USMLE Step 1 End of Third Year?

[Tappy]

Does anyone go to a school where the USMLE Step 1 is recommended for the end of M3? What do you think of this idea? My school is pushing it hard and it seems....strange. Any medical students who wished they would have waited until the first clinical year was over?

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[chessknt]

I would imagine that is a terrible idea because Step 1 doesnt test anything from clerkships, only basic science. The longer you spend away from the basic sciences, the more you are gonna have to review/study to do well.

 

[Depakote]

Does anyone go to a school where the USMLE Step 1 is recommended for the end of M3? What do you think of this idea? My school is pushing it hard and it seems....strange. Any medical students who wished they would have waited until the first clinical year was over?

There is talk of a revised combined Step I/II that would be a combination of basic and clinical sciences. That would be good to take at the end of the 3rd year.

I don't think I would have benefited by taking Step I any later than I did. My pre-clinical curriculum did an excellent job preparing me for Step I and I don't think letting some of the material that I'm not using frequently on the wards (like biochem) stagnate would be beneficial to my preparation for the test.

 

[modelslashactor]

i go to a school where most people take it after 2nd year and people who wait because they think their scores will improve in this system usually are disappointed. in my opinion you're going to know the most step 1 material after a solid pathophys course and a month of doing nothing but studying. if your school gets out of third year in time for you to take a month for studying and still have time to do away rotations, research, etc before application heats up then it could work.

 

[njbmd]

Does anyone go to a school where the USMLE Step 1 is recommended for the end of M3? What do you think of this idea? My school is pushing it hard and it seems....strange. Any medical students who wished they would have waited until the first clinical year was over?

USMLE Step I covers basic science. The further away from your basic science years, the worse you will do on Step I. You would be wise to do Step II at the end of third year but putting off Step I invites failure. Both of the students who failed Step I the year that I took it, were the last to take that exam (took it in late August after second year).

I took USMLE Step I three weeks after second year ended (May 15th was my test date) and had the highest score in my medical school. Since I had a medical student fellowship, I was required to take Step I before my summer fellowship started. It was the best decision that I made.

I took Step II at the end of my third year and Step III in the middle of Feb of my PGY-1 year. It was good to get all of these exams out of the way. Take them as soon as you are ready and don't put them off (especially Step III).

 

[Tappy]

Thanks for the informative replies.

Apparently they are basing this off of some pilot program at UPENN that had good results. Sounds sketchy to me but whatever. I'm leaning towards using post-M2 summer vacation and carve out some additional study time to take it then. I feel like the decay of knowledge during M3 would be too steep. I don't know what they're expecting M3 to teach us in terms of Step 1 but again, whatever. They are going to give us time in M3 but I'd rather do what needs to be done on my own and then relax/study my clinicals during the "USMLE review time" in M3.

 

[IHeartNerds]

At Penn, we take Step 1 after finishing the clerkship year, which for us means taking the boards Jan or Feb of the third year. Most people take 4-6 weeks to study. Our average is >240 but I'll be the first to admit that isn't necessarily causative.

 

[username456789]

Our average is >240

No offense, but that sounds a bit suspect.

 

[FutureDoc4]

I don't think that is suspect at all. I go to a mid-tier state school and our Step I avg is > 230 (I was surprised by this but we just had a meeting about it). So, if my little state school is avg >230 I am sure Penn has no problem avg >240.

 

[AlexMorph]

I don't think that is suspect at all. I go to a mid-tier state school and our Step I avg is > 230 (I was surprised by this but we just had a meeting about it). So, if my little state school is avg >230 I am sure Penn has no problem avg >240.

yup, it's just a reflection of the caliber of the student body as a whole

 

[greg1184]

At my school, I cannot begin my clerkships unless I have already taken Step 1. So for me, this is not an option.

 

[DrJD]

At Penn, we take Step 1 after finishing the clerkship year, which for us means taking the boards Jan or Feb of the third year. Most people take 4-6 weeks to study. Our average is >240 but I'll be the first to admit that isn't necessarily causative.

Perhaps you mean median? That seems like an obscenely high mean for any school...

 

[Jolie South]

At Penn, we take Step 1 after finishing the clerkship year, which for us means taking the boards Jan or Feb of the third year. Most people take 4-6 weeks to study. Our average is >240 but I'll be the first to admit that isn't necessarily causative.

I'm at Baylor and we don't have a mandated time to take Step I. A lot of people take it at the same time as your school (spring of 3rd year) and take around 2 months off to study. There was a fear that allowing students to take it later would lead to a lower average Step score, but that hasn't been the case. Our average is the same as it was before the curriculum switch.

We do have to pass a massive "End of Basic Sciences" test prior to beginning clerkships though.

 

[FutureInternist]

I'm at Baylor and we don't have a mandated time to take Step I. A lot of people take it at the same time as your school (spring of 3rd year) and take around 2 months off to study. There was a fear that allowing students to take it later would lead to a lower average Step score, but that hasn't been the case. Our average is the same as it was before the curriculum switch.

We do have to pass a massive "End of Basic Sciences" test prior to beginning clerkships though.

Man.... I wish I had that luxury.

 

[Prime2000]

I'm at Baylor and we don't have a mandated time to take Step I. A lot of people take it at the same time as your school (spring of 3rd year) and take around 2 months off to study. There was a fear that allowing students to take it later would lead to a lower average Step score, but that hasn't been the case. Our average is the same as it was before the curriculum switch.

We do have to pass a massive "End of Basic Sciences" test prior to beginning clerkships though.

Baylor trying everything in hope they can sit at the grown-ups table, even allowing this.

 

[Jolie South]

Baylor trying everything in hope they can sit at the grown-ups table, even allowing this.

 

[username456789]

Perhaps you mean median? That seems like an obscenely high mean for any school...

I don't care if it's Penn, Harvard, or even Stewart, but I find it very difficult to believe that any school's MEAN would be one full standard deviation above the national mean.

 

[IHeartNerds]

I don't care if it's Penn, Harvard, or even Stewart, but I find it very difficult to believe that any school's MEAN would be one full standard deviation above the national mean.

I have the data straight from our in-house version of "charting outcomes in the match". Don't believe it all you want. Remember that we're not a large school (class size 150), so that our overall contribution to the national average is relatively small.

Interesting fun fact -- a few years ago our average for people going into derm was only 222. Yet all of them matched.

 

[Themistocles]

our average for people going into derm was only 222. Yet all of them matched.

If people in the bottom of the class go into derm, where do the top go? Or do they just skip residency and graduate board-certified in a specialty of their choosing?

 

[indo]

If people in the bottom of the class go into derm, where do the top go? Or do they just skip residency and graduate board-certified in a specialty of their choosing?

They just go in to whatever they want. For some reason people with high board scores are socially mandated to go in to derm or plastic surgery. Not that many people really want to do either of those.

 

[ChiDO]

I have the data straight from our in-house version of "charting outcomes in the match". Don't believe it all you want. Remember that we're not a large school (class size 150), so that our overall contribution to the national average is relatively small.

Interesting fun fact -- a few years ago our average for people going into derm was only 222. Yet all of them matched.

Why don't you post the "in house version"?

 

[jtlc2345]

This is interesting as I've just taken Step 1 and 2CK this summer after 2 years of pre-clinical, 1 year BSc and 2 years of clinical medicine. If I had taken Step 1 straight after year 2, there is no way that I would have passed. Although I guess that is just because our course structure isn't geared towards the USMLEs in any way.

Jonathan