I passed both Level I and II on first attempts with mid 400 scores. Nothing spectacular but good enough. This is my experience with level III.
1st attempt: 2nd half of transitional intern year with 3 months of medicine. Used COMBANK, Secrets and Green book. Felt prepared for the exam considering my good scores on the COMBANK. Boy was I wrong. Failed with a score of 343 and 2 digit score of 74.
2nd attempt: 2 months later with a month of ER and Peds under my belt. Hit the books hard this time. Completed COMBANK again. Supplemented Step 2 secrets with Strong Medicine, high yield OB/GYN and high yield Peds. Failed again with score of 335. Shocked to say the least as I felt prepared again. The exam was just so random that I could have studied another 3 months and would have got the same score.
3rd attempt: Waited another 2 years because of numerous reasons. Took it end of 3rd year of residency. I studied 2-3 hrs on weekdays and 5-7 hrs on weekends for a month. I am jealous of people who only study for a day and pass but I was petrified to fail again. I just found out that not only did I pass this time but my score was in the mid 600's
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I drastically changed my approach and I think it worked
. For one I do have more clinical experience under my belt but its important to have the right approach.
1)Q bank: First thing I realized was that COMBANK sucks and bought comquest. A lot better questions and I felt that the questions were similar to the ones I saw on the real exam. The explanations are high yield. I scored about 70%.
2) Books: First aid for Step 3(Focused on diagnosis and treatment), Savresse and Swanson Family Medicine review book(just focused on the OB/GYN, Peds and GI section). I would finish reading and than complete the questions on Comquest. Took notes and went over the question explanations.
3) I used Premier review audio for OB/GYN and Peds during my long commuites. Nothing special but good for a quick review.
4) Took the COMSAE 2 days before the exam and scored in the mid 600's. Not sure if it is worth the money as you dont know what the answers are. But it does get you in the COMLEX mind set.
To sum it up I feel that the most helpful thing was focusing on Peds, OBGYN, GI and Cards as they are very very high yield. Atleast 60% of the exam was from the above 4 areas. 10% is OMM and the rest 30% is almost impossible to study for. I think as long as you read first aid and go over the diagnosis and treatment you should be fine. Swansons section on Peds and OB/GYN is amazing. I bet if I had read the whole book I would have scored in the 700's. The exam is written by primary care physicians so reading a FP board review book is obvious for people like me. Good luck!!!