I want to know about USMLE. What is the purpose of this exam? What is its structure and when can a medico take it? What is a residency programme? What is paid residency? What percentage of international medical graduates (IMGs) usually get residency? What happens during residency and after that? What is the approximate time and money spent before one becomes eligible to practise medicine in the US? Is medicine a lucrative career in the US?

Neelabha

The United States Medical Licensing Examination or USMLE is a multi-part professional exam. All doctors are required to pass this examination before being permitted to practise medicine in the US. The USMLE has three parts and a doctor of medicine (MD) should pass all three before he or she is considered eligible to apply for a licence.

The first part of USMLE is an eight-hour computer-based test that consists of 350 multiple-choice questions divided into seven blocks, each having 50 questions. The second part consists of two separate exams — Step 2-CK for testing clinical knowledge and Step 2-CS for testing clinical skills. The final part is a two-day examination. The test on both the days must be completed within eight hours. About 10 states in the US allow foreign medical graduates to directly take the final part of the exam before starting residency.

Residency is a stage of postgraduate medical training in a primary care or referral specialty, mostly with direct supervision by senior physicians. A residency is usually paid training and is thus called paid residency. Some sources claim that among the total medical graduates who get residency, approximately 20-30 per cent are IMGs (inclusive of US and non-US citizens). Residencies typically take two to six years to complete.

After one completes the residency programme, passing the licencing exam may be the last step before a doctor is eligible to practise in the US. If the candidate has already passed the licencing examination, he or she can then start a practice.

Studying medicine can be a very costly affair. The total expenditure will, of course, depend on the medical college, its location and the student’s area of specialisation. But the expense can be considered worthwhile since medicine is a good career option in the US. The amount a physician earns will, however, vary depending upon the employer they are working with as well as their skill, number of years of experience, reputation, hours worked, personality and geographic location.

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