MS1 is MSover (almost). What will MS2 be?

Bigredmed
Thu, 12 May 2011 06:25:58 +0000

On a slightly relevant note to this thread, I found out yesterday that I passed Step 3. In comparison to what Ali has done for Step 1, the amount of “studying” done by me was minimal. Bought First Aid for Step 3, bought USMLE World Qbank and Clinical Scenario Simulator (Step 3 has this somewhat bizarre section at the end where you go through 9 cases - you basically ask for any information you need, can order any test, and start any sort of treatment and you get graded for efficiency/cost-effectiveness/appropriateness of your actions).

All told I studied maybe a maximum of 30 hours (if that) over about 6 weeks…usually in 2 or 3 hour bursts of working through questions.

The biggest problem with Step 3 is that it’s very heavy on Internal Medicine. While I scored exceptionally well on the peds questions (duh), there was so much material that I’ve long since forgotten or that I never knew in detail to begin with or that I never learned because why would I?

The old axiom in regards to studying for the USMLE was Step 1: 2 months, Step 2: 2 weeks, Step 3: Number 2 pencil.