carlitoxki
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im from panama and i'am thinking to do my residence in US so i got to take USMLE tests. now im on 4th semester of my career (12 in total). I will explain how is studyiing medicine in my country and then ill tell you what im planning to do. When you enter amedical school in panama you have to pass through three cycles (i dont kno how is this in ohter countries so im sorry if im explaining something u already know): the first cycle is the basic cycle where you take subjects such as biology biostatistics, psycology, etc. Then when you enter 3rd semestrer, you are in preclinical cycle: here you take biochemistry, anatomy, hitology, neuronatomy, embriology, phisiology, epidemiology, etc. (that's from 3rd semester to 6th semester). When are in 7th semester you are in clinical cycle and you are"vestido de blanco" ("white dressed") and we say that because you have to go to hospitals to do rotations depending on the subject you are taking.. i mean, if you are taking internal medicine, you have to go to an hospital to do rotations of internal medicine, in the same way you have to do for psychiatry, pathology, neurology, etc.
I dont know if it's a good idea to take usmle Step 1 between 6th and 7th semester (obviously taking some time off for studying, thus delaying my career 6 months). I'll tell you why... First when i finish my clinical cycle (that would be whitin a year i think) i will have everythign what i learned just in there... i mean it would more like a review than studying everything all over again as i maybe will do if a take step 1 at the end of my career. Second, Making a review of what i've learned during the half of my career means better preparation when i enter the clynical cycle. This means also, better learning, comprehension and better preparation when i graduate...Third, i think i will not lose so much time: As i told you, there's no better time to make the step one (this is is what i think) than the point where you have just finished all those subjecs related. In my case, when i finish preclinical cycle. If i would do at the end of my career, the most probably thing will happen is that i'll forget some things (in the clynical cycle you wont see things such as biochemistry in a deeper way than you did taking biochemistry as a subject) so that will mean more time in preparation for taking step 1.
Disadvantage: what happens if I fail? I think i have the chance to pass it (I feel prepared enough for making it) but there is always the possibility... I will be delaying my career some time and i will not graduate with my original prom (that's not something that freak me out)
From what i heard you dont need to be graduated for taking usmle step 1 (i asked a genetics profesor) but i havent looked for real information. Could you help me ? What do you think and what would you do? There's 1 year left but i want to make a decision from now...
Edited by carlitoxki on 10/23/07 - 06:24 AM
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