Residency Preparation

Strategies for Scheduling Step 2 Exams

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When is the best time to schedule your exams? There is no single right answer for this because a lot of factors must be considered. Some of the things you need to consider are below. Any of the associate deans in 155 Meiling will be happy to speak to you about your individual concerns.

All OSU students must have taken Step 2 CK and Step 2 CS by December 31. No exceptions. Failure to do so results in an appearance before the Med 3-4 student review committee to explain your circumstances and a potential black mark on your academic record.

If you intend to interview in November and December (early match specialties, highly competitive specialties with limited interview dates), you need to take your Step 2 exams by the end of October. This is not as much because these programs want to see your scores (many do not care particularly) but because you will limit your interview dates if you have exams scheduled in the heavy traffic interview times. It is impossible to reschedule Step 2 CS if you have to bump it for an interview and then you place yourself in academic jeopardy (see the above bullet).

If you intend to go through the military match, you need to take both exams before the end of August.

If your Step 1 score was below the national average (218), you should take your Step 2 CK exam by the end of September so that your programs know that you passed by the end of October (before your Medical Student Performance Evaluation is released) and are worthy of consideration. This also may give you the opportunity to significantly improve your score and help your status.

Beware scheduling your Step 2 CS exam in December when there is a possibility of snow and winter weather. Airline travel is not a guarantee any longer of arriving on time, and the testing centers do not care what your reason was for being late or missing an exam date. If you miss a December exam date, the next available date is usually in March.

Do not try to fly into your CS testing city on the day of your exam (see above bullet). Fly in or drive in the night/day before. Flying back to Columbus is not a problem and can be planned for after the exam. Just remember to give yourself ample time to get to the airport and get through security.

Students who do not release their exam scores to residency programs are typically placed much lower on the program rank list, or not ranked at all.

There are some other key items. For instance, do not try to take an exam right before or after you get married or have a new baby in the family. Concentration and study time are blown to pieces. Others we can discuss with you personally.

Please keep working on scheduling your exams. Only 98 of you have scheduled a Step 2 CS date yet.

Let us know if we can help.

Dan Clinchot, M.D.

dan.clinchot@osumc.edu

Linda Stone, M.D.

linda.stone@osumc.edu

Judith Westman, M.D.

judith.westman@osumc.edu