Finally got my Step 3 score today (231) and I’m so relieved to be done with USMLE forever. Here’s my experience:
Preparation:
I work full time in research so I could only study a few hours everyday. Studied seriously for about 2-2.5 months.
Used Uworld forMCQs,CCS and the biostats module as well. Was able to finish about 75% of the MCQs once, all the CCS cases at least twice and the biostats module twice.
Day 1 has a lot of ethics and biostats, so I reviewed the ethics and biostats section of first aid for step 1,Ck and 3 the day before Day 1. Also, solved the biostats module for the second time and some random biostats MCQs from the qbank. In addition, I reviewed important tables and flowcharts from UWorld.
Had scheduled day2 three days after day1. This was on the advise of a friend and it turned out to be excellent advice because it gives you enough time to get some sleep after day 1 and then redo all the CCS cases from uworld.
NBME 4- 590
Real deal - 231
Did not do any of the uworld Self assessments .
Exam experience:
Went to the exam centre early on day 1 (7 am) because they had informed us that we can start early it we get there early. However their computers/ server was down and we started the check-in process only at 8:40 am. It was a day full of ethics and biostats as expected, including drug ads. There were some straightforward questions where you just need to know the formula but there were a lot of questions that were more about interpretation rather than calculation. Ethics questions were good except for a few tricky ones. Day 2 had a lot of next best step/ prognosis/ worst risk factor type questions where it was easy to narrow it down to 2 options but then hard to pick one. When CCS started I was extremely anxious. The main thing to remember here is that there is a lag after every input/click as it it’s buffering. All my 20 min cases ended within 7-8 min. Most 10 min cases did too, but ran out of time on one (however, patient had started feeling better). It felt different from uworld because it ends before you are done treating the patient (within the first few steps). Over all, Day 1 felt easier than Day 2 to me. There were some basic science questions on both days but these were not too bad.
The wait for the result was absolute torture.
So relieved to be done!!