I think it depends on your situation. If your school does not require that you take step 2 ck by a certain date, as far as I know there may be no reason why you need to take it. As of last yr a couple of programs (some Cali schools and maybe another?) wanted the score before they rank you. There were rumors at my school that more programs were going to start to want the score as well... but Im not sure if this is even true to be honest (you'd have to check with the programs you are applying to). After having gone through studying, I think that if I were about to start a subI I would have done much better after cramming all that medical knowledge... but not sure if that in itself would make taking step 2 worth it if you dont have any other reasons.
At my school most people last yr and the previous yrs took the test after the match so they would not have to go through studying hard for another step or risk getting a lower score. I took step 2 right after 3rd yr even though my step 1 score was good because I am taking a research yr right now and did not want to come back after 1yr of being away from the wards/med school to find that my school made the test mandatory before the match or that programs were starting to require that the score be available... plus the thought of having to study for the test after the match seemed pretty horrible vs just taking the test now since I studied throughout 3rd yr anyway for mandatory subject NBMEs.
