r/USMLEindia

Has anyone used this for match assistance? What are your opinions on it? They’re quoting over 5k and suggest they are going to help with match and soap as well.

I have seen people planning for usmle after graduation here. But i have heard our year of graduation affect our match chances significantly!!

How are u guys going to deal with it

Hey, am a recent medical graduate.I haven't figured out the "what next" in life.This has also become a biggest concern i should have least figured out while in internship, but comfort really pushed me out not facing reality. I enjoyed comfort a little to much and here I am. While during my pre final year-i figured to pursue the plab pathway, I was elated,confident as if gmc were willing to recruit me.Then the job market, priorization law hit me so bad.I dropped the plan,with no backups.

I was angry on myself,while my colleagues were on bandwagon and jumped into the rat race,and who am to judge them,they had be prepping& i felt the odd one out.Honestly this never felt right me,always like always i wanna leave this country so badd and do my residency.Am also trying this upcoming neet pg(barely 10 days left,i should prob be studying).The whole three months(since graduation)are almost me researching every single pathway for img .Funny enough During my burnout phase all my Google searches would be "career after mbbs not involving mbbs".Burnout really pulled me apart, am glad I was able overcome a little.

Each pathway has closed or slowly closing-

To sum up each pathways-(there is no long story short, its short story long here)

1.USMLE:

While ppl figured usmle in their undergrad years, and there is me after an whole ass graduation. Now the searches have become am i too late?,how to get visa or even a green card sooner?(idk man kill me it's seems lot better).The more and more I learned about usmle, it was exactly how I imagined the doing residency(only pro),cons-the financial risk,the emotional turmoil,how anxiety driven was at each phase.. Usmle consists of 4 components-the steps,usce,Lors and research.The only controllable risk here is the steps, purely networking and connections and the VISA put you on the rest three. Man I have no alumini network idk how am gonna pull this ( once if decided to put a foot on it). ONE thing about this pathway YOU ARE only AN EXCHANGE RESIDENT STUDYING IN STATES AND NEEDS TO LEAVE AFTER RESIDENCY ,BE PRESENT IN YOUR HOME COUNTRY for 2 years. Else you can get a waiver which requires you work on a very unreserved hospital.your call! And nobody is getting your h1b,you are most likely to fall under the j1.

2.Germany-

I almost convinced myself this is defo a good backup(since no backup led me to this pothole). How much I ever think it doesn't sit right with me,learning the language for two long years(no dialect included),and then starting the whole process of fsp,kp exams, then job market then non existent residency for img.

3.Australia-

Personally there is no direct entry for australia.The Amc 1 being cat based,amc 2 being a very difficult osce exams.Even when you cross the whole sea,congrats you have no jobbbb.The real bottleneck is getting your first job.The only way I see myself here is through the CAP pathway(this is a very personal preference for me!!)Good for you if you see the other way around.

4.plab-

This pathway attracts img coz its way cheaper,easier entry to a country and have no progress for years and one needs to gain nhs experience and land on residency. You can constantly come across post pointing out avoid plab if possible. Well they are True only to some extend (delulululusionalll core) . Well you can enter the country ,you might land on a job on this very narrower ,difficult market(*again delusional driven*). There are ppl not landing on non training jobs even after prior nhs experience (let alone the residency) and there are ppl who are still landing some jobs,both these extreme exist! As i tell you this, crazy enough am still gonna write plab(never trust some online person for life advice and even me) and gonna take the risk and betting everything on it, if I am lucky enough to land on one, might use this as a ground work and get into cap pathway or under circumstances if its viable to continue in uk, i will.

5.Neetpg/inicet-

I don't see myself here on long term, if someone tells you do em and later go into specialist pathway or any other pathway where you can establish yourself abroad. Not for me, being struck for 4-5 years,a biggg no.If any above pathway works well and good,but directly jumping into my home residency doesn't sit with me well. I would rather try and fail ,rather not live in guilt.

The more and more i realised i don't have a primary plan and a backup. All I have are two primary plans, gonna take one at a time and if am lucky enough to land on one.

