The exam recap (and comparison to AMC/USMLE)

So I think if I wanted to know about a new med school like OUM I would want to know how well they prepare you for licencing exams in Australia and the US.  So far I can make a good comparison with the biochem, cardiovascular, and respiratory sections.

Firstly, the AMC (Australian Medical Council) licencing exam is similar to USMLE Step 2CK and CS - there are two parts to it and you only do it once you've finished the whole med degree.  There is little to no focus on biochemistry as a separate discipline, for example, and the MCQ exam focuses on internal medicine, surgery, psychiatry, OBGYN, and paediatrics.  They release two books to help IMGs prepare for the AMC licencing exam and I have looked at the cardio and resp internal medicine questions and they seem fairly easy - I would say of similar difficulty to the OUM exams.  Then there's a section which is like a multiple MCQ where there may be more than one correct answer and you must choose one or ALL that apply.  Tricky.  And these ones are centred more on the way medicine is practiced in Australia.  For this reason they recommend doing most clinical rotations in Australia.

For the USMLE comparison I only have had access to USMLEWorld Step 1 Qbank  They say if you get 60-70% then you will get a good score on the USMLE Step 1.  I got about 60-70% on the cardio and resp sections before I did my OUMexams and I got 80-85% on them.  So, I would say, in that regard that the OUM exam must be fairly similar to the USMLE.  However, I haven't attempted the biochem questions yet and I do very poorly there.  I feel I will need to really take a lot of time to cover biochem, genetics, behavioural, and more embyol as it isn't adequately covered with the OUM modules.  However, OUM does provide "lectures" on these things as links to PowerPoint presentation that you are somehow meat to do in your own time.  I will do this, but I feel orry for fellow students that don't cover this stuff as it's not part of their core learning.

Time will tell, I suppose, but so far I think OUM does provide adequate preparation for the licencing exams but just like anything in life you only get out what you put in.  And if anyone thinks they can coast through a medical degree and into internship then they are mistaken.