Every year plenty of Indian students apply for USMLE, though everyone should understand that among those many of the students are students studying/studied in foreign medical colleges from various countries. So, when we question whether it is easy to crack USMLE if the student study in local/Indian medical colleges or in Foreign medical colleges, which require a thorough understanding of all the criteria including the student’s individual interest impacting most of their performance. Before in-depth analysis of the question of whether an Indian MBBS Degree or A Philippines MBBS Degree is easy to crack USMLE, we should understand the basic facts about USMLE.
USMLE—the United States Medical Licensing Examination the most popular PG entrance examination in the world where all the world’s medical graduates dream to get a chance to qualify and enter into those prestigious institutions to study PG or Residency.
The United States Medical Licensing Examination—USMLE is the licensure cum medical PG entrance examination to obtain a medical license as well to study their Post-Graduation in various US medical colleges. USMLE is co-sponsored by the National Board of Medical Examiner—NBME and the Federation of State Medical Boards—FSMB together.
USMLE: Basic Facts
USMLE is a 3 step examination process to get a Medical Licensure to practice in the US as well as to get a chance to study PG in the US. Though USMLE is a 3 step process actually there are a total of 4 steps in completion of the licensure examination of the US.
⦁ Step 1: BS—Basic Sciences
⦁ Step 2: CK—Clinical Knowledge
⦁ Step 3: CS—Clinical Skills
⦁ Step 3: PM—Patient Management
USMLE Step 1: Step 1 of USMLE assesses the examinee’s basic sciences understanding and their ability to the application of the important concepts of medicine in practice, emphasizing the core principles, mechanisms that are fundamentals for health and cause of diseases and their modes of treatment.
⦁ This is an 8-hour examination where one needs to answer a total of 280 multiple choice questions
USMLE Step 2: Step 2 of USMLE assesses the examinee’s ability in applying their medical knowledge, skills, and understanding of clinical science required for patient supervision especially on health promotion and disease prevention.
⦁ This is a 9-hour examination where the examinee needs to answer a total of 318 multiple-choice questions.
USMLE Step 3: Step 3 of USMLE is a two-day examination where every examinee is tested on their abilities relating to the application of medical knowledge and understanding of biomedical and clinical science skills essential for the practice of medicine and patient management.
Day 1: FIP—Foundations of Independent Practice assessing the basic medical knowledge & skills essential for effective health care applying the scientific principles.
⦁ FIP is a 7-hour examination where the examinee has to attempt 232 multiple-choice questions.
Day 2: ACM—Advanced Clinical Medicine assesses the examinee’s ability in the application of comprehensive Patient Management skills implementing the knowledge of health and disease evolution and manifestation over time.
⦁ ACM is a 9-hour examination where the examinee needs to answer 180 multiple choice questions as well as analyzing 13 CCS (Computer-Based Case Simulations) allotted 10 to 20 minutes of time for each.
