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anyone take the new Step 3 yet? Thoughts/experiences particularly how well UWorld qbank prepares you (and) how much basic science on the exam?
If only there were a forum dedicated to discussing Step 3...anyone take the new Step 3 yet? Thoughts/experiences particularly how well UWorld qbank prepares you (and) how much basic science on the exam?
I passed the old Step 3 but am curious what you guys think of the new one. For those who read the "old" scores/experiences thread: still relevant? Would figure it didn't change that much.
I'm guessing most people haven't taken both so it'll be difficult to compare.
Thanks for sharing your experiences everyone. Did you think doing the 52 Uworld computer simulations was enough to do well on the CCS portion, or should I also spend time reading, in detail, the 42 cases on the Uworld website? Thanks in advance.
would like to know the answer to this question. And whether the new uWorld (they say adapted to the new exam format) reflected your test in terms of content/types of questionsFor those of you who've taken the NEW exam, can you please comment on the level of "step 1" stuff on the new step 3?
i recently took the new Step 3 and had many of the same questions before I took it. I did not notice many Step 1 "basic science" questions if any. There were a few questions about mechanism and side effects of drugs so I suppose that's a little like Step 1 pharmacology.
I felt really meh after day 1 because the medicine questions were hard and there was a ton of biostats/epidemiology/ethics as well as quite a few random derm questions that you're expected to know by looking at a picture. Day 2 questions were easier and all of my CCS cases ended within a few minutes except one that just wouldn't get better. Even though most are bread and butter I had two unexpected cases that Uworld CCS did not cover although you can kind of figure your way through it by doing a thorough work up.
Hopefully I find out in April that I passed.
I have to say I was pretty annoyed with the CCS. I don't know if it was the software or if I was just doing something completely wrong. For one I had to order all of my labs STAT, hopefully that's not a big deal.
On my CCS section, I could never choose between "stat" or "routine"- ordering stat was the only option. So even in the office I'd have to order stat and then have the patient come back in a couple weeks for results. Since this was different than uworld it kind of freaked me out. Was it like this for everyone who's taken the test?
How did u prep?Scores are up, passed!
What did u use to prep?I passed. So happy. I'm done with Usmle.
I'm such a bad test taker (barely passed Step 1; repeated CK). I was so nervous about this result.
"Success is counted sweetest by those who never succeed..."
I passed!! Barely at 197 but still a pass. I have such a longstanding history with the USMLE with failures in the past so to pass on my first try, while working 60-80 hour weeks is such a relief.
I echo what everyone else said: Day 1 feels awful. A lot of questions seemed very ambiguous and not diagnosis/management. Lots of biostats, epidemiology and "what are the risk" kinda questions. The long pharm ad questions were time consuming so keep track of time. Day 2 felt much more manageable with more reasonable diagnosis/management questions. What saved me was the cases. I would definitely not have passed if I hadn't worked through all the world cases.
My prep was 2 months between wards. I finished all of uworld (timed); half of kaplan (timed); all the uworld cases. I got a 203 on the uworld assessment 2 weeks before the test. I reviewed my weaker areas in MTB. I would advise to finish through MTB, do all the cases, and do Uworld at least once. I feel like none of the qbanks are up to date with the new format but hopefully they'll be updated this year. Good luck!
Lol, so petty. Yes, "what the risks" are part of management and I'm sure more seasoned test takers like yourself were prepared for it all. My personal experience with UWorld and MTB was that the diagnosis and management portions didn't cover as much of those particular type of questions. Clearly, I figured it out but, I shared my personal experience for those that may have a similar reaction/experienceCan I ask how "what are the risk" questions are not management questions? Doesn't understanding risks play a big role in your management of a patient?
I’ve found people’s descriptions of their process helpful so I will add my own. I will update this post with my score when I get it.
Background: I crashed and burned on Step 1 – got a 222, 20 points lower than my last NBME. Don’t know what happened there. I got >90 on all shelf exams, most of them >95. I started out strong studying for Step 2, using mainly the UW q bank and First Aid, but only really studied very part-time for 2-3 weeks. Got a 248.
