Just got my score back and passed. Step 1 - 230 after 2 weeks study; Step 2CK - 238 after 1 month of study; Step 3 - 200 after 3 weeks while in residency

Currently, I am a PGY2 psych resident at a university program. I am an american grad. I personally believe that Step 3 was the hardest of the three steps. IF you are a medicine or ER resident, you really don't need to study for this test. Master the Boards is perfect for you. However, if you are a psych,radio, pmr, path, etc., resident, MTB is simply not enough! I read premier review and everything that they taught was on the test. MTB has Step 2 CK-relevant material but wasn't right on for Step 3. If you are an IMG that needs to have a high score to match, use Premier Review and Uworld for Step 3. Don't waste your time with other resources. The CCS was very easy. just practice UW and you're set. I read here that people do multiple questions and use multiple resources, and to be quite frank, you are wasting your time. Stick with Premier and UW - you will atleast pass. Wish you all the best....

Thank u so much for your suggestions.
Is there any use ,that I do UW step2 CK again as iam old graduate and CK 1 year back.,then do premier & step 3 UW. Do we need to review basic subjects like,pathology & microbiology for step 3 again ?
Thanks in advance.

No do not waste your time with all these other resources. No need to study Step 1 stuff. Just memorize ALL of premier review and understand the UWorld questions. A lot of people tend to use too many resources; this is a recipe for disaster. If your goal is to just pass, reading through Premier Review should do it. If your goal is to score high, memorizing Premier Review and the concepts to UW questions is essential. That still doesn't guarantee a high score, but you'll be on your way.

Thank u for the reply.
Just one more ! How were the changes in the step 3 pattern,which was mentioned in the usmle website,after feb.15.
Were there many drugabstracts & Biostat.s Q's ? How to tackle them..Shud we go thru more of biostats. then ? And short & long CCS cases.,was the time enough for short CCS cases ?
Thanks in advance.
edited by rara39451523 on 3/12/2012

I everyone... I just sat for the final portion of my step 3 yesterday.

To be completely honest I thought the questions were easier than the CCS portion. UWorld questions tend to have similar answer choices to choose from. The actual test answers were easier to ID correct answers.

CCS- ugh- 12 cases, 9 of which went smoothly, 3 of which uggghhh i just dont know. I hope the % of ccs is not as high as questions!

Good luck everyone

thanks fo ryour post. my premier is a 2007 edition, do you think there will be a lot of changes? Congratulations on your scores and God bless.