So i got done with step 3 a week or so ago in houston. I was so relieved i took three buses and a train to get back home instead of a cab. It feels like such an achievement, being done with a two day exam!
Thought i'd put in my (hopefuly) last 2-cents about the USMLE.
Prep time - about 6 weeks. Could've been done earlier but I didn't get serious till i was 4 weeks out.
Materials - MTB3, UW x 2 runs, CCS x 2 runs, went over the textual CCS cases on the UW site sparsely, last couple of days decided to go over Step 2 Secrets because i just love that book - was a good idea!
I just went over mtb once, slowly. I was bored reading it. Finally started doing UW, started off with a 60% which eventually went up to high 60s and then i had a (sadly) small stretch of 70s which was a good confidence booster. Came back down to mid 60s eventually and stayed there. That thick blue average line is a b!tch to move once you cross the 20 test mark. UW final avg: 63%, 100% completed
Considering the bank only has 27 blocks and i was averaging three blocks a day, i decided to redo the entire thing - the strategy worked well for me when i was studying for step 2.
UW 2nd Run avg: ~80%
I went UW -> CCS -> UW -> CCS. Cases were fun to do. I made my mnemonics for certain situations as most people do - for pre-op patients, regular orders, emergency orders etc.
The UWSA was TERRIBLE :-/ scored 224. I was still happy with that (and will be happy if i score that! fingers crossed).
The real thing - Day 1:
Went by pretty decently in the beginning. All my blocks had an average of 46-47 questions, never 48, and almost always had an abstract or article (or both in case of the one block where i missed a question)
Question stems were indeed long, and i had to always make quick runs back to the top to see the age, gender and presenting complaint.
I went along the blocks as i did in step 2, marking away on intuition. Never flagged more than 3 questions because i knew i wasnt going to have time to come back anyway, might as well save those precious seconds.
Felt that all the components of the exam were equally tested - maybe leaning a bit more towards IM and ObGyn. Had VERY little paeds, had ONE milestones question and im GLAD i didnt waste a lot of brain-space on memorizing milestones.
Day 2:
Much more irritating that day 1. Smaller stems, lesser clues, hence slightly more difficult. What was most p!ssing-off was the step 1-ish questions :-@ Anatomy, NEURO anatomy! vascular distribution crap etc. those questions were a pain. Felt those four blocks couldve gone better but i dont know what kind of studying would've helped.
CCS: UW is a Godsend. Replicates the software almost EXACTLY. Just that the actual ccs is a teensy bit slow and that can be bothersome when you're running short on time.
I had 18 cases! I wonder if thats how many cases everyone gets?? I was expecting less.
So 17/18 cases finished as soon as i entered the correct orders which can be a bit off-putting. I always felt like there was so much more i wanted to do for the patient.
Also the end of case screen gives two minutes which i felt was very little time. I had to enter a bunch of orders like reassure, compliance, multivitamins etc and by the time i was done, i barely scraped through to the diagnosis screen.
But i've heard the Diagnosis itself and the text you write when asking for a Consult are not marked.
I had one case which persistently kept getting worse and I had actually entered the correct order, just didnt have time to advance the clock enough to get the results of the treatment. Drat:-/
So all in all, i got the same vague, unsure feeling i got after i was done with step 2. But questions answered on intuition can go either way so im hoping for the best, and basically just praying i pass this first.
I believe thats the crux of the test. If there are any other questions feel free to ask!
Cheers,
Q
