Re: Congrats on the amazing apartment location.delirium1995May 30 2006, 00:41:56 UTC
For US Med school and Canadian med school graduates (Canadians take it if they want to do a US residency, I believe), you take a series of 3 exams to get your medical licensing. It's formal name is th USMLE (United States Medical Licensing Exam) given by the NBME (National Board of Medical examiners)...hence "the Boards".
Step 1 - is taken after the first 2 years of classes and tests your general understanding of (biochem, physio, pharm, pathology, cardiovascular, renal, hematology, microbiology, etc) - Every student has to take and pass this exam with roughly a score of 70% in order to go onto working in the hospital for the next two years. (about 90% of US med school graduates pass it on their first try) Since different schools have different curricula it is a way of making sure all of the med students have at least a minimal level of compentency of X amount of things at this level.
Step 2 can be taken after the 3rd year (after the Clinical rotations in the hospital: Internal Med, Family Med, Peds, Psych, Surgery and OB/Gyn) and then they've added a clinical skills exam where we get to fly into LA for the day, pay $1000 bucks to interview 12-16 standardized patients and write up the notes with our exam findings.
Step 3 is taken after your first 2 years of residency and after passing that you are able to practice on your own as a physician.
The saying is that for "step 1-study 1 month, step 2 - 2 wks, Step 3 bring a pencil." or some to that effect.
Step 1 - is taken after the first 2 years of classes and tests your general understanding of (biochem, physio, pharm, pathology, cardiovascular, renal, hematology, microbiology, etc) - Every student has to take and pass this exam with roughly a score of 70% in order to go onto working in the hospital for the next two years. (about 90% of US med school graduates pass it on their first try) Since different schools have different curricula it is a way of making sure all of the med students have at least a minimal level of compentency of X amount of things at this level.
Step 2 can be taken after the 3rd year (after the Clinical rotations in the hospital: Internal Med, Family Med, Peds, Psych, Surgery and OB/Gyn) and then they've added a clinical skills exam where we get to fly into LA for the day, pay $1000 bucks to interview 12-16 standardized patients and write up the notes with our exam findings.
Step 3 is taken after your first 2 years of residency and after passing that you are able to practice on your own as a physician.
The saying is that for "step 1-study 1 month, step 2 - 2 wks, Step 3 bring a pencil." or some to that effect.
Tah dah!
-Del
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That's as close as I'll ever get to taking the Boards.
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