ok so now that the trauma of my score is over i can move on with my blog.
today i am going to write a long one again.i will talk about my visa disaster.
here's the thing.i thought i would go to the us quickly and give my step 1 from US itself.why?i dont really know.maybe i wanted to be with mono earlier or maybe i just wanted a change of pace.maybe i wanted to do my externship too...i dont really know.and right now it does not even matter.
ok so i applied for a visa.tourist visa (B1/B2).i applied from some idiotic website whose name i dont remember right now.i got all my papers ready.and at the same time i was in kolkata to give my exam...ie in january...i applied for a date for a visa interview.
interview day : i got ready and went to the consulate where i was asked a LOT of questions.among them were 'what is your purpose of going to the US?'.now this is where i made a blunder.my cousin had asked me to say 'visit relatives'.mono kept telling me that i was supposed to tell the truth but being foolish i didnt listen to him.ok my interview went on for about 30 minutes...I KNOW thats a really long interview but they asked me a lot of stuffs.my final question was 'can you tell me about the last exam that you gave'...guess what i did?i eloquently described my final mbbs profs...oh god!!i was such an ass...the guy even asked me 'r u sure'....idiot idiot idot.so of course they rejected my visa.
so well...thats about it as far as my visa interview story is concerned.
i was sad...almost to the point of depression.but life must go on.and so i live on...i know its a dramatic statement.but thats exactly how i feel...or at least i felt at that time...
there's always a next time i guess.i hope.
anyways...burrrrrr...out of my reverie.so i will summarise the things that are required for a tourist visa interview...the non-usmle ones :)
1.passport.
2.visa interview letter...only the vhs ones are accepted.mine wasnt one and i was asked to re do them AFTER my interview started.i had to go out of the consulate to another place to them.and i was given just 20 minutes to do it...so dont be hassled.do it right the first time.
3.a receipt from hdfc bank for rs 6550 specifically for the visa interview.
3.documents to prove that the person who's sponsoring your trip can afford to....in my case it was my dad's bank statements.
4.letters from people in US with whom you will be staying.in my case it was 3 letters from my cousin...her bank statement,her property statement,her employment letter .she also sent me a written invitation for me to visit her for good measure....such a sweetheart...
5.i took all my marksheets and degrees.i didnt want to take any chances.
hmmm...a final word of advice.do not lie in the visa interview.whatever you do.just dont lie.
more info on us visa here
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Saturday, August 29, 2009
results...
ok so now i come to my results...
i dont have the courage to put up a copy of the result right now...but i will put it up some day when i get into some residency and can look at the score card without any guilt or feelings of hopelessness.
ok i ll rip off the band aid.
i got a 78 percentile.period.
was i crushed??ya i was...did i prepare and got less than what i expected??no...then??well i was hoping for a miracle and well miracles dont happen as far as results are concerned i guess (or i dunno...i passed my medicine exam in final profs right??so i correct myself....miracles dont happen ALL the time when results are concerned).
results : it usually comes on a wednesday about 2-3 weeks after your exam.
i dont have the courage to put up a copy of the result right now...but i will put it up some day when i get into some residency and can look at the score card without any guilt or feelings of hopelessness.
ok i ll rip off the band aid.
i got a 78 percentile.period.
was i crushed??ya i was...did i prepare and got less than what i expected??no...then??well i was hoping for a miracle and well miracles dont happen as far as results are concerned i guess (or i dunno...i passed my medicine exam in final profs right??so i correct myself....miracles dont happen ALL the time when results are concerned).
results : it usually comes on a wednesday about 2-3 weeks after your exam.
Sunday, August 23, 2009
ok the exam itself
ok since my previous 2 posts were so long that you probably fell asleep reading it i will make this one and the ones in future a little shorter...i will break my story in parts if i have to but it will be shorter.
anyways i will talk about the exam today.now since i am from gangtok and my test centre was in kolkata i left 3 days before the exam.when i was in kolkata the 1 and half day before exam i did not study much.i even went shopping before the exam...am i super cool???no of course not....super foolish is more like it.
so the morning of the exam.i left.i had with me
1.the confirmation letter
2.the exam card i got from the usmle people
3.my passport
4.an id...i had my electoral card.but when they saw it they rejected it.they asked for a driver's license.which of course i did not have so...tough luck for them.there was no problem however.
