Taking USMLE step 2 without step 1 (3rd year DO)

[Glyx-13]

Hi, I'm a current third year at a well established DO school. I've read enough on the forum to get the sense that it's highly advised for DO students to take the USMLE. Unfortunately, my school never advised me to take the USMLE (in fact they did the opposite) so I never ended up taking step 1. I took comlex 1 and scored poorly, in the 35% percentile. I'm wondering if there is any advise on whether or not to take step 2 without step 1. Or whether you would advise me to, if possible, take step 1 this dec/jan and hope for the best. It would be difficult to juggle rotations/step 1, but I'm worried about my prospects without it. I've got years of research and volunteer work in the field of psychiatry/psychology and have a strong desire to stay in the midwest.

I apologize for stealing the spotlight for current applicants, but I need to decide soon whether taking step 1 this jan is a good option for me, or if I should skip it, use my comlex level 1 score and then take both comlex and usmle step 2 in april/may.

I appreciate any advice you can give me, thanks!

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[Mad Jack]

Hi, I'm a current third year at a well established DO school. I've read enough on the forum to get the sense that it's highly advised for DO students to take the USMLE. Unfortunately, my school never advised me to take the USMLE (in fact they did the opposite) so I never ended up taking step 1. I took comlex 1 and scored poorly, in the 35% percentile. I'm wondering if there is any advise on whether or not to take step 2 without step 1. Or whether you would advise me to, if possible, take step 1 this dec/jan and hope for the best. It would be difficult to juggle rotations/step 1, but I'm worried about my prospects without it. I've got years of research and volunteer work in the field of psychiatry/psychology and have a strong desire to stay in the midwest.

I apologize for stealing the spotlight for current applicants, but I need to decide soon whether taking step 1 this jan is a good option for me, or if I should skip it, use my comlex level 1 score and then take both comlex and usmle step 2 in april/may.

I appreciate any advice you can give me, thanks!

The big risk you would face is poor performance on Step 1. The 35th percentile on COMLEX would likely put you somewhere around a 20X on Step 1, which isn't exactly helping your cause unless you seriously upped your game. I don't know how much Step 2 will help a person without a Step 1, as most places that don't care about Step 1 for DOs don't really care about Step 2 either, and the ones that care about Step 1 for DOs probably aren't going to forgive not having it because you took Step 2. Could help, but poor performance could also be disastrous. It's a lot of things to weigh, and I'm curious what other people on the forum think on the matter.

Also, don't ever feel like you're "stealing the spotlight." There's plenty of forum to go around for everyone.

 

[srs33]

Glyx-13, I am in the same position as you right now and was wondering if you had made a decision whether or not to take Step 2 over Step 1 or whether you had heard any advice.

Thanks! Sorry to somewhat hijack the thread

 

[MrWonderful]

Do not take it. You did poorly on COMLEX 1, what makes you think you'll do well on USMLE 2? Not to sound harsh but you need a convincing reason why its worth the gamble

 

[TheRiddler]

Do not take it. You did poorly on COMLEX 1, what makes you think you'll do well on USMLE 2? Not to sound harsh but you need a convincing reason why its worth the gamble

And for that reason, I'm out.