step 3 score - thaidoc

[ArchivalUser]

Hi, docs! I have an observation about step 3 score correlation with the time people take it- before or during residency training .
There is an interesting correlation between a step 3 score and whether a person is already a resident or not. I have many of my friends who are not yet residents and who got their step 3 score 10 points lower then step 2 CK. For ex if their step 2 ck score was 92 then step 3 score was 82 , or step 2 ck is 98 then step 3 is 88 and so on. Of course it might be because they do not have that experience from residency but still its' strange. Is there anybody on the forum who took step 3 before residency and got a score the same or above step 2 ck score?
People who are already residents in USA get higher scores in general. even if they are in pathology residency which is kind of different and I'm not sure experience from that kind of residency helps a lot in step 3 exam(I laso have a friend of mine who got a step 3 score 93 step 2 ck 85 and he didn't prepare much because he was in pathology residency and didn;t have time to prepare at all).
What do you think about it?

[ArchivalUser]

Thats a very clever observation indeed. You made me think for a while and I already counted 9 friends, whose scores in Step 3 were exactly 10 points lower than their Step 2 CK scores! One thing common to all of them is lack of clinical ex. and 3 weeks of perperation. Probably, if u go with only Step 2 study material in ur brain, u can crack the exam without sweating much.
Good going thaidoc!

[ArchivalUser]

in general i feel step 3 is a much more difficult exam than step 2.that's why the score drops around 10 points.being in residency can help u pass with less amount of studying...since u are well versed with basic management...but i'm not too sure abt how much that helps in getting a great step 3 score.studying the books and solving mcqs is the key...regardless whether u've clincal experience or not.i know of 6 third year internal med residents who took the exam last year...and all got step 3 score lowerer than step 2.

it's interesting to note the drop in score by 10 points...that's pretty accurate.
my step 2 score was 97...i'll be overjoyed if i get 87 in step 3.will find out soon.within 10 days.

[ArchivalUser]

Good observations, guys. I think those residents in family practice, IM, or transitional year will probably do better during their residency, but not those in pathology, anaesthesiology, or radiology.

[ArchivalUser]

It looks like this observation makes sense. My step 2CK score was 97 and step 3 87. No USCE. Didn't do any residency. Prepared for step 3 for 2 months. Is it just 10 points down because we don't know smth we'll learn in residency? Or is the score artificially lowered because you are not a resident? I felt myself confident during step 3 exam and thought I did much better then on CK.