How I prepared for my Step 3 Exam

How I prepared for the Step 3 examination:

Total studying time: 1 year = 10 month lax with 2 month intense studying

Resources used:

   1)       Step up to medicine (read once through and then revised my notes from then on)

   2)      Mtb (read multiple times)

   3)      Secrets: only the biostats section

   4)      First aide step 1: only the biostats section

   5)      Uworld qbank: went through it once.

   6)      UW CCS cases (51): went through it once

   7)      Crash CCS: went through the first 120 cases as part of a study group.

   8)      Archer CCS: watched 2 videos- strategy video (3 hours) and the next video in line (10hrs). GREAT RESOURCE!!!!

Practice tests:

   1)      Uworld qbank: 59%

   2)      NBME (done before uwsa): 320

   3)      UWSA: 185

USMLE STEP 3 score: 206

Study schedule:

In the first 7 months, I eased my way into studying. The first book I tackled was Step Up to Medicine. I started by reading 5 pages a day so to build consistency. Then I moved to 10 pages, and finally 20 pages a day. I finally finished step up to medicine around May.

The next book I tackled was MTB. I read a chapter a day. If the chapters where less than 20 pages I would read about 2 chapters. I was done by the end of June.

In July, I added working with study groups to my routine. I had 3 study groups in total: CCS, statistics, uw qbank.

From July to my test date Sep 16, I studied from 4 am- 11pm. There were breaks in between of course but it was still intense. I did not want to look back on this exam thinking I could have done more. Pass or fail I would know I gave it my all.

In summary, I started slow and built up momentum. At the very beginning I mapped out the resources that I would use and how much time it would take to complete them. I followed my schedule as well as I could. It all worked out in the in the end because I passed!!!!

Things I would change:

   1)      I would start doing CCS a little earlier

   2)      I would read first aide along with MTB sections. Note, I am not saying the whole first aide book. I would just read the sections that correspond with the chapters in MTB. There were some tough step 1 questions on the exam.

Good luck!!!