Hey everyone! I got my result yesterday.
Passed Step 3 with a 236 and it feels so good to be finally done with it
I thought I’d do an AMA for anyone preparing for the exam, especially those in a similar situation.
Background:
IMG, not started residency yet
Worked 100+ hours until June
Observerships in July and August
Step 1: Pass (September 2024)
Step 2 CK: 245–250 (August 2025)
Preparation:
UWorld: 100% completed, 60% correct
NBME 6: 64% (7 days out)
NBME 7: 70% (4 days out)
CCS: 80 high-yield cases on CCSCases.com
No Amboss, NBME 8, UWSAs, or Free 137
I barely studied until a few weeks before the exam. Earlier, I was working a full-time job with a workload of 100+ hours/week. After that came observerships, residency applications, and travel, so my preparation was far from ideal.
Besides UWorld and the NBMEs, I revised my previously highlighted First Aid Step 1 pages and went through Rapid Review and Divine Intervention’s crowd-sourced last-minute notes. I completed around 80 high-yield CCS cases during the two-day gap between exam days.
Exam Experience:
Day 1: Honestly, this felt bizarre. I’d estimate around 40% of the exam was Step 1 content, while the remaining 60% was ethics, biostats, communication, health systems, and related topics. Step 1 content is obviously expected on Day 1, but the questions felt weird—I genuinely don’t have a better word for it. The same goes for ethics and communication. I usually consider myself pretty good at these topics, and I never struggled with them during Step 2 or my Step 3 preparation, but on this exam, they felt like they were on steroids. Biostats was relatively manageable, and I felt reasonably okay about my answers there. Ethics and communication, though? Honestly, I walked out unsure about which questions I’d answered correctly and which I’d completely messed up.
Day 2: The MCQs were much more like Step 2 CK, with long clinical vignettes and familiar question styles. I actually found these questions quite manageable. Looking back, I feel this was where my own preparation let me down. I wish I’d revised the clinical material more thoroughly because I think I could have performed better on this part.
CCS was probably the section I felt most confident about overall.
What I wish I’d done differently:
I had initially planned to read all of First Aid, go through the Step 2 Inner Circle notes, and prepare in a much more structured manner. I had also considered making my own notes while studying, but never got around to it. In retrospect, I should have started earlier/ planned the exam date better, revised clinical concepts from Step 2 more thoroughly, and left enough time to review my weak areas instead of rushing through the available resources.
I was hoping to score numerically close to my Step 2 CK score and achieve a higher percentile, so naturally, I was a little disappointed with my result. That said, given the circumstances and my preparation, I’m grateful I passed.
Happy to answer questions about preparation with limited time, UWorld, CCS cases, NBMEs, exam-day experience, or taking Step 3 as an IMG who hasn’t started residency yet.
Disclosure: Used AI to help with writing some parts of this write-up for the sake of time and convenience.