USMLE Made Easy

Since I was so confused during the process of application for USMLE step 1 exam, I thought I should note down the step by step procedure for IMG graduates : 1. Get ECFMG ID. Log into ECFMG website and create an account with basic info. Then you will be mailed ECFMG /USMLE ID in 3-5 days. 2. Application for ECFMG certification. At this point, you will be asked to pay 125$. You will get the form 186 to download as soon as you make the payment. 3. Get your passport ready. You will be asked to notarise the form 186 via notarycam. The procedures are well mentioned in the website. You need to upload the first page of form 186 and copy of your passport in the notarycam website. You will be asked to get an appointment for notarycam after you upload these documents. 4. Notarycam personnel will fix an appointment as per your convenience. Keep your passport handy. It will last for 3-4 minutes. It is very simple step. The personnel will verify the passport and your basic informati...

Hello everyone ! Congratulations to all who matched . I did not match and I need your honest suggestions which can help improve my CV. Step one 236 Step 2 224 step 2 CS pass first attempt  Step 3 NOT Taken Yog: 2015 Need visa USCE 4 months . 2 months externship at a small community hospital and 1 month observership at a private clinic and 1 month observership in a good community teaching hospital. Publications: while applying: zero Currently 1 reaearch published and 1 pending for publication both research works are from my home country but published in international journals (but last time when I applied my research work was not complete so publications came afterwards so that was not mentioned in ERAS application) Very few contacts which did not prove useful last time. Applied to 190 IM programs this year got 1 interview from a community hospital and did not match. What should I do in the next 5 months to improve my CV and increase my chances ? I am already working on s...

Congratulations to everyone who matched  :) ) and those who didn't hopefully you'll match next cycle! I matched in Internal Medicine, my #1 choice  :) ) First match cycle.. To all the old grads out there, it's never too late  😀 YOG 2010 (2009 without internship) I took the steps throughout many years cuz I was working and travelling a lot..wasnt ready yet to apply for the match till now. Step 2 CK: 260 done in 2011 Step 1: 245 done in 2013 Step 2 CS: Pass in 2014 Step 3: 259 done in 2018 No USCE No research No US-LORs No contacts Non US-IMG, need a visa Continuously practicing medicine since graduation, did 2 years residency in home country n quit (internal med) then started and finished another residency abroad (family med) 4 LORs from non-US doctors - one waived (3 were from FM doctors and one IM doctor!) Applied to only around 90 programs IM (biggest mistake, it was my first match cycle and I did not research well, I only looked through FREIDA which was mis...

Matched, and here goes my testimony! God is good! All the glory to HIM! He gives wisdom and opened the path for me! This is what I did: I started preparing for step 1 on 2016, matched 2019 FM, total of 3 years. 5 LORs, applied to 71 programs for which I met the requirements. Did thorough research to find where to apply. A. Study time: Step 1: 9 months. Step 2CK: 3 months. Step 2 CS: 2 weeks. Step 3: 2 months. Passed them all at thefirst attempt. B. 9-12 hours a day, 5-6 days a week on a university library, couldn’t do it at home, get distracted easily. C. 2 NMBE for step 1, 2CK. 1 NBME for step 3. D. Did NBME Mid-late part on the study period. Same with UWORLD self assessments. But also trained myself doing as many sets of questions as done at each step. i.e. 7 blocks of 40 questions a day, once or twice a month before step 1. E. Matched 2019 on the specialty and program I loved FM. Step 1: used FA did it three times, uworld once (did not have time to do it twice, I wis...

I guess I have been a beneficiary of all the USMLE groups for the last 3 years, I am trying to give back something. Thanks to everyone who helped on all the forums. Information became easily accessible to every IMG all over the world I matched!  ✌️ I am just sharing my credentials because people like to know it analyze it lol. Step 1 26X Step 2 26X Step 2cs  👍 Step 3 Awaiting result( finished it after match) Visa needed Three, 4th author pubs from India 3 US LORS, two of them were really personalized I think. 1 Indian LOR One year working exp in the dept of Internal medicine, in India 2016 graduate. I already know that there have been too many posts about most of the necessary informations, and there is nothing that I can tell that the book ‘Successful Match’ doesn’t have. I thought of just giving a retrospective analysis. I think this would particularly help the high achievers, people who don’t like to settle for anything lesser. Things I feel I could have done if...

