Definitely felt like I failed Step 3...

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osprey099

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I just finished taking step 3 back to back and definitely feel like I failed. On the first day multiple choice, I was literally making an educated guess every 3rd question. The biostats were out of left field and there was so many basic science questions! The second day multiple choice was more like Uworld but I still made a lot of dumb mistakes. I also didn't do that well on the CCS cases, despite almost all of them ending early. In 3 of my cases, the patient's pain/symptoms were getting WORSE but when I advanced the clock by only 4 hours, the case ended WTF?? In 1 obgyn case, I had no idea what was going on and didn't know what I was doing. In another case, I intubated a patient who did not need intubation, although I fixed the patient's problem eventually. The other 8 cases went OK, fixed the problem, case ended early, but I forgot some monitoring stuff here and there.

I scored a 183 on UWSA1 5 days before the exam. Was averaging 60% on UWorld, finished entire qbank. Did anyone else feel like absolute crap after this test? I pray that I passed this test. I am a US MD and the statistics say that I have a 98% chance of passing but I am really worried that I will be in that 2% of failing, especially now that the passing score has been raised to a 198.

For reference, my step1 and step2 were in the 220s.
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osprey099 said:
I just finished taking step 3 back to back and definitely feel like I failed. On the first day multiple choice, I was literally making an educated guess every 3rd question. The biostats were out of left field and there was so many basic science questions! The second day multiple choice was more like Uworld but I still made a lot of dumb mistakes. I also didn't do that well on the CCS cases, despite almost all of them ending early. In 3 of my cases, the patient's pain/symptoms were getting WORSE but when I advanced the clock by only 4 hours, the case ended WTF?? In 1 obgyn case, I had no idea what was going on and didn't know what I was doing. In another case, I intubated a patient who did not need intubation, although I fixed the patient's problem eventually. The other 8 cases went OK, fixed the problem, case ended early, but I forgot some monitoring stuff here and there.

I scored a 183 on UWSA1 5 days before the exam. Was averaging 60% on UWorld, finished entire qbank. Did anyone else feel like absolute crap after this test? I pray that I passed this test. I am a US MD and the statistics say that I have a 98% chance of passing but I am really worried that I will be in that 2% of failing, especially now that the passing score has been raised to a 198.

For reference, my step1 and step2 were in the 220s.
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UWSA tends to underestimate. However you can't really do anything now. The wait is painful but try to keep busy and keep your mind off the test. At least plan for when you would retake the test if you happen to fail...and think what would you have done differently. Best of luck!
 
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If it helps, I wrote mine last week too and I have the same feeling! I ran out of time for most of the blocks in first day. I also couldn't finish putting proper screening tests for most of my CCS cases. sigh....
 
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I took mine Feb 26 and 28 and I feel exactly the same way. I am already thinking of when I would repeat it and what else I would study.
Day 1 was whatever and I made a few stupid mistakes but didn't feel terrible.
Day 2 was horrible! I felt like I was always between two answers for most of the MCQs and I keep thinking about all the stupid mistakes I made. The CCS, had 1 case were I still don't know what was going on and another that I was super lost until the end and didn't manage to do much for the patient. Only like 6 ended early and the rest were ok I guess.
Definitely feel like I did not pass.
 
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I wish you guys best of luck. I have heard so many times there were basic science correlates. Any advice on what the focus should be on?
These tests are made to make you feel bad after taking them. Don't stress, I am sure you guys did well and ill keep finger crossed also.
 
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This test was hard as ****. Day 2 mcqs were just as hard as day 1 mcqs. Didnt even have that many biostats which I was banking on, but alot of drug ads. probably 25% easy, 50% narrow down and educated guess, 25% random guess.
 
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I just finished day 2 and it was better than day 1. Day 1 I literally marked 50% of my questions. Day 2 was better but I feel like maybe 40% of the multiple choice questions were 50/50s. I finished Med school in December so I’m getting my results right after match. If I failed, I pray they don’t pull my residency offer.
 
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osprey099 said:
I just finished taking step 3 back to back and definitely feel like I failed. On the first day multiple choice, I was literally making an educated guess every 3rd question. The biostats were out of left field and there was so many basic science questions! The second day multiple choice was more like Uworld but I still made a lot of dumb mistakes. I also didn't do that well on the CCS cases, despite almost all of them ending early. In 3 of my cases, the patient's pain/symptoms were getting WORSE but when I advanced the clock by only 4 hours, the case ended WTF?? In 1 obgyn case, I had no idea what was going on and didn't know what I was doing. In another case, I intubated a patient who did not need intubation, although I fixed the patient's problem eventually. The other 8 cases went OK, fixed the problem, case ended early, but I forgot some monitoring stuff here and there.

