step II timing

Love the site, thanks for everyone's help thus far.
New question: I'm planning on packing up the start of my 4th year with ortho rotations (big surprise). If I kicked butt on step I (248), should I take step II before those rotations at the downside of sacrificing time to prepare for ortho, or should I "ignore" step II and just take care of it after the rotations are done (the downside being not doing as well)? The latter idea would be that it dosn't matter a whole lot what step II scores are. Also, would it not be true that the program wouldn't even see my scores if I take them at the end of the year? Any advice here would be really appreciated. :pimp:

The thinking is that with a good step I score, you should get the interviews you need. On all of my interviews, I only had 1 ask for my step 2 scores out of 10!

Taking Step 2 after the interview process takes some pressure off you early, but you will slowly begin to forget the stuff you learned during your third year clerkships.

There are A BUNCH of posts like this, use the search function for others responses.

IMHO, put it off, if you get a crappy test generated (and I know some who rocked step I and went down quite a bit on Step II) by the computer, and go down quite a bit, that could hurt you.

Wait until after your rotations and interviews. I wasn't asked for it and I'm pretty sure most programs are going 99% on Step I. You've already proven you can do well on tests and in school. My school of thought is you have very little to gain and everything to lose. Even with a sweet score on StepII it just says you do well on tests which you probably have already proven with a long track record. I don't think you'll drop that much in taking it later anyway. I took it in March, used 2 days for Crush the Boards, 2 days for NMS questions and went up 25 points. Granted I pulled a good test for me but if you studied hard for the shelf exams and did well it'll come back to you. My other advice is to go with the horses. Step II does not try to throw you off with too many distractors like Step one. If you get half way through the question and feel like you know what it has to be, go with it and never second guess.

I took step II in december and wasn't asked about it except one interview (though I did match there). I agree with BigPiece, take it after interviews and ortho rotations, with a step I score that's solid all you have do is pass. But, I would take it very soon after interviewing as you don't want to spend your spring break "studying"--trust me since I just spent the week skiing Colorado. 4th year is awesome and you should enjoy it. :pimp:

I am in the minority here, but I say take it now and get it out of the way. I took it early (a few weeks before I finished 3rd year), and improved my score, so I decided to submit the score. I had a couple interviewers that commended me for taking it and improving my already solid score (237 on step I).

Taking it early can't hurt you. You don't have to submit the score if you don't do well on it. Almost everyone I have spoke with that spent more than a day or two studying for it (I spent about 2 hours a day for 1 week) has done as well, or improved on their score. If you take it early, the material will most likely be fresh in your head. I could go on forever, but I think the most important reason to take it early was the fact that I didn't have to take another exam after I finished my last shelf and I could let all that peds, psych, and ob slip into oblivion.

as a 4th year who is currently studying for step 2, I would tell you to take it now. You do not have to release your score. Given your score on step 1, I probably would not bother releasing it. It sucks studying now. It has been almost 2 years since I've looked at peds/ob and I've forgotten everything. Just my 2 cents.