<p>That’s what I don’t get—you have to swipe into the staff locker rooms so there is theoretically security. Just, apparently, not very good security.</p>
<p>in the research parts of the building at least (where I’m actually writing from at the moment waiting for my 10pm time point ), it would appear that the majority of thefts occur at the hands of the building staff - not random people walking around.</p>
<p>I’m curious about preparing for Step 1. Is it really the most important test a medical student will take? Talked with a MS2 over the holidays who was uber stressed about it. Said he isn’t sure about the “best” way to prepare and gets various opinions. Curious about experiences here. Any preferred study programs?</p>
<p>What works for one student isn’t going to work for another. D1 eschewed the Kaplan prep class offered (free!) by her med school and prepped on her own. </p>
<p>And the STEP 1 is majorly important for med students because: </p>
<p>1) you only get 3 chances to pass (and not passing on the first attempt carries a stigma; three strikes and you’re not allowed to graduate from med school)
2) at many (perhaps most) med schools, a student cannot progress to the clinical portion of their training until they pass the exam
3) your score strongly influences your eligibility for certain specialties
4) your score is one of the top 5 factors that residency directors use to determine whether or not a student will get an interview/acceptance for a particular residency program</p>
<p>Also, unlike SAT or MCAT, if you pass (and something like 94% of US MD students do, for most medical students, the stress is not about pass vs. fail, it’s about getting the highest score possible), you cannot retake to try and get a higher score.</p>
<p>And yes, generally there is no one best option. The only consensus things are the use of the book First Aid for the USMLE step 1 and USMLE World question bank.</p>
<p>I think DS was pretty stressed out, maybe partly because many of his circle of classmates were stressed out by this test as well. Most of them spent a lot of time on it, and he thought he had not put in enough time, thus the stress. He seems to be pleased with the score he received considering the amount of time (which is less than most of his close circle of friends did according to him) he had put in.</p>
<p>I heard that in the end, the high scorers not only study more when they prepare for the test, but also consistently study more in their first two years (like a girl who regularly studied 13 hours a day in her first two years even before she started to prepare for the test) and maybe have less emphasis on other activities (research, life outside of studying, etc.) DS said those students share some special kind of personality like they are very much organized/focused and like to put everything under their full control in every aspect in their lives (and gunning for the few very competitive specialties.) He thinks every med school has its share of such students (unlike colleges, there may be a higher concentration of such students.)</p>
<p>I do not know how he prepared for the test.</p>
<p>Step I is arguably the only objective apples to apples factor that residency PDs have when it comes time to offering an interview or a rank spot. All other factors tend to have a subjective component to them. As such Step 1 is very important.</p>
<p>Wowmom’s entire post above is quite on point, especially the part about “what works for one student isn’t going to work for another.” Although all academics from the first two years are fair game for Step 1, my S indicated that his studying hard during the second year courses dealing with the various organ systems along with his heavy reliance on Doctors in Training review course, First Aid and US World questions/full length exams were the keys to his high score. But that’s what worked for my S and others will use other different successful prep tactics/tools. There is no one size fits all prep.</p>
<p>WayOutWestMom - That is terrible and I am so very sorry that so many awful things happened to your daughter. I asked my D if she ever had anything stolen. The only thing she could remember was her Contigo mug. I guess she has been lucky.</p>
<p>rutgersmamma - D also used the First Aid USMLE book and question bank to prepare for Step 1. As others have said, what is best for one is not always best for another. While Step 1 is the most important, D believes that residency program directors also looked at Step 2 numbers somewhere along the way.</p>
<p>texaspg - D is counting on me retiring (I look forward to this!) when she has a family and I will follow her anywhere. I hope she and future H will be able to stay near us, but if that is not the case, we will gladly move.</p>
