Step 3 Passed. Experience
Hello Everyone,
I passed Step 3. Got my results today: 206. Nothing spectacular, but honestly, I wasn’t aiming for anything spectacular either.
BACKGROUND:
I’m an IMG, completed residency in my home country, and I’m currently doing a fellowship in the US. I took Step 2 back in 2017 right after medical school and had not touched USMLE material since then until about 4 weeks before my exam.
I was offered another fellowship position that was contingent on passing Step 3, so I had to take it ASAP before mid-May. I’m in a busy fellowship program, and April was the only window I had to prepare and take the Exam.
PREP:
* Did about 60% of UWorld with an average around 63%
* Didn’t finish the question bank
* Did random timed blocks of 40–60 questions/day
* Reviewed Biostats from First Aid
* Almost completed all the Biostats questions in UWorld (left around 20 due to time constraints)
* Started every day with CCS Cases — around 10 cases/day from high-yield to low-yield
* Completed over 100 CCS cases total. Dont know the average score as I puchased a used subscription. My guess would be around 70-75%.
* Repeated around 70–80 cases in the same order before Day 2
Before Day 2, I didn’t do any MCQs because I was exhausted and just wanted to relax a bit.
I DID NOT TAKE ANY SELF-ASSESSMENTS BEFORE THE EXAM.
EXAM EXPERIENCE:
My Day 1 was on May 2nd and Day 2 was on May 5th.
Day 1 honestly did not feel great. There were drug ads in almost every block, which made time management difficult. Lots of Biostats and Ethics questions.
Day 2 felt much better. No Biostats, no drug ads, and mostly clinical questions with very few Ethics questions.
For CCS, I had 14 cases. All of them ended early, and I only had one negative patient encounter in one case. Overall, I felt pretty good about the cases after the exam.
MY OPINION:
I genuinely think that if you’re actively involved clinically, you can pass this exam without a massive amount of dedicated prep. It’s definitely doable.
I’ve been an average student all my life, so if I can do it, anyone can 😅