So I’m a pathology resident. I haven’t seen patients in a year. I got a 3-month subscription to the UW q bank, CCS software, and practice test. Again I started out strong, was doing UW questions every day for about 10 days, but then I got too busy with actual work and dropped it completely. Then I had to reschedule my test. 2 weeks before test day I realized I should probably study, but my q bank subscription had run out. So I just did the practice test and got 550/229 and figured that was enough to pass (which is all I care about really). I then did the CCS cases 2-3x each over the next two weeks.
My experience was the opposite of most people's. First day of the test was a lot easier than I expected after reading this thread. There was a huge amount of biostats and a ton of drug ads (all for a drug with the same name, which was mildly amusing). Really not that many ethics-type questions. A smattering of basic science questions thrown in. By the last block I was beat, not being used to sitting at a desk all day taking a test. The biostat questions were all pretty easy. There were several questions I could narrow to 2 choices but then couldn’t decide on. A fair number of 2-3 part questions requiring submission without going back. I finished all except the last block early, some with a lot of time left.
Second day kicked my butt. I felt like I was guessing on 75% of the questions. The management questions were harder than any of the practice ones I’d done (which, granted, wasn’t many). I had trouble finishing the blocks in time, although I did finish all of them. I felt like I was getting throttled all through the MCQs and by the time I got to the CCS I was already exhausted. I kind of panicked on the first CCS and did something weird with it but ended up with the right management in the end. Some of the others were harder than any of the practice ones I did…I think I almost killed one kid but she lived in the end (case finished before I could kill her I guess). I knew the right diagnosis but had no CLUE how to manage it! A few were ridiculously simple and I was wondering what I was missing. One 20-minute case took me about 4.5 minutes, but in retrospect I can’t think of anything I would have done differently.
So now I’ll just wait to see if I passed. I’m not entirely sure that I did, and the thought of going through this again is kind of sickening. My main advice is if you are a non-clinical resident (pathology, later years radiology long after internship) study drug choices a lot. I couldn't even figure out what some of the drugs were. I don't exactly do much prescribing.
I’ve found people’s descriptions of their process helpful so I will add my own. I will update this post with my score when I get it.
Background: I crashed and burned on Step 1 – got a 222, 20 points lower than my last NBME. Don’t know what happened there. I got >90 on all shelf exams, most of them >95. I started out strong studying for Step 2, using mainly the UW q bank and First Aid, but only really studied very part-time for 2-3 weeks. Got a 248.
So I’m a pathology resident. I haven’t seen patients in a year. I got a 3-month subscription to the UW q bank, CCS software, and practice test. Again I started out strong, was doing UW questions every day for about 10 days, but then I got too busy with actual work and dropped it completely. Then I had to reschedule my test. 2 weeks before test day I realized I should probably study, but my q bank subscription had run out. So I just did the practice test and got 550/229 and figured that was enough to pass (which is all I care about really). I then did the CCS cases 2-3x each over the next two weeks.
My experience was the opposite of most people's. First day of the test was a lot easier than I expected after reading this thread. There was a huge amount of biostats and a ton of drug ads (all for a drug with the same name, which was mildly amusing). Really not that many ethics-type questions. A smattering of basic science questions thrown in. By the last block I was beat, not being used to sitting at a desk all day taking a test. The biostat questions were all pretty easy. There were several questions I could narrow to 2 choices but then couldn’t decide on. A fair number of 2-3 part questions requiring submission without going back. I finished all except the last block early, some with a lot of time left.
Second day kicked my butt. I felt like I was guessing on 75% of the questions. The management questions were harder than any of the practice ones I’d done (which, granted, wasn’t many). I had trouble finishing the blocks in time, although I did finish all of them. I felt like I was getting throttled all through the MCQs and by the time I got to the CCS I was already exhausted. I kind of panicked on the first CCS and did something weird with it but ended up with the right management in the end. Some of the others were harder than any of the practice ones I did…I think I almost killed one kid but she lived in the end (case finished before I could kill her I guess). I knew the right diagnosis but had no CLUE how to manage it! A few were ridiculously simple and I was wondering what I was missing. One 20-minute case took me about 4.5 minutes, but in retrospect I can’t think of anything I would have done differently.