No pathway for imgs are easier,each has its own hurdles.chose them under your own risk,also take the damn risk!

Onething if you have money, connections, or my father knows a guy- USE THEM,USE IT,USE YOUR PREVILEGE, USE YOUR RESOSURCES!!

I got into both ramaiah and jss and I'm confused about which to choose. My main aim for the future is usmle. Can someone please advise which is better and why?

PASSED. Got the result last wednesday and after processing it, decided to write about my journey. Gave my exam on 29th July and this is is a very honest and messy account of my journey. If you’re struggling and have a messy journey, do give it a read and I hope it motivates you.
soo my journey started in November with uworld. I solved uworld system wise and very slowly. Used it to get used to the questions and learn the content. I completely adopted the UWORLD IS A LEARNING TOOL strategy and didn’t give a fuck about my score. Started dedicated in April and mostly did uworld on random and tried to do first aid. I was never able to use first aid to its real potential and every time I tried to it ended up becoming a highly time consuming task with low returns. When I started dedicated my uworld was only 35% complete, but I was familiar vaguely with all systems.
Started giving NBMEs
27 : 45%
29: 45% at this point I was so demotivated.
Didn’t give up, worked on my weak areas and systems using mehlman pdfs, first aid for some systems, biostats Randy Neil
28: 52% I was motivated coz at least my score had budged.
30: 50%. This score broke me. I was so done at this point coz this was supposed to be easier and somehow my score dropped.
Again worked on weak areas, did mehlman’s pdfs.
26: 58%. At this point I was very happy. Made real progress and still had 3 NBMEs left to reach 65
31: 62% elated. Reviewed NBME and again worked on a few weak systems
32: 61% a little disappointed but kept going
33: 58%. This was 1 week before my scheduled date. I was so disappointed and scared and I postponed my exam to 4 weeks later.
in the 4 weeks gap, I had my college exams for 2 weeks and I still revised my weak areas from either FA/ Mehlman and most importantly I did AT LEAST 1 uworld block a day.
Reviewed NBME 31, 32, 33 again.
I gave free 120 3 days before my exam. I got 61. It was definitely way lower than I wanted but at that point I didn’t know what else I could do even if I did postpone so I decided to give the exam.
Now the exam: my form wasn’t like the recent NBMEs. Even if concepts were repeated I couldn’t recognise them as repeated and that was my experience. Concepts from free 120 weren’t repeated but the way the questions are formed were like free 120 (The language, the wording, length of qstns etc).
I felt like I was on autopilot during the exam and didn’t spend too much time over processing the questions. Read the question, go with your gut feeling and move on. There were very few questions where I wasn’t confused between 2 options so I do think the exam is a lot about educated guessing or at least my form was.
Mehlman arrows is too good and makes you feel like you’re actually understanding smth and I highly recommend it. Also don’t sleep on pathoma 1-3, there’s a reason it’s high yield.
I never crossed 62 on any practice exam but the thing that helped me the most is reviewing the questions and having self confidence. I think at one point all of us should stop over preparing and look beyond the scores. I’m not saying or advising that people should give exam with scores in low 60s as I myself was aiming for 65+ but what I am saying is that the most important thing in this exam is self confidence on the day.

Hi everyone!
I have two near-completed cardiology case reports and I’m looking for someone with some prior experience in case-report publication to collaborate with me on taking them through the final stages.
I’m specifically looking for someone who can help with:
Selecting suitable good-quality journals
Reviewing the manuscripts and suggesting improvements
Understanding the submission and publication process
Navigating revisions and correspondence with the journal
I don’t have any prior publications, so I’m particularly interested in connecting with someone who has some experience with journal selection and case-report submissions and can guide me through the process. I’m happy to handle the work required on my end and collaborate closely throughout the submission process.
If you have experience publishing cardiology/internal medicine case reports and would be interested in collaborating, please DM me with a brief description of your publication experience.
Thanks!

