STEP 3 Score VS USMLE WORLD AVERAGE

[FirstMANdown]

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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.

 

[DisorderedDoc417]

Honestly, I don't know how I would have approached things differently going into Day 2. I wouldn't even know what to study because the questions were representative of everything we've learned in medicine thus far. I really have no idea how I could have felt better prepared. Maybe focus your attention on CCS and reviewing rote orders for certain cases. For instance, I know for ER patients, you should order monitoring test, repeat vitals, and interval histories. I really can't speak to this well because even though I reviewed over 150 cases (many of them repeated) found in Crush/UW/FRED, I was still rattled going through them on exam day. I was mostly afraid of not ordering enough diagnostics and not entering enough orders into the 2-minute window. Some of my cases went longer than expected even when I thought I'd given the right treatment. For instance, I had a trichomonas case that was very straightforward. I gave her metronidazole and advanced the clock. Screen popped up saying that the patient hopes the treatment will improve her condition. Then nothing. I advanced the clock some more. Nothing. I don't even remember how but the case just kind of ended before the 18 mins were up. I put the end orders in (avoid alcohol and treat sexual partner and safe sex education) and that was that. No idea why it didn't just end. I was terrified after that. I can't remember most of what I did since I was on auto pilot and just drew from my experiences doing the practice cases in Crush/UWorld/FRED.

Also, I get that crappy feeling of having made silly mistakes. You are no alone in this! I changed many right answers into wrong ones because I panicked which in hindsight is why I'm a poor test taker. I am always second guessing myself and not believing that I'm smart and know the right answer.

I wish you well going into Day 2 and trust that you will do well. I hope we both pass after all of the pain and suffering this exam has put us through 🙂

It was as difficult as everyone says it is. I have no way to gauge how I did because I felt the first day was difficult... and I felt today was difficult. I was shocked how hard it is to manage the patients when the case ends in 5 minutes, that is not enough darn time. I think CCS is a torture device. What a stupid interface.

I gave the right med in some cases, they'd get better and then boom it would end, wouldn't even get to see them improve. Maybe that's good or bad. Good luck, glad to be on this side for now. Just hoping my past step scores and the 97% pass rate are enough. I just can't imagine rallying for a round 2.

 

[Psych_hopeful]

I'm scared. My test is on the 13th/15th and I got a 68% on Uworld/540 on NBME. =/

I'm not feeling too well though. Maybe I'm just too anxious.

 

[Unty]

I'm scared. My test is on the 13th/15th and I got a 68% on Uworld/540 on NBME. =/

I'm not feeling too well though. Maybe I'm just too anxious.

Is it me or do docs and medical students all have anxiety issues or OCD. A 540 on the NBME is a good score. What's wrong with people?

 

[Psych_hopeful]

Is it me or do docs and medical students all have anxiety issues or OCD. A 540 on the NBME is a good score. What's wrong with people?

Maybe I am anxious. No I'm DEFINITELY anxious XD

Ya tho I'm scared for this test. I hope everything comes out of uworld >_<.

Edit (9/11/2017): I decided to cut myself off Uworld and books and just chill. I dont think there is anymore I can or even SHOULD do.

 

[Bancrofti]

Ortho intern. Studied for 2.5 weeks with UWorld only on a lighter rotation.

did ~40% Uworld, with a 65% average - timed random
UWSA 8 days before the test - 213

Took the test on back to back days.
Real Score: 240

I was stressing because that practice test was low, but when I ran back through this thread it seemed like everyone did better than the practice, so as long as you pass it, you're probably fine. Just wanted to add another data point for anyone searching in the future... also, I used the MCAT/Step I/II threads religiously, so it only felt right to post here so that I can now officially retire from SDN.

Finishing Uworld doesn't seem to be necessary. I was bugging out about this going into the test, because i couldn't get a good answer from anyone on how much to complete to feel confident. Likewise, all anyone ever said was do the CCS cases if you're running low on time - I only did 7 of them and was fine.

 

[Unty]

I don't recommend anyone "just doing 7 cases" for ccs. You've got to put a lot of practice into it. There's 90+ cases and you should practice as much as you can. CCS is too important to just practice only a few cases.

 

[Bancrofti]

I don't recommend anyone "just doing 7 cases" for ccs. You've got to put a lot of practice into it. There's 90+ cases and you should practice as much as you can. CCS is too important to just practice only a few cases.

I wouldn't recommend it either. My post was rather just to be honest about things. I registered at the beginning of intern year and didn't anticipate getting crushed in my 1st rotation like I did and had no time to study, so I was freaking out at how unprepared I was going to be. Reading these posts didn't help aside from seeing that everyone passed... but it seemed like everyone was pretty well prepared. I really don't think it's as hard as everyone says. SDN members tend to exaggerate things. You just have to know how to use the CCS system. If you're unfamiliar with it on exam day, then I guess I could see how that could screw you.

I think if you did well on Step1/Step2, Step 3 will be the same with minimal effort if you're taking it early during intern year.

 

[normalperson]

Just following up on my post about the exam as it's been 3 weeks since I took it. Just checked the FSMB website and my status is "expired" with no link to re-apply. Many threads have been created to claim that this means a pass. Does anybody have evidence that says otherwise? I really need to get my life and sleep back on track after Step 3...nothing has been normal since that horrendous experience 3 weeks ago.

 

[normalperson]

EDIT: DELETED

 

[Psych_hopeful]

...

