Advice and experience from those that took Step 1 after or towards the end of 3rd year rotations?

[frodobro]

Did you regret it? Or did it help? I know some medical schools do this resulting in higher step 1 scores as a result.


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[Phloston]

It depends on your school's curriculum, but generally it's not a good idea taking the Step 1 during or after rotations. For one, you'll want to focus on clinical stuff by then and won't want to be living in Step 1 world anymore. There are bigger things to focus on by the time you get to rotations. And you'll need to start devoting time to 2CK prep. There are various schools in the US that frame their curricula around students taking the Step 1 late, but it's dangerous to be honest, because students neglect rotations to prep for the Step 1, and you want to make sure you do as well as you can on rotations. Your consideration though as to whether to take the Step 1 late is reasonable, as consolidation of preclinical material can take a long time. If your thought process however is whether the information you pick up in rotations will specifically help you for Step 1, the answer is not as much as you think. It will help for Step 2cK, but not so much for Step 1. Step 1, remember, is a lot of basic sciences (e.g., biochemistry, micro) that will be unrelated to your rotations.