Hey all. Got my score yesterday and I PASSED. Finally no more USMLES. I owe alot to this group
and the people who helped me especially Ekta Shah for all your guidance, great tips and
overwhelming support. Belue Barry for your amazing effort of uploading all the high yield
materials for both step2 ck and step 3. May God bless you.
However there were some people in this group who demotivated me regarding taking step3 as I
had low scores in both step1 and 2. So just to boost everyone with low scores YOU CAN PASS STEP
3 IF YOU USE THE RIGHT STRATEGY AND SUGGESTIONS FROM THOSE WHO ARE WILLING TO HELP
YOU. There is a girl on this group I dont want to mention her name, who kept on telling people
with low scores not to take step3 as it is hard and that your ck scores are a reflection of your
performance on step3. Its total BS. Every exam performance is different. Yes you need concepts
and understanding from ck, but it certainly doesn’t mean that if you score low in ck, you will fail
step3 or barely pass with 196-198. ABSOLUTELY NOT. DONT LISTEN TO SUCH PEOPLE.
So all you demotivated people with low scores, attempts, unmatched, DONT LOSE HOPE. BELIEVE
IN YOURSELF. PREPARE WELL and take step 3 to boost your chances to match.
Now coming to exam strategy:
My prep time was 6 months along with a 40hrs job.
uwsa1: 205
uwsa2: 210
nbme 5: 500
Real deal: 215
Materials used: archer vids, crush ccs, uw step3, uw ck notes, FA (revised only pharma drugs), MTB
3 (GOLD)
Stage1: Archer ccs videos (x1.5times because they are super slow) If you are not in residency, I
suggest you do archer videos as they give you important tips and how to surf through the ccs
software. Lastly it prepares you very well for the uw ccs software and you can perform well on
that. Revised my CK notes (thanks to Belue Berry’s uploads)
Stage2: UW and UW ccs. I was scoring in 60s and 70s. and my first time average was 68%
Stage3: Read MTB3. This book is amazing especially for prognosis questions, step1 questions and
management portion the non-high yield diseases that are tested on Day 2. Make sure you read
this book at least once. Trust me it will help you with your critical thinking skills and the weird 3/12
ccs cases.
Read crush CCS book. This book covers almost all the cases thats are not mentioned in uw ccs. It
gives you an idea of how to manage time and what are the most important things you should cover generally on any ccs case. The reading wont take long. There are 120 cases, I usually read 10
cases per day.
Stage4: Did Uw second time and this time I was scoring in 80s and my average was 82%. I took
UWSA1 and scored 205. People said I was good to go, but I still doubted my performance
especially biostats cause LITERALLY I suck at biostats. I then took NBME 5 and scored 500. People
on this group suggested that if anyone scores above 450 on nbmes their prep is good.
Stage 5: During the last month I only focused on CCS and my uworld step3 notes. I did ccs twice
from UW and took uwsa2 where I scored 210. Not a super good score but at that point I was so
saturated that I decided to take the beast and just PASS.
EXAM DAY:
Day 1 was mostly focused on step1 stuff including anatomy, pathology and Pharma. I was asked
mechanism of actions for many drugs from the microbiology section of FA. Anatomy qs were
mainly focused on blood vessels and xray interpretations, upper limb lower limb stuff. Biostats
was pathetic. No calculations. Qs were mainly drug add, trials and dumb bias stuff. Psychiatry was
super easy if youve covered your ck and step3 uw notes well. over all the paper was very general.
It reminded of step1 combined with an overload of biostats qs. I felt bad after the paper mostly
because I had no clue about how I perfomed on biostats. Its a general feeling everyone has post
exam so dont let it affect your day 2 performance.
Day2: Your score depends Largely on day2, Atleast I can say this for my case. Qstions were mostly
on prognosis, management, diagnostic tests. Peds and Geriatrics were heavily focussed so make
sure you cover all the high yield and low yield diseases. MTB HELPED ALOT FOR DAY 2. I WILL
STRESS ON THIS.
Coming to ccs. I was one of the unfortunate people who were given 4/12 cases OUT OF
NOWHERE. No uw, crush ccs helped. I was taken by surprise when I read the case and I was like
wth. But thanks to my ck notes and most importantly mtb3, I knew what tests I had to perform
and how to manage the case. cases ended very fast esp the 10 min cases. Some mentioned that
the patient was improving while the other just ended abruptly. Tip: As long as you you followed
the right protocol and management for the cases, your did well. I had a mixed feeling post exam
probably because day2 was 9hrs long and mostly I was upset because of those 4 wtf cases.
The wait for the result for terrible. I kept myself busy with my eras applications and work. Thank
the Lord I passed. Results were out exactly after 4 weeks on 12:00am Wednesday. and YES THE
TRICK WORKS *Ignore the errata. I was typing fast.
Feel free to ask any questions. I AM HERE TO HELP YOU.
BIG THANK YOU to everyone who help us on this group. You know who you are.
Best of Luck with your residency application!