Summer "Break" between MS2-MS3

Congrats on Step 1!

Most medical schools do not schedule an official school break between the MS2 and MS3 years. Most of the time, students go straight into rotations after Step 1 dedicated. If your medical school does have a pre-determined break, lucky you! Nevertheless, depending on how early you decide to take Step 1, some of you may have some time off during the spring or summer, ranging from a few days to a few weeks.

This is where being efficient comes in handy: if you kept up with your Anki over the summer between MS1 and MS2, you’re likely in a great spot to have some time off before you begin clerkships. Given that MS3 is the most demanding year of medical school, it is highly recommended you push yourself a little bit so that you have some time off before this challenging year.

If you do manage to get some of this time off, we suggest that you relax so that you are ready for MS3, which can be summed up best with Charles Dickens’ famous line, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” (Who knew he was actually talking about medicine?!)

There is no downloadable PDF in this section. Next up, MS3.