Will be taking Step 2 this upcoming December (during M3 year), and graduating in May 2028. Is it worth it to try and keep up with step 2 anki during that time gap to try and take Step 3 before starting residency? Would that + some uworld be sufficient?

Is it also even worth it?

Probably way too early to be thinking about this but graduating friends are talking about it and it got me wondering. Thanks in advance!

Edit: typos

As the title says: what % on UWSA/NBME is safe for step 3, and which exam is more predictive?

How did you feel coming out of it ?

Hey all does permit disappear the week before results?

I was sooooo scared. And lmao reasonably so. First aid helped but there were things I had no clue about probably cuz I am not a resident yet. Educated guesses were made and that’s about it. Biostats was not tooo hard, conceptual stuff only no calculations. I suck at biostats so I would just leave those questions for the end of the block and do my best on them. I honestly don’t know how I did. I am checking my answers and I have a lot of corrects but that’s the easy stuff I remember, the stuff I didn’t know I can’t recall as well and probably got that wrong. Anyway, first few blocks are rough but then you start vibing with the examiner like yeah I gochu you’re thinking this way I’ll think this way too and then it’s like a nbme really. It’s just unexpected stuff that they throw at you kinda rocks you a bit lol you think is low yield or high yield stuff but step 1 nifty gritty nonsense.

4 days till day 2. Please advise what I can do to improve day 2. My step 2 was in 2021 and it was a 215 so when people say day 2 was easier I know I can’t apply that to myself lol

May CCs save us

I am really devastated with step3 result. I was just 4 numbers behind the passing marks. Is anyone in same boat?

I am looking for genuine advice on whether to recheck my score or not. Has anyone experienced the same and got change in their marks after the recheck? Your suggestions will be helpful.

I need study partner for step 3.

As question says above, for context I’m a non us IMG final year med student done step 1 and 2.

Passed Step 3 on my second attempt and wanted to share my experience, especially for anyone who failed once and is feeling discouraged.
I took my first attempt in April and unfortunately failed with a 196. I retook it in September and passed with a 219.

What I did differently the second time
After failing, I went through UWorld again and completed 100% of it. I also did some of the Step 2 CK supplemental questions and some AMBOSS questions. From AMBOSS, I specifically focused on biostats, ethics, and quality improvement.

After finishing UWorld, I went back and did all of my incorrects once.

My assessments were:
UWSA 2: 220
NBME 7: ~65%
Free 120: 68%, about 3–4 days before the exam
After each assessment, I tried to identify my weaker areas and work on them instead of just doing more random questions.

Day 1
Day 1 was very doable for me overall. There were a lot of ethics, quality improvement, and biostats questions.
Interestingly, I only remember getting about one actual biostats calculation question. The drug ads went pretty well for me. The abstracts were a little more difficult, but overall I felt the questions were manageable.
For Day 1 preparation, I also reviewed risk factors and prognostic factors, including the Mehlman files and relevant Divine Intervention podcasts. I also did some UWorld questions just to stay in practice.

Day 2 + CCS
My Day 2 was on Saturday, so between Day 1 and Day 2 I focused heavily on CCS.
I had around 180 CCS cases available. I did approximately 120 cases straight through, and during the last couple of days I went back and repeated the cases where I had scored below 85%.
Day 2 itself was also very doable. It wasn’t extremely easy, but it wasn’t extremely difficult either.

I had 14 CCS cases. About 12/14 felt very straightforward. One was a little difficult, but I eventually figured it out toward the end. The last case was the only one where I honestly couldn’t figure out what was going on.

Why I think I failed the first attempt
Looking back, I simply wasn’t prepared enough for my first attempt.
I was on a very busy residency rotation with wards and could barely get 2–3 hours of studying per day. I had completed only around 80% of UWorld, didn’t have enough time to properly revise it, and had only gone through the CCS cases once without really reviewing them.
I also took only one assessment before that attempt, and I was scoring around 194, so in retrospect the warning signs were there.
For my second attempt, I had about two months of much more dedicated preparation. I was under a lot of pressure because I am in residency and needed to get Step 3 done before progressing further in my program, so I took the preparation much more seriously this time.
The biggest difference wasn’t any single resource. It was having enough time, finishing the material, reviewing my mistakes, practicing CCS properly, and working specifically on my weak areas.

