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[drdr]

Bu usmle hazirlik hikayesini okuyunca baya gaza geldim, millet ne sartlarda calisiomus..

Hello Fellow IMGs:


My Name is Gabriel Ruiz, I am a foreign graduate and I would like to share my story; perhaps, it will help someone go through those, sometimes dark moments, we as IMGs go trough in the path to fullfil our dream. This is a long post, so take your time.


Who I am

I graduated in 1998 from medical school and was not able to start my residency right away. In my country, residencies are not paid, so the majority of residents have to live with their parents or be sponsored by their wifes/husbands, coming from a humble family, and being single, that was not my situation.

I immigrated to the US in 2002, and started to re-learn English, those were tough times, no job, no english, and not a single clue about how to continue with my education. Finally after spending 2 years learning english and understanding the intrincacies of the ECFMG Certification - Match I decided to start, by then I was already 28 Years old, been out of medical school for 5 years, and the worst part, I wanted to do Surgery.

Talking to a lot of people, I quickly realized that things were going to be harder than I thought, I got a job as a computer programmer (!), and started from there, the long hours in front the computer, so far from what I love (my patients) made study every day a difficult task. after a couple of months fighting against the routine I was able to get started.


Setting up goals

The first thing I did, which, I think was key to success, was to stablish a detailed plan, all the way from Step 1 to residency. I joined several forums and was aquainted with the general timing of the exams, I learned that in order to be ready and on time, I would need to have my last exam done by the end of September (1st Rule of thumb), and that would allow me to start my residency by june Next year.

I decided to go in order, Step 1, CK, CS, that mean that I would tackle the hardest one first and would work my way through Step 2 without much problems.


Step 1

I decided to study for a full 8 months for step 1, and here comes my second rule of thumb for the USMLE: You will never be as ready as you would like to be for the Exam, just set a timing goal and adhere to it, if you wait to set the dates for the exam once you are ready, most likely that time is going to be more than what you really need.

After gathering the materias, I took the kaplan 150 question practice exam just to see and gauge an starting point. The results were not any good, I was close to 38%!!! in some of the areas, and my best score was not better than 60%. I took the decision to distribuite the time as follows:

6 months reading the Kaplan Lecture notes (3 Huge books by then)
1 month reading and reviewing First Aid
1 final month exclusively doing practice questions.

In between I started doing the Kaplan Qbank in tutor mode, that helps a lot, but in the end that final month was to be done simulating the actual conditions of the exam, in weekdays I use to do timed blocks of 50 questions and in the weekends try to do as many blocks as possible. In the final days of review I was doing an average of 75% in kaplan, enough to pass the Exam, I took the exam in the end of 2004 and got 85. It was not the score I would like to have, but I was relieved it was over.


Getting into a hands on clinical possition - Possible?

Just after getting my results on the exam, I was told by a friend that there was a position available for Foreign Graduated Physicians in a Hospital in Miami, the position is called House Physician, the state of Florida let people like me work as physician, mostly doing History and Physical exam in patients that either are going to surgery or are admitted in the wards. I was able to secure a position and started seeing patients again. Check in your state with the local department of health, they may have this type of position available.


Step 2 -

I Started to study for Step 2 a few weeks after taking Step 1. for step 2 I used only Kaplan Lecture notes and USMLEworld, after reading the book I did every single one of the 2000+ questions, and was able to repeat at least 800 of them. My final score for USMLE World was 58%, I was confident that this score would guarantee at least 90 in the exam. I spend 5 months preparing the exam, and I still remember taking Step 2, Everything seemed so easy, I got 92, almost 93.



Having fun, that's what matter

By then I had been on my job as a physician for 6 months, doing at least 12 - 15 Cases a day, Step 2 CS was going to be a breeze, I prepared the exam for 15 days, mostly reading the material of First Aid, and the USMLE video, took the exam in Atlanta, in September, Last year, just as I had envisioned 2 years before... The first case was difficult, because I was very nervous, as soon as I exit trhough the door, somehow I realized that my dream was fulfilled, there were only 11 doors, between me and my ECFMG certificate, I just needed to have some fun in between. Results arrived 4 weeks later, I was a certified physician now.



Here comes the difficult part... maybe not

Getting into Surgical residency was going to be hard, I knew, my scores were not perfect, I had no research experience, and my age (30) and the time after my graduation (7 years) was a handicap in my application, but first I needed to get the Letters of recommendation, and after receiving 2 negative answers from attendings, I was able to get letters, from the chairman of the Surgical department at my hospital, a prominent Laparoscopic surgeon and the medical director of the hospital.

