Step 3 done and dusted!

Step 3 done and dusted!

My History:
Step 2CS December 2017- Pass 1st attempt
Step 1 May 2019- pass 218
Step 2 September 2019- Pass 218
Step 3 August 2020- Pass 215

So clearly my scores aren’t great but I don’t care and I’m so happy that I’m finally done.

Personal stuff:
I’m an IMG from middle east but I’m also British. I’m bilingual and English language is native to me. I was an excellent student in med school and top 10% of my class. I got low-ish scores because I had personal stuff during my exams and I just can’t do extended periods of time studying, I get bored easily and lose focus.

So for all my exams I do 4-6 hours of studying per day, with one or two days break a week.

I’m a fairly new grad, no USCE and not currently in residency.

For STEP 3:
I studied 3 months on and off. I wasn’t going to do it at all but when coronavirus happened I thought I might as well since I have nothing else to do.
NBME4- 2 months before exam: failed
UWSA1- 4 weeks before exam 200
UWSA2-2 weeks before exam 210
Usmle free questions: 75%

UW STEP 3 Q bank and CCS and usmle online practice CCS, were MORE than enough in my personal opinion.
I did not do FA step 1 or any book at all.

Exam day:
Day 1: finished feeling the same as I did after step 1 and 2ck, confused, upset, scared and fed up.
Every block had average of 4 biostat Qs, except for the last 2 blocks only had one or two biostats.
Some basic principles tested; if you passed step 1 you would be able to answer them.

I had 2 days off in between.

Day 2: PLENTY of break time so you dont have to think ahead how to divide your breaks. The questions part was same as day one, but more clinical oriented with focus on preventative care and no biostats.

CCS part: I knew I did well in the first 4 cases. I knew exactly what they were and what to do, then it went downhill, I got weird patients with unusual presentation to the point I didn’t even know which specialty consult was needed.

I had an asthma attack (wearing a mask exacerbated this) at case 6 and didn’t have my inhaler with me, so that case got screwed up big time. I was barely able to type anything and left the exam before case ended.
Went for a break and came back when I was feeling better.
Anyway left the exam feeling awful, overwhelmed and crying and soaked my mask through with tears.

My advice:
Study UW for questions and CCS. It is enough.
Use the free prep material to get a hang of things.
For CCS cases, I think we talk and exaggerate them, honestly in retrospect the grading must have been fair because I didn’t know many of the diagnosis yet I passed. Just be sure to do things safely in the right sequence: stabilize, history, investigation, diagnosis etc.
If the patient keeps complaining- dont freak out just continue as you would with a real patient. It’s just a reminder to do skmerhjng that you might be forgetting.

RESULTS
STEP 3 results took exactly 15 days from Day2.
Pleasantly surprised because I thought it would take longer. Also I checked the website by myself and the score was reported a little after midnight EST. I didn’t receive the “your score report is available” email until the next morning at 6 am.

Guys seriously though I was freaking out and thought I had failed but honestly now in retrospect, the exam was doable and most pleasant out of all the computer based Steps.
Though its so fricken long, the material is repetitive and intuition and common sense plays a big role.

Good luck you can ALL do this if you have made this far!

Salaaaams and fair well USMLE! It was NOT a pleasure knowing you!
Praise to The Greatest :heart:

Ask questions in the comments- please don’t send privately. Let everyone see so questions don’t get repeated and everyone can benefit.