5.lots of water and juice.NO redbull.
6.food...2 cheese sandwhich 1 peanut butter sandwhich and 2 chocolates..if you MUST know.
comfortable clothes and i was set.
i raeched the place about 30 minutes early.after initial check they let me in.and my exam begun...
now surely you dont expect me to write down the questions here right??i dont remember them.it was SO long ago.all i remember thinking during the exam was "i have seen this question in uworld but i am confused about what the answer was".so thats what is going to happen.you will have read about ALL the questions.there was not one question that i had not...but if you dont prepare well you will be confused about the answer.thats the only difference between a 75 and a 99.the thorougness of the preparation..
anyways..for me the exam blocks were like 1 2 3 went ok types 5 and 6 sucked majorly and well 7 and 8 were so so.i have heard the exams are adaptive so i dont know what that meant.adaptive??well if you have done your 1st block well your 2nd block will be a little tough but if you have done your 1st block badly then your 2nd block will be easier and so forth...
i took my breaks too.1 after 3 blocks then 1 break after the next 2 blocks.the last 2 blocks i finished at a go.i had about 20 minutes of it left when i was finished.
after exam there was a small survey...how was the environment and how were the staff those kind of thing.barely takes you about 10 minutes.
then i was done.
advice : be thorough with your preparation.nothing else matters.
oh ya before i forget...i did not know this till i FINISHED step 1 but you can read your books when you are taking your breaks.i dunno if thats advisable...i mean breaks are for breaks but still questions tend to repeat and if you find that you are VERY confused about something i suppose it does not harm to peek into your notes once.
anyways i will talk about the exam today.now since i am from gangtok and my test centre was in kolkata i left 3 days before the exam.when i was in kolkata the 1 and half day before exam i did not study much.i even went shopping before the exam...am i super cool???no of course not....super foolish is more like it.
so the morning of the exam.i left.i had with me
1.the confirmation letter
2.the exam card i got from the usmle people
3.my passport
4.an id...i had my electoral card.but when they saw it they rejected it.they asked for a driver's license.which of course i did not have so...tough luck for them.there was no problem however.
5.lots of water and juice.NO redbull.
6.food...2 cheese sandwhich 1 peanut butter sandwhich and 2 chocolates..if you MUST know.
comfortable clothes and i was set.
i raeched the place about 30 minutes early.after initial check they let me in.and my exam begun...
now surely you dont expect me to write down the questions here right??i dont remember them.it was SO long ago.all i remember thinking during the exam was "i have seen this question in uworld but i am confused about what the answer was".so thats what is going to happen.you will have read about ALL the questions.there was not one question that i had not...but if you dont prepare well you will be confused about the answer.thats the only difference between a 75 and a 99.the thorougness of the preparation..
anyways..for me the exam blocks were like 1 2 3 went ok types 5 and 6 sucked majorly and well 7 and 8 were so so.i have heard the exams are adaptive so i dont know what that meant.adaptive??well if you have done your 1st block well your 2nd block will be a little tough but if you have done your 1st block badly then your 2nd block will be easier and so forth...
i took my breaks too.1 after 3 blocks then 1 break after the next 2 blocks.the last 2 blocks i finished at a go.i had about 20 minutes of it left when i was finished.
after exam there was a small survey...how was the environment and how were the staff those kind of thing.barely takes you about 10 minutes.
then i was done.
advice : be thorough with your preparation.nothing else matters.
oh ya before i forget...i did not know this till i FINISHED step 1 but you can read your books when you are taking your breaks.i dunno if thats advisable...i mean breaks are for breaks but still questions tend to repeat and if you find that you are VERY confused about something i suppose it does not harm to peek into your notes once.
step 2 exam preparation..more like uworld advertisement
ok now before everyone starts wondering why i am not writing about step 1 first here's the thing...i did ny step 2 exams first.why?because my cousin thought it might be better that ways especially since i was fresh out of clinics from internship and i happened to agree with her...ok now everything in detail.
