postponing step 1 until after 3rd year?

[TheJiggler]

While this may be unconventional, I wanted to get input on what people thought about postponing step 1 until after 3rd year. My school allows us to move on to 3rd year without taking step 1...so I was wondering if there were people out there who took step 1 after 3rd year and thought 3rd year helped you learn the material better...or if you were just more removed from basic sciences allowing you more time to forget it.

I have a legitimate excuse for postponing step 1....but I'm debating whether to take it now just to get it over with or to postpone it until after 3rd year. I feel like I can take it now and perhaps do okay...but I'm just wondering if 3rd year will not only give me time personally but also will help my clinical knowledge. any advice?

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[Mariah246]

bad bad bad idea

if anything, i think i got dumber during 3rd year

it would be best to knock it out of the park (you're probably the smartest you've ever been after the 1st 2 years) and worry about applications/step 2/away rotations after 3rd year

 

[RussianJoo]

where is your school located? I thought you can't do clinicals untill you pass step1. I know in NJ you can't start till you have a passing step1 score, and in NY you can start with out having your score back but if you don't get a passing score by the end of the first rotation you can't move on to the next one.

 

[AK_MD2BE]

Terrible idea. You will never know more useless information than after your second year of medical school. As I see it, you really learn how to become a doctor AFTER MS2 year.

 

[TheJiggler]

When I say a "legitimate excuse"....I'm talking about a very traumatic experience not too long ago. Not an excuse as in I don't think I know enough pharmacology.....

Any input from anyone who has taken step 1 after 3rd year? I think Penn does this and does pretty well on boards

 

[lankysudanese]

While this may be unconventional, I wanted to get input on what people thought about postponing step 1 until after 3rd year. My school allows us to move on to 3rd year without taking step 1...so I was wondering if there were people out there who took step 1 after 3rd year and thought 3rd year helped you learn the material better...or if you were just more removed from basic sciences allowing you more time to forget it.

I have a legitimate excuse for postponing step 1....but I'm debating whether to take it now just to get it over with or to postpone it until after 3rd year. I feel like I can take it now and perhaps do okay...but I'm just wondering if 3rd year will not only give me time personally but also will help my clinical knowledge. any advice?

lots of people take the test after 3rd year. they all keep talking about how much the clinical knowledge helped them out. the medicine rotation seems to help them prepare for the boards, big time (maybe even peds).

i know of schools (UPenn) where everyone takes step 1 after a year on the wards - and their averages are among the highest in the nation.

 

[AK_MD2BE]

Jiggler...my sincere apologies. Somehow, I failed to read the part about the traumatic experience.
Lanky, yes I am sure that Penn has some of the highest Step 1 scores in the country. However...Penn also has some of the most intelligent students in the country. Therefore, I would not necessarily classify their policy of taking Step 1 after third year and high Step 1 scores as a causal relationship.

 

[TheJiggler]

yeah, don't worry about it. i go to a school very comparable to Penn, so that's why I brought them up. Third years here have told me that their clinical knowledge is just so much better after 3rd year (understandably so)...I was just wondering if there was a general consensus that taking step 1 after 3rd year will only get u a higher score, given you invest the same amount of time and the same amount of energy....

i was just thinking i may be a little more prepared to study all day every day. right now my plan is to study now as if I'm going to take Step 1 this year...a couple weeks beforehand, I'm going to take a practice NBME exam to see where my score is. But I feel like I'm going to be on the fence and have to make a decision. So I just wanted to see if there were other students out there who took step 1 after third year and felt more prepared in terms of clinical knowledge

Thanks for everyone's input in advance.

 

[lankysudanese]

Jiggler...my sincere apologies. Somehow, I failed to read the part about the traumatic experience.
Lanky, yes I am sure that Penn has some of the highest Step 1 scores in the country. However...Penn also has some of the most intelligent students in the country. Therefore, I would not necessarily classify their policy of taking Step 1 after third year and high Step 1 scores as a causal relationship.

my bad - i used penn as more of an argument of how taking the test after 3rd year might not be as terrible an idea as other posters had suggested. hence the comment on the people in my school (which is not UPenn) who took it after 3rd year, and what they thought of the idea. also, the OP might not go to penn, but that doesn't mean that she isn't one of the most intelligent students in the country. so i'm gonna give her the benefit of the doubt and assume that she will do just as well as the penn students (if not higher)

sorry for the confusion

 

[lankysudanese]

i go to a school very comparable to Penn, so that's why I brought them up.

whatever was a causal factor for the high UPenn average score should also be a causal factor for the OP getting a good step 1 score - assuming no confounders ofcourse (lack of motivation, ADHD etc)

Good Luck TheJiggler

 

[AmoryBlaine]

Good for Penn but it's a bad idea. Here's why:

One of the reasons it's good to get Step1 out of the way is for planning your residency application. Let's say you don't take it and during M3 decide you want to pursue derm/plastics/whatever. So you study hard for Step1 and get... a 213. Not a bad score but not one that going to get you into derm.

So now what? You are scrambling to take Step2 right away (more studying/stress when you're already burned out).

Better option is to get the 213 before M3. Then if you decide you want to do something super competitive you can start maneuvering early on with faculty mentors, research, conferences, Step2 early in 4th year etc etc.

 

[TheJiggler]

yeah that's a solid point that even my sister had made.

I was originally thinking I was going to do something competitive like ENT or urology...but recently, I've decided I'll probably not go into a field like radiology, derm, plastics, ent just b/c I'm more interested in academic medicine...and I know all of those of course have academic medicine aspects, but I'd like to work on a core aspect of medicine just b/c I feel the research is more meaningful when you're doing cancer research as opposed to sinusitis research.

So bottom line, I'm probably not gonna need a 250 on boards. I'd like to score as high as possible just so I can basically control where I do residency. After being through what I've been through recently in my life, I just want some control over my life. So I figure if I'm able to get a decent score and coming from a top tier medical school, I should be fine. As I said before, I'm looking for input from anyone who took step 1 after 3rd year and thought it was a good decision....just to get a perspective of someone who did that

thanks!