FAQ

“Archer CCS strategies and workshops” have carved a unique niche in USMLE test prep over last 12 years and have become the trusted choice for thousands of Step3 students. This is because Archer has been regarded as the best in completely exploiting CCS-focused approach to easily pass on USMLE Step3. With this strategic approach, several students including those with prior multiple attempts have been able to pass Step3. There is no other workshop or a course or a software that goes over and demonstrates the strategy on the “actual” exam software. The tricks discussed in Archer are crucial to get highest score on CCS and reduce burden placed on your MCQ performance.

This strategies have not been able to be replicated by any other workshops. There are other CCS workshops on the market from review organizations like Kaplan, and other. Those workshops are not longer than three hours and for that reason, not many CCS cases are covered in these courses from other organizations.

Also, those other reviews require you to attend their workshop in person. Typically, you will need to travel to another place to attend this workshop which is not only expensive but also uncomfortable. To our knowledge, we are the first to introduce these unique online, interactive and live courses for step3, which not only improves the flexibility but also reduces the travel costs and time consumption. Our workshops are lengthy, packed with information and extend up to 12 hours and covers maximum number of cases and strategies required to excel on the CCS.

Most importantly, at CCS Workshop, we are not just commercial, we also care a lot about our attendees and take personal interest. Our physicians will be available to clear your doubts until your exam either by phone or by e-mail. That’s the secret behind our 99% pass rate for those who complete all the 3 steps and get highs on four consecutive assessments..

CCS is extremely important to pass Step3. If you have taken the exam before, we recommend you to look at your performance bar on CCS. Do not think that you did well on CCS if your bar is touching the borderline. Your CCS performance bar should be on the right side and should not touch the borderline. This will relieve you of the MCQ burden. Please see our analysis under “About us” to get a better idea on how important the CCS is.

No. Not for Step3. Our analysis of our previous students suggested that NBME performance that correlated with “PASS” on step3 has varied widely from 250 to 500. The reason is that NBME does not account for CCS. So, even if your score is on the lower side on NBME practice you can still pass the test if you did extremely well on the CCS.

Following Archer Reviews’ incorporation in 2008, we have taught about 1000 students over last three years via. Step3 full length review course for 40 hours. 100% of them have passed. Most significant improvement has been on the CCS section. Now, after launching our unique CCS Workshop in 2008, we have trained more than 55000 Step3 aspirants over last 12 years. We still find that attendees who did very well on the CCS component passed this exam with ease. Attendees who had multiple attempts in the past have been able to pass after implementing Archer’s strategic approach to CCS and Theory.

Commercially available third party CCS practice software are not the exact replica of “exam step3 software”. You can download Step 3 exam software from official USMLE website. Archer uses this exact software to teach you the strategy and to demonstrate to you several highyield case scenarios. Since the third-party software like the competitors do not use exact exam software, several assumptions are made with regard to order times, case sequence, scoring etc. Some of the scoring allotted on third-party software focuses heavily on things that could be really detrimental to time management on the real exam.

For example: Some third party software puts heavy reliance on screening tests/ counseling etc and gives score to it making you think these are crucial for the actual case management. On the exam, scoring is given mostly for the active problem management and managing active problems follow up on 2 min case-end screen. You are not expected to put screening orders etc when active problem needs to be addressed quickly in the limited time you have got. Seven years ago, exam had 5 min case ending screen on USMLE. At that point, students were entering all vaccines and all counseling for every case as directed by some dubious third-party software. This 5-min screen was removed by USMLE authorities and they made the end screen 2 mins so you focus on the active problem only. On 2 min screen, you literally have very less time. This time is best user to set up follow up tests for the current active case. Current active problem will have follow up monitoring such as monitoring toxic effects or efficacy of drugs or other interventions which will be scored as they are pertinent to the current case. Things like screening colonoscopy at a later date and vaccines at a later date on 2 min screen must only be added. So we recommend practicing on actual exam software by using Archer strategies that have been are monitored by real instructor not by artificial software that gives dubious scoring to certain attributes.

Archer will teach you in real time by showing you strategies and then applying those strategies on actual exam software to many highyield case scenarios. Unlike with third-party practice software,you are not left alone to figure out the strategy but guided step-by-step and shown what exactly works and this has proved right time and again based on our decade long successful approach.

