The Power of a Strong Step II

[DZT]

---

Members don't see this ad.

How critical is the step II score in residency. If someone did well in Step I does this mean that they probably should hold off on taking Step II. In other words, can taking the step II only hurt u if u do worse than your step I even if it is a respectable score and if you do better, would it really help that much. Thanks and good luck to everyone.

 

[StringBean]

I know plenty of people (unfortunately not me) who have been advised by their Deans NOT to take step 2 until after interview season b/c they did well enough on Step 1 to be considered for the residencies they were looking at. The reasoning was that if they did worse on Step 2 it would only hurt them.

From the opposite side, it's been told to many by the powers that be that if you have a low or average Step 1 it may be a good idea to take Step 2 in time for residency application provided you feel confident that you will do better. Doing the same or *biting my tongue* worse can look very unimpressive.

Hope that helped!

 

[2TIM4:7]

why the self-doubting? imagine if you scored very well on BOTH step1 and step 2 and you had both to include in your applications. sounds to me you'd be in an even better position than if you had only one good score.

and who are we kidding? did people who received good scores on step1 and continued their study habits suddenly perform poorly on step2. highly unlikely that it would happen.

i for one was told by my school administrator to take it early next year. from what i've been told, it's a great relief to have it over before 4th yr starts and to enjoy your last year in school.

 

[phllystyl]

senioritis afflicts even the strongest amongst us, my friend 😉

The opening of a book is a rare thing these days. gonna have to rekindle that motivation before december.

 

[Smurfette]

why the self-doubting? imagine if you scored very well on BOTH step1 and step 2 and you had both to include in your applications. sounds to me you'd be in an even better position than if you had only one good score.

and who are we kidding? did people who received good scores on step1 and continued their study habits suddenly perform poorly on step2. highly unlikely that it would happen.

i for one was told by my school administrator to take it early next year. from what i've been told, it's a great relief to have it over before 4th yr starts and to enjoy your last year in school.

To be a devil's advocate to the above post:

Actually, I know a lot of people who did well on step I who got a lower score (sometimes significantly lower) on Step 2. Studying for step 2 is different and most people don't take time off of rotations to study for it, let alone spend as many weeks studying for it as step 1. Also, people tend to be overconfident if they kicked butt on step 1 that they are guaranteed another awesome score and find that step 2 is harder than they gave it credit for.

The reason why people say if you did well on Step 1 to wait on step 2 is that step 2 is more clinically relevant---so if you do a lot more poorly on step 2, it could be inferred that you are "book smart" but not "clinically smart". Do most PDs think this way? I don't know, but why risk it? Whereas, improving on step 2 may show that you can't memorize random basic science as well as you can reason out clinical diagnoses in a given patient. Do residents need to know off the top of their heads the Krebs Cycle OR should they be able to recognize signs of PE in a pt and be able to manage it?