school aware of step 2 status?

[adam73180]

Does your school know whether or not you've registered for, scheduled, sat for, rescheduled, or taken Step 2? Can they look up this information?

Is taking Step 2 required before you graduate from an accredited school?

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[Rogue_Leader]

I know your scores are reported to your school. They have to verify your status as a student when you register for an exam, so they'd know that part. I don't know if this has to be done if you are retaking an exam. As for whether it's a requirement for an accredited program, you need to check specifically with your school. There's no universal policy on this, but some schools will make their own policy about what needs to be done by when (my school told us in March that we needed to have taken the CK and CS before graduation, though they didn't say anything about having gotten our scores before graduation).

 

[EternalMD]

I'm not sure about step 2 but my school carefully watches when students are scheduled for their step 2 exams and whether they rescheduled it. I know of a friend who changed his date and had to change it back because the school said he wouldn't have Step 1 done by the time 3rd year started even though the first week was just orientation to 3rd year. Apparently they were notified of the change in date so it appears that they have quite a bit of info regarding this

 

[cabruen]

Does your school know whether or not you've registered for, scheduled, sat for, rescheduled, or taken Step 2? Can they look up this information?

registered? -- Yes (they actually are a required part of your registration process)

scheduled? -- Yes (they have the scheduled test date)

sat for? -- Yes (they have the actual test date)

rescheduled? -- Kind of (they will simply see a new scheduled test date, I don't think there is a specific flag that shows it was rescheduled though)

taken? -- Yes (Isn't this is the same as sat for?)

In short, not only do the Academic Deans, but the departments at your medical school have access to your full NBME status.

The requirements for Step II CS and CK for graduation vary by school, but most schools have been trending towards requiring sitting for and passing both parts of step II as a requirement of graduation.

More importantly though, many residency programs will want Step II in order to rank you for the Match. It is actually law in a couple of states that Step II is required for ranking (eg Oklahoma).

 

[SamusLives]

My school seemed to know this stuff. But then again they really cared, b/c they wanted us all to take these tests by November. If not, you'd get an e-mail asking why. My school requires CK and CS passed to graduate.

I know people like to delay the CK, b/c they did well on Step 1. But if you time it right, you can have your cake and eat it too. I took my CK so that my scores came back after my school transcript went out. I choose to manually retransmit on myERAs, so I decided if my CK got release. I ended up doing better (don't know how, I studied during commercial breaks of my favorite shows), and retransmitted my scores. Guess what. Every program that I interviewed at was happy, b/c they knew that if they accept me, I could start July 1st, no problems. Same applies to CS.

My state requires you to be Step 3 eligible to start residency (means you need to pass Step 1, and Step 2 CK and CS). So either way, you need to take them and pass them. It'll make it easier for you to apply to residencies.