All up to you (what your schedule allows, what your match goals are, how much time you want to spend studying/nor studying, your baseline anxiety levels, etc)
If i were you, i would try to make time to get a couple solid weeks of studying early, maybe mid august. Get a good score and have it ready when your app submits or close after wards so you can bring a stellar score as an update.
in general, most people do much better on Step 2 with less studying
Current M3. Stats are 234 Step1, clinical rotations mainly HPs. Have a few pubs/posters but nothing particularly special. I have heard various opinions on whether I should take Step2 early (like June or July) so programs have it early, or wait and take it in September or October in case I don't do as well.
If you've been doing fine on your shelf exams, just go ahead and take it early. You'd have to do pretty bad (probably less than ~235) for it to really have a negative impact on your app. Otherwise it'll be a neutral to positive impact. 4th year is better if you knock out CK and CS earlier rather than later.
