Where to work after graduation is one of troubling questions, and so do medical students. The doctor license of China, Hong Kong and America, they only can be used in respective country. It need to be thought carefully.

On 10th April 2016, in the evening, the lecture was held at room 316 the Second Social Science Building. The guest was Prof. Ahmed Nawaz, who has been teaching at Jinan University since 2013, and Hu Yuan from 12 Clinical Medicine, who is going to take the examination. They shared with us what the United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) was, and how to be a doctor in USA.

To register USMLE, you should be a medical student, or a person graduated from a medical school eligible for examination by the ECFMG. Most Chinese medical universities, including Jinan University, have a qualification to challenge this exam. It means the examination does not require degree. You have to register first and wait for three months before taking exam. Once you are accepted, it will start. The examination consists of three steps.

Step 1 examines individual’s basic science knowledge. It takes at least one year or more to prepare. The Step 2 includes the test of clinical knowledge (CK) and clinical skill (CS). 70‘% of questions in CK is similar to step1. It is clinicallymore relevant and patient-centered than Step 1. The CS is test for your examination skills with an actor who acts as a patient. The result of this test is “fail” or “pass”. If you fail once it will affect matching. The questions of Step3 are written by practicing physicians who understand real world medicine. Prof. Ahmed Nawaz recommended to be familiar to the topic of the bone cancer.

Passing all of that, you then go to apply for the clinical experience in USA at least for six months to one year. After the clinical experience is done, you will do the matching at last. It is important at this step that you have high score at step1, and did not fail step2 CS. The hospital will decide if they can take you or not by the result you got.

The information of USMLE itself is not so difficult to gather using either Chinese or English since it is written clearly in the internet, but how to study for the examination is a difficult part. It is better to ask your senior and teacher. “Do not study by yourself.” said Hu Yuan, 12CM. It takes long time and high cost; however it will give you high return. If you want to work as a doctor abroad especially USA, try and challenge it.

Written by Zheng Danrong

Revised by Divya

Edited by Jesse