Passed

As many of you will remember from a mere two posts ago, I recently took my USMLE Step 3. The longest and final of the United States Medical Licensing Examinations.

Well as my subject/header would imply, I passed. And not only did I pass, but it was my highest USMLE score yet. Not that this is a surprise, Step 3 is often the highest score of the three. I think this is because as we march through the Steps the information shifts from being information you learn from studying to information you learn from your everyday work. Studying for Step 1 is kind of an option. Studying for Step 3 is called Residency. Not an option. It also has a lot to do with relevancy of the information. As medical science has grown... no wait, exploded is a better word, doctors have been expected to learn more and more minutiae about various mechanisms of pathology, physiology, pharmacology. We now understand things on a molecular level. Doctors 50 years ago didn't have to worry about that as much. And as important and amazing as these discoveries are, they are really really hard to memorize. For one, they are incredibly complex and second they conceptually hold little connection with the visual, visceral, real world medicine that we practice every day. Of course I know they are connected. But applying that is so tertiary that it becomes an exercise in testing and memorization.

Whereas in Step 2, and even more in Step 3 I am asked to practically apply what I have learned about Dr - Patient medicine, rather than some academic concept, or biochemical mechanism.

The incentive is easier to understand. And as we all know, effort and performance directly follow incentive.

Anyway. I passed. Yay me! Now time to go to work.


Stay Healthy.