Take step2 before step1 ?

I have spoken with a number of people who have taken step 2 before step 1. My general understanding is that if you have a lot of clinical experience, it may be to your advantage to take step 2 first. Because your experience will help you with this exam, and thus when you write the exam, and you pass, or better yet, get a good score, you will become a little more confident when you want to tackle step 1 which many consider to be a more difficult exam.
If however you have just recently graduated from basic sciences, then it is probably more advisable to take step 1 first while all of these details are still fresh in your head.
I just wrote step 2, and I passed and I can say that step 2 is not very much like step 1. They test in very different ways so don't worry too much about studying in too much detail of pathophysiology as step 2 tends to be more about management and diagnosis rather than the mechanims of the disease.