 

[Unty]

I ended up failing Step 3 by 1 lousy point. Sucks. I have no idea what happened, in total shock right now. I don't know where to go from here.

That sucks but at least you have taken it and know what you are facing. How did you do on ccs? My advice is to Focus on improving your ccs. Second focus in doing well in biostats and ethics and then work on your weak areas according to your score report.

Look at the bright side. You just need to improve by 1 point to pass. Good luck!

 

[NCMED101]

I ended up failing Step 3 by 1 lousy point. Sucks. I have no idea what happened, in total shock right now. I don't know where to go from here.

This terrifies me. I had the same feelings you had based on your experience...I'm sure I failed now

 

[normalperson]

That sucks but at least you have taken it and know what you are facing. How did you do on ccs? My advice is to Focus on improving your ccs. Second focus in doing well in biostats and ethics and then work on your weak areas according to your score report.

Look at the bright side. You just need to improve by 1 point to pass. Good luck!

Hey thanks for the words of support. I actually did the best on CCS with higher than borderline performance. Unfortunately, it was the MCQs related to clinical management that got me. I am almost 2 years out of med school and am not in residency. I have a hard time learning something if I'm not actually doing it. As much as I studied, I don't think the clinical management details stuck with me for the exam.

EDIT: I also did the best on biostats and bioethics, haha. I have an epidemiology/biostats background so knocked biostats out of the park based on my score report. Really confused as to how I failed with strong performances on CCS, biostats, and bioethics...must have really sucked with clinical management.

 

[normalperson]

Edit: DELETED

 

[Unty]

Hey thanks for the words of support. I actually did the best on CCS with higher than borderline performance. Unfortunately, it was the MCQs related to clinical management that got me. I am almost 2 years out of med school and am not in residency. I have a hard time learning something if I'm not actually doing it. As much as I studied, I don't think the clinical management details stuck with me for the exam.

EDIT: I also did the best on biostats and bioethics, haha. I have an epidemiology/biostats background so knocked biostats out of the park based on my score report. Really confused as to how I failed with strong performances on CCS, biostats, and bioethics...must have really sucked with clinical management.

How did you do on mcqs? Did you have a lot of bars in the lower performance area (left of borderline) or even stars in the far left?

Another thing you can do is review uworld step 2 but that might be too much if you just want to pass. Up to you.

 

[normalperson]

Edit: DELETED

 

[Psych_hopeful]

We are cheering for you man!

 

[NCMED101]

UWSA: 194 (1 week before)
NBME: 440 (3 days before)
Step 3: 220
Took Day 1 and 2 back to back. Studied 5 weeks on and off and seriously for 1 week. Did all the cases on Uworld.
Felt terrible after Day 1 as I guessed on nearly 60% of the questions. Day 2 felt better, but stumbled on 3-4 cases. Glad to be done with this test

 

[DisorderedDoc417]

Results came out for me tonight at midnight ET. The "step 3 USMLE trick" continues to be valid in my case, but 97% of people pass this exam, so its obviously going to work for almost everyone.

UWSA 188 (3 days before).

Strategy: 1 x pass through uworld with an overall of 69% (half timed full blocks on random at home, half untimed random blocks on tutor mode between patients at work). I just barely finished before day 1, so there was no time for repeating or notecards or the like.

Step 3: 230-240 🙂

Impression: Both days felt bad. And not the kind of bad that Step 1 and 2 felt. This was a special hell... one where I, at times, was guessing between 3 or 4 seemingly valid answers. I think I flagged AT LEAST 15-20 of the 38 questions in each block on day 1. Day 2 was slightly better, but only slightly, I still didn't feel great about management because my knowledge is all based off of what I learned in medical school -- and the more intricate or advanced level care questions were foreign to me. Again, marked 10-15 of 30-ish questions per block. There are a handful of WTH questions and material that I know was sitting on some table in FA for step 1 somewhere. That’s okay though, I’m certain I blew those and things still turned out fine.

The step 3 UWSA scared the day lights savings time out of me, and I want to dispel fears for my friends here about that practice exam and for CCS. At least in my case, UWSA was not representative of my abilities and getting the score of 188 was frustrating and made the whole process seem hopeless. Just remember that UWSA doesn’t measure things that well as the content and style are different than on test day. Please don’t beat yourself up or postpone based upon that stupid practice test, Im so thankful I didn’t. For CCS, I did the interactive CCS cases for 3 days in-between day 1 and 2.

I am an intern with no IM/OB/Peds experience as a resident. I felt incredibly uncomfortable and short on knowledge when it came to medical management of some of the most common IM problems (i.e.: I knew the correct answer in a line-up of multiple choice, but had no idea how the heck to work with it from the clinic to the ICU), especially as this was my first month of residency.

I Did not put in thousands of counseling orders on the 2 minute screen (often ran out of time and would only input, for example, smoking or alcohol counseling... as in just that ONE thing), I absolutely did not do well on at least 3-4 of the 13 cases (as in, no great diagnoses or idea of what/where/how to fix the patient, ordered vague labs and broad workup... avoided invasive procedures unless i knew there was no other way... and if in doubt I just ordered the consult to the appropriate service and that fixed the case). I attached my report.

As you can see attached, I scored with a fair distance above borderline performance. This is not a brag, this is hopefully reassuring and an attempt to dispel some of the fear I suspect some people use to promote CCS testing products... I surmise that if you actually do any of this in real life, CCS will be just fine with some practice on UWORLD. It is okay to mess up a few cases ( I did some seriously embarrassing things with patients, but stress and only 4 minutes to do the case will do that to you).

