Customer Reviews

Appleton & Lange's Review for the USMLE Step 3

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I purchased this book to review for the Step 3. I am a resident in IM. I found the book useful overall, but it lacks many subjects that I thought were important. Its Surgery and Peds sections are especially poor. It does come with 400 review questions but these are mediocre too. Plus, the explanations of the answers are sometimes poor, for example, "This is the correct answer." -- I'm not kidding. Unfortunately, there isn't much competition for Step 3 review. You might try the Pre-test series instead. Their questions are tougher (too tough in Ob/Gyn) but more comprehensive.

A&L do publish individual question books that have pretty good questions. But THESE are dreadful. They are not at all representative of the style, distribution, or difficulty of the questions on the actual test. So why bother? You don't need to be this desperate: the test isn't that hard. Have you ever heard of the "rule of twos"? . . for Step I, two weeks; for Step II, two days; and for Step III, a number 2 pencil! I did something like that (2 months, 2 weeks, and 2 days) and I did particularly "well". But the point is, I scored EXACTLY the same on all three parts! So get a copy of "Ace the Boards" and maybe Swanson's book, and go get some exercise; it's good for the brain! (Unless you've never practiced in the US; then I'd sign up for a Board Review Course like the one offered by NMSR) Good luck!

Although not representative of Step III's degree of difficulty, this book is a good way to practice for the exam especially for the lack of better sample tests for Step III. I used the 1997 edition, watch for the 2000 edition for updates.