When to Take Step III (unique situation)

[MNCASC]

Hello everyone. As the title indicates I am in a unique situation. I went to medical school 4.5 years and graduated this past December (I changed specialities and took an extra half year to do research and apply to a new specialty). I was told by my school that I can take Step III now since I have my MD. My last rotation was this past September thus I will be studying in May prior to the start of residency. Therefore, I thought I mine as well study for step III and take it before residency starts. I am going into IM and possibly specialize in cardiology.

Have any of you taken Step III before residency? What resources should I use? How long should I dedicate to studying? 3 weeks?

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[rokshana]

Hello everyone. As the title indicates I am in a unique situation. I went to medical school 4.5 years and graduated this past December (I changed specialities and took an extra half year to do research and apply to a new specialty). I was told by my school that I can take Step III now since I have my MD. My last rotation was this past September thus I will be studying in May prior to the start of residency. Therefore, I thought I mine as well study for step III and take it before residency starts. I am going into IM and possibly specialize in cardiology.

Have any of you taken Step III before residency? What resources should I use? How long should I dedicate to studying? 3 weeks?

What’s the unique part?

If you have done an intern year 1-3 weeks is probably fine...

Practice the ccs part...it will be the part that trips you up.

 

[xoggyux]

Well, you are not in such a unique place. Having some time off prior to residency is fairly common. It is also common to ask if doing step 3 during this time is best/not.

If you were going into psych or OB or something along those lines I'd tell you if you have free time go ahead and do it now because you will forget a lot about general medicine as time passes by. However, if you go into IM, probably 60% of the test will be what you are already doing in your residency and you just have to brush up on the other topics a bit since the steps are heavily skewed towards medicine.

There is still a value of doing it before residency. For one, you won't have to worry about this during your residency and that can give you some peace of mind. From an intellectual point of view, I say it makes the most sense to do it before. First you have the time and your time will be more valuable to you after you start than it is now. Second, has the added benefit that whatever you study now will brush you up a bit for residency. There is no 2nd attempts to make first impressions. Third, I think step 3 is awfully similar to step 2 in content and doing them as close together make sense.

On the other hand, this is not what I did myself. I also had free time like yourself (8 months actually) and I caved to procrastination and laziness. At the end of the day It turned out well for me since I did minimal studying for step 3. The bulk of the knowledge I needed came from every day "bread and butter" internal medicine. I brushed a bit on OB/PEDs/Psych and I knew with just 1 week to polish those subjects I could easily pass.

So at the end of the day there is really no right answer. You probably want a decent score, although probably step 3 is not likely to be the deciding factor for fellowship, I don't think it will hurt to have a good one for a competitive fellowship and failing or having a bad one might hurt you. So as long as you are certain you will do reasonably well, take it whenever you are ready.

How will you know when you are ready? Take the practice tests.

As for study. USMLE all questions + cases will get you 95% there for a decent score.

 

[MNCASC]

Well, you are not in such a unique place. Having some time off prior to residency is fairly common. It is also common to ask if doing step 3 during this time is best/not.

If you were going into psych or OB or something along those lines I'd tell you if you have free time go ahead and do it now because you will forget a lot about general medicine as time passes by. However, if you go into IM, probably 60% of the test will be what you are already doing in your residency and you just have to brush up on the other topics a bit since the steps are heavily skewed towards medicine.

There is still a value of doing it before residency. For one, you won't have to worry about this during your residency and that can give you some peace of mind. From an intellectual point of view, I say it makes the most sense to do it before. First you have the time and your time will be more valuable to you after you start than it is now. Second, has the added benefit that whatever you study now will brush you up a bit for residency. There is no 2nd attempts to make first impressions. Third, I think step 3 is awfully similar to step 2 in content and doing them as close together make sense.

On the other hand, this is not what I did myself. I also had free time like yourself (8 months actually) and I caved to procrastination and laziness. At the end of the day It turned out well for me since I did minimal studying for step 3. The bulk of the knowledge I needed came from every day "bread and butter" internal medicine. I brushed a bit on OB/PEDs/Psych and I knew with just 1 week to polish those subjects I could easily pass.

So at the end of the day there is really no right answer. You probably want a decent score, although probably step 3 is not likely to be the deciding factor for fellowship, I don't think it will hurt to have a good one for a competitive fellowship and failing or having a bad one might hurt you. So as long as you are certain you will do reasonably well, take it whenever you are ready.

How will you know when you are ready? Take the practice tests.

As for study. USMLE all questions + cases will get you 95% there for a decent score.

Thank you. Leaning towards taking it before as a way to brush up on material. Also need to see what study materials and/or question banks my residency program would pay for? Not sure if that matters though

 

[xoggyux]

You can always ask the program coordinator or email one of the current residents for info. As long as they are not giving you Uworld step 3, you can just go ahead and buy it. Even if they give free MKSAP or something else you still get a lot of bang for the buck for uworld, so buy it anyways. Sometimes there are stipends that you can use for anything education-related and perhaps you could use that for the steps, but really if you are willing to study over the free time, i dont think the potential savings is worth the trouble.

 

[MNCASC]

You can always ask the program coordinator or email one of the current residents for info. As long as they are not giving you Uworld step 3, you can just go ahead and buy it. Even if they give free MKSAP or something else you still get a lot of bang for the buck for uworld, so buy it anyways. Sometimes there are stipends that you can use for anything education-related and perhaps you could use that for the steps, but really if you are willing to study over the free time, i dont think the potential savings is worth the trouble.

can you post a link to the USMLE question you did? Did you use UWORLD?

 

[xoggyux]

USMLE Step 3

USMLE Step 3: Prepare with UWorld 1800+ USMLE Step 3 practice questions, step 3 ccs self-assessments & more. Buy USMLE Step 3 QBank today!

www.uworld.com

 

[MNCASC]

USMLE Step 3

USMLE Step 3: Prepare with UWorld 1800+ USMLE Step 3 practice questions, step 3 ccs self-assessments & more. Buy USMLE Step 3 QBank today!

www.uworld.com

Do most residency programs pay for the application fee? Because I think I would have to wait until match day, or after, before registering if my program pays for it. Or perhaps they could reimburse me if I register now?

 

[Laradd]

I know a lot of people that took step 3 before residency. It's really not that big of a deal and as long as you prepare you'll be fine.

 

[gutonc]

Do most residency programs pay for the application fee? Because I think I would have to wait until match day, or after, before registering if my program pays for it. Or perhaps they could reimburse me if I register now?

Some do, some don't. None will pay for it before you're working for them.