Step 2 advice!

[ajtrau]

Advertisement - Members don't see this ad

Hi all! I'm gathering opinions about whether or not to push back the date of my Step 2 exam. Right now it's scheduled for July 20th. I got a 236/99 on step 1 but so far on the NBME self-assessments for step 2 I've only gotten as high as a 211. So I'm kinda freaking out a bit. Opinions on how detrimental it would be for me on interviews/matching if I scored that bad on step 2 for real. Oh, and I want to go into EM.

Thanks so much!!

 

[RafaTech]

You still have a month. Most people only study about 2-3 weeks total for Step 2.

 

[mimelim]

A lower step 2 than step 1 score will cause adcoms to pause when reading your application. It will not sink you on your own. Some specialties even completely disregard it. I know someone who matched NSGY with 240+ step 1 and 200s step 2 ck. It is important to do well on it and 'match' your score, but you should not stress about it that much. Step 2 CK is largely a reflection of shelf scores. As it has been stated, few people spend more than 2-3 weeks preparing for it and even then, many people are on light rotations while studying.

You have plenty of time. Either make the commitment to spend the hours studying, or push it back to a time when you have plenty of time to study. You can always take the exam and not release your score to programs until you see it. You could also take it extremely late so the interview season is well underway by the time you get the score. Only 1 program I applied to required step 2 as a prerequisite for interviewing and the consensus around the trail was that they were burned a couple years back and are overly cautious about it. Keep in mind I'm coming from a GS/VS applicant perspective and certainly can't speak for EM programs.