I scored a 183 on UWSA1 5 days before the exam. Was averaging 60% on UWorld, finished entire qbank. Did anyone else feel like absolute crap after this test? I pray that I passed this test. I am a US MD and the statistics say that I have a 98% chance of passing but I am really worried that I will be in that 2% of failing, especially now that the passing score has been raised to a 198.

For reference, my step1 and step2 were in the 220s.
Click to expand...

Are we getting the result this week or not until 25th?
 
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My nbme “print permit” link is no longer available. I think that means this Wednesday for me. I took the test 2/18 and 2/19 back to back
 
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osprey099 said:
My nbme “print permit” link is no longer available. I think that means this Wednesday for me. I took the test 2/18 and 2/19 back to back
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Good for you. It means you passed :)
I wrote it on 2/17 and 2/19 too. But Still, I can see the "print permit" link! Not a good sign :((((
 
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The past 2 years have had the same score delay for Jan-Feb and both times scores have come out 1 week before the target date. I highly doubt we're getting scores this week.
 
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Actually, I was wrong. My scheduling permit is still available. I was originally looking at the wrong website. It looks like scores won’t be released until next Wednesday..
 
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osprey099 said:
Actually, I was wrong. My scheduling permit is still available. I was originally looking at the wrong website. It looks like scores won’t be released until next Wednesday..
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Just checked the website...my nbme “print permit” link is disappeared and FSMB says "expired"! I think the results come next week...
 
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My permit link expired but I have been seeing this msg after 1 week of my day 2. However. when I click on it,it takes to main portal page and doesn't take me to application page.
Does anyone has similar experience
 

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NDF1 said:
Just checked the website...my nbme “print permit” link is disappeared and FSMB says "expired"! I think the results come next week...
Click to expand...
Can you link me the correct nbme website? I don’t know which one it is. But I check my fsmb site and it now says “expired” and there is no link anywhere for me to reapply. My eligibility expiration date is 3/31/2020. I hope this means I passed!
 
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osprey099 said:
Can you link me the correct nbme website? I don’t know which one it is. But I check my fsmb site and it now says “expired” and there is no link anywhere for me to reapply. My eligibility expiration date is 3/31/2020. I hope this means I passed!
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Not sure if it means anything. The other guy was saying he had the same thing last time he failed. the nbme is this:
 
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NDF1 said:
Not sure if it means anything. The other guy was saying he had the same thing last time he failed. the nbme is this:
Click to expand...
Thank you, my print permit link disappeared too. I think I saw a post from a year ago and somebody failed even though the permit link disappeared AND fsmb expired. However, I don’t know if his eligibility period on fsmb was still active or not.
 
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Does anyone has same msg on fsmb. I am seeing this msg after 1 week of my exam. When I click on it, it takes to main page but not the application page
 

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My last day of the exam 03/03/2020 (2 weeks ago) I still see my permit and my status on fsmb does not change (approved)
 
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I definitely feel like I may have failed and as per previous posters not trusting the step 3 result trick to make myself feel better. I am thinking to start studying again.
 
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osprey099 said:
I just finished taking step 3 back to back and definitely feel like I failed. On the first day multiple choice, I was literally making an educated guess every 3rd question. The biostats were out of left field and there was so many basic science questions! The second day multiple choice was more like Uworld but I still made a lot of dumb mistakes. I also didn't do that well on the CCS cases, despite almost all of them ending early. In 3 of my cases, the patient's pain/symptoms were getting WORSE but when I advanced the clock by only 4 hours, the case ended WTF?? In 1 obgyn case, I had no idea what was going on and didn't know what I was doing. In another case, I intubated a patient who did not need intubation, although I fixed the patient's problem eventually. The other 8 cases went OK, fixed the problem, case ended early, but I forgot some monitoring stuff here and there.

I scored a 183 on UWSA1 5 days before the exam. Was averaging 60% on UWorld, finished entire qbank. Did anyone else feel like absolute crap after this test? I pray that I passed this test. I am a US MD and the statistics say that I have a 98% chance of passing but I am really worried that I will be in that 2% of failing, especially now that the passing score has been raised to a 198.

For reference, my step1 and step2 were in the 220s.
Click to expand...

I just wanted to follow up on this post for all those anxious souls who will be treading this test for years to come. I hope you find my post/experience soothing and less-anxiety provoking.

I passed with a 209! The "trick" worked for me (nbme print permit link expired and fsmb status changed from approved to expired the weekend before the score release).

For reference, both of my step 1 and step 2 were in the 220s and I am not a great test taker at all. For the multiple choice, I recalled at LEAST 40 questions wrong total and I screwed up on 4 of the CCS cases. See above for details. It also did not help that I scored a 183 on UWSA1 literally 5 days before my exam. I did about 1 month of lackidasical studying and 1 week of dedicated studying towards the end.
 
