scoobydum
Forum Newbie
Topics: 1
Posts: 1
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Hi everyone!
I've only been a lurker thus far, but now that I've taken and completed step 3, I thought I could relate my own experience and provide some (hopefully) helpful information. I found this forum to be a great source of support, although at times, it definitely freaked me out, too!
Background: American grad who first took step 3 in feb 2007 and failed! I got a 73. It was completely devastating for me, and definitely made me feel like a complete moron. At that time, I had done maybe half of usmleword questions (scoring an average of about 50) and read through crush maybe 1.5 times. After that humiliation, I basically decided to put it on the back burner for a long time.
Prep time: Total study time off and on was about maybe 2 months while on 2 light rotations. Seriously studied about 1 month, as I spent part of March interviewing for jobs. Things were a little more hectic this time because I was at the end of my residency, and couldn't complete it without passing this stupid test. I have a baby due at the end of the summer. Job contracts were also hanging in the balance. Medical state licenses had to be applied for and approved before July, so it definitely didn't leave me much time. Plus I would be completely financially destitute if I couldn't start working right away. Talk about being stressed out!
Sources used:
First Aid: This book is fantastic. I had read Crush previously, but it was too skimpy for me. I suppose if you memorized it completely, it gives you the bare, bare minimum knowledge base. Personally, I preferred 1st Aid.
UW: I finished about 80% of it and averaged about 59-60% on unused questions. I think what was most helpful for me personally was studying a topic, then taking an exam on that subject. It helps to reinforce the study material. After I took a test, I took notes and added any pertinent material to my First Aid book in the margins. I also used an old Kaplan qbook, which was ~800 questions and averaged about 60% on these.
NBME Exam: Took it 2 weeks beforehand and got a 380. I was kinda bummed, especially after reading on here that people said you needed a 400 to pass. But I still had 2 full weeks, and an entire week of vacation to study. So I buckled down and continued cramming for about 12-16 hours a day. It felt like I was back in medical school cramming before finals. Good times.
Premier Review: In the last week beforehand, I bought the 7 day video course from these guys for about $300 and really crammed and focused on my weak topics using NBME as a guide. They are fantastic lectures, though sometimes hard to understand because of the accents. Each of their lectures has probably 10-15 sample questions regarding that topic. If anyone decides to buy their course, I would recommend buying the audio course because the video version basically is one continuous shot of the speaker lecturing or occasionally an oversized slide that is already in your handout. The notes are really helpful just by themselves, but hearing the lecture is valuable because of all the sample scenarios and questions they give you. I think if you have the time, I would go through the entire series in 3-4 weeks along with First Aid and UW and that would be more than enough. I would have done this sooner, but I wasn’t too sure about how good a source Premier Review actually was.
Clinical Scenarios: First Aid has about 80 pages of sample scenarios but they are a little skimpy. I had bought the UW cases too, which are also very good, although I only finished maybe 20-30 of them. I did the practice cases downloaded from the USMLE website several times, and went back and basically just practiced putting in orders on the software. I waited until one week before my exam, but I think that was more than enough.
Test Day: The test was long and grueling. I thought I did terrible on the first day, because I went home and all I could remember were all my wrong answers and none of the right ones. One thing that helped me feel better was that day 2 still had the CCS (about 20% of your total score) and the remaining multiple choice accounted for the last 40% of the total score. So I still had 60% of the test to go, which helped me relax. Day 2 went much more smoothly I thought, though I ran into trouble on pacing myself—the MCQ passages for some reason seemed much long on the second day. The CCS scenarios went well and pretty much all of them ended before the 20 min time limit. I cant remember all my cases, but rest assured they weren’t zebras but relatively common. Maybe 1/3 of them were ED type cases and the rest were primary care office visits.
I hope this helps somebody along the way! Take care and good luck everyone!
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| beiwen
Forum Elite
Topics: 23
Posts: 238
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Congratulations for passing!
Thanks for sharing your experience. That's really useful.
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BW
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| medicus_81
Forum Elite
Topics: 12
Posts: 432
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congratulations! you did a good job and you can be proud of yourself! Enjoy and good luck!!!
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If you judge people you have no time to love them
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| IL1
Forum Newbie
Topics: 0
Posts: 6
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Cnogratulations and Thanks!! Your post was really helpfulQQ
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| dr_usa
Forum Newbie
Topics: 0
Posts: 2
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Congrats!
Excellent experience
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