USMLE Step 3 Tutor

The Boards Professor is led by Dr. Shauhin “Sean” Moazezi, DO, a board-certified internist. Our USMLE Step 3 tutoring is one-on-one, online by live video (Zoom or Google Meet), with a study schedule built around your test date and your life.

Updated November 2, 2026 · The Boards Professor, founded by Dr. Sean Moazezi, DO.

What Step 3 tutoring looks like

• A Step 3 plan that fits around residency shifts and your weakest areas, with weekly accountability.
• CCS practice and NBME scores tracked, so we change course as soon as the numbers move.
• A single dashboard for your scores, trends and resources.

Step 3 preparation with us is built around practice questions and practice tests. In our USMLE tutoring sessions we focus on your weak areas and the high-yield topics behind them. We also build test-taking strategies for both exam days, and sessions adapt to your learning style.

Who we tutor

• Residents fitting Step 3 around call schedules and rotations
• International medical graduates taking Step 3 on the way to licensure
• Physicians retesting after a Step 3 attempt that did not go to plan

Dr. Sean Moazezi speaks French, Persian, Portuguese, Spanish and Telugu. Repeat Step 3 takers are a large share of the residents we see.

How Step 3 is set up

USMLE describes Step 3 as a two-day examination with multiple-choice questions and computer-based case simulations (Step 3 exam format and content).

Day 1: Foundations of Independent Practice

• You answer 232 multiple-choice questions, split into 12 blocks of 18 to 20, and each block gets 30 minutes.
• Plan on roughly 7 hours at the testing center, 55 minutes of it break time.
• Emphasis on foundational sciences, biostatistics, epidemiology and medical literature interpretation. Also on social sciences, communication, ethics, patient safety, and the fundamentals of clinical diagnosis and management.

Day 2: Advanced Clinical Medicine

• 180 multiple-choice items divided into 9 blocks of 20 items.
• 13 to 14 case simulations, each allotted a maximum of 10 or 20 minutes.
• These are the CCS cases, short for computer-based case simulations. A 6-minute CCS tutorial runs on day 2 before the cases.
• Day 2 runs about 9 hours, with at least 45 minutes set aside for breaks.
• Emphasis on applying comprehensive knowledge of health and disease to patient management. That includes prognosis, health maintenance, therapeutics and medical decision-making.

How Step 3 is scored. USMLE gives a recommended pass/fail result. Your performance on the case simulations affects your Step 3 score and could affect whether you pass or fail (USMLE scoring and score reporting).

Check the official USMLE page before you book, because format details get revised.

Step 3 attempt rules for residents

Step 3 is usually taken during residency, when time to retest is scarce, so the attempt rules matter more here than anywhere else in the sequence.

• Three Step 3 attempts at most in any 12-month window.
• A fourth try has to wait: twelve months from your first Step 3 attempt and six months from your latest one.
• Four Step 3 attempts without a pass, counting incomplete ones, ends eligibility for every USMLE Step.
• A passed Step 3 cannot be retaken, unless a U.S. licensing authority requires it to meet a time limit.

Source: the USMLE eligibility requirements. USMLE updates these rules from time to time; read the current Bulletin before you book a Step 3 date.

What Step 3 covers

USMLE publishes Step 3 content as percentage ranges by system and content area, and by physician task, and notes that percentages are subject to change at any time (USMLE Step 3 content outline).

By system or content area

System or content area	Range
Biostatistics & Epidemiology/Population Health & Interpretation of the Medical Literature	11–13
Cardiovascular System	9–11
Nervous System & Special Senses	8–10
Respiratory System	8–10
Social Sciences: Communication Skills/Ethics/Patient Safety	7–9
Pregnancy/Childbirth & Female Reproductive System & Breast	7–9
Immune System, Blood & Lymphoreticular System, and Multisystem Processes/Disorders	6–8
Gastrointestinal System	6–8
Musculoskeletal System	5–7
Endocrine System	5–7
Behavioral Health	4–6
Skin & Subcutaneous Tissue	4–6
Renal/Urinary & Male Reproductive Systems	4–6
Human Development	1–3

By physician task or competency

Competency	Range
Patient Care: Diagnosis	33–36
Patient Care: Management	32–35
Medical Knowledge: Applying Foundational Science Concepts	11–12
Practice-based Learning & Improvement	11–13
Communication / Professionalism / Systems-based Practice & Patient Safety	7–9

USMLE lists the same ranges for the multiple-choice questions on day 1 (Foundations of Independent Practice) and day 2 (Advanced Clinical Medicine). On day 2 the last row is labelled Communication and Professionalism. USMLE also names three sites of care: ambulatory, inpatient facilities and the emergency department, without percentage ranges.

