Alternatively, if you are going into a subspecialty with a more general focus, such as internal medicine or emergency medicine, your daily practice will contribute to your knowledge base for the exam, and you may only require several weeks to familiarize yourself with the material and the cases. For these specialties, you may want to spend closer to 2 months reviewing questions to ensure you refresh your memory on the content. As a result, you will likely require more time to prepare for the exam the further into residency you progress. Thus, if you enter into a highly subspecialized field, it is likely this knowledge will quickly be replaced throughout residency with content more relevant to your field of choice. Remember that the USMLE Step 3 exam is a general licensing examination, meaning it will be covering content from every one of your clerkships. USMLE Step 3 Passing Score & What To Do If You Don’t Make It What Subspecialty Are You Going Into? ![]() Finally, it is important to complete the Step 3 practice cases provided by the USMLE, which allows you to complete cases in the virtual testing environment that you will encounter on test day. Remember that the Uworld Step 3 question bank contains over 1000 questions and over 40 clinical cases, thus you will need to distribute these over time to ensure all the material is reviewed. If possible, using an elective block to study the two weeks leading into the exam is recommended. In that case, most students spend between 4-8 weeks preparing, with the goal to complete the UWorld question bank and familiarize themselves with the clinical cases. If you must take the exam by the end of your intern year, as many medical residents are advised, it is unlikely you will have substantial dedicated time to study for the exam. Overall, given the substantial overlap between Step 2 and Step 3, it is recommended to take the exams as close together if possible. Per the USMLE, it must be passed within 5 years of Step or Level 2 or before the end of residency training, though many residencies require it be taken earlier in training. Remember that Step 3 is an examination that can be taken at the end of medical school throughout the first few years of residency, and as a result, the time available to prepare varies wildly. When deciding how much time your should set aside to prepare for the USMLE Step 3, it is important to consider the numerous contributing factors which will influence your performance come test day. ![]() As a 2-day exam with 232 multiple choice questions on day 1, 180 multiple choice questions on day 2, and 13 clinical case simulations, it builds heavily off the knowledge you gained on prior exams with a lean towards clinical practice. However, Step 3 is not an exam to be taken lightly. Once Step 1 and Step 2 are traversed, residency is on the horizon and the idea of further examination preparation can be unsavory. ![]() When entering medical school, the thought of impending USMLE exams looms over the preclinical and clinical years.
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