct 5th & 6th. No grade today 🙁
 
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Alright, grade is IN! I passed.

Step 1: 198
Step 2: 253
Step 3: 242

I studied during my clinic month of residency (so 2 months into intern year). Did 100% of UWorld with a 72% average. Watched some Kaplan videos (maybe ~ 25%). Use MTB for review, but I don't think I got through quite 100% of that. Did all the UWorld CCS cases at least twice.
Took the NBME practice test 1 week before and got a 620

I will say that, for my test, I do not feel like UWorld CCS cases represented my test cases. UWorld was so straight forward, whereas my test was nowhere near as straightforward. I felt very lost on most of my CCS cases.
 
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UWorld (untimed, tutor mode): 58%
UWSA: 213
Real Step 3: 221
Was worried about the "basic science" stuff but didn't notice much. I'd maybe read up on common psych/neuro drugs and the receptors they act on. Lots of biostats, ethics. Know the basic biostats stuff, but don't kill yourself studying over it. Good luck everyone!! Feels good to be done with USMLE foreverrrrrr.
Day 1 feels terrible, day 2 is better but still just so long.
Do UWorld CCS and QBank (at least 1x through) and this will be enough to pass. Good luck everyone.
 
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Hello!

Just wanted to drop a quick post before I started work for the day.

I am only posting here because I felt that uworld was a very poor predictor of my exam score.

I scored a 210 on the uworld practice 5 days prior to test day and found out today that my score was in the high 240s. I had a star on the right side of my CCS and my MCQ was in the upper third.

If you don't do so hot on the uworld practice I wouldn't stress. I read a few peoples accounts on this forum about this discrepancy and it helped calm my nerves. Good luck with step 3 everyone!!!

Ps my uworld avg was 64%.

G'bai usmle!!!
 
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Medicine pgy-2, taken three months into second year.

1: 238
2: 267
3: 253

Prep: 95% of world, the first third to half spread over 6 months prior when I had free time. The rest done in the month preceding the test. One uworld practice test with a predictor of 255 was finished a month prior to test day. Although my score was good, the CCS part of the real test brought me down significantly since I only did 15 practice cases.

Advice: if you're in medicine, you'll likely crush the medicine portion. Focus your studying on peds, ob, surg, biostats, psych. Also, do all the freakin CCS cases.
 
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So just finished taking Step 3. I'm a psych resident, so studying for this was pretty difficult. I'm pretty far removed from med, peds, ob/gyn etc.

UWorld - 64% average, done mostly on tutor untimed mode. Had planned do a 2nd time through on random timed, but never had the time 🙁
UWorld SA, 4 days out - 207 (averaged about 50-60% on each section)

The first day was really difficult....Felt like I had to guess on a lot of questions. Question stems were sooooo long. There was 1 section where I saved all the biostats questions (2 drug ads and a couple others) until the very end but didn't have enough time and I literally had to click random answers in the last 15-20 seconds. Felt really crappy after that section but I pushed on. Even the psych questions were hard the first day, I was so annoyed!

Second day was a little easier. Shorter question stems, simpler material IMO. The cases weren't too bad. The diagnosis was blatantly obvious on 12/13 of my cases. One of my cases literally ended 1 min 22sec in, which was so strange. None of my cases lasted the full 11 or 21 minutes like they said. On a couple of the cases, the patient "refused" my interventions... definitely never came across that scenario in the Uworld CCS practice cases. There was 1 case where i had absolutely NO IDEA what was going on..I ordered so many labs etc and everything came back negative. Luckily it was my very last case, and at that point my brain was so fried anyways.

I'm a little nervous to get my score back especially after the 1st day but we'll see. Hoping just for a pass...I don't even care if it's a low pass. I will just be SO GLAD to be done with this exam. If I don't pass...well I'll know its because I probably didn't focus on Uworld question as much as I needed to. Time is NEVER a problem for me, never has been in the past..but for some reason on the real exam I kept running short on time! Oh well. At least I can enjoy the holidays without having to do any studying now!
 
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Wanted to add in my data point since I lurked on this thread a lot while studying:

PGY1 in peds, studied for a month on and off while on wards and then about 5 days dedicated.
Uworld was 67-68% or something like that cumulative for tutor and timed tutor random. I did all the UWorld CCS cases 1-2x's in the week or so before the exam. Felt that the cases were super easy on Uworld but had some difficulty on the exam--a couple of my cases just wouldn't end and for one I typed in the names of medications that we use for "analogous" conditions in pediatrics but I didn't know if they would fly in adults (patient did seem to get better though). I just felt that I got maybe 3-4 of the type of cases Uworld presents and the other diagnoses were a bit more obscure.
Something I did that worried me after the exam is that I didn't write the final diagnosis for almost any of the cases. The USMLE website states that it's not graded but I couldn't find a definitive answer on whether anything happens if you DON'T write anything at all. Nothing happens--I still passed. I stand by the thought that it's better to use those last 2 minutes to put in final orders, etc.--things that are actually graded.

