07-01-2003, 04:55 AM
a Brasilian medical student south america. - augusto_ce2003
Hi there for all of you IMG doctors out there either from Brazil or from other countries like Pakistan or India or Japan for that matter?
I hope that this will help you all as I am writing to say what?s really important in USMLE prep after years of digging out info about it, the right books ?etc
Non of this Kaplan stuff is going to help you believe me I took it myself but it didn?t work for me, I mean it helped a little but looking back I spent my life savings for doing that and when I looked back and all, all I could remember were the pages of the books that I used that really helped a lot, and I think that in a sense I was just wasting my precious time taking the Kaplan live course. That would only have worked for me if I knew the whole thing already and just wanted to be reminded of the main aspects of the most crucial points I needed to master for the exam, but if you?re not prepared it wont work for you, believe me, also pressure is not going to build up, I just know three Americans that went to Mexican medical schools one was in fact a girl; took Kaplan to study for the exam and they all flunked out on step1, of course they must have been a little week to have gone to Mexican medical schools in the first place, by being Americans and all; I mean you always got to look weird at a medical doctor from the USA that went to Mexico to become a doctor when he/or she was in fact an American citizen and left the US to go to med school there, I mean why is it that they could not make it in the United States? Think about it, oh well; Here in Brazil we also have a lot of students that could not make it go to medical schools in Brazil and went to Bolivia or Venezuela to get accepted into medical schools there and then they try to come back to Brazil to get their equivalent of the Brazilian USMLE here, we don?t despise them or nothing but it?s a real shame that they had to go to such an extent and we know that they are slow learners for the most part any how that?s why they had to leave to go to med school abroad?
But that is just my point of view I don?t want to hurt anyone?s feelings or anything, but hey guess what as I was saying about these 3 Americans who went to Mexico they all took the Kaplan courses when they were back in the USA and went the whole nine yards with them for that, So believe me when I tell you this they all flunked out on step1?
So I don?t want anyone to make this mistake I mean a residency in the US
Does not have to be all that difficult for you as it was for me or for some other people that is trying it now, I mean I lost like 10 kilos over it by doing its preps with Kaplan and trying to get the right books until I got them right.
The wrong way is the talking the talk and not walking the walk, so here is some advice to make you waste only 25% of my money and time that I put in it myself, so please follow my advice and don?t listen to anyone else as I know what I am talking about. I have been there exactly were you are?
As you know we are IMGs and the Americans know that we are better then they are as far as medical education goes;
So they make it harder for us all, all the time, but once you get into their programs you become an American too, so the important thing is to get a good score on the beginning so that you get in, and as you know the step one is the screen for that to happen.
At least I got a 250 on step 1 so I hope that I can help you some of you out there. So here it is:
Now I know that there is a trend towards behavioral science I think that you may all need to master the Fadem book 2nd edition 2001 release. High-Yield Behavioral Science will help a lot I think.
by Barbara Fadem. The exam mostly likely will cover ethics and epidemiology.
Practice ethics as much as you can. There were much more Qs of what I expected,
become familiar with the calculation and study analysis.
For physiology I used: Revie
Hi there for all of you IMG doctors out there either from Brazil or from other countries like Pakistan or India or Japan for that matter?
I hope that this will help you all as I am writing to say what?s really important in USMLE prep after years of digging out info about it, the right books ?etc
Non of this Kaplan stuff is going to help you believe me I took it myself but it didn?t work for me, I mean it helped a little but looking back I spent my life savings for doing that and when I looked back and all, all I could remember were the pages of the books that I used that really helped a lot, and I think that in a sense I was just wasting my precious time taking the Kaplan live course. That would only have worked for me if I knew the whole thing already and just wanted to be reminded of the main aspects of the most crucial points I needed to master for the exam, but if you?re not prepared it wont work for you, believe me, also pressure is not going to build up, I just know three Americans that went to Mexican medical schools one was in fact a girl; took Kaplan to study for the exam and they all flunked out on step1, of course they must have been a little week to have gone to Mexican medical schools in the first place, by being Americans and all; I mean you always got to look weird at a medical doctor from the USA that went to Mexico to become a doctor when he/or she was in fact an American citizen and left the US to go to med school there, I mean why is it that they could not make it in the United States? Think about it, oh well; Here in Brazil we also have a lot of students that could not make it go to medical schools in Brazil and went to Bolivia or Venezuela to get accepted into medical schools there and then they try to come back to Brazil to get their equivalent of the Brazilian USMLE here, we don?t despise them or nothing but it?s a real shame that they had to go to such an extent and we know that they are slow learners for the most part any how that?s why they had to leave to go to med school abroad?
But that is just my point of view I don?t want to hurt anyone?s feelings or anything, but hey guess what as I was saying about these 3 Americans who went to Mexico they all took the Kaplan courses when they were back in the USA and went the whole nine yards with them for that, So believe me when I tell you this they all flunked out on step1?
So I don?t want anyone to make this mistake I mean a residency in the US
Does not have to be all that difficult for you as it was for me or for some other people that is trying it now, I mean I lost like 10 kilos over it by doing its preps with Kaplan and trying to get the right books until I got them right.
The wrong way is the talking the talk and not walking the walk, so here is some advice to make you waste only 25% of my money and time that I put in it myself, so please follow my advice and don?t listen to anyone else as I know what I am talking about. I have been there exactly were you are?
As you know we are IMGs and the Americans know that we are better then they are as far as medical education goes;
So they make it harder for us all, all the time, but once you get into their programs you become an American too, so the important thing is to get a good score on the beginning so that you get in, and as you know the step one is the screen for that to happen.
At least I got a 250 on step 1 so I hope that I can help you some of you out there. So here it is:
Now I know that there is a trend towards behavioral science I think that you may all need to master the Fadem book 2nd edition 2001 release. High-Yield Behavioral Science will help a lot I think.
by Barbara Fadem. The exam mostly likely will cover ethics and epidemiology.
Practice ethics as much as you can. There were much more Qs of what I expected,
become familiar with the calculation and study analysis.
For physiology I used: Revie