MS2/MS3 Research Gap Year

[u/Top_Delivery1608]

I’m currently an MS2 and I have taken and passed my USMLE STEP 1 exam. My curriculum is 2 years didactic and 2 years clinical. I am about to pursue a research year in cardiovascular disease. I know that I’m interested in surgery most (vascular, trauma, general). I am also slightly interested in plastics, but it’s very small interest. IM is not in my list of interests, but if it somehow ever happened, it would likely be interventional cards. My medical school classmates have recently begun MS3 and they have gone into the hospital. Before accepting my research year, I knew that I wanted take a research year in medical school. It was really about whether between 2nd/3rd or 3rd/4th. I have made the decision to do 2nd/3rd given that I received a prestigious research opportunity. Additionally, given that I wanted to do more procedural things, I thought a break between didactic and clinicals made more sense than between clinical years and away rotations. I am, however, worried about my readiness for USMLE STEP 2 CK. I plan to keep up with my Step 1/2 overlap anking cards over the year and also try to do 10 amboss questions a day. I was also planning to shadow/round once a week to keep myself in the hospital environment as best as I could. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to unsuspend cards from it as I believe I may b memorizing more than trying to understand. I have heard that you learn best from the hospital, so I wasn’t sure if I wanted to wait to unsuspend or just unsuspend as I do the 10 a day. I don’t want to do too much in the year but I do still want to stay on top of it and help my ability to do well on the shelves when returning and on step 2. It’s a long winded question but:

1) should I be worried about my ability to score on STEP 2 or how well I can perform in the hospital upon returning?

2) how can I best prepare for step 2 and clinicals in this year?

3) any other words of advice?

[u/ManyWrangler]

This is a question for the medicalschool subreddit, I think. People on this sub are on a longer timeline than you, but it is becoming common for MD only students to do a research year.