so i came back home...in about last week of august.all done with my internship and all that and all geared up to go at war with the USMLE Step 2.my ammo consisted of kaplan books...the entire set.and thats that...see i am not even beggining to deny that i went wrong in many places.but whats gone is gone.so from the 1st week of september i started studying.i studied regularly but not much...about 4-5 hours daily...which seems like a lot....but not when you plan to give your exams in about 3 months.anyways..i started with kaplan books.someone told me that i was to use first aid book for medicine.but i stuck to kaplan.another mistake on my part.kaplan is a good set but only kaplan for medicine isnt enough.and since medicine is one subject which has the most weightage in the exam DO NOT take medicine lightly.ask around and see what books are required because i am telling from my personal experience that kaplan medicine is not enough.anyways my friends who were giving USMLE too told me that i was supposed to download kaplan lectures too.even my cousin told me this...but for heaven knows what reason i kept on putting it off till the last minute.and yes...its all there on the internet.you only need to know where to hunt for it.and yes i know its wrong to promote piracy or whatever but then kaplan has to make their softwares more piracy-proof...it will keep on happening otherwise.anyways coming back to my preps...i started with kaplan theory.trust me after 9 month of hibernation (with periods of REM sleep in between) its not easy to sit down with your books...my advice?if you have not studied for a prolonged stretch of time then dont plan to give your exam in 3-4 months...give yourself at least 6 months...that ways the time that you spend on re-forming study habits dont count.
after about 2 months....we had dussera and diwali in between...excuses excuses...but anyways...after about 2 months i finished the kaplan theory.i found behavorial sciences and paediatrics a little difficult but i thought i would make up as i went along...i made up in behavorial sciences not so much in paediatrics.anyways i finished theory once by last week of october..and then started my uworld qbank.which maybe was another mistake...i do believe theory should be read twice minimum...but this one i dont regret so much...i am not the read the same thing twice person...maybe its a bad quality in me but well thats the way i am...anyways i started uworld.i had heard a LOT about it and well everyone advised me to study from uworld qbank.my advice...uworld is the best....go for it...they have about 2100 questions in all subjects.the format of uworld is exactly the way it is in the real exams.46 questions 1 hour.you can do the questions in timed untimed (which are self explanatory) and tutor mode.the tutor mode is the one in which there is a question, you answer it and then immediately you get to know whether answer is correct or not and an explanation come along with it.in timed and untimed mode you have to finish all the questions first before you get your answers and the explanation...ok about this one i would advice everyone to start with the tutor mode because well....why waste the time....but as you draw closer to you exams...like one month before or something start the timed mode so that you have enough time management practice.i never used the untimed mode.period.
no i am not done with uworld yet...you can also choose the number of questions you can do each time...its not 46 strictly...like for instance you are waiting for your food (yes i had my food brought up to my room....one of the many many advatages of having a rich father in india) and you dont want to waste your time then you can do just 5 questions...you get the idea rite?another choice is used questions, unused questions, marked and incorrect questions...used unused and incorrect...well everyone understands that...marked questions....hmmm now this one was something that the dumb me took time to figure out so i might as well tell everyone before hand...when you see a question whose answer you think is imporatant...then mark it...on the days before the exam you can read it once twice as many number of times you want to...like for instance maybe you have a question on down's syndrome and the answer explains ALL features of downs plus the major features of the other answer choices...it is a mini revision for all the mentioned diseases right??so of course you would want to read it again right??so there....mark the question...ok thats that about marked...oh one more thing once you choose "marked" your marked questions get unmarked so dun forget to re-mark them again...ok thats enough confusion
yes also...you can choose you questions subject wise...i dont know how helpful that is...i did all subjects but thats entirely up to you...like everything is...
also...use the un-used questions first before you move on to other stuffs...so that ways you get to go through all the questions...i know NOW it sound like a silly thing to say....i mean obvious isnt it.but then the thing is...the smart me thought that if i chose "all" questions then i get to read some questions again and again...so i wasted my first 1 week choosing "all"...dont do that....finish all questions first before doing new things...
also....i used to do about 3 blocks of 46 questions each per day (by now my daily studyin had gone up to about 6-8 hours...thank god!!)...but this many too isn advisable....there's only so much your brain can hold...my suggestion 2 blocks of 46 questions...plus one topics which you find difficult plus maybe 1 or 2 lectures.
