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Score: 243
Study Period: 2 months
Step 2CK: 245
Step 1: 252.
UW Step 3 Average: 69% timed tutor, random. Repeated Peds/OB+GYN/Endo.
UWSA 1 (4 weeks out): 206 (Fun fact: there's an option to score recheck your practice exam. When I clicked it my score went from 196 to 206). I hate practice exams and think I split this one up into two days. I mainly used it for more questions.
Demographics: US MD, 2 years of IM residency experience
Study time: Two month time period, studied 9-5 most days but took maybe 20-30 days off just goofing off or focusing on other things in life.
Resources:
1.) UWorld Step 3 ($300)
2.) UWorld Step 2 CK (Peds/OBGYN mainly but I literally went clicked through other sections the day before my exam)
3.) OnlineMedEd videos for some review
4.) CCScases.com for CCS ($60)
5.) $25 Biostats package.
6.) MedQuest [new] by Conrad Fischer/Niket Sonpal (Video lecture series based off 2020 Master the Boards). Warning $$$ (300).
Study Period:
Out of all the Step exams, this one was the most lonely/isolating one with no real dedicated resources other than UWorld that I'd heard of. I studied January/Feb for most the day. Most PGYs won't be able to do this, but my advice is to not take the exam lightly. It seems like a lot of people seem to fail it or drop scores and I felt the exam was actually quite difficult despite all the sentiment from attendings that it's a breeze or whatever. For those interested in IM fellowship, your score probably doesn't matter BUT score too low and you could get screened out for a competitive fellowship so I wouldn't go in there with a #2 pencil as the saying goes.
I started with UW questions and mixed in some OB/GYN + Peds independent review and things were going slow. One thing that sped me up was I met an IMG on the USMLE Step 3 FB group and we basically started doing UW and CCS together over Zoom and I went at a pace of 80UW+4CCS a day. She was super good with Peds/OB-GYN and had just taken Step 2. We chose to use CCScases.com instead of UW because it gave way more feedback to learn from and gave us an exactly percentage on each case based on a detailed analysis of how we managed the patient and the order we did it in. After we completed this, we kind of split up and went our own way after re-doing some Uworld questions from my weak areas (OB/GYN, Endo, Peds). I ended up not using Anki. TBH near the end I kind of slacked and maybe 10-15 days off the month, I did not really study. I spent most my time redoing a bit of UWorld and watching the Peds, OB/GYN, Endocrine, Hematology, Cardiology, and ID sections of MedQuest (new 2020 resource).
Strategy:
There are 3 unique elements/curveballs to this exam aside from what is in UW Step 3 some don't expect.
1.) Biostats Emphasis (Day 1):
I think what's most in your control on this exam is biostats yet no one wants to spend time on it. I did UW random tutor so I was exposed to biostats consistently throughout and spent more time figuring out why I got these questions wrong. There are a few recurring themes like it a confidence interval cross 1, that's not the answer and to never pick X causes Y as an answer. A week before the exam, I purchased the biostats UW package which also helped a bit to drill down less common concepts like predictive values, NNH/T, and definitions and test taking strategies for biostats. I felt this helped me on the real thing. Definitely memorize the 2x2 table and learn how to manipulate it. As someone pretty good at math, it felt humiliating to memorize a 2x2 table and formulas I could just derive/reason through but you are gonna get questions testing sensitivity/specifity so you may as well get super accustomed to doing these calculations fast instead of wasting minutes trying to reason through stuff.
2.) Basic Science (Day 1)
A lot of IMGs were advising me to read First Aid and I pulled out my old copy but didn't use it too much. I figured I'd either know it or I didn't and spending all day reading First Aid for Step 1 wasn't an active learning strategy and too low yield to be worth my time. I didn't review any of the First Aid Micro/etc. people said to. What helped me in some cases were the MedQuest lectures where Conrad Fischer hits on high yield basic topics simultaneously while covering the higher level stuff like diagnosis & management/etc.