MCQ's weren't so bad. I thought that Uworld did a good job reminding me of how to take care of adults, although my strongest section was still in pediatrics. The test days are just so long though, that you don't have much time to focus/think. Memorizing stats equations the day before was clutch.
Bottom line: I felt like I failed (which is a feeling I had for almost all of the Steps) and still did pretty well. CCS sucks, but there must be a generous curve.

Step1: mid 240's
Step2: high 240's
CS: pass

Step3: 238
Also score came out at midnight on 3rd Wednesday (9pm Tuesday night pacific time)
 
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Just took Step 3 this week. Just wanted to throw some words of comfort out there to those under stress. I went into the test very scared, after hearing about how horrendously long the question stems were etc.

So, yes the stems were long, but I honestly didn't feel as though they were any longer than Step 2 stems. For me, the first day Qs were more difficult, but I really felt like it was Step 2 esqe. Of course the drug ads and abstracts were annoying and difficult to finish, having to guess here and there but to be honest, I am used to doing that on prior boards.

Day 2 was way better. More straight forward questions, less stressful feeling. I am not sure about the CCS per say because they are strange in that they ended for me somewhat abruptly-maybe I did something wrong or maybe I did something right-not too sure. I got the diagnoses correctly, and tried to stray from being unnecessarily invasive.

Topic wise, I saw a good mix of just about everything, surgery, ob, peds, psych, ethics, biostats, neuro. I was expecting more psych-that was not the case.

I felt crappy after day 1 because of exhaustion, uncertainty and of course, the impending doom of unknown for day 2...but quickly into day 2, I realized it wasn't that bad.

I passed somewhat comfortably on Uworld, failed the NMBE but that happened to me on step 2 as well and I got an average score. SO moral of my ramblings: just go in there, alert and rested, having done as much studying as you could provided that you DID in fact study...take the practice U world exam with a passing score...and just be positive. Being rested and positive will get you more points. It is just so hard while being in residency and trying to study for this exam. I feel like the earlier you take it after med school the better because your rotations are pretty fresh, step 2 is pretty fresh as well...

I will update with my score when I get it, just to see if what I am saying is a bunch of garbled gobble. I just hope I passed. Hang in there.
 
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eastcoastdr said:
So just finished taking Step 3. I'm a psych resident, so studying for this was pretty difficult. I'm pretty far removed from med, peds, ob/gyn etc.

UWorld - 64% average, done mostly on tutor untimed mode. Had planned do a 2nd time through on random timed, but never had the time 🙁
UWorld SA, 4 days out - 207 (averaged about 50-60% on each section)

The first day was really difficult....Felt like I had to guess on a lot of questions. Question stems were sooooo long. There was 1 section where I saved all the biostats questions (2 drug ads and a couple others) until the very end but didn't have enough time and I literally had to click random answers in the last 15-20 seconds. Felt really crappy after that section but I pushed on. Even the psych questions were hard the first day, I was so annoyed!

Second day was a little easier. Shorter question stems, simpler material IMO. The cases weren't too bad. The diagnosis was blatantly obvious on 12/13 of my cases. One of my cases literally ended 1 min 22sec in, which was so strange. None of my cases lasted the full 11 or 21 minutes like they said. On a couple of the cases, the patient "refused" my interventions... definitely never came across that scenario in the Uworld CCS practice cases. There was 1 case where i had absolutely NO IDEA what was going on..I ordered so many labs etc and everything came back negative. Luckily it was my very last case, and at that point my brain was so fried anyways.

I'm a little nervous to get my score back especially after the 1st day but we'll see. Hoping just for a pass...I don't even care if it's a low pass. I will just be SO GLAD to be done with this exam. If I don't pass...well I'll know its because I probably didn't focus on Uworld question as much as I needed to. Time is NEVER a problem for me, never has been in the past..but for some reason on the real exam I kept running short on time! Oh well. At least I can enjoy the holidays without having to do any studying now!
Click to expand...

Yo bro, how did your result end up like? Did you end up killing it on Step 3? Did you get your result the week b4 xmas?
 
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Just got my final score back today and wanted to throw out some encouragement for all the CCS worry.

I ended up with CCS being my highest section. This was with: 3 (or 4..cant quite remember) cases that did NOT end early, and went all the way to the 2 minute screen (did not get the diagnosis in 1 as far as I know, the patient never got better, but never got worse either). In addition, 5 of my cases were not represented in UWorld at all, and afterwards I looked up the management to find out that I did some things that were not indicated (though probably did enough that was indicated). Also, 2 of my cases actually got worse before I put in the "definitive treatment" ( I believe that the timing of deciding when to advance the clock was my biggest woe, as I was waiting for some simple- and important labs- i.e. PT/INR, Type and Screen prior to Surgery- when I got a notice that the patient was deteriorating). That said, 8/13 cases were more straight forward.