With Archer, you will pick up great speed and efficiency in managing the actual exam software and also understand how real exam software responds to your input. For example, with Archer, you are taught how to swim first ( instructor teaches you thoroughly) and then thrown in to ocean to do it yourself ( practice). With a 3rd party software like ccscases.com , you are thrown in to ocean directly without being taught how to swim. This is the reason why many people fail CCS despite thorough practice on 3rd party software.

You need to have a computer, a long distance telephone connection and an internet connection. If you do not want to use a telephone, you can use your computer’s microphone. Those who can not attend live sessions, can do our PPV which is most widely subscribed by Step3 students.

Certainly! You are encouraged to talk with us during the conference, share your opinions and ask questions. You are also encouraged to share your opinions with other students in the workshop

You can talk on your phone or over VOIP (Voice Over Internet Phone, which uses your computer’s microphone) and everyone in the workshop including us will hear you. If you wish to use the telephone, you will be provided with a phone number along with the meeting code which will connect you to the conference call.

Usually 25 to 40 students.

If you volunteer, you will get your chance to practice. But we recommend watching others practice too because we will be guiding them through out their practice which will help you gather important details.

This is the greatest advantage of our unique CCS workshop. As you enter the WEBINAR meeting, we will give you the controls to work on our desktop. You can type, move your patient and do whatever you like on our desktop.v

USMLE permits you to use their software for your own exam preparation or practice. When you enroll in the CCS Workshop, we understand that you are registered or planning to register for USMLE Step3 and would like to master the exam software to improve your skills to ace this exam. As a prospective Step3 exam taker, you can ask us several questions you might have in navigating the software that you have downloaded. You may wish to practice the same cases provided on the primum software or you can also request us to present you surprise mock cases and to encourage you to put different orders on the software. As the software navigates, you will get the feedback prompts from us and you will change your case approach depending on the results and findings of the case that we will provide you.

About 12 to 15 very important CCS cases will be practiced. However, it depends on number of students. The more the number of candidates, the more the cases practiced.

Full length Live step3 rigorous review course for MCQ preperation, covering highyield topics in IM, OBGYN, Pediatrics, Psychiatry, surgery and Preventive medicine. The past success rate for this full length course has been close to 100%. Our experienced physicians will schedule 2 to 3 hour sessions each day with you as per your convenience and teach you live online via. powerpoint presentations. Typically full length course lasts for 2 to 3 weeks. For further details on this full length LIVE review course please e-mail us at support@archerreview.com .

These full length courses have been in high demand because most of our CCS Workshop attendees were so impressed with the teaching that number of people signed-up for these courses. Because of the high demand and shortage of the teaching physicians there might be people who may not be able to sign-up for these courses. For those students and also to make the reviews more affordable, we have included all the topic-wise lectures as streaming packages of Rapid reviews – full length or topic-wise – for example, you can choose to sign up only for Nephrology lectures, cardiology lecture etc each typically lasting for three to four hours at a time. These are available as Theory Step3 Review courses

Please see “Testimonials” page. Other contact information of our previous attendees will be provided to you only if they permit us to do so. If they permit us, you can directly contact them and get an honest feedback.

We have launched the CCS Workshop about 12 years ago. So far, we have trained about 55000 step-3 takers in a span of 12 years. Most of them have received their results and some of them e-mailed us that they passed. In early days after launch, out of 1200 people that e-mailed us back, only twenty failed – that translates in to 99% pass rate for those who complete all the 3 steps and get highs on four consecutive assessments and 100% of them reported that their CCS performance bar was way higher than the MCQ component. People who took our live topic reviews reported that they did particularly did particularly well with high performance bars on those topics!

Our theory live lectures and Rapid reviews together have reached about 55000 Step 3 examinees. All study material was e-mailed in PPT format. 100% of the Rapid review attendees opined that these are very detailed and highyield lectures and about 95% of our attendees felt that they do not need to follow any other review materials to pass this exam.

