USMLE Step 3 Experience - RECENT EXAMINEE

Passed Step 3 ! Goodbye USMLE
Thank you to this group for all the advice and support.
NBME 4 : 580 , UWSA 1: 227 ( both 2 weeks out)
NBME 5: 580, FRED 75% (both 1 week out)
UWSA 2 : 233 ( 3 days out)
Final score : 234 ( scored borderline for CCS which I regret , I messed up 2 cases completely in the
exam and 2 cases i knew didnt go well)
Study time : 4 months whilst working with 1 month dedicated.
CK taken 5 months prior to step 3
RESOURCES ( in order of importance)
Uworld step 3 once , 2nd round 50% completed
Uworld step 3 ccs cases ( one round)
Archer Vides
Uworld step 2 CK tables and charts ONLY (± 1500 pages found on Ck forum)
Ccscases.com did 50% ( ones that were not in uworld)
Crush ccs
Biostats Uworld
TIPS

  1. CCS counts 25% of the exam score , please don’t underestimate this portion. Practice Practice
    Practice.
  2. the real CCS software in exam is SLOW ( expect 1-2 sec lag between each order) and there are
    NO STAT orders like in world or ccscases. Cases are 11 min or 21 min ( they give you 1 min extra
    for the in between cases lag time. There are 7 20 min cases and 6 10 min cases.
  3. Go through the first 3 archer videos before starting to do CCS cases on world or ccs cases.com.
  4. Every block in day 1 ( 6 blocks) has an article with 3 questions attached, yes, Every Block. Leave
    10 min at the end of each block to do the bio stats questions so you don’t stress while you work
    through the other questions. Every block has about ± 7 questions on biostats. ( its a pain but
    doable, minimal calculations which are straightforward from step 1 only – definitely not as hard as
    the biostats in step 3 but more similar to the uworld biostats tut.
  5. NO Biostats on day 2 and no articles (Hooray!)
  6. Day 1 MCQ is harder than Day 2. Day 1 has step 1 questions regarding pharm, micro,
    immunology, no need to stress over these and start madly studying step 1 FA in detail for this, just
    refresh your memory ± 3 days before exam by looking through these chapters. Day 1 has about
    20% step 1 things but no genetics and biochem luckily for me! Day 1 is also 30-40% CK style
    questions on diagnosis and next best management.
  7. Day 2 MCQ felt much easier because they were prognosis questions and questions were
    significantly shorter, keep day 1 and day 2 ± 6 days apart so you can practice CCS
    8.I didn’t use MTB or any videos , I’m my personal opinion ( take it with a pinch of salt) , if you
    score more than 240 on step 2 ck, you just need to revise tables and charts from world CK and
    start step 3 uworld, don’t need to use a book.
    9.Results came out on the 4th Wednesday from DAY 2 ( I wrote day 2 on a monday, if you wrote it
    on a Thursday or Friday then its 3 Wednesday from Day 2)
  8. The “Did I Pass” trick – on Sunday morning before the week your result is coming out, your
    permit on the NBME site disappears, (use link from your your scheduling permit email). Then on
    the Tuesday Morning, on the FSMB site if your application becomes “expired” with no yellow box
    to reapply then congrats ! you have passed!