Frequently Asked Questions
Answers to common questions about CCS Cases.
Yes, we have released a way to schedule your activation date up to 90 days in advance of purchase. If you do not select this option, then your subscription will begin at the time of purchase.
No. We do not wish to police this. Things happen, so we tell you before you purchase to purchase more time than you think you need in case something like this happens.
Unfortunately, not. Once your subscription has started at the time of purchase, you cannot pause a subscription.
No, we do not offer discounts. Our prices are the same for everyone.
No, we try to keep prices low, so we do not have any group discounts.
This means you have 2 min to cancel any current orders or schedule any future orders, but you cannot do a physical exam or advance the clock.
Interval/follow-up simply asks the patient “How are you doing?”
No, CCS Cards now requires an Internet connection to use.
How to clear your cache:
Please goto https://cards.ccscases.com
Clear your cache by right clicking on the screen and clicking “inspect.”
Click on the Arrows and click “Application”
Now Click on Clear Site data.
This means that you got a pop-up boxe saying “The patient is feeling worse” or some negative patient update prior to initiating the correct treatment. You will be penalized on our program and the USMLE for this.
No, the price between a new subscription and an extension is the same. The only difference is that with an extension, you keep your prior data from your previous subscription.
The default user interface is our modern user interface. If you went to your account settings and turned off the Modern Case Selector, this would be what you would see. To change to our modern user interface, goto your account settings and turn on the Modern Case Selector.
No, this as stated in the product description, you cannot change your subscription length once purchased. You cannot change your mind and switch from a 2 week to a 1 month or a 1 month to a 3 month, etc. If you wish to extend after purchasing a subscription, you will need to purchase a new subscription at the original price.
Allowing users to change subscriptions at will would defeat the purpose of allowing discounted rates for longer subscriptions.
No. As with most subscriptions, when you purchase a subscription, this gives you access to the service. If you purchase an Amazon Prime subscription, Netflix, or Spotify subscription, you would not get a refund if you did not order anything from Amazon, watch any movies, or listen to any music. Likewise, it is up to you how much you use your subscription or if you use it at all. As it is likely obvious, we recommend you waiting to purchase until you are ready to use your subscription.
All subscriptions purchases are in US Dollars (USD).
Costs continue to rise for us. We do not wish to raise prices (but we may have to). We cannot offer discounts/free subscriptions.
This feature is built into the program.
This is already built into the program. Click "Show Case Diagnosis" and then you can click the "Average Grade" which will sort the list by your performance.
A blue shading in the grading sheet means that this is an optional order. It will look something like this:
Some people will be upset that it will be marked blue even if they order it thinking that if they ordered this it will be marked as green. The program will mark this order as blue whether it is ordered or not. The point of the blue is to point out that this lab result would be abnormal or to draw attention to the order as a good idea to order which may or may not get points on the USMLE.
Yes, we have been told that UWorld CCS does not provide this feature, but our program has the multi-select feature which is what you will see on the USMLE.
Yes. We have a 1 day, 3 day, and a 7 day subscription.
We get this question nearly everyday. 99% of the time a different order was ordered such as ordering a urine order instead of a serum order. Sometimes to get credit multiple orders are required such as antibiotics. Please look at your log and compare to the grading sheet. In the description, it will tell you if multiple orders are required. If you are absolutely sure, you can email us, and we will look at your log. Please include which case you are referring to and what you feel is not being picked up.
No, we do not give partial refunds for unused time.
Yes. We have introduced a new feature in the modern user interface called "tags." You can search and select the topic you want to study, and it will filter all of the cases for you that match the topic.
The subscription starts at the time of purchase unless you have selected the option to activate your subscription at a later date (up to 90 days).
Yes, we have both a 1 week and a 2 week subscription.
Unfortunately Not. On our purchase page we put the following: There are no discounts for extensions, so purchase the time that you need. There are no exceptions for getting discounts to extend your subscription even for events outside of your control, so please order more time than you think that you need.
We recommend getting more time than you think you need to avoid these situations.
Unfortunately not. We recommend in our product purchase page to purchase more time than anticipated just in case an event outside your control occurs that could cause a delay in your test. To be fair to our other customers who have purchased sufficient time, we do not make any exceptions regardless of the circumstance.