No. Our sessions are live and cannot be recorded or reproduced or distributed in any other format with out our written permission. Our sessions include powerpoint presentations and live voice. Recording our sessions constitute violation of our copyrights. The powerpoint slides will be e-mailed to you after each session. We also recommend taking notes during the live sessions. If you still have exam queries after the lectures, we encourage you to contact us by e-mail and we will be very happy to give you guidance on the strategies to pass this exam. This will be free of cost! Our job is to drive you towards success on the exam!

Pay-Per-View system allows you to access the streaming video lectures online at your convenience and watch them at your home on your own desktop. You may purchase the full length course or topic-wise access.

Archer review is the most affordable and most comprehensive, concept-oriented USMLE Step 3 Review. As per our attendees, Archer is the best available review for USMLE Step 3. Our customer satisfaction surveys have proved this fact time and again.

Archer is the least expensive USMLE Step 3 review in the market. Archer full length review is priced at $245 which is less than 1/4th the cost of many other reviews.

With in just 3 years of inception, Archer reached more than 15000 physicians and then went on to move ahead. About 2 years ago, Archer launched Q-bank which is now being improved much more so it can be criterion standard for Step 3 while keep the price very cheap. This huge success speaks of Archer’s popularity and high rates of customer satisfaction.

Archer review shares more than just a commercial relationship with the students. Archer takes personal interest in helping students to reach their goal. Most of our students consider Archer as a great mentor as well as a well-wisher. Hence, several of them joined our social media groups and have remained friends for long. Archer’s social groups include those on Twitter, LinkedIn and the Facebook We encourage you to obtain a candid direct feedback from Archer’s previous attendees by joining “Archer Facebook group” .A huge number of 300,000 medical students/ residents/ physicians follow our page. Several high-yield questions are posted by our physicians on Archer Facebook wall almost daily and these serve as unique free teaching tools to our customers. Also, you can post your subject related queries on Archer’s FaceBook wall where you can get answers to your queries directly from our experienced physicians.

These streaming video lectures are the recordings of our live webinar sessions. These are exactly similar to our live review in that you can see both the powerpoint presentation ( a capture of the instructor’s desktop screen) as well as listen to the audio in conjunction with the powerpoint presentation. This eliminates the need for looking at a hand out or notes while listening to the lecture as you can directly see the powerpoint running on your screen.

Yes, you will be provided with relevant Archer USMLE Step 3 notes by e-mail once you purchase the streaming video for a particular topic or for the entire review.

Pay-per-view – streaming courses are much cheaper than live review and offer same content.

Live review needs to be attended at a designated time. Pay-per-view can be watched at your convenience. In Pay-Per-View, you can pause and listen to a particular portion again. You can also listen to the same lecture almost one and half times with the “watch time” that we currently provide.

During the live review, you can directly ask questions and talk with the instructor. There is no such possibility via. Pay-Per-View. However, you may send us questions by e-mail and our instructor will try and answer them in about 3 days. PPV lectures are non-refundable given the nature of extremely highyield material covered in almost every file.

Watch time is the amount time you are provided to watch the lecture. You are approximately provided with a watch time that is 50% greater than the length of the review. This allows to rewind and replay certain portions of the lecture if you wish. Watch time will not expire when you exit the lecture. Any unused watch time will be stored in your account and you can use it on an other day. When you resume the lecture, make sure to forward the player to the point where you left off. You can also replay the previous session as long as you have sufficient watch time in your account. For each lecture, you will be provided with the duration of the lecture and the “Watch time” when you begin. Pausing the lecture does not count in watch time. You can log off and log in whenever you want.

The Watch time for the full Archer Theory Review course will expire if unused in “Two months” of purchasing a full length course. The Watch time for the Full length CCS Workshops will expire in one month after the date of purchase. The “Watch time” will expire if unused in “two weeks” after subscribing to a “Topic Review”. However, if you have special requirements, you can request us to extend the expiry date.

These are MP4 files and are fully compatible with both MAC and Windows PC. No special software or Codec is needed. Once you log in to your account, please click on “access content” button and the video opens up. To view in full screen , choose full screen option on your player. To rewind and fast forward, minimize the window and use the appropriate buttons on your player to move backwards or forwards .

Dial-Up connections are fine but broad band connection is preferred for uninterrupted access.