click on this happy face for the cost of uworld subscription :) ...nothing to be happy about....i just wanted to be cute...he he
ahem...
i have been to a lot of forums and manyof my friend have told me that the scores you get in uworld...if you add 30 to it then thats your real step 2 scores...i dont know how much of that is true...i used to score about 55-60...and my real score...i guess i will talk about it later :(
how long did i study uworld...about 2 and half months.november december and then half of january...i gave my exams on the 19th of january so...2 and half month.i finshed uworld questions once in 1 and a half month and then i finished 2/3 of it again before giving my exam...
i guess thats about it about my preps...
advice....minimum requirements for your step 2 preps
1. kaplan theory books
2. kaplan lecture videos
3. usmle world aka uworld..A MUST A MUST A MUST....about 60% of questions in my exams had same or almost same questions as the uworld ones.
4. first aid for medicine
5. pen paper notebooks etc for your own notes...these help A LOT too...some school teacher of mine had once told me that if you write things and read it later you remember them better when you see them in your own handwriting.i follow this advice like a religion.i was famous in my college for my note making :)
ps: yes i finally managed to get the kaplan lecture videos but i never used it...i got them all about 1 week before exam and i was surely not going to try anything new then right?
so i came back home...in about last week of august.all done with my internship and all that and all geared up to go at war with the USMLE Step 2.my ammo consisted of kaplan books...the entire set.and thats that...see i am not even beggining to deny that i went wrong in many places.but whats gone is gone.so from the 1st week of september i started studying.i studied regularly but not much...about 4-5 hours daily...which seems like a lot....but not when you plan to give your exams in about 3 months.anyways..i started with kaplan books.someone told me that i was to use first aid book for medicine.but i stuck to kaplan.another mistake on my part.kaplan is a good set but only kaplan for medicine isnt enough.and since medicine is one subject which has the most weightage in the exam DO NOT take medicine lightly.ask around and see what books are required because i am telling from my personal experience that kaplan medicine is not enough.anyways my friends who were giving USMLE too told me that i was supposed to download kaplan lectures too.even my cousin told me this...but for heaven knows what reason i kept on putting it off till the last minute.and yes...its all there on the internet.you only need to know where to hunt for it.and yes i know its wrong to promote piracy or whatever but then kaplan has to make their softwares more piracy-proof...it will keep on happening otherwise.anyways coming back to my preps...i started with kaplan theory.trust me after 9 month of hibernation (with periods of REM sleep in between) its not easy to sit down with your books...my advice?if you have not studied for a prolonged stretch of time then dont plan to give your exam in 3-4 months...give yourself at least 6 months...that ways the time that you spend on re-forming study habits dont count.
after about 2 months....we had dussera and diwali in between...excuses excuses...but anyways...after about 2 months i finished the kaplan theory.i found behavorial sciences and paediatrics a little difficult but i thought i would make up as i went along...i made up in behavorial sciences not so much in paediatrics.anyways i finished theory once by last week of october..and then started my uworld qbank.which maybe was another mistake...i do believe theory should be read twice minimum...but this one i dont regret so much...i am not the read the same thing twice person...maybe its a bad quality in me but well thats the way i am...anyways i started uworld.i had heard a LOT about it and well everyone advised me to study from uworld qbank.my advice...uworld is the best....go for it...they have about 2100 questions in all subjects.the format of uworld is exactly the way it is in the real exams.46 questions 1 hour.you can do the questions in timed untimed (which are self explanatory) and tutor mode.the tutor mode is the one in which there is a question, you answer it and then immediately you get to know whether answer is correct or not and an explanation come along with it.in timed and untimed mode you have to finish all the questions first before you get your answers and the explanation...ok about this one i would advice everyone to start with the tutor mode because well....why waste the time....but as you draw closer to you exams...like one month before or something start the timed mode so that you have enough time management practice.i never used the untimed mode.period.
