Not a good story ending after all...Failed - fascia

[ArchivalUser]

Hello fellow step 3ers. I just wanted to post and let the people that I have been corresponding with that I did not pass my exam. I want to thank everyone who has helped me on here at the same time. There are a lot of good people on here.

Even though I did not pass, I am still grateful.

I feel like giving up but I know that is not and will not be an option.

Any advice on what to and how to study would be greatly appreciated. I studied for a good four months but obviously that did not help. I studied UW bank of questions twioe, Premier Review Notes and audio, UW CCS and MTB.

Please help as this is a difficult time for me.

Regards,
Fascia

[ArchivalUser]

Hey fascia,i am so sorry to hear this.You were very helpful to everyone on the forum and to me especially.I think you need to revise your notes again and try to get clearer concepts as a whole.I haven't started practicing CCS cases so may not be able to give you any input on that.Wish you all the best.

[ArchivalUser]

Thank you very much mos11

[ArchivalUser]

Dear Facsia,

Don't give up. I totally understand how you feel now, it hurts a lot.

As Meti said, this exam is unpredictable. The problem is we don't know where the easy questions are, we shouldn't waste time reading the questions which we are not familiar with, otherwise you miss reaching the easy questions in each block.

I've failed twice too, last yr with 73, after studying (part-time) for almost 6 mos, failed for second time with 71 a few months ago. I panicked in second time. My CCS was very high in first time, although I killed 2 pats but in second time my CCS dropped 2 stars, however, I didn't kill any PTs, but I ordered too many tests and made a few stupid mistakes because of panic attack, such as ordering glucose in DKA (confused between hyperkalemia and DKA), nonetheless, this PTs got better.

Just read Meti's ( regarding Swanson), Cafe, Sami, Lacross and the others's suggestion.

I am sitting for my exam in almost 2.5 mons. Maybe, we are helping the US economy by registering many times. ECFMG learnt to make money by CS exam

This exam depends on luck a lot. Just, rest a couple of WKs and review your notes and buy UW ccs. Give it a shot again.

[ArchivalUser]

starbucks thanks for sharing your story,

I don't understand how performance can be worse the second time around when more studying went into it? It has really undermined my confidence .. has this impacted your interviews?

[ArchivalUser]

Stress has an important role in exam, I was more stressed out in second time. I don't have any interviews, I just want to close the USMLEs, I might be headstrong. Also, my credentials are not good.

[ArchivalUser]

I was more stressed on the first and I did better, the second I took a propanolol in advance, and was a bit more relaxed, or as relaxed as can be with those witches wasting my time on a fingerprinting machine that they had apparently purchased at toys are us that I had to limit any breaks to just simply closing my eyes between blocks for a minute. my 9 ccs cases I thought went well, but for some reason scored similar to the first time where I screwed up 5 of them, so I don't understand how they are rated, I mean this time I got the diagnosis and proper workup for 8 out of the 9 cases..

I often wonder how folks simply score 99.. I labored with all my steps with the exception of CS and got barely adequate grades..

step III failure defintely looks bad, I mean I am not sure how much worse it can get but it is bad =( considering the very high pass rate overall

[ArchivalUser]

Hello starbucks7 and aridane. thank you for sharing your experiences.

What are you guys studying after failing? Any suggestions on what to do and how much time to give myself for this time around?

Are there any chances of getting into residency with have step 3 failure? i'm very depressed about this.

[ArchivalUser]

I googled some new material today and decided to go with premiere review (have already tried archer and kaplan) kaplan was an absolute waste btw just the protracted form of step II except maybe the surgery videos were a little better but wrong in some respects, premiere was steep but I just don't want to fall off the bandwagon.. the only thing I am not sure about is what Q bank, as stated in my thread 'failed' that I have done most Q banks and NBME which gave me the impression that I am good to go, so I am baffled with his to approach this now.

NBME 410
usmleworld 58
Kaplan 60
NMS 72

so I am at a loss in that respect..

I had a horrible tirade with a program coordinator today who basically told me my chances of matching anywhere are slim to nill.. last year sans step 3 I had three interviews, (I didn't match) wanted to make myself more attractive by doing research and taking step III neither which seem to have paid off, I'll go so far to say I screwed myself beyond fixing =(

[ArchivalUser]

aridane i'm in the exact same position as you. i took step 3 because i wanted to make my application more attractive. i didn't realize i was hurting myself. i really don't know what do to.

i bought premier review and i still failed. maybe we can share. fascia25