Hey all I passed the exam today. I can't believe I finally get to write this post.
I am an IMG and I have always been a below average student throughout my med school career. This also reflected on my step scores with a lowly step 1 score of 201. I thought I couldn't do any worse and went on to take CK. But guess what? I did do worse. I did not pass my CK exam November of last year thus making me withdraw from the match entirely, as an IMG you have to be ECFMG certified or be on track to get it before match day and I knew I wouldn't be able to.
I realised that after all the efforts I have put in on these exams and not passing, that there must be something wrong in my approach to these exams. I went back to the drawing board and tried to figure out how I end up doing so badly. Also, I knew I was a below average student because of my lack of effort and not because I didn't comprehend the concepts. I wasn't killing it on my practice tests, but I was doing decent enough to pass. Needless to say I did revise better focusing more on things that are frequently tested and worked on my weak areas, but what helped me most was giving up the bad habit I had of spending too much time on the questions I didn't know the answer to. I had missed at least 10-15 question on my CK because I was too slow. I just didn't skip the ones I didn't know and wasted so much time. If I had been able to attempt those 10-15 questions I could have easily passed. Fast forward 4 months to March of this year (just before corona), I retook CK with the changed approach and passed with a 230. Didn't kill it. But I was glad I got over with it.
Now when it came to taking step 3 a lot of people said that if you pass it's great, but if you don't, it looks bad during residency applications. So with my history of one failure already I was really taking a huge risk to take the test. But I knew I had to take it so that I can prove that I really did learn from my mistakes and changed my test taking habits for the better. More importantly to prove myself that I am not a total waste. I carried on with my new approach for step 3 as well and decided to take it at the end of last month.
NBME 5: 370
UWSA1 207
UWSA2 215
REAL DEAL: 225.
I am writing this post specifically for those who have dealt with failures during their steps. I know it sucks. But it's just an exam score at the end of the day and it does not reflect you as a person or as a future physician. You cannot give up and let this test win. You cannot lose when you refuse to quit. All the best to all the future test takers.
PS: The 'trick' did work for me. But I can say for sure there is no real trick. People with no yellow box and the reapply link have failed and those with the box have passed (scouring through this thread will tell you). Granted 99% of those who only have the grey box will pass (because the failing % is really low on this exam), there have been cases otherwise as well. You don't want to be the that exception, so it's better to wait till 12 AM EST to get your result.
