When Should I Take STEP II?

[78222]

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I know this has been asked before and the answer is usually "if you did well on STEP I, take STEP II later. If you didn't do well on STEP I take it early". Well, I did pretty well on STEP I so I would rather not have my STEP II score show up before I interview as I think it will only hurt my chances. So my question is "When exactly is 'late'?" If I take it in September will it show up on my application and effect my chances of getting an interview? My school requires us to take it by the end of December, which is when I considered taking it, but from talking to other people, it seems that will be when the bulk of interviews are.

 

[lord_jeebus]

As long as you submit ERAS before your Step II score is official, you can withhold the score report. If I remember correctly, ERAS opens for submission on Sept 1.

 

[bestmed]

How important is it to have the Step 2 scores available before the match? Do programs not even look at the Step 2 scores as long as one passes it before the match or residency start date?

 

[ginger60]

My understanding is that, provided that you are at an american medical school, step 2 scores don't matter for the match unless stated otherwise by the program...none of the programs I applied to required scores for the match although I have heard of a few in other specialties that required scores by ranking time

 

[MedObsession]

I know this has been asked before and the answer is usually "if you did well on STEP I, take STEP II later. If you didn't do well on STEP I take it early". Well, I did pretty well on STEP I so I would rather not have my STEP II score show up before I interview as I think it will only hurt my chances. So my question is "When exactly is 'late'?" If I take it in September will it show up on my application and effect my chances of getting an interview? My school requires us to take it by the end of December, which is when I considered taking it, but from talking to other people, it seems that will be when the bulk of interviews are.

I think the concept of "take it later" really only benefits people that don't have the December deadline imposed by their schools. My school also made us take Step 2 by Dec. I did well on Step 1 and was very worried that if I took it early it would only hurt me. Despite that, I decided to take it in August before I even applied for residency. Turns out, by being closer to all of my 3rd year clinical rotations, and not having a busy schedule, my score went up 12 points!! It was so nice to have Step 2 out of the way before having to worry about submitting ERAS, scheduling interviews, completing electives (that likely cover material not even emphasized on Step 2), and traveling to interviews. I spoke to classmates of mine that "waited until later" and were much more stressed because they were squeezing it in to their exhausting interview season. I only know a few people whose scores went down after taking Step 2, and those were the ones that took it later.

In the end, even if you take it in December, the program still will have time to see your Step 2 scores before making their rank list. This year they have until Feb 25, which is well past the time it would take to get your results. Many of my programs specifically stated in their application requirements, that the scores needed to be in by ranking time. Some PD's told me that they prefer Step 2 scores because they feel it's more reflective of clinical skills than Step 1, which was all the basic science knowledge.