Preparation time: Again, I'm a non-IM intern with no inpatient IM/OB/PEDS or anything else at the resident level. I studied 6pm-10pm on weekdays and from 8-5pm on Saturday(s) for 4 weeks. I used UWORLD MCQ and CCS interactive cases alone (no time to review print-out cases). Stupidly scrambled through CCS Secrets the morning of day 2. This was a mistake because cramming caused me to forget what I had studied on UWORLD. I did not purchase the supplement for statistics, I just spent a couple hours making sure i could calculate all of the equations on the regular set of step 3 uworld. I did not have time to interpret the drug ad pamphlet/question-sets in a meaningful way... usually I would answer the question based on similar real-world drugs that sounded very similar to the "experimental drug" unless it was nitpicky and really required reading. IF it wasn't in the biggest colored picture, or it didn't have a real-world counterpart I could answer based on, I guessed.

Scores on step 1 and step 2 were > 235. Personally, I believe that the forums can sometimes have a neurotic flair to them, and that while the test feels awful... the curve is low. I hope this gives hope to all those who are worried. Frankly, this forum scared me and I wish I would have avoided it altogether.

Best to all!

ALL DONE! 🙂 Praise God.

 

[CaribbeanMD]

Hi guys! Figured I would write something about my experience since it’s been really helpful reading everyone else’s.


My background:
IMG graduate applying for this year’s match

Step 1: Mid 220s
Step 2: Mid 210s
CS Pass
All first attempt

Sources:
Uworld Step 3- (59% random/mixed 1st, 75% random/tutor 2nd)
Uworld Biostats
Uworld CCS
UWSA (184- took after first pass of uworld)

MTB3- never read it cover to cover, just annotated uworld notes in there and would read corresponding section

Study time:
I initially wanted to take this exam after having gone through uworld once in a period of about 3.5 weeks (59% in random/timed) but I scored a 184 on UWSA and panicked and delayed. At that time I had just finished flying through uworld (at least that’s how it felt to me) and hadn’t actually reviewed any of my notes. My averages on the blocks were actually getting worse toward the end. I was probably burning out.

Then a few months later, I finally had a few weeks to fully dedicate to studying again and redid all of uworld again but this time in tutor/random. I finished with a 75% average and I felt like I significantly knew a lot more than I did the first time. When I took notes in MTB, I wrote tons of the background information relating to the question in there, not just the answer to the question so when I was reviewing it, I would review the entire concept and wasn’t just memorizing the Q/A. The last few days leading up to the first date of the exam during my second pass, I did only blocks of FIP and I think this actually helped a lot. Then during the 5 days I had in between, I only did blocks of ACM (these questions were much harder for me).

Test day:
Day1:

The first day I did not think was too bad. From what I had read I was expecting it to be much worse than uworld in terms of quality of questions and also the length. However, I finished almost every block on time and I really did not think the questions were any more difficult than uworld, and actually thought most were easier and more straightforward. A lot of the questions also only had options A-D and I felt like the wrong options were clearly wrong (that usually is not the case for me). There was definitely a ton of biostats so know it well. The biostats questions weren’t hard so be sure to make good notes during your study time to review right before the test. Right in the beginning of my exam during the 5 minute tutorial I wrote down most of the biostats equations just so when the time came to even do a simple biostats question, I didn’t have to waste time thinking or risk blanking out. So practice doing that a day or two before because it definitely helped a lot! Also, there were a couple step 1 type questions (mechanism of action) per block but it was all high yield stuff. I definitely would not recommend reviewing any step 1 sources. The rest of the questions were split pretty evenly amongst all the other subjects.

Day 2:

MCQ
Like I said earlier, the ACM questions in uworld were more difficult for me (my average correct for ACM section alone was 73% at the end) and I felt like these questions were just as hard or much harder than the uworld ones. There were some (not a ton of) questions where I thought had I been in residency I would definitely know but a good amount I felt like no one in residency would have any idea either. So I kept reminding myself of that throughout the entireeeee multiple choice part and was thinking “if I don’t know this, nobody else will”. It helped keep me calm for sure but who knows, maybe I just really didn’t know anything (probably). Also, I felt like the subjects tested on this day were much heavier on obgyn and peds, especially emergency management/protocols. Also, tons of prognosis/risk factor questions. Some of those questions were in uworld but a lot weren’t so I really don’t know where anyone would have known these super detailed type questions. Maybe in residency? I don’t know. Oh but also, while taking the exam, I didn’t think these questions were super short on the second day during the exam while reading through them, BUT I was able to finish each block with about 10 minutes to spare and was generally able to quickly review the entire block again or spend time on marked ones…nevertheless I still felt just as exhausted after completing a block as I had on day 1.

