I am an IMG planning on taking Kaplan for Step I in early Jan. The course is about 6 weeks. I was wondering how long after the course I should take the exam. What's the average? I haven't been in touch with the basic sciences for 2-4 years so I have a lot of work ahead of me, but at the same time I don't want to take unnecessarily long. I've heard some people study upto 6 months, which sounds a little much for me. Any advice from someone who's been in a similar situation and did well on the exam? Also, is there anywhere I can get a look at (free) sample questions to get an idea of what the exam is like/what to expect? Thanks for the help.

Come on, no one has a response???

Hi!!
Im an IMG like you with 4 yrs of medical pratice experience, so getting back into the books and basic sciences has been very dificult for me
I started my preparation on late may with the Kaplan live lectures after that I watched all the videos at kaplan center (this part took me about 2 months) then just before my kaplan enroll date expaired I took the simulated exam, I had a bad score (55%) since then Im studying by myself with a little extra resources like Goljan RRS, HY Histology, HY Anatomy, HY Embriology, HY Molec Biology, Microbiology RRS by Rosenthal and Katzung Pharmacology, BRS Behavioral. Now Im hitting 60% on Qbank and my plan is to take Step 1 next january. So I have been studying for about 4 months and I have 3 more infront of me. My goal is to obtain a high score, as IMG I thinks this is the best way to obtain a residency spot.
Hope this help
Bye

Hey Elektra, thanks for the response. Anyone else?

Hey Elektra, thanks for the response. Anyone else?
I also am an IMG. I sit the beast on tuesday.....and studied for the last 5 and a 1/2 weeks. I only studied around 4-6 hrs per day for the first 3 weeks and moved it up to ~8-12 hrs per day for the final couple of weeks. I would strongly recommend not doing more than 6 weeks as you will burn out. I could take more time if I wanted , and sure it is tempting but it would drive me nuts, and I am not sure I would be better prepared. Just pick your sources wisely and stick to them. I will post my score and study habits etc. after I get my score back, and then you can decide whether or not my advice is helpful :D If you are from an offshore school like I am you should be relatively well geared for the USMLE whereas if you are from a European/australian/asian school you may need more time to review USMLE focused material. Good luck. :thumbup:

I see you have been out of school for a while...which is fine. I guess I would probably hold off on setting a date as of yet. If you are taking a Kaplan course, measure how well you are doing on practice tests and Qbank. You should be aiming for ~ 70% average in Qbank so as to be comfortable with taking the USMLE. As for free questions, once you register for a three month window in which to sit the exam, the ECFMG will send you a CD with 150 released items. I believe they are also available at the NBME website.

Thanks for the great advice bullet. I'm looking forward to see how you do, but it sounds like you're pretty confident so I'm sure it'll be awesome. Good luck! :)