We delete it. 2 months after your subscription expires and is not renewed then we will delete all of your case data.
No, case data can be reset only if you renew a subscription. The reason we do not allow case data to be reset during a subscription is that students are attempting to sell their remaining subscription time to others which is against our terms of service.
Yes, we have 1 and 3 day extensions.
The reason we do not offer discounts for renewals or offer time less than a month is that this policy is commonly abused. Offering discounts to renewals creates incentives for students to renew and hand off subscriptions to other students. We'd rather not have to police this, so we do not offer any discounts for renewals.
You admit directly to where the patient needs to go. If the patient needs to go the ICU, you admit to the ICU. You do not need to go through the ER. You should rarely ever move the patient the ER because you have admitting privileges. The ER is typically just a starting location. You cannot move the patient from an inpatient setting (ICU or inpatient unit) to the ER as this is not allowed in the real test. Therefore, you will rarely move a patient to the ER.
There are 20+ cases that are emergent and you will need to do intervention prior to physical exams. However, urgent or non-urgent cases can afford a 5 minute physical exam which is supposed to guide your workup.
Location is timed (virtual time, not real time). You are leaving the patient too long in the original location. When you know the patient should be moved, you should move the patient.
Please see our video here that explains this in detail.
No, there are no discounts to extend subscriptions. Discounts for extensions tends to lead to abuse as students will sell their accounts to others (this is of course against our policy, but suspending accounts tends to lead to resentment). We would prefer not to police this, so we do not offer discounts for extensions. We recommend that you buy enough time for you to study for your test and account for any delays that may occur.
Most of these steps will resolve any issues that you may be having:
#1 - Make sure you have a decent Internet connection. If you are using wireless 4G/5G, in certain areas you may experience delays
#2 - Clear your cache (This is located in settings of your browser). You can also use Incognito or Private mode which will delete your cache.
#3 - Try using a different Browser
#4 - Make sure you do not have programs running that slows or blocks your Internet activity down such as Web Antivirus programs or Internet Security Programs (Bitdefender is known to block harmless api requests).
#5 - To troubleshoot, try to use a different device (like an Android device, iPad, iPhone) and see if your problems go away. You can then assume that device that was switched from is causing the slow down / issue.
Many times we get users who start studying for the USMLE Step 3 Portion and ask us which cases of the 170+ should they study a week before the test. These customers can't study all 170+ cases and want to know which cases would be the highest yield which mean which cases would be most likely to appear on the test (though all of the cases have a chance of appearing on the real test, but some cases appear more often than others).
We have implemented this feature as a voting system that the users can use. If you feel that a particular case is High Yield (meaning it has a high chance of ending up on the test), you mark the case as high yield in the grading portion of the case. Each customer gets 1 vote per case. So if case #12 has 200 votes, this means 200 different customers felt that this case was High Yield.
This is a quick and dirty way for someone who is studying last minute to hit the cases that the community feel are the highest yield. The safe way would be to study all 170+ cases. Is it possible that the community could be incorrect as to which cases are High Yield and which are not? Yes, of course. We recommend that you study all of the cases, but this is just another feature that our users can use at their discretion.
- You go to our website here at ccscases.com and go to 'Purchase'.
- Select the length of time you would like to extend.
- Make sure that you use the same email address as before to link the new purchase to this account.
- Checkout, and you can login to your account at app.ccscases.com
Average first attempt score is the average score of all customers on their first attempt for this case.
Overall score is how you did on this case.
The breakdown is how this score was achieved. Just like in the USMLE, some cases will be diagnostic cases like this one and some will give you the diagnosis and be treatment cases. It will show you the breakdown of each section and how much it is worth depending on what is being emphasized in the case.
This is a misunderstanding of how the program works. When you hit "exit case" this will save your work and is for convenience if you are not able to finish the case right away. If you want the case to end, you need to advance the clock until the case ends. Clicking "exit case" will not end the case. It means you are prematurely leaving the case, but in the online/web version, it will save your work, so you can return and start off from where you started.
You should write all the orders required to give the best care for the patient. Unnecessary orders will be penalized. Omitting necessary orders will be penalized.