CCS
I was really concerned about this part since I wasn’t the strongest clinical student and am not in residency. I used only the uworld 51 ccs cases and did this during the 5 days in between my exam dates. I looked through about 4 of the print out cases but then got too tired and just stopped. I was really panicking because I felt like while practicing, I could easily diagnose most of the cases but my biggest problem was I wasn’t sure of the sequencing of how to manage everything (i.e. if I could start treatment before getting a test result, which other tests needed to be ordered to rule out other diseases, etc.). At the start of the second day, I quickly wrote down lists of routine labs to possibly order in each setting just so I again wouldn’t forget later during CCS. I think only 3 or 4 of my cases were from uworld and the rest were all different. However they were all pretty simple and most of them you could diagnose by the history alone or certainly after doing the physical exam. I feel like everyone always posts about panicking about time but I took my time really reading and focusing on the entire HPI & PE results to get as many clues as possible before proceeding and I think that helped a lot. Each of my cases went until about a minute before expiring, I ran out of time for one and put in the right orders during the two minute screen, and for one other I had no idea what was going on. Overall I did not think they were terrible. I think having a basic algorithm of how to approach each case was really helpful. Also, on the USMLE website, it states that the patient’s condition can actually worsen despite doing the optimal treatment so you have to continue managing appropriately. I kept that in mind and felt that most of what I was doing was correct, and if I did make any errors I was able to correct the management/treatment by the end. 12/13 patients improved. ALSO, my management was definitely subpar… I remember discontinuing appropriate empiric treatments too soon and kept the patient on the wrong one (oops) and later took them off and restarted the right one.

At this point I have no idea whether I passed or not. The first day I came out feeling okay but the second day really defeated me. I know everyone says that but I feel like no one actually ever knows how they did until their score shows up. If you told me I got a 140 or a 240, either would not surprise me. I definitely recommend getting a full night of sleep before each day. I purposely got a ****ty night of sleep/barely slept two nights before each exam date so that the day before I slept really well.

One last thing that I helped with me saving lots of time on the questions—I have been using this technique since step 1 and it’s worked really well for me. What I do is cover/don’t look at the answer choices and read only the last line of the question. Then I go back and read the entire vignette. This way I know the type of question that’s being asked and know whether or not it’s a biostats/ethics/drug type question and know what to focus on. Then before looking at the choices I’ll try to quickly come up with something in my head. It takes some practice getting used to it but I would certainly recommend trying it out because it really does save so much time and I feel like I’m much better at answering MCQs with what little knowledge I have.

____________________________
I wrote the above right after I took the exam but didn’t want to post it because of nerves. But I just found out I passed with a 208 🙂


My breakdown showed:

FIP: Borderline going into higher performance
ACM MCQ: Borderline going into both lower & higher performance
CCS: All higher performance with one star touching borderline

What that tells me is either day 1 I knew way less than I thought…or it was just incredibly easy and I did worse relative to everyone else (or both). And day 2 either I knew more than I thought or everyone actually knew nothing.

Good luck everyone!

 

[fetorius]

Alright, just finished Day 2 and I am almost positive I failed the CCS portion. The MCQ was not terrible on Day 2 (Day 1 was just awful) and I felt there was ample time on all blocks - however, the question stems didn't really feel that much shorter compared to Day 1. I would recommend flipping through MTB Step 2 CK if you have time, it definitely got me a number of easy questions.

For CCS, I failed at least 4 of the cases. The first case needed an outpatient medication but I forgot what it was so I ran out of time before I could give it to the patient. The second case I thought for sure I had the diagnosis but everything on the work-up ended up being normal. I even went back multiple times and added various tests with no luck. The third case I had the right treatment but the patient never improved - I was stupid/flustered and didn’t think to get a consult when the optimal treatment plan didn’t work. I can’t remember the last case I messed up on. Essentially, these 4 cases either ended because I ran out of time and couldn’t figure out what to do, or because my patient never got better and it auto-ended. All the other cases ended very early with what I believe to be the correct management (although in one case I consulted a service, put in the wrong reason, but still got the right outcome) - I ended ~1.5 hours early because of this extra time.

Since Day 1 MCQ was tough and Day 2 MCQ was better, I’m preparing for the worst and thinking I’ll likely need to take this beast again. Is it even possible to pass if you fail the CCS?

 

[DisorderedDoc417]

Alright, just finished Day 2 and I am almost positive I failed the CCS portion. The MCQ was not terrible on Day 2 (Day 1 was just awful) and I felt there was ample time on all blocks - however, the question stems didn't really feel that much shorter compared to Day 1. I would recommend flipping through MTB Step 2 CK if you have time, it definitely got me a number of easy questions.

For CCS, I failed at least 4 of the cases. The first case needed an outpatient medication but I forgot what it was so I ran out of time before I could give it to the patient. The second case I thought for sure I had the diagnosis but everything on the work-up ended up being normal. I even went back multiple times and added various tests with no luck. The third case I had the right treatment but the patient never improved - I was stupid/flustered and didn’t think to get a consult when the optimal treatment plan didn’t work. I can’t remember the last case I messed up on. Essentially, these 4 cases either ended because I ran out of time and couldn’t figure out what to do, or because my patient never got better and it auto-ended. All the other cases ended very early with what I believe to be the correct management (although in one case I consulted a service, put in the wrong reason, but still got the right outcome) - I ended ~1.5 hours early because of this extra time.

Since Day 1 MCQ was tough and Day 2 MCQ was better, I’m preparing for the worst and thinking I’ll likely need to take this beast again. Is it even possible to pass if you fail the CCS?

Eh. More or less felt the exact same about CCS and it ended up being the highest score on my report. Me thinks if you did well on step 1 and 2ck, you should move on and relax because you did great and you’re now all done with step 3! Nice work.

 

[fetorius]

Eh. More or less felt the exact same about CCS and it ended up being the highest score on my report. Me thinks if you did well on step 1 and 2ck, you should move on and relax because you did great and you’re now all done with step 3! Nice work.

