Surprised by the amnt of failing step 3 news

[coxsackie]

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What is happening? I hear that this is the easiest exam? I did fine on step 1 and step 2 ck. But unfortunately have attempts on cs. Not because I can't speak english or have good communication skills, I'm from california. But, because i underestimated this test. Thought it would be easy. I took cs again, and awaiting results.

Now, i have nothing left to do but work on my personal stmnt, and start studying for step 3. Ive posted on this forum before, but what do you guys think of this study plan:
Usmle step 3 white coat pocket guide(kaplan)
MTB step 3
U world step 3

I am not going to underestimate this exam, and go into the same vigorous study plan i used for step 1 and ck.

 

[ramsesthenice]

Step 3 is actually quite hard. When people say the easiest what they mean is they don't care about the results. As a test though just looking at how much you won't know on it (because no one can know that level of detail for all disciplines) its actually kinda rough. I don't know what specialty you are going to do but my advice would be do not take it now. I think that you should wait unless you are doing path and skipping an intern year altogether.

I'm mainly thinking about the Clinical Cases ( CCS) section. Your having trouble with CS which likely just means you haven't seen enough patients. CCS is way harder because you have to say more detail about treatment and be pretty specific (like antibiotic choices or blood gas monitoring). You could maybe do th USMLE world practice CCS cases and make it but real experience in internship and the practicing cases will go farther for you.

The multiple choice is kinda the same: it's like step 2 but more detailed. If you do anything generalish (med, fam, peds, OB, gen surg) then you should get good enough at what you know to overcome what you don't. I did a year of internal med and literally guessed on at least 25% of the questions but knew the rest enough it was fine. That's very normal on this test.

 

[ramsesthenice]

Oh yea, for the MC section it's just like step 1 and CK. Do U world and gauge with that. If your over 55% you are ok, over 65% doing great. Reading may help some but I wouldn't do too much more than something like first aid. The ratio of low to high yield stuff on this exam is far more immense than the other steps by its very nature. You'll get a sense of that when you do the qbanks. A thousand questions in they can keep cranking out more that you have no idea about.

 

[coxsackie]

When I failed in CS, it was in the ICE component. It was also after all the exam changes, and I was going according to what everyone was saying- it's an easy exam, and you just need to speak english. Just do heart and lungs for the physical exam..bla bla. Basically, i didn't do well enough physical exams- i was just faking it to save time- huge mistake. I didn't do a neuro exam at all on any patients- why is probably why i failed. It was a high fail, hit borderline- but just couldn't make it, i guess.

Hopefully, I pass my re-take because I def learned a lot from my mistakes.

My plan is to just intensely study now, but obv take it during intern year- i'm sure i'll learn things i probably can't on my own.

 

[drcrispmd]

I thought Step 3 was the easiest. Family med residents tend to do well on it. I spent maybe a total of 40 hours over 2 weekends before the exam doing uworld questions and increased my score by 20 points. This was after intern year of family med residency. My friend who is a pathology resident had a hard time, but she had not seen or discussed a live patient in over a year. Some residencies prepare you for this exam better than others.

 

[ramsesthenice]

The real question is management of peds and OB patients. Family residents are in the best shape of anyone really, followed by med peds. For people that have not seen either in a couple years it's like physics or organic on the MCAT. You can learn it again, just not easy is all. Step 2 everyone was ready for after clerkships.

 

[drcrispmd]

We do a lot of OB and good amount of peds in my family med residency which is why I didn't have to study much.

 

[Instatewaiter]

The real question is management of peds and OB patients. Family residents are in the best shape of anyone really, followed by med peds. For people that have not seen either in a couple years it's like physics or organic on the MCAT. You can learn it again, just not easy is all. Step 2 everyone was ready for after clerkships.

The peds and OB questions are pretty straight forward.

The questions are easier than step 2 CK.

CCS is different. You need to know how to manipulate the system. Someone could easily fail because they didn't know how to use the software. Step 3 is best taken after internship or a few years of residency. It is essentially a test on day-to-day activities of a resident. From that standpoint it is pretty straight forward.