On-Cycle vs Off-Cycle - help me decide

1st year analyst at mid BB. Decent group with solid PE/GE exits mostly to UMM/MM with the occasional MF. I'm not sure if I should start prepping for on-cycle or do off-cycle. 

The answer I've gathered is to just go when you're "ready". I just have no idea what that means lol. I'm confident in my ability to do well in the behavioral and technical questions. Obviously, don't have any deals to talk about at this stage. Wouldn't consider myself particularly strong at modeling, but I'm confident I can handle the pressure with a paper LBO or template model (starting from scratch is scary tho).

Having the extra time to do off-cycle would provide a huge boost and make me much sharper in so many of these areas. But that's an expectation that goes without saying, so not sure it will put me at an advantage compared to on-cycle where there's an understanding that the analysts don't really know shit yet. 

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