My Step 3 experience: Day 1

My Step 3 day 1 experience:

Time prior to exam:

Woke up on time. Had breakfast and left the house in time, at 615am. I got to the testing center around 7am even though my exam was at 8am. They called me earlier telling me to get there by 715 am latest. I signed in, used the bathroom, took a couple of swigs of my monster that I had prepared in a bottle. It was action time.

Prometric center Experience:

I have taken numerous prometric tests for more than 7 years. Today was the best experience I have had in a center. 

They were attentive and prompt. When I stepped out to use the bathroom, they made sure I got back to my exam quickly, making me skip others who weren’t as pressed for time- for example, those getting checked before commencing their exams. 

My experience in other prometric centers weren't good, ie. speaking leniently. For one of my exams, I went out to use the bathroom. I came back and stood waiting as the minutes went by. Finally, after they had finished having their conversation with no sense of urgency they signed me back in. To say i was fuming is an understatement. I had to control my emotions to make sure it didn't impact my exam. 

How did this bad experience affect me? I was afraid to step out for a break because a 2 min break becomes a 10 minute break, and this all has an impact on your timing. In addition to the difficult exam questions you have to deal with your anger and try to calm yourself down because of the complete lack of care they had for your remaining time.

In short, the staff present during the taking of my step 3 exam were professional, and friendly. Their attention to detail allowed me to focus all my energies on what I needed to, the exam... And boy did I need all my focus. 

The exam:

The whole exam was rough. It was one of the roughest exams I have taken to date. There was a lot of biostatistics and a lot of step 1 pharmacology questions.

When I first I looked at my first block, I compared the number of questions to the amount of time to solve them. The ratio was better than uworld qbank so I assumed I would have so much time left over, time I can use to look back at my uncertain answers. certainlyu!. Nope! I blinked and all that free time was gone.

I struggled with first block. The questions stems were long. My mind was not fully primed and firing on all cylinders. The stats questions were placed towards the end. Time was running out. I was rushing. I looked at the long question stem of the stats questions. I used my normal approach to stats questions. I was still off I guessed and moved on.

The thing that bothered me about this was that I am usually good at stats questions. I had a good method of approaching them. I was just not completely relaxed. At the end of the first block, there are a few second count down before you automatically get put on break, or before you have to select to continue to the next block. I used that time to take a breath, calm myself down tell myself your method works, just work a little faster a little loser.

The second block was a little better in terms of stats questions and from then on I felt a little better for the stats questions.

The rest of the exam was extremely hard for me. The questions were long. A lot of the questions seemed ambiguous. However, I did my best and pushed through.

How was my stamina during the exam:

I was worried I would be exhausted for this exam. That did not happen. The exam flew by. I was so shocked that I only had two blocks left and even calculated the time I was supposed to finish. How did I approach the exam. I slept at a good hour. Slept for as long as timing would allow. I drank –a few gulps- monster before I got tired, before I walked into the room to start the test, and I took a sip after every break.  Possibly constantly doing at least 3 uw 40 q blocks in a row might have helped a bit. Most importantly thank you lord.

Impression of the 1^st day:

-        I really do not know. I felt it was excessively hard. I felt like I did not know enough, that I wasn’t ready for this exam. Now all I can do is wait for day 2.