no i am not done with uworld yet...you can also choose the number of questions you can do each time...its not 46 strictly...like for instance you are waiting for your food (yes i had my food brought up to my room....one of the many many advatages of having a rich father in india) and you dont want to waste your time then you can do just 5 questions...you get the idea rite?another choice is used questions, unused questions, marked and incorrect questions...used unused and incorrect...well everyone understands that...marked questions....hmmm now this one was something that the dumb me took time to figure out so i might as well tell everyone before hand...when you see a question whose answer you think is imporatant...then mark it...on the days before the exam you can read it once twice as many number of times you want to...like for instance maybe you have a question on down's syndrome and the answer explains ALL features of downs plus the major features of the other answer choices...it is a mini revision for all the mentioned diseases right??so of course you would want to read it again right??so there....mark the question...ok thats that about marked...oh one more thing once you choose "marked" your marked questions get unmarked so dun forget to re-mark them again...ok thats enough confusion
yes also...you can choose you questions subject wise...i dont know how helpful that is...i did all subjects but thats entirely up to you...like everything is...
also...use the un-used questions first before you move on to other stuffs...so that ways you get to go through all the questions...i know NOW it sound like a silly thing to say....i mean obvious isnt it.but then the thing is...the smart me thought that if i chose "all" questions then i get to read some questions again and again...so i wasted my first 1 week choosing "all"...dont do that....finish all questions first before doing new things...
also....i used to do about 3 blocks of 46 questions each per day (by now my daily studyin had gone up to about 6-8 hours...thank god!!)...but this many too isn advisable....there's only so much your brain can hold...my suggestion 2 blocks of 46 questions...plus one topics which you find difficult plus maybe 1 or 2 lectures.
click on this happy face for the cost of uworld subscription :) ...nothing to be happy about....i just wanted to be cute...he he
ahem...
i have been to a lot of forums and manyof my friend have told me that the scores you get in uworld...if you add 30 to it then thats your real step 2 scores...i dont know how much of that is true...i used to score about 55-60...and my real score...i guess i will talk about it later :(
how long did i study uworld...about 2 and half months.november december and then half of january...i gave my exams on the 19th of january so...2 and half month.i finshed uworld questions once in 1 and a half month and then i finished 2/3 of it again before giving my exam...
i guess thats about it about my preps...
advice....minimum requirements for your step 2 preps
1. kaplan theory books
2. kaplan lecture videos
3. usmle world aka uworld..A MUST A MUST A MUST....about 60% of questions in my exams had same or almost same questions as the uworld ones.
4. first aid for medicine
5. pen paper notebooks etc for your own notes...these help A LOT too...some school teacher of mine had once told me that if you write things and read it later you remember them better when you see them in your own handwriting.i follow this advice like a religion.i was famous in my college for my note making :)
ps: yes i finally managed to get the kaplan lecture videos but i never used it...i got them all about 1 week before exam and i was surely not going to try anything new then right?
Friday, August 21, 2009
my internship...why i did not study for 9 months
like i said before i did my mbbs from SMIMS.however i did my internship from a different college (neel ratan sarkar medical hospital and college,kolkata).why?i wanted more exposure.more patients and all that.was that a good decision?i believe it was.i got a LOT of hands on clinical experience.though, the things i learnt in nrs, i dont think will help me much in the US.the standard of patient care there was the lowest that i have seen.but hey...who am i to complain?i saw about 100 patients per day, assisted in surgeries (even laps), and delievered about 200 babies in 3 months.so no complaints.every experience counts.
however what i did not do while i was in kolkata was study.i did not study a single word.i am not proud of the fact but i think i will be excused because i was working for about 13 hours per day and was too tired to do anything else.mentally also, the language problem was a stressor (i speak nepali hindi and english fluently...and NOW i speak bengali too...thanks to kolkata and no thanks to my bengali bf :D ).people in kolkata dont speak much hindi...and almost no english..ok i am exaggerating a little but the thing is the hospital where i worked was for poor and very very rural people of west bengal.so there the people did not speak much of these 2 languages.this was why when i came back home i used to be SO tired because apart from all the medical things i had to learn a new language too.so i did not open my books at all.all i did was sleep and eat and wash clothes...i dont know why but i washed a LOT of clothes when i was in kolkata ... :)
did all this harm my usmle preps?i guess it did.i mean i was completely out of touch with my books for 9 months.there were days when i got scared and said...."hey i HAVE to start studyin".and then i would open my book for about 4 days but then i would go back to my old and lazy habits after 4 days.do i regret it?not even for 1/2 a minute.what i learnt in kolkata was and will be indispensible in my life.clinic stuffs and non clinic stuffs.but i guess i would not advice this to all.i mean dont study like crazy if you dont want to.but dont NOT open your books at all.if nothing if there was an interesting case you saw r a procedure you did, come back home and read about it.not for exams.for your own knowledge.it barely takes 1/2 an hour each day.
