The real CCS software was so slow on test day!
We have gotten reports that there have been lags/slow downs/delays on the real test during the CCS portion of the USMLE Step 3 at certain testing centers in the United States. This is an unfortunate event, and there is not much that can be done about this. It is the luck of the draw whether a testing site’s Internet connection to the USMLE servers are fast that day or if there is a lag. It tends to be testing site specific, though if the USMLE servers are slow that particular day, all of the Prometric sites would be slow as well. Meaning that if the Prometric Internet is slow, it is test site specific, but if USMLE servers are slow, then it would not be site specific.
We have also received reports that there can be extra lag time when making the real software do a search for an order. For example, if you were to type in the partial name of an order such as “hydro” instead of “Hydrochlorothiazide” then this would take additional time to return the list of possible options matching “hydro.” Other than hoping for a good day where there isn’t a delay or lag on the test, if you are very concerned about the lag time / delay on the real test affecting your performance, we recommend that you practice with a lag on the test to get used to it. We have this option available to slow down the program and intentionally lag / delay results after each interaction.
You can try out our lag time / delay feature in our program for free with the link below.
If you’d like to try out our program, you can download two free cases here.
Hope this information is helpful. Thanks for reading and happy studying on your test.