Hopefully this helps ease some worries regarding CCS, however having just been in that place (thinking you failed that section), I understand it can be a nerve racking experience. Good Luck!
 
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MrGrrrMonster said:
Just got my final score back today and wanted to throw out some encouragement for all the CCS worry.

I ended up with CCS being my highest section. This was with: 3 (or 4..cant quite remember) cases that did NOT end early, and went all the way to the 2 minute screen (did not get the diagnosis in 1 as far as I know, the patient never got better, but never got worse either). In addition, 5 of my cases were not represented in UWorld at all, and afterwards I looked up the management to find out that I did some things that were not indicated (though probably did enough that was indicated). Also, 2 of my cases actually got worse before I put in the "definitive treatment" ( I believe that the timing of deciding when to advance the clock was my biggest woe, as I was waiting for some simple- and important labs- i.e. PT/INR, Type and Screen prior to Surgery- when I got a notice that the patient was deteriorating). That said, 8/13 cases were more straight forward.

Hopefully this helps ease some worries regarding CCS, however having just been in that place (thinking you failed that section), I understand it can be a nerve racking experience. Good Luck!
Click to expand...

Thanks for sharing. Hopefully even more mistakes than these can be allowed. Good job acing the exam!
 
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MrGrrrMonster said:
Just got my final score back today and wanted to throw out some encouragement for all the CCS worry.

I ended up with CCS being my highest section. This was with: 3 (or 4..cant quite remember) cases that did NOT end early, and went all the way to the 2 minute screen (did not get the diagnosis in 1 as far as I know, the patient never got better, but never got worse either). In addition, 5 of my cases were not represented in UWorld at all, and afterwards I looked up the management to find out that I did some things that were not indicated (though probably did enough that was indicated). Also, 2 of my cases actually got worse before I put in the "definitive treatment" ( I believe that the timing of deciding when to advance the clock was my biggest woe, as I was waiting for some simple- and important labs- i.e. PT/INR, Type and Screen prior to Surgery- when I got a notice that the patient was deteriorating). That said, 8/13 cases were more straight forward.

Hopefully this helps ease some worries regarding CCS, however having just been in that place (thinking you failed that section), I understand it can be a nerve racking experience. Good Luck!
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Hey when did you take your exam, its been 4 weeks since i took mine and i still havent gotten score.
 
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Psychiatry resident, currently PGY-1, took step 3 six (6) months into residency. Test dates 12/1/2015 and 12/8/2015.

Step 1 - 249
Step 2 - 245
Step 3 - 234 (68% on UWorld, 12 CCS cases practiced)

Good luck everyone.

schmitta1573 said:
Predicted Step 3 Scores From UW Score
UW Step 3
43 190
44 192
45 194
46 196
47 198
48 200
49 202
50 204
51 206
52 208
53 210
54 212
55 214
56 216
57 218
58 220
59 222
60 224
61 226
62 228
63 230
64 232
65 234
66 236
67 238
68 240
69 241
70 243
71 245
72 247
73 249
74 251
75 253
76 255
77 257
78 259
79 261
80 263
Click to expand...
 
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Post #714....,....43 percent is 190?, I wish much, but I dont think thats correct now...like a 70 percent is about 230 these days, it looks like on all the internet usmleforums, it seems, yes,
 
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I took step3 last month and got my score back in 4 weeks. I did 70% of uworld with an average of ~64%. I'm anesthesia pgy1 so I get some okay exposure to different specialties and studied for around 5 weeks most of it on ED rotation. The first day felt very long as it is just a marathon of questions. Someone said this earlier in the thread and I completely agree, 25% of the mcqs are easy, 25% you don't know what the hell theyre asking, and 50% you are between two answers and just make an educated guess. The uworld CCS cases are great I would highly recommend going through all of them. Compared to uworld I think the the wrong answer choices on the real thing are more blatantly wrong and it is easier to eliminate answers. This probably makes it feel like you're guessing a lot but just have confidence in what youre doing and always get some sort of logic behind an answer choice. The first day be ready for the onslaught of biostat/ethics/patient safety. Know how to do basic calculations and understand what the definitions of stat terms are. Accept that there are some questions you will not know the answer to and cannot prepare for so just click an answer and move on. Save the drug ads for the end. The amount of time you have left after finishing a block is probably very similar to whatever you averaged on step1 and step2. Youve done this before so you know whats up. I promise if you made it through those steps you'll definitely make it through this one.