An IMG from Kurdistan and here is my experience : ( warning , it might be long for some to read I apologize) Alhamdulilah.. after 3 years of on and off preparation with full time job and many challenges. Allah the most merciful gave me the best blessing .. Sources : *Kaplan videos very early on *Becker videos very early on *Pathoma very early *Some of Doctor nejeeb videos *Some miscellaneous YouTube videos of radiology , heart sounds , my weak areas *Robbins pathology self assessment *Fa ×6 *Uw ×3 once offline and twice online *100 cases of ethics *BRS behavioral just the questions in the last month *Uw statistics subject review 3 days before the exam Assessments : Nbme 13 ..... 246 ... ( 8 months before exam) Nbme 15.......250 .. ( 4.5 months before exam) Nbme 16 .......252..( 2 months before exam) Then old nbmes I used as a Qbank; did a block aday and they were as follows: Nbme 1 ..... 18 mistakes Nbme 2 ..... 13 mistakes Nbme 3....... 7 mistakes Nbme 4 ...... 5- 10 mistak...

GOT 242 Sources UW 2X UW biostat REVIEW FA 4X and 1x with sp  BB VIDEOS(especially during final days...i used to watch videos in 2X AND then read the same Ch in FA) pathoma book and videos(GOLD) genetics kaplan BRS Behav:: 2 chapters :: Dr patient relationship and medical Ethics vvimp please read them Self Anat OMY Beckers videos on Behav.Sceinces(GOLD) TEST SCORES NBME 18 online 231 1.5 month before exam UWSA1 253 1 month before exam UWSA 2 249 2 weeks before exam rest NBME from 7 to 19 i gave offline Things I would recommend u guys to do Please go through KAPLAN BOOK and lectures of BIOCHM=GENETICS AND IMMUNOLOGY ..I feel FA covers only basic but exam questions were bit tough in these subjects especially IMMUNO AND GENETICS so please go through book rest of the things are preety much covered by FA/uw kindly keep on giving assesments at regular interval so that u can track your progress EXAM is very doable yes u will find WTF qstns but chll try to make a logic and...

Applying to the US for an MPH program needs dedication and time. Unlike Pakistan, Public Health is a popular field in the US and students from diverse educational and career backgrounds apply to graduate school for Public Health. However, medical doctors have an edge as  they have studied and worked in healthcare and have a strong profile already built for Public Health. First and foremost, if you are a US Citizen or have a Green Card you will have several scholarship opportunities available to you both by the university and the US government. If you are a Pakistani citizen Fullbright Scholarship given by HEC is your best choice. With fair warning, however, it is very competitive and they only choose 2-3 people for it.  Moving on to the application process. Following are the requirements: 1. GRE  2. TOEFL [Minimum 90 score] 3. Minimum GPA of 3.0 in undergraduate 4. WES or ECE evaluation of transcripts 5. SOPHAS application 6. 3 Letters of Recommendation 7. Statement ...

Exam date : 20th Feb 2019 Result date : 13th Mar 2019 Score : 251   Prep time : 9 months (dedicated 6 months) after final year of med school. I’ll try to be as concise & to-the-point as possible. Resources used : Kaplan videos except patho (once) + lecture notes (once; except Biochem + Physio + Anatomy twice ) Pathoma (2-3 times) FA (3 times) UW (once)   Ethics – 30 cases video by DirtyUSMLE on youtube. Kaplan is good. 100 cases by Conrad Fisher (didn’t help much though). Biostats – Felt Kaplan + FA is good enough. Do ‘UW biostats review’ if you have time. Prep : Started with Kaplan videos and lecture notes, and Pathoma. Kept doing that for couple of months. Annotated from videos into lecture notes. Bought FA, and UW subscription late (a mistake !!).   Used to read subject-wise. Starting with Kaplan/ Pathoma, then moving on to FA, and lastly UW in timed mode. Used to solve UW at the end, only to boost my confidence, and also since by then most...