So now I’ll just wait to see if I passed. I’m not entirely sure that I did, and the thought of going through this again is kind of sickening. My main advice is if you are a non-clinical resident (pathology, later years radiology long after internship) study drug choices a lot. I couldn't even figure out what some of the drugs were. I don't exactly do much prescribing.
Similar experience.
First year EM resident here. Took the exam about two weeks ago. Studied for about 4 weeks on a light rotation, consisted only of UWorld Qs and CCS. Nearly finished the Qbank (~1400 questions done), did all the CCS (1 time). Avg on the QBank was a 65% on random, timed (UW said that was 73rd percentile). Didn't read any books. Didn't do any NBMEs or UWSA. Step 1 249, step 2 245. Felt like the first day was fine. Long question stems, but straightforward. Very few antibiotic questions, lots of biostats that was straightforward. Felt pretty good after the first day except towards the last block i was pretty tired of being there.
Second day -- much tougher. Felt like i straight up guessed more on each block than on the entire first day. Sometimes I felt like I knew the answer but could not convince myself any of the ambiguously worded answer choices fit. other times I was struggling to even make the diagnosis in the stem. The stems were shorter than the first day, but i spent a lot more time scratching my head. On the plus side the CCS was totally fine (UWorld CCS is great prep for this part of the exam).
I have to think I passed, which is all I really care about, but it's a tough test and I don't think i crushed it by any means. I guess I'll be getting my score in the next week or so. I'll update my post then.
I'm confused... just finished completing form 2 (NBME self-assessment) and it just gives you a score that is out of 800, without giving you a table to convert that score to a real life score. Has this been the experience of everyone here? How do you know you're ready to take the real thing? thanks!
Guys are the handout cases of CCS necessary to go over or will the 52 cases (interactive) suffice for the CCS portion ?
Not familiar with that practice test, but as far as knowing when you're truly ready, well, you'll certainly have have me beat if you can figure that one out. For all the USMLE Steps, I had a deadline of when I needed to take it, and I organized my time to get through UWorld before then. Did I really feel close to 100% ready for the test after that? Honestly no. Every block of UWorld I'd go over it seems like you're learning something new (or relearning something long forgotten). By the time I finished all the questions my scheduled test date was right there so I never had time to contemplate whether I knew enough. At some point you probably get fatigued by all the studying and perhaps have to come to terms with the fact that "I probably know all that I can reasonably cram into my brain for now" and take it from there.
Similar experience.
First year EM resident here. Took the exam about two weeks ago. Studied for about 4 weeks on a light rotation, consisted only of UWorld Qs and CCS. Nearly finished the Qbank (~1400 questions done), did all the CCS (1 time). Avg on the QBank was a 65% on random, timed (UW said that was 73rd percentile). Didn't read any books. Didn't do any NBMEs or UWSA. Step 1 249, step 2 245. Felt like the first day was fine. Long question stems, but straightforward. Very few antibiotic questions, lots of biostats that was straightforward. Felt pretty good after the first day except towards the last block i was pretty tired of being there.
Second day -- much tougher. Felt like i straight up guessed more on each block than on the entire first day. Sometimes I felt like I knew the answer but could not convince myself any of the ambiguously worded answer choices fit. other times I was struggling to even make the diagnosis in the stem. The stems were shorter than the first day, but i spent a lot more time scratching my head. On the plus side the CCS was totally fine (UWorld CCS is great prep for this part of the exam).
I have to think I passed, which is all I really care about, but it's a tough test and I don't think i crushed it by any means. I guess I'll be getting my score in the next week or so. I'll update my post then.
Do you (or does anyone) know the maximum number of days you can have between scheduling day 1 of the exam and scheduling day 2, e.g., can you take day 1 of the exam on day 1 of the eligibility period and day 2 of the exam on the last day of the eligibility period (extreme example)?
Do you (or does anyone) know the maximum number of days you can have between scheduling day 1 of the exam and scheduling day 2, e.g., can you take day 1 of the exam on day 1 of the eligibility period and day 2 of the exam on the last day of the eligibility period (extreme example)?
you can have a maximum of 2 weeks between the 2 test days. Once you click on your first test date on prometric, it won't even give you the option to go further than 2 wks for the next date.
So, to modify your extreme example, you'd take day 1 exactly 14 days before your eligibility period ends, and day two on the day your eligibility period expires.