<p>As far as you know, do many MS3 students go back to campus very late after the break (as compared to, say, UG students)?</p>
<p>I know it costs a lot to fly during this time of year. But it is as if most of DS’s classmates fly (or drive) back to campus just one day before the school starts. How could people adjust the life (and time zone difference) within such a short time?</p>
<p>DS briefly mentioned STEP 2 exactly one time during the break. It seems he does not think much about this test. In comparison, during the winter break in MS2, he talked a lot more about STEP 1.</p>
<p>I think DS is still undecided about whether he will do the research year. But my guess is he will in the end.</p>
<p>When my S was MS3 he flew back from the west coast to midwest on last day of break. This included catching a connecting flight. I understood the main reason to get back was a new rotation started with new residents and attendings and you didn’t want to get a clinical rotation off on the wrong foot by not showing up on the first day(s). As S had only been off a couple of weeks, it wasn’t a big deal to adjust.</p>
<p>As to Step 2: some residencies require it before they will offer an interview which in your S’s case could mean applying in September 2014 as interviews will begin in October, November. Most require it before ranking which in your S’s case could mean February 2015. I think a few only require it before one starts the residency (June 2015). If as you indicate your S is planning a research year, that pushes everything ahead a year. So depending on a student’s plans, there may not be the urgency to take Step 2 like there was Step 1.</p>
<p>Jug-it seems more and more specialties are wanting Step 2 CK before offering interviews and Step 2 CS before ranking.</p>
<p>somemom: If that’s true then I think students would tend to benefit by taking Step 2 both as soon as the third year is completed and when they can get their “two weeks” of prep in.</p>
<p>That’s D1’s plan. She’s scheduled to take her Step 2 in April.</p>
<p>The tricky part of all that is getting the test dates you want and traveling to CS and scheduling that around time off of rotations for study, step 2 CK, travel to CS, plus interviews. DD has no extra time left this spring, she will be in rotations straight through until graduation because of the inefficiencies of some of the summer & fall times off.</p>
<p>Do the students need to travel to another city to take the test unless the city where their school is at happens to be a large city? Which one is typically taken first? Is it STEP-2 CK?</p>
<p>DS saw an oral surgeon for a consultation session about his wisdom teeth. After doctor had learned that DS is at a med school, he said to him: We can talk professional to professional. DS nodded as if he agreed.</p>
<p>For the surgery rotation, he happens to be in cardiac surgery. He said it could be an “easier” one as they will not want the students to be too near where the “real action” is - the students, being on the lowest rank, are not qualified to do anything in such a serious surgery.</p>
<p>Hmm…If a doctor there trained him to do a CPR-like task, he could be quite trainable in this area. I once read an article in which it is said that if a person is very good (meaning very precise) at the rhythm, he could be good at doing some task that requires very good sense about timing. DS is likely good at this. He tried to show us what the degree of “swing” in music rhythm is during the break by demonstrating it to us. But we, being tone deaf, still could not get it. He could be practicing this kind of skill for hours on his idle/free day.</p>
<p>Step 2 clinical knowledge is taken first. </p>
<p>Step 2 clinical skills is only offer in 5 cities: Houston, Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles and Philadelphia. Those cities have test sites with specially trained standardized patients. So unless your S lives in one of those cities, he’s going to have to travel to take his Step 2 CS.</p>
<p>Scheduling can be an huge issue–one of the reasons why D1 is taking her Step 2 early. She’s front loading her 4th year rotations so she will be able to take Nov-Dec off for interviews and will have her ambulatory care rotation in Jan. The ambulatory sites are all pretty chill about letting students make up time they take off for interviews.</p>
<p>This fall D1 had 2 OOS med students living with her who were doing away rotations at her hospital. One of students was academically dismissed from her away rotation for missing too many days due to residency interviews. Ouch! An academic dismissal from a rotation is big black mark on her record.</p>
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<p>Typically, perhaps, but you can take the two parts of Step 2 in any order.</p>
<p>Wowmom….“Scheduling can be an huge issue”</p>
