Taking Step 3 in a few days, going over the CCS on the USMLE practice CD. How do you know when you're done? Is the patient feeling better enough to call it quits and tey to exit? And how do you get out of the case, or if you are not prompted to do so it means you haven't done something you're supposed to do?
Help!
Once the software has decided that you have done enough, you will get a warning that the case will end in 5 minutes. This gives you enough time to change any orders or write any further plans that you may have.
For example, if you have a patient that has appendicitis, the case will generally end once you have done enough to make the diagnosis and prepare the patient for surgery.
You can then write a diagnosis and you are done with that case. Some people kind of figure out what is going on fairly quickly after the history + exam and a few pertinent tests. Others take a more circuitious route. The first person might have the case end after 5 minutes of real time (even though a couple of days have passed in simulation time) and wrap up earlier while the person who takes more time might take the entire 25 minutes to get through the case. Finishing a case early is not necessarily a bad thing so don't be unnerved.
Just be sure that you have practiced many times with that USMLE software disk that you got when you registered for the test. That was the single most useful thing that I did. Also, read and re-read the critiques of the six or so practice cases that come with the software disk. Again, these are extremely useful.
My two days went like this: On the first day, I had about 9 or ten sections with questions only. The locations would change like You are on the ward or You are in your primary care office or you are the hospitalist for a primary care group etc. Each question section takes about an 40 minutes or so to complete.
On the second day, I had more sections of questions but then the nine cases to do.
Take some good snacks and a warm sweatshirt. Good luck!
