Step 1 in Feb of M2

[djtallahassee]

Hello, I will be going to a school with PBL and Step 1 during start of Feb in M2. I have noticed that more schools are doing this early date. What is the reasoning for this? To me it just seems stressful as students don’t get a large summer break, shorter dedicated, and overall heightened rush of things.

Also would love to hear from any students that had similar timing and how they adjusted the tradtitional Step study scheduling. What did you like or dislike about taking it earlier? From what I gauge, I need to be starting basically right away with FA, BB, ANki, etc ..

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[Goro]

Hello, I will be going to a school with PBL and Step 1 during start of Feb in M2. I have noticed that more schools are doing this early date. What is the reasoning for this? To me it just seems stressful as students don’t get a large summer break, shorter dedicated, and overall heightened rush of things.

 

[RockMcat520]

Are you referring to the 1.5 years curriculum?

Hello, I will be going to a school with PBL and Step 1 during start of Feb in M2. I have noticed that more schools are doing this early date. What is the reasoning for this? To me it just seems stressful as students don’t get a large summer break, shorter dedicated, and overall heightened rush of things.

Also would love to hear from any students that had similar timing and how they adjusted the tradtitional Step study scheduling. What did you like or dislike about taking it earlier? From what I gauge, I need to be starting basically right away with FA, BB, ANki, etc ..

 

[djtallahassee]

Are you referring to the 1.5 years curriculum?

It’s 1.5 but we take the usmle in February of M2. I thought beforehand most of the 1.5 years did their step in M3 after a year of clinical.

 

[DrRedstone]

It’s 1.5 but we take the usmle in February of M2. I thought beforehand most of the 1.5 years did their step in M3 after a year of clinical.

Most schools, DO included, take Step 1 in May or June of M2. February seems really early.

 

[ineedhelpplse]

Are you going to Nova too? There is 10 weeks for step 1 study (8 weeks dedicated + 2 weeks winter vacation) Also it's not really full pbl like they initially said the tests and teachings are based off lecture and lecture is 4x/week.

 

[NotaCop]

n=1 my school does accelerated preclinicals and then step in March of M2. By then you've completed all coursework same as someone who takes it in June, just in an accelerated fashion. It's not as bad as you'd think, in my experience we adapt to the confines of the framework we are given a la Parkinson's Law (the adage that "work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion").

As far as advantages, the major one I see is extra months of clinical years which at my school allows for electives during M3 year (to explore subspecialties and such that one would normally not be exposed to so early) and an extra long M4 year (M3 stays 12 months) allowing for a few extra months of electives prior to submitting ERAS should a student need to keep exploring their residency options, as well as more time and flexibility for aways/AIs.

I'm sure there's other advantages I'm not thinking of. Overall schools are moving in this direction for a reason: this model makes sense in the current climate of medical education. It probably seems unfair at the moment but you'll do just fine on Step as you have this information ahead of time and it's not like they're dropping it on you last minute. Plan and prepare accordingly and reap the clinical benefits once you're over that hump.

 

[themoonman2]

My school started step studying at the beginning of February of M2 and most of us took step mid to end of March. I have no idea what it's like to take step at a later time, but I thought it was fine to take it when I did. I did use FA early on, but I have classmates that did not use FA literally until step studying and still performed VERY well on step. A big plus of the accelerated curriculum is that you get out of preclinical faster and start seeing patients. Life is a lot more fun now since moving to the wards. How you prep for step one is going to be very dependent on what works for you and what you have time for regardless of whether or not you're in an accelerated curriculum. There's so much to learn in medical school that I can't imagine an extra 2-3 months of preclinical making much of a difference in the way of step 1 prep because you'll still be hard pressed to find time to pre-study, but that's just my guess.

 

[mehc012]

My school started step studying at the beginning of February of M2 and most of us took step mid to end of March. I have no idea what it's like to take step at a later time, but I thought it was fine to take it when I did. I did use FA early on, but I have classmates that did not use FA literally until step studying and still performed VERY well on step. A big plus of the accelerated curriculum is that you get out of preclinical faster and start seeing patients. Life is a lot more fun now since moving to the wards. How you prep for step one is going to be very dependent on what works for you and what you have time for regardless of whether or not you're in an accelerated curriculum. There's so much to learn in medical school that I can't imagine an extra 2-3 months of preclinical making much of a difference in the way of step 1 prep because you'll still be hard pressed to find time to pre-study, but that's just my guess.

This is the story at my school too, but we have the option to take step at any point within a year of finishing M2. Most people take it with a similar timeline as the one you describe, but for example, I decided to start clinicals immediately and I'll be starting my dedicated study period right after my IM shelf exam. I like that we have flexibility.

