Studying for Step II...just a quick question

[sid876]

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Hey Guys,

I'm a 3rd year.....just began clinical rotations about a month ago (in peds) and will finish all my cores May 10 or so. I'm finding it difficult to study....I think I just need more motivation right now. I'm hoping that after I finish all my cores (peds, ob/gyn, IM, surgery, and psych) and just dedicate 3months to Step 2, I can do pretty well. I'd take Step 2 the first week of August (mabybe the 7th) and get my scores in by Sept. 1 so I can have the score in by the beginning of the application cycle. This is assuming I do nothing regarding studying for Step 2 until then....just try to do as well as I can on rotations.

BTW, we don't have to take shelf exams ( I go to SGU, a carribean school). I got a 222/95 on step 1(nothing great but not too bad in my opinion). I've heard you should try to shoot for a little better score on Step 2, but if I get a score similar to that I'm sure I can still match in decent IM programs or PM&R which is what I'm thinking of going into. Of course I'd love to do better.

What to you guys think? Has other people been able to do pretty well on Step 2 with the plan I described?

thank you for your time.

 

[Golding]

Hey Guys,

I'm a 3rd year.....just began clinical rotations about a month ago (in peds) and will finish all my cores May 10 or so. I'm finding it difficult to study....I think I just need more motivation right now. I'm hoping that after I finish all my cores (peds, ob/gyn, IM, surgery, and psych) and just dedicate 3months to Step 2, I can do pretty well. I'd take Step 2 the first week of August (mabybe the 7th) and get my scores in by Sept. 1 so I can have the score in by the beginning of the application cycle. This is assuming I do nothing regarding studying for Step 2 until then....just try to do as well as I can on rotations.

BTW, we don't have to take shelf exams ( I go to SGU, a carribean school). I got a 222/95 on step 1(nothing great but not too bad in my opinion). I've heard you should try to shoot for a little better score on Step 2, but if I get a score similar to that I'm sure I can still match in decent IM programs or PM&R which is what I'm thinking of going into. Of course I'd love to do better.

What to you guys think? Has other people been able to do pretty well on Step 2 with the plan I described?

thank you for your time.

I'm roughly doing the same plan, and am in the same school. I'm studying maybe a month and a half, but have been studying for the past 2 months while doing some rotations. It's hard to be motivated when you're a year away from your next big exam, and so fresh off your last big exam. You don't have to push yourself to study right away, but you'd at least do yourself some good doing UWorld questions throughout your rotations (doing Peds questions during the Peds rotation, IM questions during IM, etc). Then you'd be ahead of the game when you do start studying. But three months should be plenty if you do it right.

You can motivate yourself reasonably by using UWorld to constantly see where you stand. Try to preliminarily aim 10 points higher than your Step 1 score (which is certainly a good score, but has room for improvement). If you start finding yourself likely within attaining your goal, aim 10 points higher than that. You'll notice your motivation to study goes up quite dramatically when those months you've set aside start to creep up closer.