u/HomemadeBestmade

Hello there!

Some of you may know me as the redditor who failed Step 1 first attempt (180s back when it was scored), then failed my first clerkship (fuck OBGYN), and managed to match into my #1 program in my #1 specialty with a trash Step 2 (230s). Well, the NBME Gods did me no favors with Step 3, and I failed (190s) on my first attempt.

I got my score for my second attempt last week, and ended up passing comfortably (230s)

I’m writing this post not to brag, but to encourage others who may be struggling, whether because they failed Step 3 before, or are dealing with confidence issues from not being good test takers at baseline.

First Attempt:

• I finished UWorld, but it was over the course of 12 months, so I didn’t retain anything
• Watched Sketchy Pharm/Micro, and thought it would be enough for most Step 1 questions. Spoiler alert: it wasn’t
• Didn’t study biostats/ethics because I never studied them and always scored high in those sections on Step 1 and 2
• Did NBME 6 and 7 and scored ~60% on both, but didn’t review. Did Free137 and scored ~55% and didn’t review.
• Did Top 100 CCS cases and averaged 70% and kind of reviewed
• I thought Day 1 was okay, even though everyone says it’s the harder day. Got totally destroyed on Day 2. Looking back, I’m not sure I got more than 25% of Day 2 MCQ correct. CCS cases went okay.
• My score report showed that I scored “same” across all sections. Absolutely useless.
• If I'm being honest with myself, I should have studied harder. I honestly underestimated this exam. I stupidly thought this exam was as easy as everyone else said it was.

Second Attempt:

• I spent a solid 3 months wallowing over the fact I had to take this stupid test again. I thought my days of struggling to pass Step exams was over since I passed Step 2 on my first attempt. Then I regrouped and channeled all my anger and hatred towards NBME into studying for my retake
• I reset UWorld and did all of it within the course of 2 months. I was on lighter rotations with golden weekends, and spent every waking non-working moment doing questions.
• Ran through Pepper deck for Sketchy Pharm/Micro bc Sketchy is genuinely helpful but I was sick of watching the cartoons
• I wanted more practice with NBME questions, so I did as many CMS forms as I could get my hands on (there’s a link to a drive of offline forms floating around this subreddit).
• I didn’t bother re-doing NBME 6 and 7 or Free137 since I remembered the answers, but I thoroughly reviewed all the questions.
• I did ALL the CCS cases and made Anki cards to test myself on the diagnostic tests and treatments. Averaged 85%
• Took an L on studying for ethics. Reviewed biostats daily. UWorld biostat questions are hard, but they do prepare you well. But I hated the questions from the UW supplement and only did ~20% before I rage quit. I switched to Amboss instead and did all the biostats questions. Listen. Randy Neil videos are not enough. They're good for calculations, but those drug ads and abstracts test your understanding of biostats, not how fast you can plug-and-chug numbers. I'm genuinely skeptical of any redditor who claims they did well on biostats by watching those 4 Randy Neil videos the day before the exam. I call bullshit.
• I still thought Day 1 was okay, and honestly better than my first attempt. Still got totally destroyed Day 2. Everyone says Day 2 is like Step 2. What the fuck kind of questions were they getting on their forms? I don’t remember bullshit risk factor and prognosis questions on Step 2. CCS cases also didn’t go great. My patients were all geriatric and had a million things wrong with them. I had a few cases where I didn’t even get the full diagnosis/treatment.
• I was sure I failed again and even started budgeting for a retake. I kept on remembering questions (I ended up remember 300+ of the 412 on Step 3) and looking them up and getting them wrong. It was a painful 3 weeks.
• When I opened my score report, I looked at the left side first and saw “Pass.” I didn’t even care what score I got, I was just so fucking happy to be done. Scored in the 230s, which still isn’t a fantastic score but I honestly couldn’t care less.
• Scored high on biostats, ethics, and CCS cases, and those sections probably saved me

Goodbye forever, USMLE, you money-grubbing sadistic SOB.

Hit me up if anyone has any questions!