Advice Needed About Step1,Rotations,Residency

[personal]

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I have a bunch of questions and need some major advice.

I'm currently studying for step 1 and third year rotations start in a week and a half. I don't feel prepared to take the test. At this point I can take I could take it and score maybe a 200 max. Our school requires that we sit for it before starting third year in at the end of this month. I want to get into a good residency maybe in surgery or ob/gyn. So my options are to take it and score really low or postpone a rotation and get a much better score. Does it look really bad to take a rotation off to study for it?

I asked my school and they said that it doesn't go in my dean's letter or anything but I would be two months behind and would end third year at the end of August. Do residencies really care or ask about this when you apply or interview.I would still graduate on time since we have three months of "free time".


When do you start applying for residency and when would your application be considered "late"?

The down side is that I won't be able to do any away rotations to get LOR before I apply in September.When do you start applying for away rotations and when do most people do them. Do most people have them done by the time they apply for residency?

Also when do most people take Step 2?

So I need advice about whether I should take it and score low or take a rotation off and do better and the repercussions of postponing a rotation. Also if anybody has been through this kind of thing I would really really appreciate your advice. Thanks in advance.

 

[goooooober]

Well personal, residency programs will not care if you take your step one even at the end of 3rd year 😴. They will however care very very much if you screw up on it 😡. Also, screwing up will force you to then try to take step 2 early in order to try to somewhat make up for your crappy step 1 😱. It will be a big mess . Remeber, Step 1 is probably the most important factor that will get you love (an interview) from a residency program 😍. So don't rush to take step 1, but don't also put it off till the end of your 3rd year. If you do well on step 1 you can take step 2 in late december or early January of your 4th year so programs will not be able to see your step 2 score 😛 (although I took my step 2 March 11 of fourth year). As far as rotations go, you don't have to do Sub-Is at the institutions that you want to apply to for residency 😕. Just do very well in your surgery rotations and OB/GYN rotations at home and get very good letters from the big dogs 😀. As far as postponing your rotation, well think of it like this. If you decide to apply to surgery, then you can postpone your 3rd year surgery rotation until the middle of next summer and when you do it, it can serve both as your make-up rotation and as a sub-I in surgery . If it is not a surgery rotation that will be postponed, see if you can shuffle your third year rotation schedule so you do all your family med, IM, Peds and all rotations in fields you are not interested in first so that the fields that you do like will be left for the end of the year and can serve as a SubI as well. Hope this all makes sense and good luck 😉.

 

[DoctorPhud]

EDIT: This is jennyboo, not DoctorPhud -- posted while my husband was logged in, by accident!

I don't feel prepared to take the test.

Okay. A week and a half before your initial test date, this is a COMMON feeling. If you are scoring around AVERAGE on your practice questions (I think that's around 55-65% correct on Kaplan's Qbank, or whatever the calculated "average" score is on the released tests) then you might consider sucking it up and just taking the test. However, see below.

At this point I can take I could take it and score maybe a 200 max.

If you really are scoring well BELOW average on your practice tests, then I believe you when you say you think your best achievable score is 200 max. Anything above 200 is a reasonable score. However, below 200 (i.e. 198, for instance) is considered NOT A GOOD SCORE. If you pass the test you should still get a residency (depending on what specialty you apply for), but it will take you out of the running at popular programs in popular areas of the country.

In this case, you are better off postponing 3rd year for a couple of months. START OVER and CHANGE YOUR STUDY STRATEGY. 2 months is more than most people need to prepare for the exam, so you obviously weren't doing an adequate job during your first few weeks of preparation. Something isn't right and you need to browse the SDN forum and/or talk to high scorers at your school from last year in order to rearrange your study plan and schedule.

I want to get into a good residency maybe in surgery or ob/gyn.

Good news is, you should still be able to get a residency in general surgery or obgyn with a passing board score of less than 200, even though you probably wouldn't get interviewed at most "elite" programs. In fact, you could possibly even land a residency even if you failed it and passed it with average score the second time.

Does it look really bad to take a rotation off to study for it?

I don't think the warning flag gets raised unless the time off you take causes you to graduate a year later. If you graduate on time, I think they will probably not even notice you started 3rd year after 2 months of "vacation" or "research elective".

I asked my school and they said that it doesn't go in my dean's letter or anything but I would be two months behind and would end third year at the end of August.

Because of the way my medical school structured their schedule, I did sub-I's and electives during my third year and didn't finish core rotations including Pediatrics, Psychiatry and Family Medicine until JANUARY OF MY 4TH YEAR. This did not have any effect on my applications (other than the fact that, if I had been applying for any of those three specialties it would have been too late). Ending your core rotations in August is totally fine (as I told you, I ended in January and nobody complained).

I would still graduate on time since we have three months of "free time".