Hey, I appreciate the response. I read through your prior post and I felt exactly the same way. It's tough to gauge how the MCQs went outside of the really direct questions (seems like I missed some and got some right). I thought Day 2 MCQ was more manageable in terms of questions and Day 1 had a lot of tough questions. I'm bracing myself for a retake but it would be great to just pass at this point. Great job on getting such an excellent score!

 

[Multiverse]

Eh. More or less felt the exact same about CCS and it ended up being the highest score on my report. Me thinks if you did well on step 1 and 2ck, you should move on and relax because you did great and you’re now all done with step 3! Nice work.

DisorderedDoc417, I've read your posts regarding the exam, and I appreciate your insights. Do you believe the way you spaced out days one and two of testing were optimal? If not, what do you think is a good amount of time between testing days?

 

[DisorderedDoc417]

DisorderedDoc417, I've read your posts regarding the exam, and I appreciate your insights. Do you believe the way you spaced out days one and two of testing were optimal? If not, what do you think is a good amount of time between testing days?

Okay. So in retrospect it is hard to say because I have my score in hand. While I was doing it, it felt horrible. I was having so much anxiety and stress those days, it was truly unbearable. Also, I had to learn how to do CCS in 4 days and couldn’t review MCQ content on those days in between. In my opinion, prepare for CCS and the multiple choice early and at the same time. Just do them both if for no reason other than to save yourself the anxiety — take the beast on days close together so it can be over and done with quickly. That’s what I think I would have done looking back; however, things went well in the end for me so take that for what it’s worth. Either way you’ll probably be fine, but the wait sucks and I just don’t see a way around that.

 

[Psych_hopeful]

Well, I guess it's my turn to post.

NBME: 540
Uworld: 68%
Step 3: 219

Study Period: 2 months

Day 1: Felt really bad after this. There were a ton of easy questions here in which I changed to the wrong answer because I doubted myself.

Day 2: Also felt bad. Didn't feel like I did enough to prepare despite whatever time I put in. In CCS I feel like I messed up a lot but a lot of my cases ended early. CCS ended up being my highest score tho.

I dont really have much to say other than whatever others have posted here already. What I would say is that Uworld is indeed the best resource for preparing for this test. For anyone that would want to take this test and do well, I would tell people to study the explanations of all the right and wrong questions in UWorld. Other sources, like MTB should be secondary.

I would also say that you should spend a LOT of time studying for CCS. I felt like I could have done better and gotten more points if I invested the time into CCS. I would tell people to buy ********** or CCS cases and pretty much practice all the Uworld and Crush CCS cases until you know the steps like it is second nature to you. If I had to do this over again, I would definitely focus on CCS a lot more just because I feel like I would have done a lot better.

Gl to everyone still taking this test!

 

[Unty]

Well, I guess it's my turn to post.

NBME: 540
Uworld: 68%
Step 3: 219

Study Period: 2 months

Day 1: Felt really bad after this. There were a ton of easy questions here in which I changed to the wrong answer because I doubted myself.

Day 2: Also felt bad. Didn't feel like I did enough to prepare despite whatever time I put in. In CCS I feel like I messed up a lot but a lot of my cases ended early. CCS ended up being my highest score tho.

I dont really have much to say other than whatever others have posted here already. What I would say is that Uworld is indeed the best resource for preparing for this test. For anyone that would want to take this test and do well, I would tell people to study the explanations of all the right and wrong questions in UWorld. Other sources, like MTB should be secondary.

I would also say that you should spend a LOT of time studying for CCS. I felt like I could have done better and gotten more points if I invested the time into CCS. I would tell people to buy ********** or CCS cases and pretty much practice all the Uworld and Crush CCS cases until you know the steps like it is second nature to you. If I had to do this over again, I would definitely focus on CCS a lot more just because I feel like I would have done a lot better.

Gl to everyone still taking this test!

Did you think CCS boosted your score?

 

[Psych_hopeful]

Did you think CCS boosted your score?

A thousand times. Yes

 

[GIangium]

Passed. Thought I failed. MTB2 helped me a lot for Step II, but I found MTB3 not very helpful for Step 3. Best book overall I think but I just felt like it didn't help me answer the majority of Step 3 questions. UWORLD was where it was at, but again doesn't cover everything. Thinking back I wonder whether redoing the Step 2 UWorld would have helped. Also way more Step 1 material than I anticipated. It technically would be helpful to review high yield pathophys/drug mechs, but one could also make the argument that with a limited about of time to study for the test, that the best method may simply to hope you still have retained your Step 1 knowledge somewhere deep in your brain as you take the test PGY1-2 year.

Hi thank you for sharing your experience. My exam is less than 4 weeks away and I have been reading so many different things about the amount of Step 1 on the exam. I know you wrote to look up pathphysio and MOA of drugs. Could be please give any further suggestions. And pathphysio should I cover it for everything? I think i am doing ok on biostat, step 3 and step 2 MCQ prep but I am keeping Step 1 for the end because I know Ill never know everything. Appreciate the help of you or anyone who reads this post.

 

[DisorderedDoc417]

Hi thank you for sharing your experience. My exam is less than 4 weeks away and I have been reading so many different things about the amount of Step 1 on the exam. I know you wrote to look up pathphysio and MOA of drugs. Could be please give any further suggestions. And pathphysio should I cover it for everything? I think i am doing ok on biostat, step 3 and step 2 MCQ prep but I am keeping Step 1 for the end because I know Ill never know everything. Appreciate the help of you or anyone who reads this post.