ok now advice time ( i will try and include this feature in all my blogs...wont promise though)...internship is a time when we are supposed to learn stuffs.seriously...there are many people/doctors in india these days who dont take internship seriously because they are too busy preparing for the post graduation exams.but i do believe that basics are an absolute must for our life...medical or non medical field...always make the base strong and you will never fail in life....ok ok too much for a day...what i am sayin is that if you are in your internship year.do your internship well...not half heartedly.and AFTER you manage to do that if you have the time and the energy to go to your books in the evening...well nothing like it.personally took my internship year as the much needed break year....4 n half years of intense high pressure (almost autoclave like) studying in the med school deserved a break...and the internship year was the perfect time.
what happened when i did this?i finished my internship and came back home (which is in gangtok) all fresh and prepared to do some studying for the usmle steps.
oh ya....another advice...i didn do this one myself but i think that during your internship if you give you GREs (Graduate -something- Examinations) then it may be helpful.GRE's are a non medico post graduate entrance exams which will help you to get to the US if you are all restless and want to get there as soon as possible.many options once you do your GREs and get a good score (which is around 1300+).what many medical people usually do after passing is join an MPH program in the US.and while they have joined a college to do MPH they start preparing for MLE's.whats the benefit of doing MPH?well you get a study visa for one (now visa issue is a big thing...i will discuss this subsequently in my future blogs), also you will meet many people who are there and doing the same so i guess you will find 'partners in mle crimes' :D.also an extra degree and an extra knowledge is never harmful.you can work in some place (part time jobs) so that you will be financially independent too (though i dont know how attractive working as a waiter or something is after you have finished your mbbs...some people may be able to do it....but me ...i amnot proud of the fact that i dun believe in things like dignity of labour)...but thats about GREs...i know the info is a little vague.if you want to know let me know your questions i will try and answer them.
oh yes one more thing.some people do this too.they give one of the steps....usually step one when they are doing their internship.and then take a break in between their internship to go to the US and do their step 2 CS and their externship.i dont really know whether this is a good idea.my friend did this and everything was fine.but while he was in US we had our graduation and degree giving and all that.when my freind came back to india after 5 months of everything in us he came to college to collect his degree he was asked to come later...about 6 months later.so he lost a lot of time there which was alright if it was just 6 months of nothing.but 6 months later for him meant that he missed out on 2009's matching.so i guess that is a year loss for him.check with your college if they have similar issues if you plan to go to the US while you are doin your internship.again i would suggest you finish your internship before heading out to the US for anything.take one step at a time...and no pun intended!!
so now lets see have i left out anything??ummm...i dont think so.ya one more thing..while you are on your break year (i mean the internship time) make sure you get your passports and everything done (ie if you already dont have one) because once you start studying you dont want such trivialities bothering you.also in this year make sure you join a LOT of usmle forums and read everything about the exams.the better informed you are the less you are going to be dissapointed when faced with reality...my bf kept telling me this and i didn listen to him and well of course i regret it now.like i regret many things that i did and did not do while giving my exams.
come back and read on if you want to know more.
ps: i googled this GRE is Graduate Record Examination.and MPH is Masters in Public Health.
