My scores took just a few days over 4 weeks to come in, to give you some idea. On ERAS you select if you want your scores released automatically. Be careful, you can't change this later like the rest of the app! The advantage of releasing them is that before you even get your scores in the mail the programs you applied to have them and you don't worry about anything. Of course the downside is that if you did not do as well as you'd liked, they know at a possibly critical time in the application cycle. You then have to select each program and send your scores over ERAS which could be kind of a pain. I guess it really comes down to how much time you are going to put into the test and how much time you have on your hands to study. It's not hard to pass it, but if your Step 1 scores are decent then you may not need to take it early. I just got my scores a week before graduation. FYI: I studied for 3 weeks, about 1.5 weeks seriously. Improved my score 8 points from Step 1. Had already matched when I tood Step 2.