3.) CCS cases (Day 2)
Start prep early. I preferred CCScases.com to UWorld because the CCScases software gave me way more feedback than UWorld and gave me insight as to how one loses points. A lot of people seemed to get bogged down by details like preventative care/vaccines/smoking cessation when in reality that's like maybe 5% of the points based on CCScases. The key thing to CCS I think is your treatment. Per CCScases, it accounted for about half your score. Missing a one key step like prescribing a medication or calling surgery to do something costs you 30-40% of the points Don't worry about dosing as you only need to know routes and for antibiotics, multiple answers are accepted as long as you're covering the right bug. Work-up was second most important. It's important to not only order what's indicated to make a diagnosis but order what's needed to figure out why things happened in the first place or further complications. For example, with AFib (not on my test) it's important to order TSH and BMP even though it doesn't contribute to the diagnosis. As an IM resident, this came naturally but to others it may be a refresher. The diagnosis itself is not actually tested (I did not have to type it in a box even when the case ended like I think they used to have you do). I actually scored near full points on a practice CCScases case where I didn't have an exact diagnosis in my head but had a gist it was some kind of ovarian mass and did the right things to manage it. The best thing to do is to develop your own system for orders and practice this. This is a bit like a video game in that speed/accuracy come with time. Practice a lot of cases. The real test had different order sets than CCScases though and CCS cases were a little too obvious about what the diagnosis was were my only two knocks on them. Definitely download the official USMLE software which has 6 cases to review to get a sense of what the real order sets are like, but unfortunately the real cases are a bit more challenging than those on that software too. On the real deal the cases are a bit difficult because they kind of "evolve" as one diagnosis turns out to be another whereas CCScases the diagnoses were fairly straight forward.
Experience:
I took it on a Wed/Friday. I don't think the time between matters and it's probably more of a mental thing.
Day 1:
Honestly, I really felt good about this day which was eery because everyone said this was the worst day. On my exam, there were probably 7-10 biostats questions PER block on Day 1 ONLY and covered a range of biostats material. A decent amount of it was pretty basic 2x2 table stuff so don't neglect that. There was some basic science material on there. It may have hit on strengths but I felt it was stuff residents should still know like MOAs of drugs, etc. The way basic science was often tested was in the form of a 2-3 order MCQ where they gave you a clinical scenario. You had to get the diagnosis (1) and the treatment (2) and the answer choices would be the mechanism of action of the treatment. I honestly found these to be easier because you can reason through them. Some of the questions were super random but that's with any Step exam. Some of those random ones were actually random factoids I had a gestalt about based off something I remembered way back in the M1/M2 classroom. All the ethics questions were on day 1 for me as well and there were some tough ones. I did run of time on a few blocks with 1-2 questions left that I had to skim/guess on but that's not atypical for me. I came out of day 1 with a 8/10 confidence level.
Day 2:
The Day 2 MCQs absolutely shattered my confidence. My Step 1 score was way better than my Step 2 score so maybe this is different for everyone because it seems like a lot of people are saying these questions are like Step 2CK whereas Day 1 is a microcosm of Step 1. I spent a lot of time with Uworld Step 3 and even CK but it still felt like I was guessing on way too much. The answer choices I was looking for just weren't there and I walked out of the first set of 30 (my exam had 6 sets of 30) and was like holy **** I don't think I was sure of a single answer (slight exaggeration but still that's how it felt). I went 2 blocks at a time from then on and honestly things got a little better but it was still pretty bad overall and had to guess on the last 3-4Q on some blocks (another sign Day 2 was harder) and honestly I just did not know what some questions were trying to test or didn't see an answer I liked. Another thing that messed with my head was there were these two-part questions where answering one locks your answer and most of the time the next question reveals the answer to the previous question in the first sentence (ex. The physician orders [insert answer choice from last question]). I think I was like 7 for 9 on them between both days. There were more pairs than that but others didn't necessarily give away the answer. I couldn't help but take more time on these knowing I would know if I got them wrong in a few seconds so be ready for that mentally. Anyhow, this whole day felt super tough. While I used some clinical reasoning from residency I did not think the questions made as much sense as UWorld Step 3. I just thought questions were more vague...obviously I did well enough so something went right though so don't be super discouraged if this happens to you. When I left the center, no one on Reddit or SDN seemed to share this experience. Finally CCS came along. Note that you get a 45 min cumulative break time on day 2 for MCQs and a separate 45 min break time for CCS. I personally used very minimal break time which I think was a good idea because I think my performance on an exam gets worse the later it gets into the day and I finished at 2pm instead of 4 pm which was optimal. The real CCS cases felt better than the D2 MCQs I just ranted about but just not as slam-dunk diagnosis types as CCScases.com. One case had two separate diseases! I have residency experience and that helped a ton. One case was a pretty realistic scenario I see a lot in the ICU I didn't think CCS would test on. I was perturbed when I had a case I knew exactly how to manage end promptly after my first round of orders when it said the patient was feeling better. There was also a peds case that was a very rare dz i didn't realize until midway through. I also stumbled on cant'-miss diagnoses three times presenting atypically (which is why it's so important to do a fundamental workup on everyone and not anchor on a diagnosis at the beginning). It’s also true that shot gunning takes time because you are shown results for everything you order so you have to know when to shot gun and when not to. Overall, most cases ended early and most got better through patient feedback. I didn't feel the need to take many breaks between CCS. I ended the day 1.5 hrs early (there is separate break timer for MCQ section and CCS). I felt that was a good way to do it.
