Advice for IMG
I don't really know who to ask about this because everyone in my cohort is on a different path and I haven't met anyone who is currently studying for STEP2 and chat GPT has been giving me terrible advice lately...
Basically I am about to finish my 4th year of medicine in a 6-year european medical school program. I did STEP1 last year right after finishing the theoretical portion of my curriculum and for me it was enough to just do UWorld. But that was just a pass/fail exam. Now the score matters more than ever, especially because my odds of matching as an IMG are already low. My dream is to be a dermatologist but we all know this field is competitive. Alternatively I would go into pathology then specialize in dermatopathology.
I wanted to ask if there are some high scorers out there who can share their experience. I finished my first pass of the UW test bank and it was an absolute disaster (average 55%). My plan is to repeat the test bank this summer now that I finished some of the core rotations like internal medicine so I'm not really going in blind anymore. I also made an anki of my incorrect questions from the test bank so I'll study along with that. Then I will start doing full length NBME tests. How many NBMEs do you think I should do? All of them?? I plan to take the exam in January 2027 so that I have ample time to focus on research and U.S. clinical opportunities. If anyone can help me in anyway with STEP2 preparation and/or matching into U.S residency as an IMG it would be so much appreciated!!!
My target score is 270+. Yes I know I'm delusional but this is what it takes to be happy and successful in this simulation.