I'll be starting 5PW in July. I am doing my fourth year of med school in Brooklyn (special program), but am a student at UAG (Guadalajara/Mexico). During my 5PW interview, the doctor who runs the program asked when I planned to take Step 2. I said I wanted to take it in August or September, because I want to do it before my 2 electives (where you want to make a good impression with programs at which you want to be invited for a residency interview -- that's the goal, anyway) and be done with it before I do any residency interviews, in an attempt to be more competitive (assuming I do well, that is!). Short story long: this doc approved of this plan because he said it's really tough to study for Step 2 while doing 5PW.
Also, you have to take the test before the Match so that you can match. Sort of. We've had grads who took the test before the Match but didn't have the results at the time of their interviews. Their matches were contingent on their passing the test. No pass -- no residency (which I'm sure you know).
Third: I'm not sure how school goes in Hungary, but to do 5PW, (1) you must be a US citizen or permanent resident and (2) the country in which you go to school must require a year of internship and a year of social service (after 4 years of school) before they grant the MD. Most participants in 5PW are from schools in Mexico (almost exclusively UAG, but there have been others). The thing about doing 5PW is that we don't ever technically get the MD degree from UAG -- or anywhere for that matter (there's a caveat I'll address later, if you're interested), because we don't do the internship and SS, but we are permitted to enter a US residency
WITHOUT IT because we have completed this year of AMA-approved "supervised clinical training." That's the point of doing 5PW... That, and the fact that we don't have to go through the whole ECFMG certification process.
If you have any other questions, feel free to send me a private message. You probably already have done so, but check out the AMA's website regarding 5PW and NYMC's site.
http://www.nymc.edu/depthome/fifth.asp
http://www.ama-assn.org I no longer have the (current) link for their blurb on 5PW. Search the site for "Fifth Pathway." You're looking for a few paragraphs included in the ECFMG certification section.
http://musom.marshall.edu/gmed/FifthPathway.htm For some history on 5PW.