Results Experience:
Bonus section lol. There's a lot of confusion about this which leads to anxiety. I've combed through tons of reddit/sdn threads including SDNs very own "The Trick Works!" thread and here is what seems to be the case:
1.) Your score report will show up on a Wednesday at 12:00AM EST on Interactive Website. No email will prompt you to look. Log into linked website and click "Print Score Report". It will download a PDF which will be your numerical score, P/F, and some performance graphs you may be interested in. The NBME/FSMB doesn't make this an exact science, but from looking at everyone's experience, the general principle is reporting goes 3 Wednesdays from the 2nd test date if that was a day after Wednesday and 4 Wednesdays from the 2nd test date if that was a day before Wednesday. The exception to this is if you tested in January/February (see point #3).
2.) The Trick: The Sunday before your results come, the "scheduling permit" link disappears from your USMLE Step 3 row on the "Check Exam Status" link of the same website: Interactive Website.
Previously people thought if the link disappeared, then you passed. This seems to be wrong. The "scheduling permit" link still seems to disappear even when people failed the exam recently per many recent reports which I imagine leads to situations of a false sense of hope. What's not clear is whether the "scheduling permit" link not disappearing means you've failed. There is like one person who has said it did not disappear the week they got their score and they said they failed. The thing is in the moment, you don't really know if the permit didn't disappear because you failed or if it's just that you're not getting your results that week (more likely and not many people followed up to give us that info).
3.) Per FSMB "necessary annual modifications to the test item pool will result in a delay in reporting Step 3 scores for examinees who test in early in the year. The target date for reporting scores for most examinees testing in January and February 20XX is Wednesday, March XX, 20XX (AKA: Delayed reporting date). After this, the normal score reporting schedule (see point #1) will resume.
Take Home Points:
1.Emphasize biostats. You don't have to buy another biostats resource or watch biostats specific videos. Just get comfortable doing basic biostats questions and understand key definitions, etc. It's pretty similar to UW. I also recommend the UW extension package for $25.
2. Emphasize CCS. Practice this regularly and don't wait until this last minute. UW is great but I recommend CCScases. I have heard good things about Archer/Crush but haven't used those.
3. MedQuest USMLE Step 3 is an expensive, but valuable resource IMO worth more than OnlineMedEd for Step 3 because it's more comprehensive which I needed for OB/GYN & Peds.
4. The exam's just like the other steps except for exceptions above and 95% pass, but I would not take it too lightly. For those in IM, I would wait until after intern year to take it. Do they use it for fellowship? Probably not...but they may screen out low scores (a cards program I saw said on their website they screen out anyone with <220 on any Step). Remember, there's no rush to take this. I remember trying to take this at the beginning of my intern year duringa pretty poorly assigned vacation and it felt like way too much new information and was unsure what source to learn it (i.e. I just needed more residency time), but now after revisiting it, things just made a whole lot of sense. IMGs may not struggle the same way because many have intern year built into their medical school training. The test tests clinical reasoning you usually gain as an intern. You'll run into questions where your Step 1/2 brain will tell you to do X or Y but your residency experience will tell you to do Z and Zs usually the answer.
---
Despite me writing this novel, 95% of US MDs passed Step 3 with an average score of 228 last year per my 2021 score report. Your mentors/attendings will tell you they didn't study and aced the exam or that all you need to do is pass. On here, there seem to be a lot of people failing (probably as a selection bias). The reality's probably closer to the actual data, but do note the exam has a higher passing threshold than Step 1 and a lower average so if you were in the 200-220s on your prior Steps, you probably should invest some time just to be sure you pass. I think 2 weeks of dedicated study in residency or 2 months of interval studying in residency is plenty. In my position though, I was taking it 3.5 years after CK without and plan on pursuing an IM fellowship so I didn't want to take any chances because I know some places screen scores.
