Push Step 1 into my first rotations (electives aka no shelves)

[Doctor_Strange]

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I'm averaging basically a 215ish on my practice exams. My first two rotations are hospital medicine and neurology. I won't have any shelves to study for about 8 weeks. I was thinking I could continue with my step 1 prep but albeit not at a 8-9 hr per day rate which I do now. Further, I would think some of the clinic stuff could help me on my prep. I'd still use anki to make sure I get down the minutiae. What do people think? I have nbme 18 uwsa 2 and 1 other nbme remaining? If I use them all up over the next two weeks I won't have a practice exam to do during my rotations...

I am currently scheduled to take Step 1 June 14th. Trying to go for university IM.

 

[ricksimmonsrafowens]

really really bad idea. If it's your first inpatient rotation with call you'll be way too tired to study effectively. Push your rotation back if your first one is an elective. You can hopefully make it up as an MS4. with a 215 on a practice test (depends if it underpredicts or overpredicts) I would be concerned about passing the exam. If you want University IM (prestige important to you? or will any university IM do?), you should shoot for >220.

edit: I misspoke that you should be concerned about passing Step with a 215 practice score (for some reason I thought you said 205 my b), but still, it's not high enough to help you match university IM

 

[Doctor_Strange]

really really bad idea. If it's your first inpatient rotation with call you'll be way too tired to study effectively. Push your rotation back if your first one is an elective. You can hopefully make it up as an MS4. with a 215 on a practice test (depends if it underpredicts or overpredicts) I would be concerned about passing the exam. If you want University IM (prestige important to you? or will any university IM do?), you should shoot for >220.

edit: I misspoke that you should be concerned about passing Step with a 215 practice score (for some reason I thought you said 205 my b), but still, it's not high enough to help you match university IM

Yeah, I know I am in a tough spot. I think my schedule for the hospital medicine elective is more 7am-7pm deal (work with the same doc throughout the four weeks) so I thought it may not be the worst thing. I still have NBME 18 and UWSA2 to take which are the highest predictors (UWSA 1 was a 239 for me but it has cray overpredication...).

So, at the risk of belaboring it -- you don't there is any benefit towards pushing my exam? Currently, I'm not in a great spot so I figure more time could help. I plan to take Step 1 no matter what, even if university IM is out of the question (I feel no Step 1 will be a negative, but a >210 Step 1 could at least put me in range of IM interviews at low-tier community university-affliated programs).

 

[ricksimmonsrafowens]

Yeah, I know I am in a tough spot. I think my schedule for the hospital medicine elective is more 7am-7pm deal (work with the same doc throughout the four weeks) so I thought it may not be the worst thing. I still have NBME 18 and UWSA2 to take which are the highest predictors (UWSA 1 was a 239 for me but it has cray overpredication...).

So, at the risk of belaboring it -- you don't there is any benefit towards pushing my exam? Currently, I'm not in a great spot so I figure more time could help. I plan to take Step 1 no matter what, even if university IM is out of the question (I feel no Step 1 will be a negative, but a >210 Step 1 could at least put me in range of IM interviews at low-tier community university-affliated programs).

I think there's a GREAT benefit to you pushing the exam until you are consistently scoring >220 on practice exams, however you should not be doing ANY rotations during that extra 4 weeks time. I think 4 extra weeks of prep will help you add at least 5-10 points to your score (but beware of burnout!), but only if these 4 weeks are without any commitments like coming in for 12 hours a day to round and write H&Ps. If you 10000% cannot push your elective to some other date (like MS4) and dedicate all of your time to Step, you should not move up the exam. Rotations are really draining and you will not perform well after coming in to the hospital for 8+ hours/day for 4 weeks and cramming Step material in your free time at the same time.