I would go so far as to say, just be aware that it will show up, and don’t let it rattle you. Know your bread and butter step 2CK and those pesky bioscience questions won’t matter.

 

[syvian.]

WTF. Took Day 1 today and I honestly feel I took Step 1 again more than Step 3...


Does day 2 have these step 1 type of questions again? I might just read FA in the week I have...

 

[thomasina]

WTF. Took Day 1 today and I honestly feel I took Step 1 again more than Step 3...


Does day 2 have these step 1 type of questions again? I might just read FA in the week I have...

Mine didnt. It had way more questions about "what's the biggest risk factor in this patient?" And "what's the biggest determinant of prognosis in this patient?" -type questions. No biostats.

 

[Psych_hopeful]

Mine didnt. It had way more questions about "what's the biggest risk factor in this patient?" And "what's the biggest determinant of prognosis in this patient?" -type questions. No biostats.

Honestly, I think it helps to google and look at the official literature for everything you study. I mean the best you can do in a limited time tho is Uworld. But if you do have the time, you should look up official resources.

 

[DisorderedDoc417]

WTF. Took Day 1 today and I honestly feel I took Step 1 again more than Step 3...


Does day 2 have these step 1 type of questions again? I might just read FA in the week I have...

Definitely do not do that. Forget the step 1 stuff, it doesn’t matter. You need to focus instead on CCS. No biostats or step 1 content on day 2. You will however have lots of questions on the typical COPD, CHF, MI, etc. Lord only knows how many different ways they can ask about these stupid diseases. Keep up the good work.

 

[Psych_hopeful]

Definitely do not do that. Forget the step 1 stuff, it doesn’t matter. You need to focus instead on CCS. No biostats or step 1 content on day 2. You will however have lots of questions on the typical COPD, CHF, MI, etc. Lord only knows how many different ways they can ask about these stupid diseases. Keep up the good work.

What he said. PUSH CCS ALL DA WAY TO THE RIGHTTTT

 

[byaaaaaaah23]

How long did day 2 take for everyone? Really hoping it wont last 9 hours..

 

[BP87]

hey guys, wanted to get ur opinion on my situation
pgy2 resident, test in exactly 14 days, currently on a busy ortho rotation. I did some uworld here and there over the past 6 months or so but no real dedicated studying. i am re-doing uworld (didnt finish it the first time maybe ~80%, but took some random notes), probably planning on doing another 50% of the bank. I'm not sure I have time for CCS. I do however have 3 days in btw both days...i know very little about CCS. Do you think 3 days is enough to just do uworld ccs cases? kinda worried and cant postpone test at this point. any input appreciated. thanks
step 1 230s
sep 2 230s

 

[DisorderedDoc417]

hey guys, wanted to get ur opinion on my situation
pgy2 resident, test in exactly 14 days, currently on a busy ortho rotation. I did some uworld here and there over the past 6 months or so but no real dedicated studying. i am re-doing uworld (didnt finish it the first time maybe ~80%, but took some random notes), probably planning on doing another 50% of the bank. I'm not sure I have time for CCS. I do however have 3 days in btw both days...i know very little about CCS. Do you think 3 days is enough to just do uworld ccs cases? kinda worried and cant postpone test at this point. any input appreciated. thanks
step 1 230s
sep 2 230s

This was similar to my situation, step scores sound roughly similar, all my prior steps were btw 235 and 245. I had 5 days to prepare for CCS and ended up having a bit of an anxiety attack. So much so that I had to take the day after day 1 to recuperate and ended up wasting one of the other days. I otherwise effectively had 3 days to learn CCS. This ended up my highest score as a psych resident that never set foot on an IM floor as a resident. It can be done, it will not be fun but it is doable! You will need to use those days to make it through all of the interactive cases and as many of the pdf practice cases as possible. It can be done!

 

[DisorderedDoc417]

How long did day 2 take for everyone? Really hoping it wont last 9 hours..

13 cases take roughly 5 minutes a piece with a couple taking close to the full time. You will absolutely have time to spare at the end.

 

[DisorderedDoc417]

13 cases take roughly 5 minutes a piece with a couple taking close to the full time. You will absolutely have time to spare at the end.

I might add that the “longer” time designation meant absolutely nothing and those cases would end just as fast as the “shorter” cases. I only note this because it freaked me out on test day, but it meant nothing.

 

[byaaaaaaah23]

I might add that the “longer” time designation meant absolutely nothing and those cases would end just as fast as the “shorter” cases. I only note this because it freaked me out on test day, but it meant nothing.

Thanks!

 

[Unty]

This was similar to my situation, step scores sound roughly similar, all my prior steps were btw 235 and 245. I had 5 days to prepare for CCS and ended up having a bit of an anxiety attack. So much so that I had to take the day after day 1 to recuperate and ended up wasting one of the other days. I otherwise effectively had 3 days to learn CCS. This ended up my highest score as a psych resident that never set foot on an IM floor as a resident. It can be done, it will not be fun but it is doable! You will need to use those days to make it through all of the interactive cases and as many of the pdf practice cases as possible. It can be done!

Damn 3 days to learn CCS? Thats pretty damn good. I would never be able to learn CCS in that short amount of time and I also have had minimal to zero clinical experience. It took me a while to learn what to order when and what monitoring orders to place.

 

[DisorderedDoc417]

Damn 3 days to learn CCS? Thats pretty damn good. I would never be able to learn CCS in that short amount of time and I also have had minimal to zero clinical experience. It took me a while to learn what to order when and what monitoring orders to place.