step1: 245
step2: 249
step3: 236
 
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I had the last day of step 3 on 12/17/15 and figured I would share my experience. The first day was as described on this forum: heavy on biostats, complex questions where you felt like 2 answers could be correct. I left tired and somewhat on par with previous UselessMLE tests. Unfortunately I had 3 days between my first day and second test day. At first, I was thankful to have the rest and the time to do some last minute review for CCS. Unfortunately, I had to work the days between the test and ended up getting a GI bug. I had to scramble around to get some Zofran the day before my second day. Needless to say, the 8+ hour day was not a lot of fun feeling like your GI contents were on the verge of coming out of both ends of the body. But, it was what it was and I made it through. I was actually most unnerved by the CCS portion of the test. My cases seemed more difficult than what I had seen on UWorld. I missed one very easy diagnosis and didn't have time to enter the actual diagnosis on the majority of the cases when they ended. I also had a case that unequivocally required a pediatric surgeon, which was of course a specialty that was not listed in the order system. I had to consult about 3-4 different types of surgeons before someone would take the decompensating child (I guess that sometimes mirrors what you find in the real world - maybe the test overlords are mirroring real-life more than we might think...but I doubt it). Almost all of the cases ended with patients still in the hospital (on IV meds/fluids) or with what I definitely considered to be incomplete management. The MCQ's the second day were a blur...I actually don't remember much about them other than that they seemed easier than the first day. With all this said, I felt like I had bombed CCS and felt like I was destined to fail when I walked out. I have felt this way after every single step test I have taken. Needless to say, I am very glad to be done with this series of tests. Now I get the privilege of looking forward to the abuse and de-professionalization of re-certifying exams., but that is a conversation for another day.

Background and prep: PGY1, currently in a TY, going into derm. Started studied studying here and there during an outpatient clinic rotation, baby came a few weeks early on that rotation and I didn't study much more after that until my next rotation (which was very light). I would basically do a block of questions a day, more blocks on the weekend/days off/days I felt like I could stomach more than a block. Did the same thing as always: made flash cards for all missed questions/concepts I did not know and studied them on my phone throughout the day. Made sure I blew through all the cards twice a few days before the test. I did all the UWorld CCS cases once through and then read that document thing that is available through UWorld. Total prep time was fragmented and punctuated by becoming a first time parent, but all together around a month. I just tried to be a disciplined and regimented as I could with the studying for the month total I had allotted myself. I answered the UWorld questions by subject and did all the blocks as 43 questions and timed to simulate exam conditions. I think my average was a 71%. I took the simulation test that comes with UWorld and got a 232 (I think...can't recall with 100% certainty).

Score on step 3: 245

I'm pleased with the score, especially considering the confounding variables I had to face on this one (very different from the holing up and studying for Step 1 and not seeing the light of day). I was totally fine with getting dead even with a passing score, but obviously preferred to post a score that was respectable enough to show that I hadn't completely put general medicine in the rear view mirror. Now, in the very off chance that there are any 4th year medical students out there trolling these threads. I always used to wonder if there was anything I could do "to get ready for intern year." Here is my unsolicited recommendation for those that must do an intern year. Do all that you can to get a light rotation as your last rotation. Get the UWorld qbank and blow through the questions and CCS cases in a month. Take notes, pay attention to the UWorld charts, and note the order that you do things on CCS. This will be somewhat helpful for intern year and give you a great foundation for Step 3. Take another month or so during intern to do your real studying and then take the test. Everyone will tell you not to do anything between 4th year and intern year and that's fine. For me, however, I had enough anxiousness about starting intern year that it would have made me feel a lot better to wake up an hour early, do a block of questions, and go through 50 or so CCS cases. Seeing that material twice and at a spaced interval would be very helpful for both Step 3 and the year that you have to do medicine.

Just my two cents. I always said I would post after step 1 and 2 and never did...figured this is my last chance to try to help alleviate some anxiety for others out there.
 
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moochapooga said:
Just took Step 3 this week. Just wanted to throw some words of comfort out there to those under stress. I went into the test very scared, after hearing about how horrendously long the question stems were etc.

So, yes the stems were long, but I honestly didn't feel as though they were any longer than Step 2 stems. For me, the first day Qs were more difficult, but I really felt like it was Step 2 esqe. Of course the drug ads and abstracts were annoying and difficult to finish, having to guess here and there but to be honest, I am used to doing that on prior boards.

Day 2 was way better. More straight forward questions, less stressful feeling. I am not sure about the CCS per say because they are strange in that they ended for me somewhat abruptly-maybe I did something wrong or maybe I did something right-not too sure. I got the diagnoses correctly, and tried to stray from being unnecessarily invasive.

Topic wise, I saw a good mix of just about everything, surgery, ob, peds, psych, ethics, biostats, neuro. I was expecting more psych-that was not the case.