Study Period: 2 months
Step 2CK: 245
Step 1: 252.
UW Step 3 Average: 69% timed tutor, random. Repeated Peds/OB+GYN/Endo.
UWSA 1 (4 weeks out): 206 (Fun fact: there's an option to score recheck your practice exam. When I clicked it my score went from 196 to 206). I hate practice exams and think I split this one up into two days. I mainly used it for more questions.
Demographics: US MD, 2 years of IM residency experience
Study time: Two month time period, studied 9-5 most days but took maybe 20-30 days off just goofing off or focusing on other things in life.
Resources:
1.) UWorld Step 3 ($300)
2.) UWorld Step 2 CK (Peds/OBGYN mainly but I literally went clicked through other sections the day before my exam)
3.) OnlineMedEd videos for some review
4.) CCScases.com for CCS ($60)
5.) $25 Biostats package.
6.) MedQuest [new] by Conrad Fischer/Niket Sonpal (Video lecture series based off 2020 Master the Boards). Warning $$$ (300).
Study Period:
Out of all the Step exams, this one was the most lonely/isolating one with no real dedicated resources other than UWorld that I'd heard of. I studied January/Feb for most the day. Most PGYs won't be able to do this, but my advice is to not take the exam lightly. It seems like a lot of people seem to fail it or drop scores and I felt the exam was actually quite difficult despite all the sentiment from attendings that it's a breeze or whatever. For those interested in IM fellowship, your score probably doesn't matter BUT score too low and you could get screened out for a competitive fellowship so I wouldn't go in there with a #2 pencil as the saying goes.
I started with UW questions and mixed in some OB/GYN + Peds independent review and things were going slow. One thing that sped me up was I met an IMG on the USMLE Step 3 FB group and we basically started doing UW and CCS together over Zoom and I went at a pace of 80UW+4CCS a day. She was super good with Peds/OB-GYN and had just taken Step 2. We chose to use CCScases.com instead of UW because it gave way more feedback to learn from and gave us an exactly percentage on each case based on a detailed analysis of how we managed the patient and the order we did it in. After we completed this, we kind of split up and went our own way after re-doing some Uworld questions from my weak areas (OB/GYN, Endo, Peds). I ended up not using Anki. TBH near the end I kind of slacked and maybe 10-15 days off the month, I did not really study. I spent most my time redoing a bit of UWorld and watching the Peds, OB/GYN, Endocrine, Hematology, Cardiology, and ID sections of MedQuest (new 2020 resource).
Strategy:
There are 3 unique elements/curveballs to this exam aside from what is in UW Step 3 some don't expect.
1.) Biostats Emphasis (Day 1):
I think what's most in your control on this exam is biostats yet no one wants to spend time on it. I did UW random tutor so I was exposed to biostats consistently throughout and spent more time figuring out why I got these questions wrong. There are a few recurring themes like it a confidence interval cross 1, that's not the answer and to never pick X causes Y as an answer. A week before the exam, I purchased the biostats UW package which also helped a bit to drill down less common concepts like predictive values, NNH/T, and definitions and test taking strategies for biostats. I felt this helped me on the real thing. Definitely memorize the 2x2 table and learn how to manipulate it. As someone pretty good at math, it felt humiliating to memorize a 2x2 table and formulas I could just derive/reason through but you are gonna get questions testing sensitivity/specifity so you may as well get super accustomed to doing these calculations fast instead of wasting minutes trying to reason through stuff.
2.) Basic Science (Day 1)
A lot of IMGs were advising me to read First Aid and I pulled out my old copy but didn't use it too much. I figured I'd either know it or I didn't and spending all day reading First Aid for Step 1 wasn't an active learning strategy and too low yield to be worth my time. I didn't review any of the First Aid Micro/etc. people said to. What helped me in some cases were the MedQuest lectures where Conrad Fischer hits on high yield basic topics simultaneously while covering the higher level stuff like diagnosis & management/etc.
