Finishing medschool in 5 years vs more Step 1 study time.. residents pls advise.

[Gavanshir]

To begin, I'm a second year Caribbean medstudent. I'm currently considering breaking up my 4th term of medical school into two terms which would allow me to take the two giant second year courses (ie. path & microbio) separately. Doing this would allow me to graduate with the previous January class which means 3 months of USMLE study time vs 7 weeks if I stay with my current class. The downside is that I would start my rotations an entire year later. So I would start MS3 in 2014 instead of 2013.

I would like to get some resident opinions as to whether that extra year to finish will be a thorn on my side in the future or if the extra time for the USMLE is worth taking. I should say that my academics have been just below average and I don't quite feel confident in my abilities to ace the Step as of right now (end of MS1). I'm 27, don't know what field I want to end up in and I'm also entirely on financial aid.

Some of the factors that I'm considering are:

Year of lost compensation
USMLE score vs residency position
Amount of total debt
My age

Thanks for any insight.

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[smq123]

The general residency forum is for issues directly of interest to people who are current residents. It's not meant for polling opinions of current residents.

Moving to allopathic.

 

[DrAwsome]

To begin, I'm a second year Caribbean medstudent. I'm currently considering breaking up my 4th term of medical school into two terms which would allow me to take the two giant second year courses (ie. path & microbio) separately. Doing this would allow me to graduate with the previous January class which means 3 months of USMLE study time vs 7 weeks if I stay with my current class. The downside is that I would start my rotations an entire year later. So I would start MS3 in 2014 instead of 2013.

I would like to get some resident opinions as to whether that extra year to finish will be a thorn on my side in the future or if the extra time for the USMLE is worth taking. I should say that my academics have been just below average and I don't quite feel confident in my abilities to ace the Step as of right now (end of MS1). I'm 27, don't know what field I want to end up in and I'm also entirely on financial aid.

Some of the factors that I'm considering are:

Year of lost compensation
USMLE score vs residency position
Amount of total debt
My age

Thanks for any insight.

For me, taking extra time was not a big deal, particularly since i got an MPH. I have never had an interviewer say oh so you took extra time huh? I don't quite understand how the Caribbean issue works though, and what you'd be doing in the extra yaer. I think that, particularly since you are Caribbean, doing well on step 1 is important. So if taking extra time is important for you and you don't think you can do well in 7 weeks I think it makes sense. As long as your extra year is occupied with something meaningful I think it's ok. Do you have to pay for the extra year? Not sure how that works. I don't think your age is bad at all so I would not worry about that.

 

[CaptainSSO]

From what I gleaned in another thread that discussed this, being that you are an IMG, they will basically see that you took some extra time for Step 1 and wil factor that into their perception accordingly.

(I can't personally attest to this, but this seemed to be the consensus of a few people in a thread discussing Step 1 and IMGs).

 

[Gavanshir]

For me, taking extra time was not a big deal, particularly since i got an MPH. I have never had an interviewer say oh so you took extra time huh? I don't quite understand how the Caribbean issue works though, and what you'd be doing in the extra yaer. I think that, particularly since you are Caribbean, doing well on step 1 is important. So if taking extra time is important for you and you don't think you can do well in 7 weeks I think it makes sense. As long as your extra year is occupied with something meaningful I think it's ok. Do you have to pay for the extra year? Not sure how that works. I don't think your age is bad at all so I would not worry about that.

Thank you, that's some measure of reassurance.

 

[Gavanshir]

From what I gleaned in another thread that discussed this, being that you are an IMG, they will basically see that you took some extra time for Step 1 and wil factor that into their perception accordingly.

(I can't personally attest to this, but this seemed to be the consensus of a few people in a thread discussing Step 1 and IMGs).

I understand that this may be a factor but it is hard to say that it applies universally, I suppose it depends on the PD and the program. But at the end of the day I feel that I'll be able to justify taking the extra time versus having to justify a lower Step score.

 

[HelpPleaseMD]

It really depends on how much you think the extra 4 weeks will help you. At least for me, I doubt having an extra 4 weeks would have improved my score anymore than the 6 weeks I spent studying for the test. Like you have already mentioned it is an extra 1 yr of your life and all the monetary consequences of that. Is 1 year worth a 5pt increase, 10 pt increase, 20 pt? Again its up to you and totally dependent on what your getting on your practice test now

 

[XRanger]

7 weeks is more than enough for step 1. 3 months is overkill IMO and you'll get burned out. What I would do is start studying DURING your second year which means reviewing board review books, doing questions etc...so that during your intensive study period, all you do is review, you're not learning new materials...and 7 weeks is more than enough for a review.