Great. It's totally fine to take the extra time to study for boards.

If you use up your "away rotation" time it could be a small disadvantage if you really wanted to do them. But they are not required except in certain specialties.

When do you start applying for residency and when would your application be considered "late"?

Get as much of your application as possible submitted September 1 (though in many cases the official "deadline" is Nov 1, the early bird gets the worm in terms of interview offers).

The down side is that I won't be able to do any away rotations to get LOR before I apply in September.When do you start applying for away rotations and when do most people do them. Do most people have them done by the time they apply for residency?

Start applying in January of 3rd year (that should make you very early, but it means you will actually GET your first choice aways before they fill up).

Also when do most people take Step 2?

Depends how they did on Step 1. If your Step 1 score was average or high, it doesn't matter. If your Step 1 score was weak, take Step 2 so that your score is back before applications are reviewed (say, over the summer, or by Nov 1 at the latest).

 

[razorback58]

If you don't take your Step 1 and start rotations on time, you will not graduate on time. If you graduate in August, then you cannot start your residency at the end of June. I start mine tomorrow on June 18. Given this situation, you can wait and graduate in August, but you probably won't get a residency until the next year. I would take the test, get started, get good LOR's and go for it. I see a lot of people getting residencies in OB/GYN and surgery with scores around 200 - and they are FMG's. It sounds like you are a US grad. Won't look good to sit out nearly a whole year. You can probably scramble late, but be prepared to take IM or FP not surgery or OB/GYN.

Residencies don't care about late applications, they care about late graduation, ECFMG status and visa problems that will delay your start date. They HATE to start people late. I think they would rather entertain lower board scores than accomodate your late graduation.

But since you indicated you will graduate on time. Then take the time off and study. You can still apply on September 1 with the rest of the bunch and get on the interview boat ASAP. Send your LOR's as you get them.
Make sure you get CS out of the way ASAP. The spots fill up fast and it takes a while to get your scores reported. Take Step 2 by the end of the summer if possible. Residencies like to see all three reported when evaluating the applicant.

 

[werewethere]

I have a bunch of questions and need some major advice.

I'm currently studying for step 1 and third year rotations start in a week and a half. I don't feel prepared to take the test. Does it look really bad to take a rotation off to study for it?

Do residencies really care or ask about this when you apply or interview.I would still graduate on time since we have three months of "free time".


When do you start applying for residency and when would your application be considered "late"?

The down side is that I won't be able to do any away rotations to get LOR before I apply in September.When do you start applying for away rotations and when do most people do them. Do most people have them done by the time they apply for residency?

Also when do most people take Step 2?

So I need advice about whether I should take it and score low or take a rotation off and do better and the repercussions of postponing a rotation. Also if anybody has been through this kind of thing I would really really appreciate your advice. Thanks in advance.

1) No one ever feels completely ready for step 1
2) The month and year that you take the exam is required on the ERAS application, but I don't think it is considered by most programs.
3) The rule of thumb is the earlier you submit the better. So submit what you have of your application in early September of 4th year, it does not have to be complete for an interview invitation. Ideally, all documentation should be in place by your interview or by Nov 1 of fourth year, whichever comes first (Dean's letter release day). Remember to check specific program websites or call to verify their deadlines.
4) You may be able to delay one or more of your core third year rotations until middle to later 4th year, so that you can do an audition rotation or two and get letters. For instance, psych/peds/family would be rotations that you might delay since they are not very meaningful to surgery/obgyn. Keep in mind that you will be able to get at least one letter from your core third year rotation in surgery/obgyn, and that one letter at least should be from another major service, such as IM.
5) Start applying for away rotations late third year/early fourth year; it can be a very time consuming process, so don't delay. Away rotations are usually advisable for competitive fields and to find out if you really like a program. Given the stress and demands of OBGYN and surgery, an away rotation would be warranted to find out if you like a program or not.
6) People take step 2 any time between July and April of fourth year. Early takers are those trying to improve on step 1. If you got 200 on step 1, I would strongly advise to take step 2 early for OBGYN and surgery. These fields, although not the most competitive, are still rising in popularity, and you want have choices when it comes to where you go.
7) Honestly, ask yourself how much time you've spent getting ready for step 1 and how effective you've been. If you've spent lots of time with minimal improvement, delay is detrimental. If, however, you have been improving, and you have a plan (including weak points that need to be worked on, number of questions you'll cover during this added time, specific concrete goals), then I'd delay the test, and improve on it. Remember, a month of hard core studying can get you somewhere around 5-10% in performance. In your case, going from a 200 to 210-220. That would open many more doors for you. So many times people say that if step 1 didn't go well, you have step 2. That is true, but if you have step 1 well in hand, it will simply make your application process much, much easier.
Good luck!