Final diagnosis window has been removed for sometime now. The fact that other programs are still using this just tells you how outdated they are. See this post: https://www.ccscases.com/what-happened-to-the-final-diagnosis-window-in-your-program-2/
Yes, You are graded on sequencing of orders. You should sequence physical exam, diagnostic tests, treatment, and preventive care accordingly.
Average grade means the average grade of all the other users for their first attempt for that case. This can help you gauge how you are comparing to others in regards to preparation.
Each case can be attempted as many times as you would like during the subscription period.
Please look at our post here: https://www.ccscases.com/your-performance-on-the-case-simulations-could-affect-whether-you-pass-or-fail/
Advance the clock when you are ready to receive results from tests, or you are confident that treatment needs time to work. Stop when a result is given/feedback is given that changes what you are going to do.
Do not worry about entering the diagnosis at the end of the case. This has been removed from the real test and is not graded (it has been for some time). It has never been graded even in the beginning.
#1 - Click on the Change Location Button:
#2 - Next Click on Home and Click "Change Location"
#3 - Then Click Schedule Appointment" and select when you would like the patient to come back. After you have selected the time, Click "Confirm Move"
#4 - The clock will automatically advance to the time that you selected. If an order report comes, it will ask you if you would like to stop the clock.
Yes, you can do as many cases as many times as you want during your subscription period. After completing each case, you will be given a grade. If you do 10 attempts on one case, you will be given 10 different feedback scores. All attempts and their scores will be saved for your review. See the image below: at the grading menu, they will be listed by the time of each attempt. You can click on each attempt to view your feedback and score.
Yes, just like in the real test, if you feel you are done with the case, just hit the clock icon and click “call / see me as needed” and the case will advance until it ends.
You can do each case as many times as you wish during the subscription period.
No, we do not save credit card information. All of the credit card processing is handled through Stripe. We never see your credit card information, and we never store it. It is safe to use your credit card on our site.
Yes, it is very similar. There are minor differences, but we have worked hard to make the experience similar to familiarize you with what will be required on test day. Note that there are over 20,000 orders that you can choose from, just like the real test.
The grading gives the “ideal” response that would take into account every test, treatment, and preventative measure for the case. If you are scoring above 80%, then this is a good score. The simulation is there to help teach you potential lost points for the real test day. This can be frustrating, but if you take the time to learn from them, it will give you good results on test day.
As just on the real step 3 test, getting the right diagnosis and treating isn’t all that is required. It is important to be thorough, rule out other potential causes of the patient’s presentation, and to provide good bed-side manner. These are all important aspects of the grade in the simulation as well as on the real exam.
Yes, each case provides feedback on what can be approved in your performance of the case. This is a very unique and very useful feature of our product.
There are 170+ cases.
Yes, you can test 2 full cases for free. Just download the app from the “Try It” Page located here. There are 2 cases that are fully functional.
The online version demo is located here: https://app.ccscases.com
No. This is a common question as many students purchase the 1 month subscription and then realize that they need more time to study and then wish to renew at a discounted rate. We do not offer discounts for renewals as this is often abused. Offering discounts to renewals creates incentives for students to renew and hand off subscriptions to other students. We'd rather not have to police this, so we do not offer any discounts for renewals.
We recommend that students purchase the 3 or 6 month subscription to avoid having to renew.
Yes, updates are free to paid users during the period of their subscription.
Yes, our program works on all devices with a modern browser (i.e. Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Edge). It has been tested the most with chromium based browsers. This means that the online version is compatible with Apple devices (iPad, iPhone), Chromebooks, Android devices (phones, tablets), Linux devices, Windows computers, Mac computers.
See our purchase page here for current pricing.
Yes, there is a mix of 10 minute and 20 minute cases in the full version.
ROUTE and STAT have been removed from the USMLE test, so we removed this as well from our program. The fact that we continue to get this question over and over shows you how outdated other products are that continue to use this.
For more information you can read our post about this here: https://www.ccscases.com/urgency-functionality-removed-from-the-real-test-and-ours-too/
The final diagnosis window has been removed from the USMLE (has been for some time but this is a very common question). For consistency, we removed this from our program as well.
For more details, view our post here: https://www.ccscases.com/what-happened-to-the-final-diagnosis-window-in-your-program-2/