Step 3 - when and how to study

[amdap]

I was just curious what people used to study for Step 3.
Also, when did you take it? During intern year?
And how long did you spend preparing for it?

I'm looking for something a little more substantial than "I started studying the night before the exam." I am generally not a procrastinator and take a moderate amount of time to study for these things, so laissez-faire responses won't really help. Thanks.

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[ortho2003]

Why ask the question if you are going to tell people what kind of response you want? I took it towards the end of my intern year and only took the 150 practice questions offered by the NBME to prepare. If you know you aren't a procrastinator and take a moderate ammount of time to study for these things, then take whatever you think is a moderate ammount of time. By the way, if you think you take a moderate ammount of time, you will need to see how many people took it without studying or with one night of studying and compare it to how many took a month to prepare to figure out what moderate is wouldn't you?

 

[fourthyear]

Took it towards the end of intern year, which I think was good timing. It helps to have the experience of internship b/c you can use those learning experiences to answer some questions. You'll want to spend some time reviewing things outside your feild of experience though. Most people used either Swanson's family practice review for questions or Crush the boards for a quick review (which I used). I also did some practice questions. Do the practice CD they send you from USMLE - this is key to the clinical scenario questions. It's a very primary-care oriented test. I spent about a month of studying about 15 hours a week maybe and got a similar score to step 1 and 2. I consider myself sort of a "slow learner" and this amount of studying was plenty.

 

[amdap]

Took it towards the end of intern year, which I think was good timing. It helps to have the experience of internship b/c you can use those learning experiences to answer some questions. You'll want to spend some time reviewing things outside your feild of experience though. Most people used either Swanson's family practice review for questions or Crush the boards for a quick review (which I used). I also did some practice questions. Do the practice CD they send you from USMLE - this is key to the clinical scenario questions. It's a very primary-care oriented test. I spent about a month of studying about 15 hours a week maybe and got a similar score to step 1 and 2. I consider myself sort of a "slow learner" and this amount of studying was plenty.

Thanks, that's helpful!
Is there a certain time period in which you HAVE to take Step 3? When's the earliest you can take it?