The United States is one of the hot favorite destinations for the overseas doctors in pursuing higher studies, if not the most favored one. Each year, thousands of medical graduates fly to US to sit for the licensing examination. As you have already accustomed, for an overseas medical graduate to get a license to practice medicine in the US, he has to clear the USMLE.

USMLE, an acronym for United States Medical Licensing Examination, is the only gateway for a doctor who have obtained the medical degree outside the US or Canada. The examination is funded and conducted by the Federation of State Medical Boards (FSMB) together with the National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME). Even for the US medical graduates, if they want to practice medicine independently, they have to take the exam.

USMLE is divided into three parts – Step 1, Step 2 and Step 3. In the Step 1, one has to answer 336 EMQs (Extended Matching Questions). Subjects covered in Step 1 are – human anatomy, physiology, biochemistry including genetics, pathology and microbiology, pharmacology, nutrition including geriatrics and behavioral sciences. This is an eight hour online computer based examination. Maximum score is 300 and the pass mark is 185.

Step 2 is further divided into two parts – Step 2 CK and Step 2 CS. Step 2 CK (Clinical Knowledge) is again an EMQ based exam and it covers internal medicine, surgery, Obstetrics and Gynecology, Pediatrics and Psychiatry. There are some centers outside US opened recently where overseas doctors can take Step 2 CK. But for Step 2 CS (Clinical Skill), one has to come to the US. The candidate has to take history and state the differential diagnosis with initial investigations for 12 standardized patients.

The USMLE Step 3 is taken to assess the compatibility for a foreign medical graduate to work independently in the US atmosphere. Emphasis is also given to ambulatory patient care setup.