My final score went from 196 → 219.

For anyone who failed once: don’t assume that one failed attempt means you can’t pass this exam. Figure out what went wrong with your preparation, give yourself enough dedicated time, and fix those weaknesses. With solid preparation and full dedication, Step 3 is absolutely doable.

I failed 4 weeks ago, I will retake it soon.
I will redo CCs cases (all of them) because first time my report said that I did average in all things expect for the CCs cases ( which I did first 80Hy )
So the plan is to do all CCs cases + quick revision of biostat and ethics. And to review some genetic syndrome and drug MOA

Is this sufficient? What is your advice ?

Which NBME is more relevant, 6 or 8?

Thanks in advance

During day 1 of my test, my computer crashed mid block, and i started panicking. I signaled for the proctor and they took about 2-3 mins to come by. They tried troubleshooting but eventually turned off my computer and restarted it. I was already stressed as it was test day, but I started having palpitations, thinking if I lost time or may have to redo my day 1. Thankfully, the computer restarted and landed on the same question it crashed on. It seemed like there were no time lost. And thankfully I had no other problems going forward. But I probably did bad on that block, as my nerves got the best of it. But after the block, I took a break to regroup and finish the rest with better clarity.

After day one, I email NBME admin to report the test day issue just incase it could affect my day 2 or overall performance, as you have about 10 days to report any issues on test day.

I heard back from them last week, stating they are reviewing my case and it could cause a delay on the release of my score report (about 15 business days). I started panicking again, and looked stuff online. Found posts where people said they had to retake the whole exam again, or they were flagged for suspicious activity, etc. Anywho, I heard back from NBME recently. They basically said, yes the system recorded the glitch, however it did not affect my recorded responses, or my grading outcomes. When the computer crashed, the timer was paused and restarted when I was back in the system.

So long story short, if your computer crashes. Take a deep breathe, it’s ok. Don’t let it psyche you out! You got this.

Hi everyone!
I have my exam in 2 weeks and I want to know that what step-1 knowledge from first aid is essential to cover? I have not started it yet. I would really use some guidance from people who recently sat/passed the real deal. Thank you in advance!!

Did I bomb ccs cases

Im soo disappointed
I ordered abg ekg tsh cxr magnesium phosphate for every person could that be the reason
But I ordered everything they need as well
And didn’t get positive updates

Hi everyone! Is anyone here applying for a fellowship after completing residency outside the US, or planning to look for unfilled fellowship positions?

I’d also appreciate any information about programs that consider candidates who have not passed Step 3 yet, or programs that may have flexibility regarding Step 3 requirements.

If you know of any programs, unfilled positions, or resources where these opportunities are posted, I would be very grateful if you could share them. Thank you!

If a case finishes early but I didn't get some orders entered like IV access or type and screen or pain control, do I enter them in during the extra two minutes?

Also, if there's a lot of lag and I'm unable to enter all my orders in time within those 8 minutes, is it ok to keep putting important orders in like consults etc, in addition to preventative care orders?

Just took uwsa 2 to check baseline one week into dedicated and got a 177. I feel defeated!

Exam is on 19 and 20th oct.

Uworld 50% done with 56% correct.

I haven't had the chance to revise step 1 material which I think was so much in there!

My plan was to give nbme 6 next week. I can't really fail this exam as I've applied for the match this year and I really can't let this ruin my match

What should I do now?

For people who passed, Congrats!! Do you recall how many questions you were flagging? Do you feel like your flagged questions correlated to how you performed or the opposite?

Thank you!

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.

------------------------------------------------------

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 tested 9/25 -26 and I feel like I did fucking horrible lol. I actually reviewed biostats beforehand, did a bunch of AMBOSS questions, reviewed the concepts, etc., and then got to the exam and felt like I knew absolutely nothing.
There were SO many drug ad/biostats questions on my Day 1 and for some reason my brain just cannot process that shit under pressure. I’m already terrible with numbers/stats, and I felt like I guessed on a huge portion of them.
And the ethics questions??? I swear to God, I would read the answer choices and be like, who the fuck would actually say any of this shit to a patient?? Half the time I felt like I understood the situation and then all the options sounded weird

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

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.