I felt crappy after day 1 because of exhaustion, uncertainty and of course, the impending doom of unknown for day 2...but quickly into day 2, I realized it wasn't that bad.

I passed somewhat comfortably on Uworld, failed the NMBE but that happened to me on step 2 as well and I got an average score. SO moral of my ramblings: just go in there, alert and rested, having done as much studying as you could provided that you DID in fact study...take the practice U world exam with a passing score...and just be positive. Being rested and positive will get you more points. It is just so hard while being in residency and trying to study for this exam. I feel like the earlier you take it after med school the better because your rotations are pretty fresh, step 2 is pretty fresh as well...

I will update with my score when I get it, just to see if what I am saying is a bunch of garbled gobble. I just hope I passed. Hang in there.
Click to expand...
Update, I passed Step 3, with my score just 2 points higher than Uworld exam. I feel it is accurate to trust the U world practice test score
 
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Just took it as a PGY-3 due to procrastinating.. would not recommend!

Uworld completed at ~67% (timed, random/mixed)
Did all the CCS cased from Uworld (51 I think?)
Skimmed First Aid for step 3
USWA 2 days before exam: 220

Actual Step 3 Score: 256

Not sure about the discrepancy between the practice test and the actual result. The actual score is closer to my Step 1 and Step 2, so maybe USWA wasn't a good estimate for me.. or I got really lucky. Who knows?

I felt that there was a lot of ob/gyn and peds on the exam, but might have been recall bias because that is my worst subject.

Overall would highly recommend Uworld - doing all the questions and do all the CCS cases.
 
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eastcoastdr said:
So just finished taking Step 3. I'm a psych resident, so studying for this was pretty difficult. I'm pretty far removed from med, peds, ob/gyn etc.

UWorld - 64% average, done mostly on tutor untimed mode. Had planned do a 2nd time through on random timed, but never had the time 🙁
UWorld SA, 4 days out - 207 (averaged about 50-60% on each section)

The first day was really difficult....Felt like I had to guess on a lot of questions. Question stems were sooooo long. There was 1 section where I saved all the biostats questions (2 drug ads and a couple others) until the very end but didn't have enough time and I literally had to click random answers in the last 15-20 seconds. Felt really crappy after that section but I pushed on. Even the psych questions were hard the first day, I was so annoyed!

Second day was a little easier. Shorter question stems, simpler material IMO. The cases weren't too bad. The diagnosis was blatantly obvious on 12/13 of my cases. One of my cases literally ended 1 min 22sec in, which was so strange. None of my cases lasted the full 11 or 21 minutes like they said. On a couple of the cases, the patient "refused" my interventions... definitely never came across that scenario in the Uworld CCS practice cases. There was 1 case where i had absolutely NO IDEA what was going on..I ordered so many labs etc and everything came back negative. Luckily it was my very last case, and at that point my brain was so fried anyways.

I'm a little nervous to get my score back especially after the 1st day but we'll see. Hoping just for a pass...I don't even care if it's a low pass. I will just be SO GLAD to be done with this exam. If I don't pass...well I'll know its because I probably didn't focus on Uworld question as much as I needed to. Time is NEVER a problem for me, never has been in the past..but for some reason on the real exam I kept running short on time! Oh well. At least I can enjoy the holidays without having to do any studying now!
Click to expand...

Sorry I never came back to update!! I got my score back in 3-4 weeks and I PASSED!!!! 214 🙂 Did a lot better than I thought I did.
 
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TheRisingSon said:
Just took it as a PGY-3 due to procrastinating.. would not recommend!

Uworld completed at ~67% (timed, random/mixed)
Did all the CCS cased from Uworld (51 I think?)
Skimmed First Aid for step 3
USWA 2 days before exam: 220

Actual Step 3 Score: 256

Not sure about the discrepancy between the practice test and the actual result. The actual score is closer to my Step 1 and Step 2, so maybe USWA wasn't a good estimate for me.. or I got really lucky. Who knows?

I felt that there was a lot of ob/gyn and peds on the exam, but might have been recall bias because that is my worst subject.

Overall would highly recommend Uworld - doing all the questions and do all the CCS cases.
Click to expand...

Congratulations on the great score.
Did you find First Aid useful? I can't decide to use FA or MTB as my review material.
 
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Hi guys,
I've been studying for step 3 for a couple of months off and on. I was scoring 65-70% on Uworld. Today I took UWorld assessment test and got an awful 185!!!! Of course I'm freaking out. I wasn't tired , just got caught with time a bit . I guess I've memorized the Uworld MCQ's and that's why I was scoring so high. From what I've read it is highly predictive on how well you do on the actual exam. Is it possible to improve this score in 3 more weeks? Any feedback is greatly appreciated. 🙁
 
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PGY-1

Took it this week. That was horrible, especially the second day. I had no idea. Completely got killed on the CCS - I am hoping my day #1 performance is decent enough to make up the massive hit I took on CCS.
 