Next step was to compose my Personal Statement, it got to be something that while being true to myself also allow me to get the attention of the committees, I received help from a friend who was able to capture my ideas, and at the end the result was better that I was hoping for. I applied for a whooping 92 programs nationwide on the national residency matching program, spending close to $2000 in the process, I did this trying to cover my deficiencies with a massive ammount of program applications.

and then I started to receive emails from the different programs, the first 30 Emails were negatives, something like "thank you very much for applying, but you are not getting an interview here" It was November last year, when a friend told me that someone got into surgery after completing an Observership in a very big and important hospital in my city. despite everybody telling me that it was going to be near impossible to get a position in such that institution, I decided to try to sign up for an observership.

I was lucky enough to fill a position of someone who had already signed up but was unable to attend, that was the only spot that was available for the next 6 months in the trauma unit of the hospital, I was there 3 months, Dec, Jan and Feb, working around the clock with the Surgery intern and the Senior Resident.

At the same time I applied for residency in that hospital, and talked to the Senior Resident, letting him know that I wanted to stay for my residency. Somehow, they called me for interview, I was astonished. it was the end of 2005 when I got my interview, minutes before I was going to talk to the program director, the Senior resident Popped in and talked to him privately for a couple of minutes. My interview was a breeze.

Now, after writing this, I am heading to Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami, FL; to finish the paperwork and to do the physical, I signed the contract in December,2005; 3 months before the match, and I will be starting my residency in General Surgery in June... Although I am anxious, I know that everything is going to be all right, I am confident that with hard work and the help of who is now my wife, that has supported me since I was in my country, I am going to be able to go through my residency, being successful, but most of all, having fun, enjoying it, as I have enjoyed every single step of the way, experiences, that happen only once, but last for a life time.

By the way, I was called by 13 different programs across the nation, never went to a single interview.




Gabriel Ruiz, MD

[dodo]

Merhaba,
Gerçekten de harika bir hikaye yukarıdaki... Bir an kendimi Rocky Balboa, dağı terler içinde tırmanırken gibi hayal ettim. Gerçek yaşamdan bu kesitler, başka sitelerde de var, prep4usmle de bir uzakdoğulu(memleketini hatırlayamıyorum) okulu bitirdikten yıllar yılllar sonra(8-9 yıl yanlış hatırlamıyorsam) girdiği Step 1'den 286!!! aldığını yazmış.

Özellikle bu kadar yarış olan bölümlerde, buna benzer başarıları okumak, çalışanları daha da motive ediyor. Herkesin zaten birer tıp fakültesi öğrencisi ve sonrasında birer doktor olma başarısını ve azmini gösterdiğini düşünürsek; önümüzde duran en büyük engeli her zaman kendi kafamızda yarattığımız kanaatindeyim.

Herkesin istediği bölümleri kazanması ve buralara böyle hikayeleri kendi kalemleri ile yazabilmesi dileği ile...

Sağlıcakla..

[sade]

Alıntıdır:

"My USMLE Journey
Hi guys,
This is Amit K. Rauniyar, from KMC 2nd batch. I just wanted to share some of my experiences of the "USMLE journey." I still remember the days when I and two of my friends--Suresh and Nimesh--finally decided to study for USMLE. I was a medical officer in Internal Medicine at KMC then. I talked to my parents regarding my wish to take USMLE.
I remember my discussion with my dad. He asked me about the prospects, the preparations and finally the expenses. I told him, "Dad, it might incur the expenses to somewhere around 10-12 thousand dollars." Then he said, "Well then after that you'll get into a residency and have a better future, yeah?" I said, "Dad, but even after that I might not get a position and might have to return empty handed." Naturally, it stunned for a while; nevertheless, he finally encouraged me to go ahead and thus commenced my journey.
Initially, I did my preparations along with my job at KMC. It was very hectic, though. I collected the materials: the Kaplan books and Q&A books and the DVDs.
However, the real preparation was not as easy as thought of before. It took me almost a week to plan my way ahead trying to figure out where to start from. I used to study on an average for 8-10 hours every day. Most of the time, I studied alone at my bijou home. Sometimes we had group discussions at library and Angel's apartment. Besides, we had some "online study" with Nimesh. We were real IT kids. Nimesh often pestered me with his questions over phone…but to be true it was indeed fruitful. After 7-8 months of preparation the test day for Step 1 was approaching near but there was no sign of our "scheduling permit." Incidentally, it was "missent" to Iran.
Every day was getting tense and all of a sudden there was news that the Prometric Testing Center at Gyaneshwor was closing. We had a great hassle arranging for the testing center. Ultimately, we had to decide to take our test in Bangladesh. It cost us extra 50,000 Nepali bucks. Not all was good at Bangladesh test center, too. On the test day, we were already very excited and jittery. We entered the exam hall and registered for the day's test only to find that there was some "technical problem" in the computers. That appreciated our anxiety beyond limit. After an arduous attempt, we managed to take the test some 2-3 hours later than scheduled and finally the day was over. So far as the test concerned, I was quite satisfied as I felt I had done quite well. After that there was nothing much to do than wait for the results. In the meanwhile, we started preparations for Step 2 and CS. The anticipated date for results was approaching near but again due to the poor postal services, it took far longer than usual to get our results. Nonetheless, when I got the results all my excitement and confidence flagged down to level zero when as the scores were below 90.
Still undaunted, and bolstered by my ever encouraging father and family, I recomposed myself and tried to prepare well for Step 2 along with CS. I was scheduled to take the test in June 2006. Once again the Prometric Center in Nepal was closed during our stipulated time of the test and we had to schedule our testing in New Delhi, India. To add to my misery, due to some personal and family problems, I was not in a state of mind to take the test. Yet I focused myself on the test like Arjun of the Mahabharat on the eye of the revolving fish. I suffered as though I was undergoing travail. And I bore it hoping to bear something more fruitful that I will cherish for ever. With God Ganesha always by my side, I took the test. I was not quite satisfied with the test and just wished I did not perform poorer than Step 1.
With the results pending, we processed for the travel to the US and I along with Nimesh, Suresh and a senior colleague, Mahendra, flew for the dream land. It was there that I received my Step 2 results and to my astonishment I had scored above 90. It boosted my morale, and I started preparing for CS with new zeal and vigor. I must thank my seniors, especially Keshav and Ragess, for their support and guidance for CS. All of us got through the CS in the very first attempt.
Unfortunately, life in the US was not easy to start with. I was feeling quite lonely and homesick. Had it not been for the company and support of the friends and seniors, it would have really been hellish. They made us feel a home far away from home with them. Still the cost of living was so high that we all had to find some job. I remember the day after CS when I and Suresh went to Devon Street, an Indian market in Chicago, entering every shop and asking the owners, "Do you guys need help?"
It was really tough. Some Nepalese were working at gas stations. I and some of my friends got to serve at Indian/Pakistani restaurants. The future doctors attending customers rather than patients on the couch! Sounds bizarre, doesn't it? Soon we got inured to it as it was a matter of survival and was going to help us achieve our coveted goal.
At the apartment, it was more fun with friends. We were five to six at a time, sharing expenses and dining Nepali food every day. Of course, those working in the restaurants occasionally brought some food from their places. But the dainty, home-cooked food beat everything, bringing the smell of the soil and home. We missed our mums and tried to relish their memories in these yummy foods.
On September 1st we applied for the residency. I applied mostly to the internal medicine programs and some family medicine programs as back up. The journey was never easy. Even after receiving ECFMG certification, we were worried about interview calls. It was more frustrating for me when my colleagues used to get calls but I had to keep waiting and waiting indefinitely. They say: "Every cloud has a silver lining." I saw the streak of hope coming eventually. I managed to get 7 calls. I started preparing for the interviews along with Step 3, one of the toughest examinations I have ever faced.
Traveling during the interviews was the only time when I got a chance to see some of the beautiful places of the US although most of my destinations were close to New York. As for interviews, I finished 5 of them and yet no pre-match positions were offered. I was confident that I had performed well and should be getting good responses from the programs concerned. The fate had taken another turn by then. I had to retake Step 3 and at that point I thought my journey for USMLE was over.
Most of my friends had already reached their destinations by securing a position in the US medical field and I was one of the few ones in the group who were left behind. Sad at heart, I made up my mind to try next. I faced the remaining interviews though, and retook Step 3. At the same time, I managed to get an opportunity to do an externship in Oklahoma and strengthen my credentials for next year. I scheduled to go there in April 2007 for 3 months. With still some time at hand, I resumed my restaurant work and kept fending myself.
The lady luck, however, showed her magnanimity. I had passed the acid test she had put me in. Quite surprisingly, in mid-March my results for the second attempt at Step 3 came pat for the residency. I was on top of the world. Yet some fear gripped me. The match day--March 13--was approaching but I had no excitement as I was sure I would not get a position. As a result, even on the match day, I got ready to go to my job. I had no pep to look at the match results but for my friends' sake. "Expect the best and get ready for the worst," my dad always exhorts me with this proverbial line. Therefore, uncertain and hesitatingly, and yet with some hope, I glanced at the results and guess what guys!!!....to my utter surprise I had matched. I could not believe my eyes. Most surprisingly, I later found out that I had matched to the program I had placed on top of my list that is Cook County Hospital in Chicago. My dream came true and I have been working here since August 2007."

[dodo]

Step 2 CK'dan(şimdilik 16 Nisan) sonra bu hikayeleri Türkçe'ye çevirip o şekilde foruma koymaya çalışacağım.
Sağlıcakla..
DOdo