What did I do after I got a 185 on UWSA to boost my score.

I get numerous questions from residents as well as img’s trying to take the step 3 exam. The most common question so far is what is it that I did after I scored a 185 on the UWSA test?

Unlike the other exams –step 1, 2 ck- which have numerous self-assessment exams, the step 3 only has 2 self-assessment exams currently. They are the 1 nbme exam and 1 uworld self-assessment exam (UWSA). As such you have to judicious in your use.

The self-assessment exams only test you on one portion of the main exam, and that is the multiple choice section. There is no CCS portion to the nbme and the UW self-assessment.  

The passing score of Step 3 is 196 at this point- it will most likely go up soon so make sure to check. As such a score of 185 is failing grade if you assume that the nbme and the UWSA exams correlate with the score you will get on the actual exam. Honestly, the only way to use the self-assessment exams is to assume they correlate. This brings me to my next point.

You must take your self-assessment exam early enough so that if you do not do as well as you want you have time to study and boost your knowledge or consolidate all the info you get from the different sources you used.

Last piece of advice before I share my routine is that the Step 3 is a really hard exam. If you have a low score I would advice against taking the exam soon after getting a poor self-assessment score. 

What I did after my UWSA score of 185?

I had between 3-4 weeks between my UWSA exam and the USMLE Step 3 exam. Also, I spaced out my 2 days over 10 days. Each day of the 3-4 week period before the main exam followed the snap shot I’m going to paste below. This is what I did on 8/30/16 but the other days were similar.

Routine:

8/30

-        4am- 5am: exercise-> review of ccs flash cards

-        5-550: step 3 notes

-        6-650 stats and ccs review:

-        7-750: mtb

-        8-850: questions: 2 UW blocks. Was soo tired that I could barely concerntrate. So I stopped and slept till 1 and then did the last block.

-        Reviewed questions till 630

-        630-730 relaxed

-        730- 11 archer videos  (2 hrs and 45 min)