Finding studying for USMLE difficult...

[markdc]

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I am a 3 rd year UQ (Australia) student and finding the USMLE hard to study for. My original timeline keeps getting pushed back.

Have other students found this? The Aussie med program seems to have big gaps in biochem, pharmacology, anatomy, micro and immunology. It seems daunting to hear that as an IMG I need to score higher than the US avg and yet I am trying to do this with a different knowledge base.

Since IMGs score lower on avg, does anyone have some tips for the minimum amount of time to spend studying?

 

[leorl]

look on the USMLE I sticky that's up at the top of this forum. The international med programs focus on different things, and yes it is difficult. There's a number of things we have to teach ourselves too. The time you need to spend is individual... in my year, many of us studied for several months. And none of us have fantastic scores, a couple people failed. And this is in an English-speaking Westernized school. You need solid study, which is hard to do if you're involved in extracurriculars and even a little hard to manage with your other course exams. They normally say around 4-5 weeks for US students, so like 8-10 weeks for IMGs. I'd say even more depending on the amount of time you can commit to study.

 

[markdc]

Yep, read the sticky already. My total time will be about 10 weeks but only 2-3 hours / day. I am reading the Kaplan study books for a start.

Here is what I have found so far:

Pathology seems understandable (easier now that I have almost finished 3rd year and the clinical applications are more relevant)

Pharmacology is fairly weak. (Due to the program) There are alot of drugs that I haven't heard of here and so feel like the knowledge base I am starting from is inferior.

Immunology: once again, weak but also because I hate it!
Microbio: weak and painful to read but perhaps less so than Immunology

Anatomy: Poorly taught here. Used to know this well but haven't done much yet...

Behavioural sci seems relatively straight forward (even easier after the mental health rotation) The course here seems to focus alot on communication skills etc.

So to summarize my impression is that I am starting from a lower knowledge base in most of the major topics in the USMLE.

I find myself wondering how much time to spend on the topics. The Kaplan anatomy "review" book is 400 pages or so (I wouldn't call that a review book!). There are a ton of details for the pharmacology and microbio that seem over the top at times. Just seems hard to get it all straight and to keep up motivation for reading topics I hate like immunology.

I haven't started into the questions so would appreciate some advice on which question-bank to go with....

 

[PEN15]

hey mark,

are you planning on doing an intern year in australia after graduation because it is impossible to go to the US for residency training due to the different academic calendar? you would be late for the match. Or are you planning on taking a whole year off ? Also, would it have helped if you studied a little bit all along? I tend to be a crammer myself.

 

[erichaj]

Yep, read the sticky already. My total time will be about 10 weeks but only 2-3 hours / day. I am reading the Kaplan study books for a start.

Here is what I have found so far:

Pathology seems understandable (easier now that I have almost finished 3rd year and the clinical applications are more relevant)

Pharmacology is fairly weak. (Due to the program) There are alot of drugs that I haven't heard of here and so feel like the knowledge base I am starting from is inferior.

Immunology: once again, weak but also because I hate it!
Microbio: weak and painful to read but perhaps less so than Immunology

Anatomy: Poorly taught here. Used to know this well but haven't done much yet...

Behavioural sci seems relatively straight forward (even easier after the mental health rotation) The course here seems to focus alot on communication skills etc.

So to summarize my impression is that I am starting from a lower knowledge base in most of the major topics in the USMLE.

I find myself wondering how much time to spend on the topics. The Kaplan anatomy "review" book is 400 pages or so (I wouldn't call that a review book!). There are a ton of details for the pharmacology and microbio that seem over the top at times. Just seems hard to get it all straight and to keep up motivation for reading topics I hate like immunology.

I haven't started into the questions so would appreciate some advice on which question-bank to go with....

How can all these courses be taught so poorly over there?
They are all part of medicine. Don't take this wrong but could it be that you did not learn them well?

It seems to me that anatomy is anatomy and although many drugs have different names their mechanism of action should be the same AND bug are bug right?

 

[leorl]

not quite sure how anatomy can be poorly taught, but I've heard that before that Aussie schools don't focus on it much...there was a newspaper article about it recently? I can understand micro - for instance, we do micro here but focus more on bacteriology while the USMLE likes more detailed virology and parasitology that we don't learn here (ie. not endemic here so not really taught here). Embryology is also in Anatomy, and many places don't really cover that all that extensively.

Not great to be poor in pharm. Definitely make sure you know the antimicrobials, antivirals and chemo drugs. First Aid is pretty decent for pharm.

 

[Winged Scapula]

hey mark,

are you planning on doing an intern year in australia after graduation because it is impossible to go to the US for residency training due to the different academic calendar? you would be late for the match. Or are you planning on taking a whole year off ? Also, would it have helped if you studied a little bit all along? I tend to be a crammer myself.