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Liam said:
Hi guys,
I've been studying for step 3 for a couple of months off and on. I was scoring 65-70% on Uworld. Today I took UWorld assessment test and got an awful 185!!!! Of course I'm freaking out. I wasn't tired , just got caught with time a bit . I guess I've memorized the Uworld MCQ's and that's why I was scoring so high. From what I've read it is highly predictive on how well you do on the actual exam. Is it possible to improve this score in 3 more weeks? Any feedback is greatly appreciated. 🙁
Click to expand...

I studied for 1 week total, 30% of the total UW questions, about 15 cases, was more than enough in retrospect, so don't worry too much. Assessment was 220, actual score >240. And I had a bad feeling on both test days.
 
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My step III experience
Step I 250s
Step II 260s
Step III 240s

background: internal medicine resident
UW average timed tutor: 73% 100% done
Did all 51 CCS cases

Overall the test was not too bad. Question stems were around the same length as the UWORLD questions. Tons of stats questions. Couple of mechanism of drugs questions and pathophys of diseases. The drug abstracts question werent as bad as I thought they were going to be.

Advice: If you are in medicine, you will need only 2 weeks to study for the test. Do enough CSS cases to know the software and what they look for. ie. know the times when you are suppose to order vitals/ekg/blood pressure before physical exam. Know how to triage patients to the right location. If a patient needs surgery make sure they have the preop stuff taken care of and that they receive abx prior to the surgery in question. remember to do counsiling. the cases were straight forward (though I had no idea what 1/13 cases were trying to get at)

The questions of day 1 and day 2 were of similar difficulty. Read the NBME description of what they are testing for. The questions type fits their description (no surprise there)
 
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Day 1: lots of biostats as everyone has said, one block even had like 10 biostats in a row. These were also the questions that you sometimes had an idea of what they were getting at but there were two answers that could work. As far as basic sciences, there were a few that you'd get by paying attention, others that you might as well take your best guess and move on. Studying for all that would tack on so much time you'd probably have to study as much as step 1. Walked out feeling meh. Checked a few I remembered and got some right and some wrong, but was hopeful.

Day 2: Marathon day. You have ~50 less questions, but having the stupid CSS looming over you just makes you tired. Surprisingly the questions were fairly straight forward. No biostats this time around, no real ethics questions either. Mostly management (not a shocker if you look at the descriptions of the days). Again I looked back and missed some hard and one or two easy questions that I remembered. For CSS, well....I think I did ok. I'm sure I nailed about 10, one I missed completely, realized what it was right when I clicked exit (patient didn't die, but trust me they got a lot of unnecessary tests), then 2 that I feel I did OK on, cases ended early, may have over-reacted on one case. Main issue is sometimes you will want to order a surgery or a consult and it either doesn't exist or they don't tell you anything. Frustrating. We will see how it pans out.

Prep: Uworld random, 70% all questions and 2nd pass of about 400 with ~83%. All CSS cases. 3/4 intern year. Minor studying throughout year, 3 weeks of block or 2 a day with 2-3 CSS cases.

And now for the wait.
 
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For UWorld CCS, are people mainly doing the 51 case simulations? There are also another 41 cases that can be printed out. Have people been reading through those as well or is it better to focus mainly on the 51 simulated cases?
 
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Thought I'll share my Step 3 experience as well - took my exam 4/20 and 4/21.
Background - PGY 2 in a University IM Program, US-IMG, Step 1 mid 220s Step 2 mid 230s. PGY 1 in service 56% correct, PGY 2 65% correct (don't recall %ile but definitely around 50th or lower)

Day 1 - I thought my exam was very Peds heavy. I'd say it was about 70% (IM+Surgery), 20% Peds, 10% (ObGyn + Psych). Time management was not much of an issue since I've always been in the habit of reading the last line first. That is actually the best thing to do since I thought the question being asked was pretty direct as compared to the all the story mentioned in the middle. I highlighted age, sex, vitals, the ongoing issue and then picked my answers. As far as biostats goes - had at least 1 question (abstract or drug ad) in each block. Each of the questions had 3 parts. That's roughly 20 or so questions from ads/abstracts. Plus there were lots of Prevalence, Incidence, SN, SP etc type of questions - Maybe a total of 30-40 questions just from Biostats & related topics. I bought the UW Biostats review the weekend before the exam and thought it was totally worth the $25. Some questions were interpreting HR,OR,RR with confidence intervals - and the UW review definitely helps with these. Felt fatigued by the end of the 4th block but I recommend getting up after every block and taking short breaks. Walked out thinking I bombed the Peds and Ob questions but thought Medicine was somewhat do-able.

