As a 2nd year medical student, what can I do now to help me best prepare for clerkships/STEP 2?

[CuriousMDStudent]

Title sums it up. I am the first class that will be P/F. As I enter my second year, honestly my focus now is shifted towards STEP 2 and clerkship grades since STEP 1 is P/F.

Right now my plan is to do my best to master the STEP 1 material and see how i score on step 1 practice exams as I hear that step 1 is correlated with step 2. I wanted to hear if people had any other suggestions.

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[DrStephenStrange]

One step at a time. Even if Step 1 is P/F, it's still a hard exam, and you can still fail it. Prepare and pass step 1 first, then you can think about these things. Unless you previously had significant clinical experience in the past, nothing can prepare you for 3rd year clerkships, and step 2 is a different ball game which still requires you to have had a good baseline step 1 preparation.

 

[CuriousMDStudent]

For sure. It seems the best thing to do is just focus on my class material now and STEP 1 since that lays the foundation for step 2 and clerkships.

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

Title sums it up. I am the first class that will be P/F. As I enter my second year, honestly my focus now is shifted towards STEP 2 and clerkship grades since STEP 1 is P/F.

Sorry to steal your thunder, but some schools take step 1 after MS3. So some of us from c/o 2023 will take it p/f.

Right now my plan is to do my best to master the STEP 1 material and see how i score on step 1 practice exams as I hear that step 1 is correlated with step 2. I wanted to hear if people had any other suggestions.

Yeah I would just treat it like it’s scored. It’s a hard test and you don’t want to fail it. I think the extreme of doing a hundred thousand anki cards is probably unnecessary, but I would still focus on learning the material for step 1 and then focusing on step 2 and clerkship after that, assuming you will be taking step 1 prior to rotations.

 

[CuriousMDStudent]

Sorry to steal your thunder, but some schools take step 1 after MS3. So some of us from c/o 2023 will take it p/f.

Yeah I would just treat it like it’s scored. It’s a hard test and you don’t want to fail it. I think the extreme of doing a hundred thousand anki cards is probably unnecessary, but I would still focus on learning the material for step 1 and then focusing on step 2 and clerkship after that, assuming you will be taking step 1 prior to rotations.

Ah yeah good point. And yeah ill do that. Thanks!

 

[Lawpy]

Yeah seconding (thirding?) on taking Step 1 seriously. Especially after seeing freak accidents of people failing Step even after scoring well on practice, nothing is guaranteed.

 

[Ho0v-man]

Unless you rocked through step 1 uworld already, don’t worry about step 2. I would never have been prepared for step 2 without my step 1 foundation.

 

[flasheroonie]

Don't worry at all about clerkships until you're done with Step 1. Once you're done with Step 1, the most important thing you can do for your psyche is take a quick break (if part of the timeline before clerkships) and clear your mind, spend time with your friends and family, because it's the last time you will see them for a looooong time. Clerkships will truly take up your entire life coming up.