Practice scores are within passing range for Step 1. What now?

[Bonne Nuit]

I'm taking my pass/fail Step 1 next spring. Thanks to what was now, in hindsight, an overly aggressive UFAPS + B&B routine starting day 1 of M1, I'm now scoring slightly over the passing bar on practice Step 1 materials, and we still have several months of preclinical remaining before dedicated. I think my practice scores will continue to naturally increase a bit as I finish my remaining classes and close those knowledge gaps.

So, what do I do now? I guess I just don't feel the need to resume grinding until, maybe, dedicated if I'm not passing by a comfortable margin then, and that frees up a decent chunk of extra study time in the here and now. If I continue to improve, then all of dedicated becomes essentially available. I've been considering using this extra time to do a deeper dive into a topic/organ system that would be beneficial for upcoming clinicals, Step 2, and/or residency in general. I'm wondering if you guys had any thoughts. If you found yourself with some extra preclinical time to really refine your knowledge in an area or two, what would you do?

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[Captain_Falcon]

Take Step as early as possible, then utilize the extra time by doing research or whatever you think is best in helping your application. If you continue to grind hard, you could also start a Step 2 Anking deck that has as little as 10k cards or as many as 20k depending on what you choose to do

 

[flasheroonie]

Take that Step as soon as you can. Get it over with, then concentrate on learning more for clinicals.