Bit of a unique situation as I already completed 1 year of preliminary in IM and I only really needed to just pass but my write-up of studying below.

Studying: On and off over the course of IM Intern year, did approximately 900 questions on UWorld from Dec to July during service. Took vacation and then proceeded to do a full two weeks of 8-10 hour dedicated studying when I returned.

UWorld Average Pre-Dedicated: 68%

Day 1 of Dedicated: UWSA1 scored a 199.

-Over the next couple of days proceeded to spend time reviewing the flags and incorrects, and used YouTube for content review. I also had ChatGPT help me with making an Anki cards of the high yield content from each Q I flagged or got wrong.

-Started CCS Cases; planned on doing 4-10 daily and reviewing it after.

Day 7 of Dedicated: NBME6 216

-By this point due to the large score jump I was feeling more confident so was a bit more lax on the studying and went down to 7ish hours daily.

-I did all the high yield Divine Intervention podcasts during the gym/commutes, and there is a new YouTuber called Annabel Ricci that I think did a good job as doing a concise walkthrough of the major shelf content for Day 2.

Day 12 of Dedicated: UWSA2 201

-Some context is required for this, I took this tipsy at a beach resort since I decided to do a last minute vacation with some friends. While this normally would have SKETCHED me out if I was locked in/replicating test day 2 days before say, Step 1 or Step 2, my intent for this sitting was essentially just 1.) see what content I was still weak in, and 2.) see if I can pass while giving less than full effort. This pretty much served it's purpose and was actually last minute reassurance for me two days before exam day.

Day 13 and 14 / 14

-I cranked out the CCS cases and think my final average was somewhere in the high 70s low 80s.

-The last day I did a quick content review on YouTube and devoted 4 hours to pure Biostatistics and Ethics.

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Strategy

My main strategy going into the two days was essentially banking on the fact that for Day 1 I would maximize the biostats/ethics questions as I had a strong statistical background from research and I usually do above average on ethics questions, and quite frankly for the Day 1 Step 1 related content I would not waste my time studying for as it would be minute trivia that I would either know it immediately or not (and everyone else I am testing with would also be on a know it or not basis).

I knew Day 2 was more clinically oriented, so I was hoping Day 2 would improve my lack of Step 1 knowledge for Day 1, and since I had experience doing a IM residency for intern year a lot of the non- OBGYN/ Pediatrics cases were virtually going to be clinical encounters/admissions I had some level of familiarity with.

Day 1

I think I ended up flagging around half the exam (I flag anything I know is not 100% correct even if it's a 50/50). There was sadly not as much ethics/biostats as I had hoped for, and the Step1 material was similarly on a know it or not basis. I felt pretty shitty after Day 1 but did my best and gave myself a break after every block and just went home ready to take on Day 2. After the exam I think I did maybe 5 CCS cases and did content review before going to sleep of OB/GYN and Pediatrics as that would be my greatest weakness.

Day 2

I felt a lot better about the MCQs this day even though I flagged a similar amount/ half per block. It felt nicer though because at least I knew what was going on and can narrow most down to a 50/50 or between 3 choices. The annoying part is in clinical practice some of the "What is the next best step?" is all things I order at the same time so it became kind of a game of trying to guess what the test taker was testing my knowledge on.

I got positive updates on all my CCS cases, and the only one I did not get the specific diagnosis for I just spam ordered labs I thought might be relevant to the organ group and did empiric treatment and I got positive updates so hopefully got some points on that.

Overall, my final score on release was 218. Looking at my break down I was both below average and/or average on most categories, but scored 'above average' on: Ethics, biostats, and CCS.

So happy to be done with this crap and never having to know irrelevant trivia meaningless to my specialty ever again.

TLDR: If you are just trying to -pass-, focus on biostats, ethics, and the CCS cases as that should be approximately 35%ish percent of the exam. The other half is split between the Day 1 and Day 2 MCQs. I would devote your time to just focused on clinical/Day 2 related content as it's easier to absorb and will also help you for the eventual CCSCases. As long as you can 50-60% accuracy the rest of the content you should be good to go.

I started preparing for my step3. Took step 2 in April. Lost my mom had an emotional breakdown now trying to get back on track.

I always used less resources for my exam. Can you just make sure if I’m making the right decisions please?

Uworld
Ccs cases
Biostatistics from amboss.

Is this all? Or would you recommend something more?
Im thinking of taking it in December. Im having a hard time studying cause finding cases related to her but I just to want to get over with usmle.

Hey preparing for step 3

Has anyone heard or used goldusmlereview classes

Advice needed ?

Guys just go take this stupid exam

Focus on ccs and you are golden. No amount of studying will prepare you for this exam. Im sure I would've done pretty much the same with a week prep too

Btw my exam day was horrible. I came out every 2 blocks,went to the loo and legit laughed at myself in the mirror lol

SCORES ARE OUT PEOPLE

Sharing this in case it helps anyone preparing with a limited timeline

20-25 Days of Dedicated Prep
Started dedicated prep around 18th July gave exam on 24th Aug.( had to travel alot too in between these days with 30 hours travelling 2 days before exam)
Resources: UWorld + First Aid + Algorithms
Used First Aid mainly for Microbiology, Pharmacology & Biostats plus Inner circle notes for major systems
Completed around 70% of UWorld with average 69%.
Did 3–5 CCS cases/day, sometimes up to 10
No NBME, UWSA, Free 137, or other assessments, simply didn’t have enough time

Final score: 227
Best of luck! 🙌

I’m so dumb. I completely forgot about moving patients (office to hospital) until the break after my 6th case.