Day 2 - The day prior, only read through the CCS explanations once and tried the FRED CCS Sample cases on USMLE's website. I think there are 6 of these. Did these just to see how the software worked - but for the most part - it runs more smoothly than UW's CCS program. The graphics, outline etc are all the same. Did not do ********** or Mapping CCS - don't think these are needed if you do UW CCS well. As for the exam, I thought the questions were harder this time. 6 blocks of 30 questions each which were of shorter length but trickier. Again lots and lots of Peds! Was absolutely exhausted by the end of the blocks and felt fatigue was playing into it big time!

CCS - 13 questions with a mix of 20 and 10 minute cases. 2 cases did not end as expected inspite of all I was doing. Definitely not sure what was going on. Was able to put in "best guess" diagnosis for these 2. 1 other case ended abruptly after I put in a procedure - not sure what happened there either. All other cases - diagnosis was clear and ended short of the time. Getting used to putting required orders in the 2 min window is key. In ED cases, did not move the clock more than 30 mins at a time, and lots of times put essential orders before the detailed physical (just like real life). I'd recommend practicing CCS atleast once to know things like PT/OT/Counselling/Reassurance and follow up labs/appointments etc

Prep : Skimmed through MTB 3 for Peds and ObGyn. Maybe a few IM sections. Did UW Q back once with repeat of marked/incorrect questions (Around 300) + UW Biostats Review + UW CCS
First pass - around low-mid 60%. Marked/Incorrect - 80% or so
Time : About 2 months of doing a block/day of UWorld. Last 2-3 weeks - did some MTB reading. Finished UW maybe 4-5 days before the exam
UWSA the day prior - 224 (did not take any NBMEs)

Now the month long wait - hoping to pass! 🙁
 
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CerebroDad said:
For UWorld CCS, are people mainly doing the 51 case simulations? There are also another 41 cases that can be printed out. Have people been reading through those as well or is it better to focus mainly on the 51 simulated cases?
Click to expand...

US allopathic grad here. I was trying to figure this out myself. Both sets have decent explanations and blow by blow progressions through which tests to order as you narrow your differentials, but the 51 cases were more organized. I read/practiced with half of the 41 cases where I had no clue on what to do by typing out orders on word doc as I read through them. The thing I liked most about the 51 cases that was NOT in the 41 cases was the chart showing what actions would increase and decrease you score (and what didn't matter). I probably liked this chart because I just graduated from med school and have not started intern year or done any med/surg sub-Is as an MS4 and I still feel very lost in optimally managing patients.

I finished Step 3 yesterday and I felt the CCS portion was a lot like the 51 cases. I'd say maybe pick cases from the 41 that aren't covered in the 51 if you really want a refresher.
 
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Just finished Step 3! 🙂
US-IMG, will be starting residency next month. Step 1 220s, Step 2 230s. Went through most of UWorld with about 70% correct, plus all 51 CCS practice cases at least once (mostly twice.) Skimmed MTB but did not find it helpful...might be for some people, but I just learn better by doing practice questions.

Day 1: Looooong day. LOTS of biostats type questions. I had plenty of time at the end of each section to go back and review the questions I had marked, which was nice, but I was exhausted by the end of the day. I felt like there was quite a bit of peds as well. Overall it reminded me a lot of the CK except more nitpicky.

Day 2: Like everyone else has said, this day felt a lot better. The blocks of multiple-choice questions were shorter and the questions were more straightforward. Again, plenty of time to go back and review questions I wasn't sure about.
The CCS was the part I was most nervous about, but I feel like it was mostly fine and it went by surprisingly quickly. Most of the cases were straightforward and ended early when I put in the proper consult/procedure/treatment. There was one case where the patient started getting worse because I forgot to do something important, but he improved immediately once I fixed my mistake, which was a relief. There were two cases where I couldn't really figure out the diagnosis, probably ordered a lot of unnecessary tests on those. But mostly I think it was all right and pretty similar to the practice cases.
 
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Finally got my score today (they were being held from Jan-April of this year due to the change in the number of questions per block). Had a nasty sinus infection during both days of the exam, but made it through.

Step I 224
Step II CK 234
Step III 235

UW avg 59%
UWSA 198
Went through almost all the CSS practice case and did all the Qbank questions on UWorld.

Good luck everyone!
 
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Just got my scores back:

Step 1 205
Step 2 237
Step 3 210

Medicine intern
Studied for exactly 4 weeks while on elective and clinic blocks
UW average 62% first pass, 68% second pass through incorrects
Used MTB 3 (basically pretty unhelpful), did 51 CCS cases 2 days before test. Started reading Step 3 Secrets (I like his books) but didn't get very far before the test.
UWSA 204 2 days before test

On the actual exam I counted all of my flagged questions (less than 50%-70% certainty that my choice is right), it was 1/3 on the first day and a bit more than 1/3 on the second day (despite people saying the second day is easier). Was really confused about 2 CCS cases (one never got better before real time ended) and one immediately stopped after I ordered a medication (that I wasn't sure would help or not). The other 11 I knew the primary diagnosis but most ended rather quickly after the "definitive management."