Hah! Don’t you recall how stressed out I was? It doesn’t take much flipping back in the posts to see how I felt about it. It wasn’t what I would do if I had to do it again that is for sure. However, if you spend a few 6-8 hours days with it, you start to get it down, it isn’t THAT hard.

 

[thomasina]

I had 4 days in between my two test dates and that was the only time I learned CCS. It was fine. I didn't put diagnoses in for any of my cases on the actual test date except for maybe one case.

 

[DisorderedDoc417]

I had 4 days in between my two test dates and that was the only time I learned CCS. It was fine. I didn't put diagnoses in for any of my cases on the actual test date except for maybe one case.

Same on the dx piece

 

[BP87]

This was similar to my situation, step scores sound roughly similar, all my prior steps were btw 235 and 245. I had 5 days to prepare for CCS and ended up having a bit of an anxiety attack. So much so that I had to take the day after day 1 to recuperate and ended up wasting one of the other days. I otherwise effectively had 3 days to learn CCS. This ended up my highest score as a psych resident that never set foot on an IM floor as a resident. It can be done, it will not be fun but it is doable! You will need to use those days to make it through all of the interactive cases and as many of the pdf practice cases as possible. It can be done!

hey thanks for ur reply.
it seems like i'm struggling with social sciences/ethics on uworld. any tips on how to improve on this subject?

 

[DisorderedDoc417]

hey thanks for ur reply.
it seems like i'm struggling with social sciences/ethics on uworld. any tips on how to improve on this subject?

No great tips other than to do UWORLD. The ethics like questions are often vague, and require guessing. I don’t think there is a single book out there that will fix this honestly.

 

[sports_med]

Saw a lot of these posts while studying, and most of them made me more worried than I should have been, so wanted to post about my experience…

Background
Step 1: 246 (May 2015, 6 week dedicated studying)
Step 2: 257 (July 2016, 10 days dedicated studying)
Step 3: 243 (Oct 2017, 6 weeks part time during intern year)
Going into non-medicine advanced program and in a relatively chill prelim year. Wanted to get the thing over with early in intern year and not worry about it. A lot of these threads talked about using a ton of sources, and many of my categorical co-interns are studying super hard for it, so made me anxious about it.

I studied part time for 6 weeks. 4 of those weeks I was busy on wards, (studied maybe 1-2 hrs a day after work, and on the phone/under the table during rounds/noon conference lol) 2 weeks I was on light outpatient rotation (2-3 hrs of studying a day plus 2 weekends part-time). Finished uworld x 1 (overall percentage 65% first pass), all uworld CCS cases x 1 (both interactive and practice cases), and UWSA. Didn’t take any notes or anything. I did maybe half incorrects but stopped as I was getting 90+% and mostly just remembering the questions. A little less than 2 weeks out I took UWSA and got a 201 (average was 204. I got slightly higher than avg on each block so not sure why my score was slightly below avg). Regardless, it made me worried as I had already finished most of uworld, but I decided to leave test date as is. I just kept reminding myself that pass rate is like 97% for US MD first takers. I thought UWSA was hard, timing was an issue for me (which has never been the case in previous tests), and just weird questions overall—I wouldn’t even recommend taking it. I crushed through the CCS cases the week and a half leading up to the test, and the night before the test reviewed first aid for step 1 stats for about an hour.

Day 1: Very heavy on stats and ethics. About 10-12 questions per block were either stats or ethics. All the stats was very doable/basic--nothing more than uworld or what is in first aid step 1 stats (relative risk, hazard ratios, confidence intervals, Sensitivity/specificity, positive/negative predictive values, drug ads/abstracts, etc). What I did is save all the stats questions til the end, which I highly recommend since they take up more time than the others. For me, the ethics were extremely challenging and not straightforward at all (definitely hardest section for me), but I also found ethics on step 1 and 2 difficult. A lot of informed consent in pt’s below 18, a lot of “how would you respond,” reporting other physician’s behaviors, and end of life stuff. I could always narrow it down to 2 but way harder than Uworld ethics questions in my opinion. Other questions I thought were on par with uworld. Didn’t have a problem finishing blocks in time but sometimes wouldn’t have much time to review my flagged ones. There were about 2-3 basic science throwbacks every block from Step 1 days that annoyed me (types of receptors, mechanism of random drugs, histology of tumors, etc), but not enough to make it worth reviewing any basic science stuff.

Day 2:
No stats or ethics. Questions more clinical, a lot of risk factors/ complications/ prognosis/ treatment. Still a good amount of annoying ones though since they ask things like biggest risk factor for CAD and then list a bunch of risk factors for CAD (dm, htn, obestity, hld, smoking, age, etc). But overall seemed more straightforward than day one, and no basic science questions. Was finishing every block 10-15 mins early, with plenty of time to review flagged ones. Question length felt shorter than uworld. CCS cases for the most part ended early for me. About 9-10 of them were straight forward and very similar to uworld ccs. 3-4 of them were harder and didn’t figure out diagnosis til late, one was childhood cancer (I think it was ALL) but heme/onc had no recs and didn’t know how to treat so I just gave steroids and scheduled bone marrow transplant and case ended lol… I’m sure I got a bunch of points off for that. Overall just be methodical about cases and at least get the basic orders in which you learn from doing uworld ccs.

