Taking Step 1 after Third Year

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I'm an MS2 and our school is undergoing a curriculum change in which we will be taking Step 1 after our third year/clinical rotations. We will have a dedicated ~6 weeks to study for this exam right after finishing rotations.

I was wondering, to those who are doing this at your school:
1. Should we subscribe and do UWorld questions during MS2, or during MS3, or during the dedicated 6 weeks?
2. Should we subscribe and do practice exams ""?
3. Any other ideas based on your experience?

Please advise. Thanks!

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That's what it seems like so far. But I know there are other medical schools who have already done this curriculum structure for a while.
 
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When are you going to take Step 2? Right after?

Honestly, 6 weeks is probably enough to review literally everything from MS1-2. I'd use USMLE Rx during 2nd year, and I guess UWorld CK for 3rd, adding UWorld Step 1 for the second half of 3rd year. Definitely recommend NBMEs (and UWorld, Pathoma, FA) for the months leading up to and including dedicated study.

This is all just a guess at what I'd do though. I've never seen this type of curriculum before.
 
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Thanks @hallowmann. Lol apparently several schools are already doing it: Baylor, Columbia, UPenn, FIU, NYU are some examples. UCSF is going to implement this change too.
 
wow this sounds dumb

it's like they change things to change them even when common sense wuld say dumb

proof will be in the score pudding
 
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wow this sounds dumb

it's like they change things to change them even when common sense wuld say dumb

proof will be in the score pudding

As has been pointed out, a lot of schools (Duke, Columbia, Penn, Harvard, Yale, Cornell, etc) havealready adopted this type of curriculum, many of them for the past several years. I don't think any of these schools have had trouble with step 1 medians or matching (but again, you could certainly argue that's due to confounding factors like innate test taking ability of the students, inbreeding, or brand names).

The (few) 3rd years at my school I've talked to started studying a little bit during their final clinical rotation and then went all out during the dedicated period right after. Unfortunately, I cannot tell you exactly what they've used to do so or when they got subscriptions to things.
 
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So are you guys just doing back-to-back Step 1/2 CS/2 CK? That's nuts.

Please advise. Thanks!

I'd say 60-70% CK overlaps with Step 1, and actual clinical exposure would have made some of the harder parts of Step 1 dead easy. (One oncology rotation and most of the obscure oncogenetic associations would be pretty obvious. One ICU term and you'd get a much stronger grasp of applied physiology--which Step 1 loves.) And while CS is not a total joke (good people have failed it), the vast majority of AMGs pass on the first try (95%+).

How about this approach:

Kaplan QBank during 2nd year (it's not great but good enough and why not? since you have an extra year).
One or two NBMEs to see how solid your foundation actually is coming out of second year, and so you'll have a sense of your strengths and weaknesses to tailor further studying.
USMLERx during 3rd year to maintain your Step 1 knowledge-base + UWorld Step 2.
UWorld Step 1/Step 2 (repeat) for the last 6 weeks + NBMEs. Prioritise UWorld Step 1, since there's so much overlap with Step 2 and the curve for Step 2 is much more lenient than Step 1.

This way, you'll be thoroughly familiar with FA before your dedicated study period and have a good sense of where you're at with Step 1 sooner rather than later.
 
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@lymphocyte I like the way you think. How would you recommend someone in a similar position (although at a school that takes Step 1 after 2nd year) use the protected time they are given a whole year before they take the exam. In other words, how would you approach preparing for third year during this protected time if you were not taking Step 1 before third year, with the goal of having a similar fund of knowledge as well-studied classmates?
 
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FIU does this and when I interviewed they said their average Step 1 score was 240
 
@lymphocyte I like the way you think. How would you recommend someone in a similar position (although at a school that takes Step 1 after 2nd year) use the protected time they are given a whole year before they take the exam. In other words, how would you approach preparing for third year during this protected time if you were not taking Step 1 before third year, with the goal of having a similar fund of knowledge as well-studied classmates?

I don't quite understand. It doesn't seem like you're in a similar position because you take Step 1 after 2nd year. And what do you mean by "protected time"? How much time do you get? When do you get it? What is it meant to be for? When do you take CK/CS?
 
I don't quite understand. It doesn't seem like you're in a similar position because you take Step 1 after 2nd year. And what do you mean by "protected time"? How much time do you get? When do you get it? What is it meant to be for? When do you take CK/CS?
I don't know this poster's situation, but as an example of one such situation, at my school we get a block of protected Step 1 study time that we can slot in wherever we like among our rotations. We are assigned/trade for the schedule of Core rotations that we'd like, and then any time that we are not assigned to a Core, we can use for electives or research or vacation or Step study, up to the total amount of time alotted for each of those elements. Everyone gets a certain amount of that non-Core time immediately following 2nd year exams, which is when most people take some vacation and then use their dedicated Step time, but technically you could partially complete 3rd year before taking Step if you so chose (I selected a schedule where I do just that).
 
@lymphocyte yes, my post above is a mess. I attend a school where students get several weeks of protected time ("dedicated time" looks to be synonymous on this website) after 2nd year to study for Step. I have chosen for various reasons to instead take Step after 3rd year. How would you recommend using this "dedicated time" to prepare for 3rd year? Or would you recommend using it some other way?

In response to your questions, I will take CK/CS a few weeks after Step 1. Both tests will be taken after 3rd year + before embarking on a 1-yr international masters program unrelated to anything preclinical and tangentially related to anything clinical; hence, sitting for either test post-masters is not realistic.
 
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Use Rx and Kaplan during MS1-3. UWorld during dedicated. UFAP.
 
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