Overall on the score report I thought my MCQs were decent (better than anticipated), but the CCS did actually hurt me (significant shift to the left) which confirms what people have said here so far that the CCS can swing your score one way or the other. In general I always performed the PE, ordered relevant labs and imaging to r/o other causes (the other 2-3 top competing diagnoses I would say), and then proceeded with management and provided f/u appt - the cases usually ended rather quickly after this. I'm not sure what the most optimal strategy is as I only dedicated 2 days before the test to do the CCS cases, but most likely I should have fleshed out the diagnostic process further.

I think if you have a UW average about 60% and passing UWSA you should pass - the actual exam actually felt more reasonable/easier than UW (most definitely compared to the UWSA which I thought was really difficult). Lots of biostats on the first day. Most of my other friends who got their scores scored roughly 10 points below their CK, which seems to be common.

So happy to be done with USMLE - as my step scores indicate, they have constantly been a cause of significant stress in med school :dead:
 
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Got my score back this week. I took it in March of my intern (medicine) year.

Step 1: 254
Step 2: 241
Step 3: 236

Uworld: 67% one time through
UWorld Assessment: 235

Obviously downtrending scores, but I passed! I studied 4 weeks while on elective time. Did all of UWorld questions once through on untimed tutor mode. 10 to 20 questions per block. Did all CSS cases at least once. I bought master the board, but did not find it helpful and that it was more just "a remember this."

I felt like crap after both days. worried that I failed. But it all turned out okay.
 
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Step 1: 217
Step 2: 203
Step 3: 200 (9 months into PGY-1 IM)
All passed on first attempt

Trend says, I'm getting dumber the further I get along in training. (Or just more efficient at passing.)

Studied for Step 3 a total of 2 weeks while on break. Got through did 900 questions of the 1500 in UW, was scoring a 58%. Took a week trip away from studying. Flew back home and took Day 1 the next day - felt real awful. Had one day between, rocked all the UW CCS practice, felt good about that. Day 2 felt significantly better. Easier, shorter questions. CCS saved me - I had 2-3 cases that were alotted 20 minutes that ended in 1.5 minutes since they were straightforward. Thought I had failed overall cause of Day 1 MCQs. I actually lost track of time in 2 blocks and didn't get to even click any answers for 2-3 questions - ridiculous rookie mistake.

Just glad to have passed and being done with USMLEs. Moving on to PGY-2!
 
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Got my score this morning (checked the website, email hasn't come in yet lol).
Starting my residency in July.

Step 1: 236
Step 2: 247
Step 3: 229
Uworld Average: around low 60%, like 62-ish?

Uworld Assessment: 200
NBME 4: 400. Converted, apparently that's a 205 on Step 3? lol

Actual hardcore study time started in March (after Match), and I took the exam early May. As you can see, neither of my assessments were accurate (my other steps, NBME was spot on). And according to my score report, my CCS was more to the right (borderline and higher performance, but the bar was long). So that could have affected my score.

Anyway, glad to be done!
 
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Dionysus007 said:
Got my score this morning (checked the website, email hasn't come in yet lol).
Starting my residency in July.

Step 1: 236
Step 2: 247
Step 3: 229
Uworld Average: around low 60%, like 62-ish?

Uworld Assessment: 200
NBME 4: 400. Converted, apparently that's a 205 on Step 3? lol

Actual hardcore study time started in March (after Match), and I took the exam early May. As you can see, neither of my assessments were accurate (my other steps, NBME was spot on). And according to my score report, my CCS was more to the right (borderline and higher performance, but the bar was long). So that could have affected my score.

Anyway, glad to be done!
Click to expand...

Congrats! when did you take it in early May? ie. have 3 or 4 Wednesdays passed? This is my 3rd Wed and still waiting....
 
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metukah said:
Congrats! when did you take it in early May? ie. have 3 or 4 Wednesdays passed? This is my 3rd Wed and still waiting....
Click to expand...

My day 2 was on May 9th. So it was 4 Wednesdays!

If I remember correctly, taking your exam on Wednesday, Thursday or Friday gets your scores back after 3 weeks. If you take it Monday or Tuesday, you have to wait 4 weeks.
 
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Dionysus007 said:
My day 2 was on May 9th. So it was 4 Wednesdays!

If I remember correctly, taking your exam on Wednesday, Thursday or Friday gets your scores back after 3 weeks. If you take it Monday or Tuesday, you have to wait 4 weeks.
Click to expand...
Ok thanks! That is reassuring. I took it on Monday/Thursday. 🙂
 
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