Hello guys. Few Tips for the preparation.  Follow UFAP protocol. Do start memorizing FA early in your preparation. If you are weak in PHYSIOLOGY watch atleast CVS and Resp Dr. Kudrath videos (2010 kaplan). I did BRS physio questions in the last 10 days. That really helped me. Do biostat uw review plus uw biostat. If you are in early preparation phase or weak in BS or Epi watch Dr. Daughtery's Behavioral plus epidemiology videos (2010 kaplan). Watch NEUROANATOMY Dr. White videos (kaplan2014). Anatomy was easily covered by UW plus FA. For pharma UW plus FA and watch Dr. Ramond ANS (2010 kaplan) for pharma. For Genetics and molecular i watched Dr. Turco videos. Sketch is Gold for MICRO. Do it multiple times. It wont take much time. Bnb immuno videos are really good. Along with FA n Uw Do PATHOMA really really good. That will help you big time. Listen to goljan lectures if you have time. I didnt have time for that. But some of my friend did. It really helped them Do UW atleast twi...

I am a graduate from European medical school, and took Step 1 exam two years after completing MBBS (during which I was working in hospital). I was an average student in medical school. Exam date 7th March 2019 Score reported 27th March 2019 UWSA2 1 week before exam - 247 NBME 18 2 weeks before exam - 242 Free 120 3 weeks before exam - 86% (done at prometric test centre) UWSA1 4 weeks before exam - 264 NBME 17 5 weeks before exam - 244 Kaplan 2 6 weeks before exam - 214 NBME 16 7 weeks before exam - 230   Kaplan 1 8 weeks before exam - 228   NBME 15 12 weeks before exam - 234 (big jump from previous NBME, which I credit to doing 2 blocks of UWORLD/day and Anki deck regularly) NBME 13 17 weeks before exam - 192 NBME 19 used as baseline before any revision started - 153 (6 months before exam) Prep: 4 months study with work and teaching med students   2 months dedicated Resources: 1. UWORLD 1st pass 66.7% 2nd pass 84% 2. Anki - used pre-made deck...

Salam everyone. Here are my experience and insight into the programs I interviewed at. I took the program location, program environment, and halal food places into prime consideration while ranking. My interview calls were: Internal Medicine Rank-ables: 1-UCONN Farmington- I loved the program. A lot of desi residents. a huge sized program, approx 45 residents per year, . J1 visa. But the program does offer J1 Waiver. Some good restaurants around. You can always travel to NYC which is about 2 hours drive. 2-Allegheny General Pittsburgh- Very nice PD. Good research opportunities esp in Rheumatology. J1 Visa. IV is laid back. 3- UPMC Mckeesport Pittsburgh. The program gave me a homely feeling from the very first moment. Everyone was super nice, especially PC Angela. University-affiliated Community Hospital. Many Kemcolians in the program, Easily accessible desi groceries and restaurants in the neighborhood, H1b Visa. I missed my flight the night before the interview. Had to travel on...

Hi everyone. I just want to congratulate those who got their Step 1 scores and motivate those who are in the same position as I was a few months back. My score may not be in the 250's and 260's, but I am humbled to share with you my experience of how I struggled to pull my score up. I am extremely grateful to God for giving me this score.  🙏 Just a little background about myself: I am a Non-US IMG, YOG 2016, finished 1 year post-graduate internship in my home country in 2017 and took the Medical Boards in my home country by end of 2017. Started studying for Step 1 by December 2017 and was cut short by Step 2 CS prep by March-April 2018. Total preparation time: 12 months (last 3 months dedicated period) Hours/day: 12- 14 hours Took my Step 1 on March 1, 2019. Got my score report last March 20, 2019. NBMEs Baseline NBME 13 online: 163 (January 2018) NBME 1 offline: 195 (June 2018) NBME 2 offline: 198 (August 2018) NBME 3 offline: 205 (September 2018) NBME 16 online...