Step III for path residents

[mwl]

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I am starting my residency in a few days. For the Path residents who have taken StepIII: When will be the best time to take StepIII? How did you prepare for it (review books, Kaplan QBank, Live lectures, etc.)? How long did you prepare for it? Any advices would be greatly appreciated.

 

[ziadp]

I just started my fourth year, so I am passing along others advice.

Our residency director of pathology, as well as the residents, recommend taking Step III as soon as you can. Path residency will do very little in preparing you for Step III. Therefore, you are most prepared in medical school. They recommend taking it in your PGY1 year, if your State allows it. (That is a whole different discussion, for which I am not sure of its validity. Some of the residents said that you can not take Step III in Texas during your PGY1 year. They did say that you can travel to another state to take the test and it will count. Weird if you ask me. Again, have not checked it out, so i do not know if it is true.)

As to what to use, no idea. Hopefully someone will elighten us all.

 

[HotSteamingTurd]

Step 3....NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!! For the love of God!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[yaah]

Step 3....NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!! For the love of God!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It never ends, man. There's always another test. I guess I'll take step III sometime during the year. I don't really know much about it though. I hear there is an oral component to it, having to deal with clinical situations, like , "what's your next step" kind of stuff.

Anybody know the schedule for step III and how tough it actually is?

 

[HotSteamingTurd]

Ack! Oral exams....even worse! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!

 

[Doctor B.]

First, you can relax, there is no oral component. I took step III in Nov 2003 which was the middle of my second year. I used Crush Step 3, First Aid for Step 2, the NMS review for Step 3 (questions) and the St. Frances Guide to Inpatient Medicine (a book that I had from my medicine clerkship---didn't read it all but it has wonderful small chapters on how to manage certain diseases...very helpful). I studied for about 2-3 weeks for 3-4 hours a day (mostly at night). Much of the test was common sense---things you will remember from 3rd year rotations. I had several questions on the common disease like heart disease, diabetes, hypertension, etc. The test is broken up into 2 days. The first day is something like 8 blocks of questions. The second day is a few blocks of questions and then patient management cases. Those are kinda fun and break up the monotony of the multiple choice questions. The computer presents you with a case scenario and you can order anything, transfer the patient from office to ER or whatever. Some cases will be in the office setting and some in the ER or wards. You'll get samples and a tutorial with the Step 3 CDROM when you register.

It sounds daunting but it's not that bad. All the path residents I know have passed. The worst part was enduring 2 days of testing, actually. I'm sure you all will do fine.

 

[yaah]

First, you can relax, there is no oral component. I took step III in Nov 2003 which was the middle of my second year. I used Crush Step 3, First Aid for Step 2, the NMS review for Step 3 (questions) and the St. Frances Guide to Inpatient Medicine (a book that I had from my medicine clerkship---didn't read it all but it has wonderful small chapters on how to manage certain diseases...very helpful). I studied for about 2-3 weeks for 3-4 hours a day (mostly at night). Much of the test was common sense---things you will remember from 3rd year rotations. I had several questions on the common disease like heart disease, diabetes, hypertension, etc. The test is broken up into 2 days. The first day is something like 8 blocks of questions. The second day is a few blocks of questions and then patient management cases. Those are kinda fun and break up the monotony of the multiple choice questions. The computer presents you with a case scenario and you can order anything, transfer the patient from office to ER or whatever. Some cases will be in the office setting and some in the ER or wards. You'll get samples and a tutorial with the Step 3 CDROM when you register.

It sounds daunting but it's not that bad. All the path residents I know have passed. The worst part was enduring 2 days of testing, actually. I'm sure you all will do fine.

Can you tell the computer to go right to the autopsy?

 

[HotSteamingTurd]

Thx for the info Doctor B. In my previous posts I was just being facetious...I'm wiggin out a lil since I have the surgery shelf and oral exams tomorrow and the day after...it's kinda like letting off some steam.

In fact right now, I'm not even thinking about step 3. I haven't even taken step 2 yet 🙂

 

[Doctor B.]

Can you tell the computer to go right to the autopsy?

LOL. Actually, some of my fellow residents tried to order an autopsy (on the practice cases) and it didn't work. Would have been funny if it did.