3.) CCS cases (Day 2)
Start prep early. I preferred CCScases.com to UWorld because the CCScases software gave me way more feedback than UWorld and gave me insight as to how one loses points. A lot of people seemed to get bogged down by details like preventative care/vaccines/smoking cessation when in reality that's like maybe 5% of the points based on CCScases. The key thing to CCS I think is your treatment. Per CCScases, it accounted for about half your score. Missing a one key step like prescribing a medication or calling surgery to do something costs you 30-40% of the points Don't worry about dosing as you only need to know routes and for antibiotics, multiple answers are accepted as long as you're covering the right bug. Work-up was second most important. It's important to not only order what's indicated to make a diagnosis but order what's needed to figure out why things happened in the first place or further complications. For example, with AFib (not on my test) it's important to order TSH and BMP even though it doesn't contribute to the diagnosis. As an IM resident, this came naturally but to others it may be a refresher. The diagnosis itself is not actually tested (I did not have to type it in a box even when the case ended like I think they used to have you do). I actually scored near full points on a practice CCScases case where I didn't have an exact diagnosis in my head but had a gist it was some kind of ovarian mass and did the right things to manage it. The best thing to do is to develop your own system for orders and practice this. This is a bit like a video game in that speed/accuracy come with time. Practice a lot of cases. The real test had different order sets than CCScases though and CCS cases were a little too obvious about what the diagnosis was were my only two knocks on them. Definitely download the official USMLE software which has 6 cases to review to get a sense of what the real order sets are like, but unfortunately the real cases are a bit more challenging than those on that software too. On the real deal the cases are a bit difficult because they kind of "evolve" as one diagnosis turns out to be another whereas CCScases the diagnoses were fairly straight forward.
Experience:
I took it on a Wed/Friday. I don't think the time between matters and it's probably more of a mental thing.
Day 1:
Honestly, I really felt good about this day which was eery because everyone said this was the worst day. On my exam, there were probably 7-10 biostats questions PER block on Day 1 ONLY and covered a range of biostats material. A decent amount of it was pretty basic 2x2 table stuff so don't neglect that. There was some basic science material on there. It may have hit on strengths but I felt it was stuff residents should still know like MOAs of drugs, etc. The way basic science was often tested was in the form of a 2-3 order MCQ where they gave you a clinical scenario. You had to get the diagnosis (1) and the treatment (2) and the answer choices would be the mechanism of action of the treatment. I honestly found these to be easier because you can reason through them. Some of the questions were super random but that's with any Step exam. Some of those random ones were actually random factoids I had a gestalt about based off something I remembered way back in the M1/M2 classroom. All the ethics questions were on day 1 for me as well and there were some tough ones. I did run of time on a few blocks with 1-2 questions left that I had to skim/guess on but that's not atypical for me. I came out of day 1 with a 8/10 confidence level.
Day 2:
The Day 2 MCQs absolutely shattered my confidence. My Step 1 score was way better than my Step 2 score so maybe this is different for everyone because it seems like a lot of people are saying these questions are like Step 2CK whereas Day 1 is a microcosm of Step 1. I spent a lot of time with Uworld Step 3 and even CK but it still felt like I was guessing on way too much. The answer choices I was looking for just weren't there and I walked out of the first set of 30 (my exam had 6 sets of 30) and was like holy **** I don't think I was sure of a single answer (slight exaggeration but still that's how it felt). I went 2 blocks at a time from then on and honestly things got a little better but it was still pretty bad overall and had to guess on the last 3-4Q on some blocks (another sign Day 2 was harder) and honestly I just did not know what some questions were trying to test or didn't see an answer I liked. Another thing that messed with my head was there were these two-part questions where answering one locks your answer and most of the time the next question reveals the answer to the previous question in the first sentence (ex. The physician orders [insert answer choice from last question]). I think I was like 7 for 9 on them between both days. There were more pairs than that but others didn't necessarily give away the answer. I couldn't help but take more time on these knowing I would know if I got them wrong in a few seconds so be ready for that mentally. Anyhow, this whole day felt super tough. While I used some clinical reasoning from residency I did not think the questions made as much sense as UWorld Step 3. I just thought questions were more vague...obviously I did well enough so something went right though so don't be super discouraged if this happens to you. When I left the center, no one on Reddit or SDN seemed to share this experience. Finally CCS came along. Note that you get a 45 min cumulative break time on day 2 for MCQs and a separate 45 min break time for CCS. I personally used very minimal break time which I think was a good idea because I think my performance on an exam gets worse the later it gets into the day and I finished at 2pm instead of 4 pm which was optimal. The real CCS cases felt better than the D2 MCQs I just ranted about but just not as slam-dunk diagnosis types as CCScases.com. One case had two separate diseases! I have residency experience and that helped a ton. One case was a pretty realistic scenario I see a lot in the ICU I didn't think CCS would test on. I was perturbed when I had a case I knew exactly how to manage end promptly after my first round of orders when it said the patient was feeling better. There was also a peds case that was a very rare dz i didn't realize until midway through. I also stumbled on cant'-miss diagnoses three times presenting atypically (which is why it's so important to do a fundamental workup on everyone and not anchor on a diagnosis at the beginning). It’s also true that shot gunning takes time because you are shown results for everything you order so you have to know when to shot gun and when not to. Overall, most cases ended early and most got better through patient feedback. I didn't feel the need to take many breaks between CCS. I ended the day 1.5 hrs early (there is separate break timer for MCQ section and CCS). I felt that was a good way to do it.