Just FYI....its not impossible to go to the US for internship right after graduation, you just have 6 months off before starting.

You are not required to have your diploma in hand to apply, only to start by July 1, which won't be a problem for those who graduate the December before. YOu apply just as the US students do, in September, interview through the fall, graduate in December, match in March and start residency in July.

My recommendation has always been to do your US electives during the final part of your 4th year so that you are in the states for interview season.

 

[PEN15]

Just FYI....its not impossible to go to the US for internship right after graduation, you just have 6 months off before starting.

You are not required to have your diploma in hand to apply, only to start by July 1, which won't be a problem for those who graduate the December before. YOu apply just as the US students do, in September, interview through the fall, graduate in December, match in March and start residency in July.

My recommendation has always been to do your US electives during the final part of your 4th year so that you are in the states for interview season.

wow great advice Kimberli, thanks! That was my concern because I wasn't going to graduate until December 31st 2011 and I was worried that I wasn't going to be allowed to submit my application when it opens like the rest the US graduates.

is it possible to finish all 3 steps before you start residency so that you can still be offered the H1B visa?

 

[erichaj]

wow great advice Kimberli, thanks! That was my concern because I wasn't going to graduate until December 31st 2011 and I was worried that I wasn't going to be allowed to submit my application when it opens like the rest the US graduates.

is it possible to finish all 3 steps before you start residency so that you can still be offered the H1B visa?

Dude, its 2006 now.😉

 

[PEN15]

Dude, its 2006 now.😉

I know... I'm a loser and not to mention that I might also be mentally ******ed. It's going to take me years to study for step 1 😳

 

[Winged Scapula]

wow great advice Kimberli, thanks! That was my concern because I wasn't going to graduate until December 31st 2011 and I was worried that I wasn't going to be allowed to submit my application when it opens like the rest the US graduates.

is it possible to finish all 3 steps before you start residency so that you can still be offered the H1B visa?

Unless things change between now and 2001, you can submit your application for residency when all the US applicants do, but must have all the requirements towards obtaining your ECFMG certificate completed by the date the Rank Order List is due (usually mid February before the match). See. http://www.ecfmg.org for more information.

It is possible to do all 3 steps before you start residency, but you won't be eligible for an unrestricted license in most states - IMGs are usually required to do at least 1 - 3 years of training before being eligible for the unrestricted license. Until then, you practice on a training or restricted license.

I don't know much of anything about Visa requirements, etc. but every year applicants who have completed all of their training abroad, including all of the USMLE steps, participate in the match and get Visas. Perhaps some of them can address your question more precisely than I (as in who sponsors you for Step 3).

 

[markdc]

How can all these courses be taught so poorly over there?
They are all part of medicine. Don't take this wrong but could it be that you did not learn them well?

It seems to me that anatomy is anatomy and although many drugs have different names their mechanism of action should be the same AND bug are bug right?

Hmm, when a course has so much focus on self directed learning then yes I suppose it is easy to say a student is deficient because of not studying.
Well I can admit microbio was likely my own fault since I simply took little interest in it and it wasn't examined heavily. However for the rest:

There was no formal pharmacology course. (ie. most drugs were supposed to be picked up through learning from PBL cases and learning objectives). There were a few pharm lectures scattered about and the PBL cases covered alot of the major classes of drugs but also left out some classes entirely. Just being in the wards and seeing things has helped alot with this but more training in this area would have been effective.

I can just recall one (maybe 2) pbls where immunology was covered.

Anatomy was definantly poorly taught. (a few articles 2-3 months ago). I would imagine my class is fairly united in that opinion. There was no formal dissection. The tutioral sessions were crowded and not well done in general.

They are apparently restructuring the course again so what I have found may change for the current 1st and 2nd year students.

So yes I suppose that extra self directed learning could help. My point was the focus on the course is different here and those were the areas I felt that it was deficient in. I wondered if other students in Aus have found it neccessary to study much longer.

 

[markdc]

hey mark,

are you planning on doing an intern year in australia after graduation because it is impossible to go to the US for residency training due to the different academic calendar? you would be late for the match. Or are you planning on taking a whole year off ? Also, would it have helped if you studied a little bit all along? I tend to be a crammer myself.

Yep, I was planning on interning here. I have considered staying here but not sure how likely I am to getting a training spot in the system here and not too sure I want to spend more than 1 year interning hoping to get a spot... I think that the intern year would be good just for putting things together. As for the USMLE, I am thinking of pushing back my timeline again. I don't want to take too long though since I will start fogetting details!