however what i did not do while i was in kolkata was study.i did not study a single word.i am not proud of the fact but i think i will be excused because i was working for about 13 hours per day and was too tired to do anything else.mentally also, the language problem was a stressor (i speak nepali hindi and english fluently...and NOW i speak bengali too...thanks to kolkata and no thanks to my bengali bf :D ).people in kolkata dont speak much hindi...and almost no english..ok i am exaggerating a little but the thing is the hospital where i worked was for poor and very very rural people of west bengal.so there the people did not speak much of these 2 languages.this was why when i came back home i used to be SO tired because apart from all the medical things i had to learn a new language too.so i did not open my books at all.all i did was sleep and eat and wash clothes...i dont know why but i washed a LOT of clothes when i was in kolkata ... :)
did all this harm my usmle preps?i guess it did.i mean i was completely out of touch with my books for 9 months.there were days when i got scared and said...."hey i HAVE to start studyin".and then i would open my book for about 4 days but then i would go back to my old and lazy habits after 4 days.do i regret it?not even for 1/2 a minute.what i learnt in kolkata was and will be indispensible in my life.clinic stuffs and non clinic stuffs.but i guess i would not advice this to all.i mean dont study like crazy if you dont want to.but dont NOT open your books at all.if nothing if there was an interesting case you saw r a procedure you did, come back home and read about it.not for exams.for your own knowledge.it barely takes 1/2 an hour each day.
ok now advice time ( i will try and include this feature in all my blogs...wont promise though)...internship is a time when we are supposed to learn stuffs.seriously...there are many people/doctors in india these days who dont take internship seriously because they are too busy preparing for the post graduation exams.but i do believe that basics are an absolute must for our life...medical or non medical field...always make the base strong and you will never fail in life....ok ok too much for a day...what i am sayin is that if you are in your internship year.do your internship well...not half heartedly.and AFTER you manage to do that if you have the time and the energy to go to your books in the evening...well nothing like it.personally took my internship year as the much needed break year....4 n half years of intense high pressure (almost autoclave like) studying in the med school deserved a break...and the internship year was the perfect time.
what happened when i did this?i finished my internship and came back home (which is in gangtok) all fresh and prepared to do some studying for the usmle steps.
oh ya....another advice...i didn do this one myself but i think that during your internship if you give you GREs (Graduate -something- Examinations) then it may be helpful.GRE's are a non medico post graduate entrance exams which will help you to get to the US if you are all restless and want to get there as soon as possible.many options once you do your GREs and get a good score (which is around 1300+).what many medical people usually do after passing is join an MPH program in the US.and while they have joined a college to do MPH they start preparing for MLE's.whats the benefit of doing MPH?well you get a study visa for one (now visa issue is a big thing...i will discuss this subsequently in my future blogs), also you will meet many people who are there and doing the same so i guess you will find 'partners in mle crimes' :D.also an extra degree and an extra knowledge is never harmful.you can work in some place (part time jobs) so that you will be financially independent too (though i dont know how attractive working as a waiter or something is after you have finished your mbbs...some people may be able to do it....but me ...i amnot proud of the fact that i dun believe in things like dignity of labour)...but thats about GREs...i know the info is a little vague.if you want to know let me know your questions i will try and answer them.
oh yes one more thing.some people do this too.they give one of the steps....usually step one when they are doing their internship.and then take a break in between their internship to go to the US and do their step 2 CS and their externship.i dont really know whether this is a good idea.my friend did this and everything was fine.but while he was in US we had our graduation and degree giving and all that.when my freind came back to india after 5 months of everything in us he came to college to collect his degree he was asked to come later...about 6 months later.so he lost a lot of time there which was alright if it was just 6 months of nothing.but 6 months later for him meant that he missed out on 2009's matching.so i guess that is a year loss for him.check with your college if they have similar issues if you plan to go to the US while you are doin your internship.again i would suggest you finish your internship before heading out to the US for anything.take one step at a time...and no pun intended!!
so now lets see have i left out anything??ummm...i dont think so.ya one more thing..while you are on your break year (i mean the internship time) make sure you get your passports and everything done (ie if you already dont have one) because once you start studying you dont want such trivialities bothering you.also in this year make sure you join a LOT of usmle forums and read everything about the exams.the better informed you are the less you are going to be dissapointed when faced with reality...my bf kept telling me this and i didn listen to him and well of course i regret it now.like i regret many things that i did and did not do while giving my exams.
come back and read on if you want to know more.
ps: i googled this GRE is Graduate Record Examination.and MPH is Masters in Public Health.
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