Results Experience:
Bonus section lol. There's a lot of confusion about this which leads to anxiety. I've combed through tons of reddit/sdn threads including SDNs very own "The Trick Works!" thread and here is what seems to be the case:
1.) Your score report will show up on a Wednesday at 12:00AM EST on Interactive Website. No email will prompt you to look. Log into linked website and click "Print Score Report". It will download a PDF which will be your numerical score, P/F, and some performance graphs you may be interested in. The NBME/FSMB doesn't make this an exact science, but from looking at everyone's experience, the general principle is reporting goes 3 Wednesdays from the 2nd test date if that was a day after Wednesday and 4 Wednesdays from the 2nd test date if that was a day before Wednesday. The exception to this is if you tested in January/February (see point #3).
2.) The Trick: The Sunday before your results come, the "scheduling permit" link disappears from your USMLE Step 3 row on the "Check Exam Status" link of the same website: Interactive Website.
Previously people thought if the link disappeared, then you passed. This seems to be wrong. The "scheduling permit" link still seems to disappear even when people failed the exam recently per many recent reports which I imagine leads to situations of a false sense of hope. What's not clear is whether the "scheduling permit" link not disappearing means you've failed. There is like one person who has said it did not disappear the week they got their score and they said they failed. The thing is in the moment, you don't really know if the permit didn't disappear because you failed or if it's just that you're not getting your results that week (more likely and not many people followed up to give us that info).
3.) Per FSMB "necessary annual modifications to the test item pool will result in a delay in reporting Step 3 scores for examinees who test in early in the year. The target date for reporting scores for most examinees testing in January and February 20XX is Wednesday, March XX, 20XX (AKA: Delayed reporting date). After this, the normal score reporting schedule (see point #1) will resume.
Take Home Points:
1.Emphasize biostats. You don't have to buy another biostats resource or watch biostats specific videos. Just get comfortable doing basic biostats questions and understand key definitions, etc. It's pretty similar to UW. I also recommend the UW extension package for $25.
2. Emphasize CCS. Practice this regularly and don't wait until this last minute. UW is great but I recommend CCScases. I have heard good things about Archer/Crush but haven't used those.
3. MedQuest USMLE Step 3 is an expensive, but valuable resource IMO worth more than OnlineMedEd for Step 3 because it's more comprehensive which I needed for OB/GYN & Peds.
4. The exam's just like the other steps except for exceptions above and 95% pass, but I would not take it too lightly. For those in IM, I would wait until after intern year to take it. Do they use it for fellowship? Probably not...but they may screen out low scores (a cards program I saw said on their website they screen out anyone with <220 on any Step). Remember, there's no rush to take this. I remember trying to take this at the beginning of my intern year duringa pretty poorly assigned vacation and it felt like way too much new information and was unsure what source to learn it (i.e. I just needed more residency time), but now after revisiting it, things just made a whole lot of sense. IMGs may not struggle the same way because many have intern year built into their medical school training. The test tests clinical reasoning you usually gain as an intern. You'll run into questions where your Step 1/2 brain will tell you to do X or Y but your residency experience will tell you to do Z and Zs usually the answer.
---
Despite me writing this novel, 95% of US MDs passed Step 3 with an average score of 228 last year per my 2021 score report. Your mentors/attendings will tell you they didn't study and aced the exam or that all you need to do is pass. On here, there seem to be a lot of people failing (probably as a selection bias). The reality's probably closer to the actual data, but do note the exam has a higher passing threshold than Step 1 and a lower average so if you were in the 200-220s on your prior Steps, you probably should invest some time just to be sure you pass. I think 2 weeks of dedicated study in residency or 2 months of interval studying in residency is plenty. In my position though, I was taking it 3.5 years after CK without and plan on pursuing an IM fellowship so I didn't want to take any chances because I know some places screen scores.
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