snowbird
Forum Newbie
Topics: 1
Posts: 4
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I am an old IMG ( graduated in 1991). Five years ago I came USA with my husband. At that time, I didn't dare to think about USMLE because I had no GC and my Engliah was really poor. But I had almost ten years clinical experience in my home country and my friends always encourage me to be a real Doctor, not a postdoc. So I collected all materials needed for passing Step1 one year ago. However, I feeled I will never pass USMLE because I looked up dictionary almost every minutes when I review Pharmacology. At the same time, I had to work on my research for publication in case my husband wouldn't get GC. So my progress was very slow. However, my husband got our family's GCs at January, 2005. I have no excuse to delay my test. Dear friends, Do you think I should quit my job and focus on my preparation or work full-time and study part-time ? A reason I want to keep my job is to get recommedation letter from my PI, he is a MD. So any suggestion from any peolpe have similar experience or same situation will be appreciated. Thanks in advance
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| retroviridae
Forum Guru
Topics: 29
Posts: 871
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your PI might give you a LoR even if you quit. But probably not if you leave a project hanging. Go ahead and get him to write your letter now. I did a postdoc and studied at the same time, but it was tough. Ideally, I think you should focus full time on the exam, but it depends on other issues ... money, etc.
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| snowbird
Forum Newbie
Topics: 1
Posts: 4
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Good suggestion ! But I wondered how I can to ask him to write a LOR now because I don't know which program ( Internal medicine or general surgery, I am interested in Radiation oncology, but I knew it is impossible for an old IMG) I will apply for match. From your experience, How long did it take for you to prepare of Step 1 when you study part-time and how many hours did you study each day? Thank you !
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| retroviridae
Forum Guru
Topics: 29
Posts: 871
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ERAS wants your LoR to not be discipline specific, i.e. not written for IM or surg or whatever. So just ask your PI to write a generic LoR. That's what I did since I applied for peds, IM, and med-peds.
Rad onc is tough for AMGs, but maybe it can be done.
Well, you can read my experience in the exam experiences section, but I spent a couple months going to Kaplan to watch videos at night. It was hard to go regularly. Finally, I decided that the videos weren't worth it and just started reading the notes. I studied for ~4 months: 2 months every other day in the evening and weekends, then 1 month every day in the evenings and on weekends. The last month I took all my vacation for the year and sat at home studying all day long. So I would do 4-5 hours a day at night when I was working, and on weekends maybe 10-12 hours. I would say I probably studied longer than I needed to, but I did read Kaplan notes 4 times.
Good luck!
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