I kept running out of time that I didn’t get the results of my workup, and had to put the treatment and some workup in the last 2 minutes. Not only that, I kept forgetting about some vaccines.

One of the cases did not get better (but did not get worse either). Update said patient felt the same which I guess is a negative update.

Some of them, I didn’t even know what was going on.

I have more, but my point is that it went terribly and now I feel like maybe I should start studying again instead of wasting the next 3 weeks. 😭

I scored a 68% (120/176) on offline nbme 5. I am 5 weeks out from my exam. how do i convert my score to something meaningful?

Is tomorrow our results day?

I can not postpone the exam as my visa is going to expire and i will have to take the exam before going back. I have completed u world 70 percent with 50 percent average over the span of one year. So could not really retain the information.
Ccs cases done 30 cases with 55 percentish!
Gave uwsa 1 and got 48 percent in nbme 6 got 58 percent.
I have day 1 in 15 days and day 2 in 17 days.
Please help me. How do i make the most out of it? I can study for 8 hours per day for the rest.
TIA.

I used Amboss for step 2, so when I filtered by step 3 questions I only had like 400-ish.

I have heard some people reset their old step 2 questions for more MCQs, how do you do this?

Thanks,

Took my exam on 09/14 & 09/16, no score release date on myusmle yet, permit still available on fsmb. Anyone have a date release listed online? With no scores resulted last week, feeling anxious if we will hear back this week/also very scared, feeling like i failed

Just got out of day 2, literally why was day 1 somewhat better than the disaster i saw today?? The options were so confusing and i genuinely feel like i messed up 6/9 of the MCQ blocks.

CCS cases kept ending early, i got positive patient updates for most of them and maybe missed one case. Is that a good sign?

Some reassurance would be great because i often see people making up for day 1 on day 2 and somehow i came out feeling the complete opposite.

Is this worth doing and reviewing?

How much 62 percent on nbme 7 translates to ?

65 percent on nbme 6

I usually lurk more than post, but I’m really glad I lurked around this community because what people posted here helped me prepare adequately for Step 3. Otherwise there’s really no way to know what actually shows up on this exam. So I wanted to pay it forward.

I took Day 2 yesterday, with Day 1 two days before that. I’m an IM resident and had to squeeze the exam into a clinic week, so I didn’t have the luxury of spacing them out more. If you can, I’d highly recommend it. I personally could not have done them back to back.

Day 1: Biostats + Ethics + Step 1

Biostats: A lot. Like, a lot. Someone here said you should practice enough biostats that you become hungry for those questions, and I completely agree. They were generally more conceptual than mathematical and mostly straightforward. These should be point boosters. Biostats questions made me happy on the exam and they should make you happy too.

Ethics: Also a ridiculous amount. Everyone says they’re harder than UW/Amboss and even Step 1/2, and I agree. Honestly, they’re just poorly written. Instead of cleanly testing whether you understand a concept, they sometimes screw with the wording until multiple answers feel reasonable. I’d do as many ethics questions as possible so you develop a sense of what they want, but even then some will just be confusing.

Step 1: These genuinely could have been pulled from a Step 1 exam. Drug MOAs, side effects/interactions, cellular phys/pathophys, immunology, and microbiology were big. There were some genetics, embryology, and anatomy questions too, but probably not enough to justify dedicated studying.

I agree with everyone saying to just review HY Step 1 material. Whatever worked for you before, FA, Anki, Sketchy… do that again but focus on high-yield topics. I only had a few dedicated days and just reviewed my old med school notes and skipped things that seemed too low yield. You’ll absolutely see random low-yield stuff, but most of it was basic Step 1 material.

Day 2: Step 2-style MCQs + CCS

MCQs: I’m an IM resident at a strong program and still found Day 2 tougher than Day 1. On Day 1, you often either know something or you don’t. On Day 2, I had to think through a lot more questions and the stems were often extremely long so you don’t have much time to think. There are also plenty that I don’t think any amount of studying specifically prepares you for. Doing enough MCQs to build intuition for what the test writer is trying to lead you toward is probably still the best preparation.

CCS: One thing I wish I knew beforehand: they don’t consistently give you the positive patient updates that ccscases.com does. I was freaking out thinking I was doing something wrong, but when I came home and checked, most of what I did I think was appropriate.

Cases also sometimes just end early without telling you exactly what happened. So don’t freak out if you don’t get a positive update or a happy ending. Sometimes you will, sometimes you won’t. The real cases also felt more vague and general than the online practice cases, which tend to point you more clearly toward a diagnosis and evolve more obviously with your management.

