Y4 scheduling for Medical school

[libertyyne]

I am having difficulty determining a optimal year 4 schedule. Could someone talk about some the best schedules that you could think of?
I have the ability to do a sub I at home in May and then start aways. Would getting them all out of the way early be benificial or should i take may for step 2 cs and CK and schedule aways for June , July and August.
Thanks!

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[bobjonesbob]

I would take CK and CS early to get them out of the way. Your general knowledge should be peaking at this time coming off of 3rd year and all your shelf exams. However if you haven't been doing well on your shelf exams consider delaying CK if your step 1 is good enough, but otherwise just knock it out. It will make your 4th year better. The main thing with your aways is getting letters in a timely fashion. Rotations in June, July, August should give you enough time to have a letter from each before ERAS is submitted.

 

[longhaul3]

What kind of electives does your school offer? MD school? Decent home department? Where do you stand research-wise? Bare minimum, you have to have something you can talk about for 10 minutes at grand rounds on your sub-i's.

I recommend doing your home sub-i no later than May. Do a month of neuroradiology late spring/early summer if you can, since it's the one knowledge-based thing that will make you stand out on aways. Take CK and CS during that month (although it may be too late to get a CS date that month). Not a big deal if you can't take them then, but it would make Oct-Nov more of a pain.

Do your aways in time to finish by 9/15. Are you set on doing 3? It's not necessary but unfortunately is becoming more common. Choose them carefully. Don't waste them at big-name places just for the sake of it. You need to start applying within the next few weeks.

Don't schedule anything significant from mid-September to February. Submit ERAS with all 4 letters no later than 9/14.

 

[libertyyne]

I would take CK and CS early to get them out of the way. Your general knowledge should be peaking at this time coming off of 3rd year and all your shelf exams. However if you haven't been doing well on your shelf exams consider delaying CK if your step 1 is good enough, but otherwise just knock it out. It will make your 4th year better. The main thing with your aways is getting letters in a timely fashion. Rotations in June, July, August should give you enough time to have a letter from each before ERAS is submitted.

I have been doing really well on all the shelf exams. I have an ok step 1 with 250+, but i would have to burn a month early in spring summer to ensure that i have similar or better performance on step 2.
The other thing is my research is weak, and I need to bolster that , so thinking spending 1 month getting that in order might not be a bad plan either, and taking step 2 early detracts from that goal.

In the end it seems like step 2 is a low value but high risk , so pushing it so the score doesnt show up , but taking it before interviews seems like a decent plan as it would allow me to finish up research, get all my aways done before september.

 

[longhaul3]

I have been doing really well on all the shelf exams. I have an ok step 1 with 250+, but i would have to burn a month early in spring summer to ensure that i have similar or better performance on step 2.
The other thing is my research is weak, and I need to bolster that , so thinking spending 1 month getting that in order might not be a bad plan either, and taking step 2 early detracts from that goal.

In the end it seems like step 2 is a low value but high risk , so pushing it so the score doesnt show up , but taking it before interviews seems like a decent plan as it would allow me to finish up research, get all my aways done before september.

CK is low-value, low-risk. If you scored 250+ on Step 1 and are doing well on shelf exams, you will do fine on CK. If you wait until after your sub-i's, you'll have spent 4 months on neurosurgery service while you forgot everything else. Then you'll take the exam in November on the only free day you have between interviews on opposite coasts and get two softball neurosurgery questions while 40% of the exam is about abnormal uterine bleeding and fetal heart tracings that you haven't seen in almost a year.

I understand your thinking, though, and it's what I did, but I wish I had just taken it asap. Take a month for research, study 2 hours a day for 2 weeks while you're writing a manuscript, and knock it out. You do need to start looking for a date for CS now.