I’m from Tamil Nadu, but I’m currently in the US for rotations. And I’m unable to get a letter of good standing as I can’t get past the Aadhar card verification steps. I’ve read online that it’s because the app is geo locked only in India

Anyone know what I can do?

So I finally cleared neet this year joining a college soon.. and I just discovered about usmle and had some questions regarding it....

I will be grateful if anyone can answer....

1)If I'm going for usmle path... Then should i continue to purchase marrow or the bootcamp will be enough for me to pass the profs (since I'll need to pass the profs)

2. money isn't a big factor for me but still I am thinking of sailing the seas for some resources... If anyone can help, it will be a big help...

3. are these resources enough or am I missing something?

(FA, BOOTCAMP, PATHOMA, SKETCHY, NBME, UWORLD)

Thanks a lot...

❤️

I’m in the process of booking my USMLE Step 1 eligibility period on the FSMB website.

On the payment page, when I add my address in the billing address section, the system says the ZIP code has to be 5 digits.
However, I stay in a country where the ZIP code is 6 digits. The same code is also connected to the card I’m using for the payment.

How have you’ll handled this discrepancy?

Any urgent help will be really appreciated! I need to book the exam asap
Thanks guys!

I’m stepping into final year mbbs soon and I mainly use marrow, yt and the sources relevant to respective subjects online. Planning of giving step 1 December 2026 else Jan 2027
I want this to be a two way thing , not a drill sergeant set up. Prep can be exhausting. I’m looking for someone who gets that burnout and bad days are a part of the process. I’m really serious about my goals. Feel free to hmu if you’re around the same stage/ timeline as me.

A Shared Learning Journey

For everyone on this journey—most of us have probably discovered a few things along the way that genuinely made a difference. It could be a particular study resource or QBank, a helpful YouTube channel, advice about USCE or observerships, electives and rotations, residency applications, finding rotating rooms and accommodation, productivity tools, or simply someone’s personal experience that helped us avoid a mistake.

I think it would be incredibly valuable if we could share those resources, tips, and lessons with each other. What worked for you might save someone else hours of research, money, or unnecessary stress.

So, if you’ve come across something that genuinely helped you during this journey, please share it here—whether it’s a resource, website, tool, contact, strategy, or a lesson you wish you had known earlier. Let’s make the journey a little easier for everyone.

You can dm me, if you have any ideas, thoughts! Im planning to start for each segment from the contribution i get!

Hi everyone, I'm an Indian MBBS grad planning to do USMLE, a US Internal Medicine residency, and a Sleep fellowship, but my long-term plan is to move back to India. ​Once I'm US board-certified, is it legally possible to live in India and do remote asynchronous HSAT/PSG reads or work as a Medical Director for US platforms like iSleep, Lofta, EnsoData, or Singular Sleep? ​Also, does B2B contracting fall under 1099, or is it handled differently (like a US LLC with a W-8BEN-E form)? And do these platforms pay standard US 1099 specialist rates, or do they offer lower/offshore pay because you're living in India?

I just need to vent somewhere because I've been carrying this anxiety for a long time.

I'm 31 and I had joined MBBS back in 2016. I passed all my MBBS exams and started my internship in 2022. I managed to complete around 2 months, but then I developed severe anxiety and depression and had to stop. I ended up taking treatment and what was supposed to be a break eventually became almost 4 years.

Now I'm finally trying to get back and finish what I started.

The State Medical Council has told me to pay the required fine and proceed with rejoining. My university has also told me to rejoin and complete the internship, but because of the unusually long gap there is still some confusion regarding the regulations and they may have to send my documents to NMC after I finish.

So technically I'm not rejected or anything. I'm actually being told to proceed.

But my brain keeps going:

"What if the college says no?"

"What if NMC says no later?"

"What if after spending so many years studying, I still don't get the degree?"

And honestly, that thought scares the shit out of me.

I'm 31 now. Most people from my batch have probably moved on with their lives, while I'm still trying to finish something I started almost a decade ago.