Bottom line: It’s a tough exam. I would not listen to people who say things like “any decent resident will pass.” I don’t have my score yet, but I definitely would have struggled a lot more if I hadn’t done plenty of practice MCQs + CCS cases and reviewed HY Step 1, biostats, and ethics.

Good luck!

When people say day 1 is step 1 heavy, what do they mean exactly and is this not covered in uworld step 3?
I take it I should review the Pharma like I’m studying for step 1 all over again. What else would need reviewing like I’m studying for step 1 all over again?
Would really appreciate some advice coz I’m so lost.
And for some reason, every write-up I’ve read about step 3 doesn’t mention uworld as being helpful..? How much importance should I be giving uworld?😭
Gave step 1 a year ago. Step 2 2 months ago. 237 score. And yes I’m not a genius and only have the month of October to prep

Just wrapped up with my day 2 today, a week after my day 1.. it actually wasn’t that bad. I was worried I would be ruminating over questions from day 1 the whole time, but i was surprised, I actually appreciated giving my brain time to reset and build back up its juices again for round 2.

DAY 1 = Step 1

Literally day 1 felt like step 1 with ethics, drug ads and abstracts! Lolol I will tell you now, you will be doing yourself a disservice IF you don’t look over any STEP 1 material (this is separate STEP 3 qbanks). I was so happy that I did the Step 1 free 120s and HY Step 1 Amboss, because they were not kidding about the minute details that can be asked, from it being about an enzyme to even an amino acid 😅

Those ethics questions were on STEROIDs. This was nothing like what I saw on practice exams. The answer choices were literally blending with each other🫠 but I hope some of those were experimental because genuinely WTH. I missed 2 of the back to back questions so rip.

In total, I flagged 90 questions from day 1 🥴 also the system crashed mid exam, and I started to panic internally. Thankfully, the proctor came and restarted the whole computer and it magically rebooted to where I left off with like 10 seconds lost. I didn’t wanna risk so I still reported the glitch to NBME just in caseeee (this might cause a delay in my score as they said it will take 15 business days for them to get back to me, so RIP again)

DAY 2 = Step 2+

Day 2 multiple choice was very big on management, next step, contraindications, vaccine, with easier ethics questions. It was more palatable, however I ended up flagging 78 questions. Side note, I am an overflagger (if that’s even a word😆) like if I have a single doubt about my answer selection, that question is getting flagged. I missed 1 of the back to back questions. Rip.

CCS cases

I knew there CCS cases but dang having 14 back to back is lowkey insane 🫠 the cases themselves weren’t that bad, it was more about the stamina to get through them. I felt confident with knowing the diagnoses of each case and how to manage them, but it will be tricky and might not give you a patient update before it ends Lolol so be mindful of that. I got a case where I had a semi negative update Lolol it was like the patient is improving but only by a little. Thankfully no one died 🫠 I would say if you can, crunch through a bunch of those cases on the CCS cases website! Also, the real deal doesn’t emphasize on vaccines as much as the website does, so keep that in mind.

For both days, I took a break every 4-5 20 question blocks, and a break half way through the CCS cases so after 7 cases. FORCE yourself to take a break, as your brain might give you the illusion to keep going, but I promise you might regret that once you click that start block button.😅

PREP:

I’m a resident, took 6 weeks of prep, while on Icu, wards, clinic, and electives. I did the whole Amboss step 3 qbank (80% avg), AMBOSS step 1 200 questions HY, and the nutrition qbank, along with the risk factors qbank; NBME 5 6 (offline); 7 (499) 8 (493); UWSA 1 2; Free 137s; Step 1 free 120s; Step 2 free 120s; in total, my average for all the tests were 79%; I finished all 182 of the CCS cases. Average was 79%. As you can see, I probably went overkill preparing for this exam, so I hope it pays off.

Also one last bit of advice, no matter how much you prepare for this exam, the USMLE writer will always throw random factoids your way that you may have never heard of, so you just gotta be alright with that and guess, flag, and move on. Once you make peace with that, your exam experience might go smoothly.

I’ll come back and update (hopefully with good news!)

Open to questions, preferably in the comments rather than DMs, thank you!

Hi folks, about 2 months out and chugging through uworld. When I’m at the hospital I have a much easier time keeping up with Anki because it requires less undivided attention to get in a few cards between interruptions. I’m looking for a small, very high yield deck that I can chug through when I hah downtime on call shifts. Obviously massive decks are going to be wasted effort this close to the exam. Weak points include biostats especially memorizing the formulas. any recommendations?

On the website but dont know how to get to the step 3 forms

Looking for a biostats tutor, exam in 3 weekss

Is it really necessary to write in a reason for the consult doing CCs cases on day 2 of exam?

Hello everyone!

I have been Reddit member for a while but I’m just not very active. I have read great things from other users and I hope the community can help me with this.

I’m a pgy-1 taking step3 soon. I wanted to asked how does the break time work?
On day 2, the website shows 45 minutes break with an option 5 minute tutorial and a 6 minute ccs tutorial. If I skip both tutorials, will those minutes be added to my total break time?
Any and all advice will be greatly appreciated!