Step 2 CK for Anesthesia Residency

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Dawkter

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Just curious if most of you would recommend taking step 2 CK early in fourth year before applying for anesthesia residency. I was considering pushing to Jan/Feb but do not want to do this if step 2 scores are important for anesthesia applicants. When did most of you end up taking this exam? Thanks!

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Just curious if most of you would recommend taking step 2 CK early in fourth year before applying for anesthesia residency. I was considering pushing to Jan/Feb but do not want to do this if step 2 scores are important for anesthesia applicants. When did most of you end up taking this exam? Thanks!

Check with the programs - mine would not rank candidates unless they had step 2CK. Taking it in Feb could be dicey.
 
Check with the programs - mine would not rank candidates unless they had step 2CK. Taking it in Feb could be dicey.

+1 - the majority of programs i applied to this year required both CK and CS scores to be in before they would rank us
 
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Just curious if most of you would recommend taking step 2 CK early in fourth year before applying for anesthesia residency. I was considering pushing to Jan/Feb but do not want to do this if step 2 scores are important for anesthesia applicants. When did most of you end up taking this exam? Thanks!

Took both of the exams CS/CK in Feb. Applied to a wide variety of programs, none had issues with it. If you feel a strong Step 2 will help that part of your application, I would take it. If you feel it really won't add anything to your application, put it off, unless programs are requiring it.
 
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It is variable between programs, and some of it depends on how well you did on Step 1. We don't require Step 2 to rank, but it definitely makes us evaluate you a little bit more closely if you don't have it.

I believe Step 2 correlates much more closely with board passage rates, as compared to Step 1, so that is part of the reason programs like to see it.
 
Great advice so far, thanks everyone!
 
The last thing I would have wanted to do during interview season is be studying for and taking it. But do what you want.
 
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