Overall
Get it over with earlier on in the year. It's not the type of test where waiting til later in the year (even when I’m doing an internal medicine prelim year) would help. Know stats, be aware ethics may be hard (although don’t really see how you’d study for it), and don’t let the few basic science qs on day 1 demoralize you. I think uworld x 1 and doing all the CCS cases is more than ample preparation for anyone who didn’t have issues with step 1 or 2. And don’t worry about UWSA (and don’t read into it if you took it and didn’t do well). After the test I felt like I probably got around average (I would have guessed I prob scored around 220-225), but the curve must be very generous. Ended up with 243- in regards to breakdown Ethics/behavioral and ccs were lowest and went a bit into the borderline area, everything else was relatively high end. Goodbye USMLE!

 

[DisorderedDoc417]

Saw a lot of these posts while studying, and most of them made me more worried than I should have been, so wanted to post about my experience…

Background
Step 1: 246 (May 2015, 6 week dedicated studying)
Step 2: 257 (July 2016, 10 days dedicated studying)
Step 3: 243 (Oct 2017, 6 weeks part time during intern year)
Going into non-medicine advanced program and in a relatively chill prelim year. Wanted to get the thing over with early in intern year and not worry about it. A lot of these threads talked about using a ton of sources, and many of my categorical co-interns are studying super hard for it, so made me anxious about it.

I studied part time for 6 weeks. 4 of those weeks I was busy on wards, (studied maybe 1-2 hrs a day after work, and on the phone/under the table during rounds/noon conference lol) 2 weeks I was on light outpatient rotation (2-3 hrs of studying a day plus 2 weekends part-time). Finished uworld x 1 (overall percentage 65% first pass), all uworld CCS cases x 1 (both interactive and practice cases), and UWSA. Didn’t take any notes or anything. I did maybe half incorrects but stopped as I was getting 90+% and mostly just remembering the questions. A little less than 2 weeks out I took UWSA and got a 201 (average was 204. I got slightly higher than avg on each block so not sure why my score was slightly below avg). Regardless, it made me worried as I had already finished most of uworld, but I decided to leave test date as is. I just kept reminding myself that pass rate is like 97% for US MD first takers. I thought UWSA was hard, timing was an issue for me (which has never been the case in previous tests), and just weird questions overall—I wouldn’t even recommend taking it. I crushed through the CCS cases the week and a half leading up to the test, and the night before the test reviewed first aid for step 1 stats for about an hour.

Day 1: Very heavy on stats and ethics. About 10-12 questions per block were either stats or ethics. All the stats was very doable/basic--nothing more than uworld or what is in first aid step 1 stats (relative risk, hazard ratios, confidence intervals, Sensitivity/specificity, positive/negative predictive values, drug ads/abstracts, etc). What I did is save all the stats questions til the end, which I highly recommend since they take up more time than the others. For me, the ethics were extremely challenging and not straightforward at all (definitely hardest section for me), but I also found ethics on step 1 and 2 difficult. A lot of informed consent in pt’s below 18, a lot of “how would you respond,” reporting other physician’s behaviors, and end of life stuff. I could always narrow it down to 2 but way harder than Uworld ethics questions in my opinion. Other questions I thought were on par with uworld. Didn’t have a problem finishing blocks in time but sometimes wouldn’t have much time to review my flagged ones. There were about 2-3 basic science throwbacks every block from Step 1 days that annoyed me (types of receptors, mechanism of random drugs, histology of tumors, etc), but not enough to make it worth reviewing any basic science stuff.

Day 2:
No stats or ethics. Questions more clinical, a lot of risk factors/ complications/ prognosis/ treatment. Still a good amount of annoying ones though since they ask things like biggest risk factor for CAD and then list a bunch of risk factors for CAD (dm, htn, obestity, hld, smoking, age, etc). But overall seemed more straightforward than day one, and no basic science questions. Was finishing every block 10-15 mins early, with plenty of time to review flagged ones. Question length felt shorter than uworld. CCS cases for the most part ended early for me. About 9-10 of them were straight forward and very similar to uworld ccs. 3-4 of them were harder and didn’t figure out diagnosis til late, one was childhood cancer (I think it was ALL) but heme/onc had no recs and didn’t know how to treat so I just gave steroids and scheduled bone marrow transplant and case ended lol… I’m sure I got a bunch of points off for that. Overall just be methodical about cases and at least get the basic orders in which you learn from doing uworld ccs.

Overall
Get it over with earlier on in the year. It's not the type of test where waiting til later in the year (even when I’m doing an internal medicine prelim year) would help. Know stats, be aware ethics may be hard (although don’t really see how you’d study for it), and don’t let the few basic science qs on day 1 demoralize you. I think uworld x 1 and doing all the CCS cases is more than ample preparation for anyone who didn’t have issues with step 1 or 2. And don’t worry about UWSA (and don’t read into it if you took it and didn’t do well). After the test I felt like I probably got around average (I would have guessed I prob scored around 220-225), but the curve must be very generous. Ended up with 243- in regards to breakdown Ethics/behavioral and ccs were lowest and went a bit into the borderline area, everything else was relatively high end. Goodbye USMLE!

Excellent work. Thanks for posting. I felt too many posts were negative as well, me thinks some were in an effort to sell expensive practice products that are unnecessary. Sounds like I scored a few points lower, but a very similar experience and result overall.

 

[BP87]

ist it just me or is there a glitch in the uworld software when you try to advance the clock?
everytime i advance the clock by >24 hr i get ignored and the clock would only advance by "next avaiable results" or it would give me a "NaNaNa" error?