The PG Medical is a much-coveted course in the USA because of the thoughtfully designed education system. The first step towards getting into a US Medical School is to appear for the USMLE or United States Medical Licensing Examination. This examination is similar to the All India PG entrance exam or NEET PG.
However, for USMLE, the candidate has to go through three exams namely Step I, II and III while NEET PG has only one exam. A student gets the desired stream based on the cumulative marks of all three steps. Note that the exams that are held for every step are not theory-based only. They also have practical applications.
The Step I comprises of multiple-choice questions in which the students have to sit for an eight-hour-long examination. This examination basically tries to examine the students’ understanding of the basic sciences and how they them apply while practising medicine. The first step covers the first two years of the study period during MBBS. It focuses on topics like Basic Science Principles Anatomy & Behavioral Science, Biochemistry, Microbiology & Pathology, Genetics, etc. In terms of the duration, the Step I of USMLE is an eight-hour test which is broken into seven one-hour blocks.
Coming to the USMLE Step II, this stage is divided into parts: Clinical Science (CS) and Clinical Knowledge (CK). It must be noted that students can only appear for the CK from India. For CS, they have to travel to the USA and appear for the test at the allocated test centre. Similarly, the USMLE Step III can be taken only in the USA. This step is a two-day test that tests the patient management skills of the candidate in a live setting. It comprises of a ton of case simulations and multiple-choice questions. Note that the Step III can be taken during any time of the year but one needs to make a prior appointment.
The cost for every exam is around 1000 dollars. But, the difficulty arises when the student has to make travel arrangements to the US just to sit for two tests. The primary concern is over the type of visa that they would get. Hence, what most students do is that they join a Masters program in the US and eventually get an F1 visa. During this stay, they appear for the USMLE Step II CS and Step III. Moreover, it also gets easier to look for residency programs. Candidates can appear for USMLE while they are in the second year of the MBBS course. For more reference and guidance, they can take a look at the top 5 countries for MD/MS.
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