 

[GoSpursGo]

For me, taking extra time was not a big deal, particularly since i got an MPH. I have never had an interviewer say oh so you took extra time huh? I don't quite understand how the Caribbean issue works though, and what you'd be doing in the extra yaer. I think that, particularly since you are Caribbean, doing well on step 1 is important. So if taking extra time is important for you and you don't think you can do well in 7 weeks I think it makes sense. As long as your extra year is occupied with something meaningful I think it's ok. Do you have to pay for the extra year? Not sure how that works. I don't think your age is bad at all so I would not worry about that.

Obviously I'm not a carib student. However, I think "I wanted an MPH to further my career" is more easily justifiable than "I thought I needed more time to study for Step 1," since almost everyone else finds 7 weeks to be plenty of time.

It's a hard question. As others have said, I think 7 weeks is plenty and exactly how much I studied for the test, and I'm not sure how high of a score bump you'd need to see to outweigh any negative that is seen in terms of you taking an extra year--and that's without counting the financial costs of spending an extra year on loans. Another consideration is that every year American schools are putting out more grads, making the spots for IMGs that much scarcer--so while taking that extra year may make you more competitive numbers-wise, the applicants you're competing with will also get more competitive.

On the whole, while I recognize that doing well on Step 1 is essentially necessary for you to have any hope of matching, I think your best bet is to just bunker down, study your butt off during these upcoming classes and Step 1 studying time, and do well on it without extra time off. I just think that if you utilize your 7 weeks well, you'll just about max out your score, and getting an extra 5-10 points wouldn't justify the questions you may get on your application, the difficulty of applying against a more competitive class, and the financial reasons not to wait.

 

[b-real]

Seven weeks of dedicated study time is plenty. To be blunt, you already have a huge strike against you, coming from the Caribbean, especially for the more selective specialties. Taking an extra year will have to be justified to PDs, and most likely, they won't be satisfied with any answer that makes them doubt your academic capabilities (needing more time for Step 1, splitting up the "big courses" in 2nd year, etc). That will be another strike against you. You need to study diligently and destroy Step 1, which is easier said than done.

 

[Rendar5]

If you take 5 years to get through medical school, expect to have to answer why you did it to residency interviews, licensing committees, and on job interviews. Expect certain boards to ask for extra confirmations from your school as to why you did it.

I speak from personal experience. If I had to do it again, I would, but my circumstances were a little different. It is still aggravating to answer and to have licensing delays. If it was a little matter of a few points on my USMLE, I would think long and hard before doing it. If it's the difference between passing and failing a USMLE, then I would do it, but I'd come up with a better reason and better goals than "passing the USMLE" so that when it comes up later, it's not a red flag.

 

[DrAwsome]

Obviously I'm not a carib student. However, I think "I wanted an MPH to further my career" is more easily justifiable than "I thought I needed more time to study for Step 1," since almost everyone else finds 7 weeks to be plenty of time.

It's a hard question. As others have said, I think 7 weeks is plenty and exactly how much I studied for the test, and I'm not sure how high of a score bump you'd need to see to outweigh any negative that is seen in terms of you taking an extra year--and that's without counting the financial costs of spending an extra year on loans. Another consideration is that every year American schools are putting out more grads, making the spots for IMGs that much scarcer--so while taking that extra year may make you more competitive numbers-wise, the applicants you're competing with will also get more competitive.

On the whole, while I recognize that doing well on Step 1 is essentially necessary for you to have any hope of matching, I think your best bet is to just bunker down, study your butt off during these upcoming classes and Step 1 studying time, and do well on it without extra time off. I just think that if you utilize your 7 weeks well, you'll just about max out your score, and getting an extra 5-10 points wouldn't justify the questions you may get on your application, the difficulty of applying against a more competitive class, and the financial reasons not to wait.

I am also not a carib grad, I am an AMG and my point was that I graduated in 5 vs. 4 years not only because of the MPH but I also took extra time to study for step 1. I have people who've asked me about MPH and why I did it, etc. but not about studying more for Step 1 or anything like that. So that was my point in part as far taking extra time. Not everyone is good at test taking and sometimes the extra time is helpful. It certainly helped me, and I don't think taking less time would have been good for me. But every case is different I guess. And yes you absolutely have a point that since this person is an IMG, that the extra time may not be ideal, but if this person can't do well on the exam in 7 weeks and needs more time, it may make sense. If OP does poorly, it's far worse than taking a bit of extra time.

 

[GOMERE]

Take a practice exam. If you're getting really low scores then it's better to pass the first time and wait a year, than to fail and who knows how many years if ever.
When it comes to residency, sure they'll take that into consideration that you took extra time to study, but in the grand scheme of things, what they want is high scores to brag about. They want to say our incoming resident group had a average score of 240!

 

[Gavanshir]

Thank you for all of the replies. I think I should have clarified because I missed a period of exams,I will be taking behavioral science and statistics which will overlap with my Step study time, so in actuality if I don't add an extra year, I will have about 5 weeks in total to study for the Step, and that would mean no break between the end of basic sciences and studying.