 

[redsox93]

my schedule sounds pretty much the same as yours. do you have NBME exams? if so you can start with board prep stuff along with your classes and keep up with everything using anki so you can remember some of it. i’m just finishing up 1st year and we’ve covered every organ system besides neuro so far and it hasn’t been too overwhelming

 

[djtallahassee]

Are you going to Nova too? There is 10 weeks for step 1 study (8 weeks dedicated + 2 weeks winter vacation)

No, but I actually red that Nova has a similar timeline which mad me wonder how common it is. Dang 8 weeks sounds like a dream compared to our 4.

As far as advantages, the major one I see is extra months of clinical years which at my school allows for electives during M3 year (to explore subspecialties and such that one would normally not be exposed to so early) and an extra long M4 year (M3 stays 12 months) allowing for a few extra months of electives prior to submitting ERAS should a student need to keep exploring their residency options, as well as more time and flexibility for aways/AIs.

Yea, Ive heard some of the other 1.5 enjoy the extra time in 3rd and 4th year. Kind of hard to get a feeing for that as an incoming M1, but I def agree it will be nice to have more time to explore specialties. It will just stink to use that Christmas-New years vacation for dedicated step studying lol.

This is the story at my school too, but we have the option to take step at any point within a year of finishing M2. Most people take it with a similar timeline as the one you describe, but for example, I decided to start clinicals immediately and I'll be starting my dedicated study period right after my IM shelf exam. I like that we have flexibility.

That flexibility would be amazing. I think we do 1 clinical rotation during M2 before Step and I’m hoping the practical exp helps me with step-

 

[djtallahassee]

my schedule sounds pretty much the same as yours. do you have NBME exams? if so you can start with board prep stuff along with your classes and keep up with everything using anki so you can remember some of it. i’m just finishing up 1st year and we’ve covered every organ system besides neuro so far and it hasn’t been too overwhelming

We do have NBME exams. Don’t know enough about them yet to know if this is good or bad. My plan is to go in Ank, FA,i and Boards and Beyond until I get a good handle on the curriculum. From there I will add the other resources although I think we get Firecracker and maybe some access to Kaplan Qbanks.

 

[redsox93]

We do have NBME exams. Don’t know enough about them yet to know if this is good or bad. My plan is to go in Ank, FA,i and Boards and Beyond until I get a good handle on the curriculum. From there I will add the other resources although I think we get Firecracker and maybe some access to Kaplan Qbanks.

yep that’s essentially what i’ve been doing. we do phys and path at the same time so i just use b&b for phys and pathoma for path and it’s been enough for NBME exams

 

[mehc012]

Many of the schools with 1.5 year preclinicals take Step right after MS2 year. I took mine in March. It's much better to take it after MS2 than MS3.

We only have a year to decide what specialty we'll be doing for the rest of our careers. You don't want to get to the end of MS3, take step, get 225, and then realize all the 3 years of ortho work you did is for nothing. I finished my 2nd rotation today when most schools with 2 year preclinicals are just beginning step dedicated. I would much rather have an extra 5 months of career exploration time than preclinical time

Lol, I'm not even planning on looking at my step score before I do clinicals to avoid exactly the kind of self-selection you're talking about. I want to figure out what I actually want to go into without preconceived notions of 'you got this Step score, you should do X' in my head.

Thus far, doing clinicals has been helping me on my practice sets. Gives me something to anchor the factoids to, so I feel as if I am remembering things better. I'm doing a compromise, though...instead of waiting until after all of my clinical rotations, I'm taking my dedicated study period after just my IM rotation. Seemed like a good balance; I'm not so far out from preclinicals, but I've seen the most emphasized topics.

 

[MSTPlease]

I’m personally a big fan of the traditional 2 year preclinical but if I were going to a 1.5 I would definitely rather take step 1 immediately after the 1.5 then after a clerkship or two. I don’t think any schools take step 1 after a full year of clinical?

 

[Aerus]

You don't want to get to the end of MS3, take step, get 225, and then realize all the 3 years of ortho work you did is for nothing.

Or ENT

 

[raiderette]

My school takes Step 1 early as well. It gives time for research and targeted electives. I haven't changed from my chosen specialty, but I can breathe easier knowing I didn't close any doors with my score. It also seemed to help me relax in my clinicals.

 

[mvenus929]

I took Step 1 in January of M2 year. It was fine. My class was the first class at our school to take it so early (previously they took it in April-May), and our average was about the same as previous years (i.e. it didn't hurt us). We didn't start organ systems/anatomy until January of M1, so that's when I started using First Aid, etc.