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Hi -thanks for this encouraging post. Do you remember if the Day 1 questions where all diagnosis and basic sciences and none were about management like the USMLE website says? (Foundations = day 1 and advanced clinical management = day 2)



Sent from my iPhone using SDN
 
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osprey099 said:
I just wanted to follow up on this post for all those anxious souls who will be treading this test for years to come. I hope you find my post/experience soothing and less-anxiety provoking.

I passed with a 209! The "trick" worked for me (nbme print permit link expired and fsmb status changed from approved to expired the weekend before the score release).

For reference, both of my step 1 and step 2 were in the 220s and I am not a great test taker at all. For the multiple choice, I recalled at LEAST 40 questions wrong total and I screwed up on 4 of the CCS cases. See above for details. It also did not help that I scored a 183 on UWSA1 literally 5 days before my exam. I did about 1 month of lackidasical studying and 1 week of dedicated studying towards the end.
Click to expand...
I was wondering if you remember what the screen said before the cases ended. my cases all ended pretty much as soon as the procedure i ordered was accepted, i don't think they said the patient is getting better, there were no more updates on the patient after they were admitted for procedure even though i still had monitoring labs in the background. thank you
 
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redphones said:
I was wondering if you remember what the screen said before the cases ended. my cases all ended pretty much as soon as the procedure i ordered was accepted, i don't think they said the patient is getting better, there were no more updates on the patient after they were admitted for procedure even though i still had monitoring labs in the background. thank you
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I had a case with multiple management points. I knew exactly how to manage the case and began and ordered like 20 things and it said patient is feeling much better but I knew I still had ways to go but the case ended...was like wtf. I'm also a bit perturbed because my experience has been the opposite of the trend. I felt Day 1 went far better than Day 2. I also did better on Step 1 than Step 2CK (percentile wise and even score wise). I just did not feel confident about questions on Day 2 and ran out of time on some sections (not atypical for me on Step). UW percentages in the 70s, UWSA 1 (not taken super seriously and over multiple days) of like 206. After Day 2 MCQs, I felt like I'd failed as I felt like I was semi-guessing on way more than I felt comfortable with. With Day 1, the questions had basic science on them but like I felt like you could reason through things Everyone else seems to have panicked about Day 1 MCQs or Day 2 CCS both of which I felt were tough, but though I did acceptable on.
 
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BacktotheBasics said:
I had a case with multiple management points. I knew exactly how to manage the case and began and ordered like 20 things and it said patient is feeling much better but I knew I still had ways to go but the case ended...was like wtf. I'm also a bit perturbed because my experience has been the opposite of the trend. I felt Day 1 went far better than Day 2. I also did better on Step 1 than Step 2CK (percentile wise and even score wise). I just did not feel confident about questions on Day 2 and ran out of time on some sections (not atypical for me on Step). UW percentages in the 70s, UWSA 1 (not taken super seriously and over multiple days) of like 206. After Day 2 MCQs, I felt like I'd failed as I felt like I was semi-guessing on way more than I felt comfortable with. With Day 1, the questions had basic science on them but like I felt like you could reason through things Everyone else seems to have panicked about Day 1 MCQs or Day 2 CCS both of which I felt were tough, but though I did acceptable on.
Click to expand...
Hey, I had similar experience: day 1 better than day 2!
Did you get your results?
 
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osprey099 said:
I just finished taking step 3 back to back and definitely feel like I failed. On the first day multiple choice, I was literally making an educated guess every 3rd question. The biostats were out of left field and there was so many basic science questions! The second day multiple choice was more like Uworld but I still made a lot of dumb mistakes. I also didn't do that well on the CCS cases, despite almost all of them ending early. In 3 of my cases, the patient's pain/symptoms were getting WORSE but when I advanced the clock by only 4 hours, the case ended WTF?? In 1 obgyn case, I had no idea what was going on and didn't know what I was doing. In another case, I intubated a patient who did not need intubation, although I fixed the patient's problem eventually. The other 8 cases went OK, fixed the problem, case ended early, but I forgot some monitoring stuff here and there.

I scored a 183 on UWSA1 5 days before the exam. Was averaging 60% on UWorld, finished entire qbank. Did anyone else feel like absolute crap after this test? I pray that I passed this test. I am a US MD and the statistics say that I have a 98% chance of passing but I am really worried that I will be in that 2% of failing, especially now that the passing score has been raised to a 198.

For reference, my step1 and step2 were in the 220s.
Click to expand...
Did you pass?
 
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I had a very similar experience:
UWSA 1 183 5 days prior
UWSA 2 196 2 days prior

Only took ~2 weeks of studying, maybe finished half the UW bank with 55-60% average. Did a handful of ccs cases (20 or so) with 70% average.

Got a 224 on the actual exam after losing my mind for 3 weeks thinking I failed.

Good luck everyone! Background - I’m a PGY2 general surgery resident that because of COVID during my prelim year am just now taking this thing 3 years after I graduated med school. Y’all got this!
 
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