USMLE Step III Exam (Day 2) Computer-Based Simulations - Overview

The USMLE Step III Exam, in addition to a series of multiple-choice questions related to the general principles of medicine and the various diseases and disorders that can affect each system of the body and the body as a whole, includes a series of computer-based patient simulations. These simulations are administered using a computer-based case simulation (CCS) program created by Primum. The CCS program will present the exam-taker with a series of approximately 9 different simulations and the individual will be expected to care for a single simulated patient during each simulation. Each simulation will provide the exam-taker with information about why the patient is seeing the doctor, the patient's appearance, the patient's current status, the patient's life signs, and the patient's history. In order to successfully complete each simulation, the individual taking the exam must effectively manage the patient's care as the patient's condition changes during the simulation. Even though a large amount of time may be simulated in a particular simulation, the exam-taker is only allowed a certain amount of real time to complete each case. The exact amount of time necessary to complete each simulation varies depending on the difficulty of the patient's care, but the individual taking the exam will never be allowed more than 25 minutes to complete each simulation.

During each patient case simulation, the individual taking the exam will be expected to request or offer advice, consultations, partial or complete physical examinations, nursing orders, procedures, tests, and therapies as would be necessary if the simulated patient were actually a real patient. However, unlike with a real patient, the exam-taker does not actually have to wait a significant amount of real time for the results of any tests that he or she requests as the exam-taker has the ability to speed up the time taking place in the simulation to a point where the test results would be available. The exam-taker must use the information provided by the simulation and a combination of the appropriate examinations, procedures, tests, and other methods to care for the patient and make a final diagnosis in order to successfully complete each simulation.