I also worry about what happens if MBBS doesn't work out. I don't need some crazy luxurious life. I just want a normal, comfortable life, hopefully upper-middle-class if possible. I already have a house and hopefully some family assets in the future, but I still need a career and income.

I've thought about government jobs, doing another degree, IT, business etc., but everything feels uncertain when you're starting over at 31.

I know objectively that my life wouldn't be "over" if I don't get the degree. But when you're actually sitting with this uncertainty, it feels like everything depends on this one thing.

Not really looking for legal advice here. I just wanted to put this somewhere and hear from people who may have gone through something similar.

Has anyone here had a major career or education setback in their late 20s or early 30s and managed to rebuild their life?

I could really use some perspective right now.

I took NBME 27 as a baseline today and scored 56%. My Step 1 is September 21, so I have ~35 days left and postponing isn't an option.

I've completed general path, CVS, respiratory, renal, endocrine, repro, biochem, and heme/onc, but retention is poor. I still have neuro, GI, immunology, MSK, derm, psych, ethics, biostats, virology/parasites and some pharm pending. I've done ~28% UWorld.

A lot of the NBME was guesswork because I genuinely haven't covered some of the material.

Can I realistically make this in 35 days? What should I prioritize now: finishing the first pass, UWorld, revision, or NBMEs? And what strategy would you use from here?

Looking for brutally honest advice.

Hello everyone,

I graduated in June 2026 (batch 2020) and will be completing my internship around September. I had never seriously considered the USMLE pathway before this year, but about three months ago, my family and I received our U.S. Green Cards, which made me start thinking about pursuing residency in the U.S. more seriously.

The problem is that I am essentially starting from scratch. I have no significant research experience, no strong CV, and I haven't started preparing for Step 1 yet. I do have First Aid and Pathoma at home, and I have two cousins who are U.S. citizens and are already practicing as doctors there, so I would at least have some family guidance/support.

However, I'm from a middle-class family, so the financial aspect is a major concern. As the first child, I also feel a strong responsibility toward my parents. They don't plan to permanently move to the U.S. and would prefer to stay in India, so I'm worried about being able to support and take care of them in the long term.

I also have a lot of self-doubt. What if I invest years and a significant amount of money into this and don't clear the exams? And even if I do clear the exams, what if I don't match, despite having a Green Card?

On the other hand, NEET-PG feels like the safer option financially and in terms of time. But I also worry that choosing it would mean accepting many compromises. From what I've seen and heard, being a doctor in India can involve poor work-life balance, limited financial security and stability, being overworked and underpaid, and, at times, a lack of professional respect.

I know that I am dedicated and hardworking, and I can be very consistent when I genuinely commit myself to something. So I don't mind putting in the work. What scares me is making the wrong decision when there are so many financial and family responsibilities involved.

I'd really appreciate honest advice, especially from people who have gone through the USMLE pathway or have considered both options.

1. What would you do if you were in my shoes?

2. How would you make this decision rationally while considering both your future and your family's financial responsibilities?

3. Is it worth starting the USMLE journey from scratch after internship, or am I too late?

4. Given my current situation, what would you consider realistic chances of success and matching?

5. If you were in my position, would you choose NEET-PG or take the risk of pursuing residency in the U.S.?

I would especially appreciate honest perspectives rather than simply being told to "follow your dreams." I want to understand the risks, opportunity costs, finances, timeline, and realistic outcomes before making such a major decision.

Thank you in advance to anyone willing to share their experience or perspective.

Hello guys,
I have completed mbbs been a year, 2019 batch.
Always wanted to go abroad either us or the uk since the very beginning. After some research I realised usmle is more expensive and unreliable so I thought of plab and I guess we all know what happened to that pathway now.
Long story short followed my mates and began my grind for neet pg a few weeks short of my serious attempt not too confident for it.
I keep thinking of one of my friends who cleared usmle and is doing residency there now.
I don’t know why but I want to give it an attempt bc I think I’ll regret it for not even trying, bc I already do regret for not attempting it in my med school time.
Currently have no research, just my mbbs degree and an average neet pg preparation.
Looking for advice