Take step II early?

[aznsuperm3]

I did decent on my step I (233/99) and I am planning to apply to a few pretty selective EM residencies in big cities. Do you guys think I should take my step II early since I don't really have a rockstar step I score? Or would my step I score be sufficient to land me enough interviews to match at the more desirable EM programs? Thanks for the help!

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[Richspiders07]

I did decent on my step I (233/99) and I am planning to apply to a few pretty selective EM residencies in big cities. Do you guys think I should take my step II early since I don't really have a rockstar step I score? Or would my step I score be sufficient to land me enough interviews to match at the more desirable EM programs? Thanks for the help!

I'm a huge advocate of going ahead and taking it as close to the end of 3rd year as possible. There really isn't much better prep than busting your butt all year for shelf exams. I took a practice test a few days after my last shelf, "studied" for 2 weeks, then got the same score on the real deal as my practice test. Its nice to be done... and it was easier to study with lots of info still fresh in my mind.

If you do relatively well on the shelf exams [>80], you'll likely improve a good amount on step 2. If u take a practice is get near 250, you're golden.