Step 2 dilemma

[chicamedica]

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I'm a current MS-3 interested in doing anesthesia, but going to take a year off to do research starting in July before starting 4th year. I'd originally planned to take Step 2 once I start 4th year (preferably after doing a medicine sub I), and also to preserve my option of not releasing my step 2 score if I won't like it.

However, today a classmate of mine said she heard that if I wait for a whole year afte 3rd yr to take step 2, I will forget a lot of clinical stuff from rotations other than medicine/anesthesia/whatever else I'll take before doing step 2, and so I will have a lot more studying to do and will lose a lot of the clinical judgement from those fields.

This worries me. but from past experience, the fact that I tend to understand things better after I let the newly acquired knowledge "gel" a bit in my mind still makes me want to wait for my 4th year to take it. I will also have a chance to do some more studying duirng my relatively chill year of research.

What do you all think?

btw my stats so far are Step I 223, 1 honors in fam med, 2 high passes in outpt med & surgery/anes, pass in medicine, and a couple of grades pending; I'd like to try for a top program (in particular I love the programs at Hopkins & Penn).

Should I take that risk of taking step 2 early?

Thanks much!

 

[2ndyear]

I took Step 2 at the end of March of my 4th year, so I had time to forget just about all of 3rd year. I had to re-learn a bunch of stuff, but I passed without too much studying. Just like my advice to the person taking Step 1, I'd say buy the NMS question book and see where you are at. Do a test or two. If you're around 55-60% you'll pass and do well. If you have the time to study (and you should if your research isn't too intense) go for it. It would have been nice not to have that hanging over my head for all of 4th year. From what I remember, the test is mainly 3rd year material but there is a lot of stuff that I never saw in 3rd year too, ie ortho, ophtho and derm. That's where Boards and Wards comes in handy. Buy that book for sure if you haven't already. If you wait until you are in your 4th year you just might look at peds and ob and psych stuff and go...huh? That's what happened to me anyways, but like I said, the material is learnable even pretty much from scratch.

By the way, what is your research in?

 

[chicamedica]

I took Step 2 at the end of March of my 4th year, so I had time to forget just about all of 3rd year. I had to re-learn a bunch of stuff, but I passed without too much studying. Just like my advice to the person taking Step 1, I'd say buy the NMS question book and see where you are at. Do a test or two. If you're around 55-60% you'll pass and do well. If you have the time to study (and you should if your research isn't too intense) go for it. It would have been nice not to have that hanging over my head for all of 4th year. From what I remember, the test is mainly 3rd year material but there is a lot of stuff that I never saw in 3rd year too, ie ortho, ophtho and derm. That's where Boards and Wards comes in handy. Buy that book for sure if you haven't already. If you wait until you are in your 4th year you just might look at peds and ob and psych stuff and go...huh? That's what happened to me anyways, but like I said, the material is learnable even pretty much from scratch.

By the way, what is your research in?

Thanks 2ndyear! That sounds really encouraging. I sure am planning on doing some studying, especially medicine and peds, during my year off, since med was my first rotation this year, and I will most likely not be doing any more peds stuff 4th year.

I'm going to be doing one of the programs at the NIH that let me see what's out there for the 1st 2 weeks once I get there. I'd probably do something related to pharm, ID, or CCM.