<p>Somemom… “The tricky part of all that is getting the test dates you want and traveling to CS and scheduling that around time off of rotations for study, step 2 CK, travel to CS, plus interviews.” </p>
<p>S failed to sign up early for CK and CS so he didn’t take CS and CK until August, Sept respectively during fourth year. Fortunately his school had built into fourth year schedules the ability to take time off for tests and interviews without penalty (fear of making up missed time off). As a note, it may help to talk to attendings/residents/dept. heads concerning additional time off. Some were, some were not willing to cut a student some slack regarding additional time off during rotations. </p>
<p>For CS: attending let my S leave a rotation at noon day before CS. He flew to test center later in day, stayed at hotel with restaurant (dinner) next to test center (hotel that had free shuttle to and from airport), took CS next day, walked back to hotel, caught shuttle, and flew back in the evening. (Note: although I could be wrong I think the test takers were provided with a lunch). All in all, an easy peasy process.</p>
<p>As to prepping for CK: S’s school didn’t have any dedicated study time built in to schedule. He just did it at night and on weekends. Besides just wanting to get Step 2 over with, he spent a little more than “two weeks” prepping as he wanted his score to be in the same vicinity as his Step 1 score (enough prep to get a Step 2 score in the same church as Step 1, but a different pew, he felt would be enough). From what I understand that was an okay approach unless maybe you didn’t do well on Step 1 and are looking to post a much bigger number on Step 2.</p>
<p>As to interviews:
As I was S’s travel agent, the thing that scared me the most was the potential order of dates that interview invites (II) would roll in. As he had applied to programs throughout the country, I expected him to be on a continuous and costly loop of flying back and forth. Fortunately it didn’t work out that way. As programs gave multiple interview day options, we were able to keep his flying time down to a minimum. Hopefully, you’ll have the same luck with scheduling.</p>
<p>Random thoughts about interviewing: </p>
<p>decide early on what, if any, value attending pre/post interview day receptions would have for S/D. In one instance S scheduled his interview but there was no mention of any reception. Two weeks before interview, S got notice of pre interview dinner. Changing to an earlier flight was expensive. On the other hand it was nice that program had arranged for a current resident to pick him up and drop him off at his hotel after the dinner. (Some other programs did this as well). Most programs however required student to get to pre/post interview day receptions on their own. So this can affect flight scheduling. As a note, S felt these pre/post interviews were valuable. I think just as a potential resident can look good on a paper application and turn out not to be so good in person, the same thing goes for a student and a residency program.</p>
<p>IIs typically come with list of hotels with preferred rates. To me, especially in cold weather cities, I wanted S to roll out of bed and just walk across the street. Being on time for interview was the most important thing to me, not cost. So although some hotels might be less costly, they would be farther away from interview location and might require a cab ride. If S/D is in say a Vegas strip hotel, getting a cab is very easy, but in a smaller city, the desk might have to call a cab, it’s snowing, there’s traffic, yadda, yadda, yadda, and S/D ends up late for interview. Not good.</p>
<p>I would prefer hotels with free airport shuttle service, if possible. A hotel offering breakfast was not a big deal as S was typically amped on interview day and wouldn’t take time to eat at hotel anyway. Besides programs always had coffee, pastry reception with PD before interview day got underway. </p>
<p>One other thing we were able to do to a couple of times to minimize time off from rotations was to schedule interviews on Friday/Monday. In one case, S caught a flight one Thursday afternoon so that he could be at pre interview dinner, then interviewed the next day. He then flew to another city over the weekend where he stayed and hung out with a friend. He then went to another interview on Monday Veteran’s Day (a school holiday) and then flew back in the late afternoon. So there was minimal time away from rotation.</p>
<p>Good luck. Buckle up, you’re in for quite a ride.</p>
<p>Thanks for sharing your S/D’s or your own experience. It is a good learning experience for me.</p>
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<p>Just wanted to add that I heard the same thing from several of my friends too</p>