The largest system range is Biostatistics & Epidemiology/Population Health & Interpretation of the Medical Literature (11–13%), followed by the Cardiovascular System (9–11%). Step 3 weights patient management heavily: diagnosis (33–36%) and management (32–35%) together make up the bulk of the physician-task view.

Step 3 passing score and what is changing

For Step 3 exams given on or after January 1, 2024, USMLE's minimum passing score is 200 (USMLE, results and scoring). USMLE says its Management Committee will review the Step 3 passing standard in November 2026, and any change would apply to exams on or after January 1, 2027 (USMLE, Step 3 standard review). If you plan to test in 2027, check that page before you book.

Step 3 is the final exam in the USMLE sequence, and most people take it during residency. We plan around call schedules with short sessions on heavy weeks and longer review on lighter ones, and we treat each attempt carefully because attempts are limited: USMLE allows no more than three attempts at the same Step within 12 months; a fourth attempt must be at least 12 months after the first and six months after the most recent, and four attempts without a pass ends eligibility for every Step (USMLE, eligibility).

Step 3 pass rates

Most first-time takers pass Step 3, and repeat takers do markedly worse, so the attempt you are preparing for matters (USMLE performance data):

USMLE Step 3, 2025 testing year. Checked October 28, 2026.

Examinees	Tested, 2025	Passed
US MD school, first takers	21,589	96%
US MD school, repeaters	910	77%
US DO school, first takers	129	97%
Non-US school, first takers	12,480	88%
Non-US school, repeaters	1,824	63%

If an attempt has already gone wrong, our failed Step 3 guide covers the retake rules and a sample plan for working residents.

Practice tests and CCS cases for Step 3

NBME's Comprehensive Clinical Medicine Self-Assessment is the official scored practice test for Step 3: 200 questions in four sections of 50, $62 a form, in several forms (NBME CCMSA). USMLE adds a free Step 3 interactive testing experience with practice CCS cases and more than 100 sample questions (USMLE Step 3 practice materials).

• Early: a timed baseline block and the free USMLE CCS cases, so the case software holds no surprises.
• Midway: a CCMSA form under exam timing, then a plan change based on the content areas it flags.
• Last two weeks: a second CCMSA form and a full run of CCS cases on a day off, at Day 2 pace.

Sean prefers NBME's forms to commercial self-assessments, UWorld's included, as the checkpoint that decides whether a test date holds. Format details for both days are on our Step 3 format guide, and a sample week-by-week plan is in the Step 3 study plan.

Who tutors Step 3

Step 3 is our busiest exam: in October 2026 about four in five of Sean's students were preparing for it. Four tutors teach it:

• Dr. Shauhin “Sean” Moazezi, DO, a board-certified internist who works with residents and writes Step 3 questions himself, so he teaches you to spot the clues a question writer plants.
• Dr. David Wadie, DO, chief cardiology fellow and board-certified internist, who has sat COMLEX, the USMLE and the internal medicine boards.
• Alexandra Llovet, an MD/PhD student in epidemiology, for the biostatistics and literature questions that carry 11 to 13% of the exam.
• Dr. Sahith Valluru, who builds the week-by-week plan and keeps it on track around rotations.

What Step 3 tutoring costs

One-on-one Step 3 tutoring is $349 per 50-minute session by live video (Zoom or Google Meet), or 10 classes for $2,999 and 15 for $3,999 (pricing details). It starts with a free intro consult, a 20-minute phone call. Sessions fit around call, including evenings and Sundays, and a scribe writes up each one so a post-call session is not lost.