Is it possible to write steps while doing research - targetsurgery

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Studentlife123, vj6,neurosynapsis,drdokter,morris81,andreji and hope77.. your responses are so inspiring.. Thank you very much for your beautiful suggestions... I am assuming ( understand that I do not even know the office timings for research ) that office timings would be from 8am-5pm mon-friday. I would have to wake up at 7am atleast and I would come back only after 6pm. I would be left with nearly 4 hours considering the need for cooking ourselves in the US. I think I would be free in the weekends ( but a few people told me that we would be given some work to do in the week ends too ... ] .. It might take an year to prepare for the exam but my big question is I wouldn't even have time to take 2 weeks off to revise everything before the exams.

Could you please share the schedules of study/work that you had ( specially the guys/girls who assisted research ). It would be really helpful to me to plan things and decide if I really fit into that or not...

All you guys and Hope 77.. you really gave hope to me.. I was about to reject that offer..

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Other views are welcome too...

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I want to know if you people have taken a month or two off your work.. because as I believe PhD students will have holidays and you could revise things and go well prepared for the exam which I assume is not the case with a post doc fellow who gets paid and wouldn't have an off for more than 12 days/year... I would be really thankful if you provide me your study schedule/ if you've taken any offs before the exam..thanks in advance..

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I dont understand why u r complicating something as important as the USMLEs with research. Research is NOT important!!....If u dont get good usmle score you will not get residency no matter how much research u have done!...Also u will end up studying forever becoz u will not be prepared with a full time job like that!....Just take 4-6 months out of your life...focus only on step 1 and give it first. Start studying for step 1 ...Then u will see what kind of studying this exam requires!!...You will be able to get 99 only if you eat drink and sleep usmle!!....After completing step 1 and 2 u can do research to get into any residency of your choice.....But FIRST get the exams out of the way!!

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Thanks arundhati for the reply. I know that USMLE is the one, but research is something that surgery aspirants do not to improve our cv, but to have a very good letter of recommendation and to have a phone call done by the attending to the PD. It almost gaurantees a residency if the attending is a worthy person. It also helps us to gain some publications which would add to the cv. I agree with you that step1 is the one. I am thinking to write step1 before I leave as vj6 has suggested. Thanks again for reminding me the importance of steps..

Any other views??

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i dont have time to go thru all the posts..surg is not given with research....nope! it is given thru CONTACT big time!!i knw couple of ppl (amg, careeb grads) who cudnt make t coz they didnt have contact and the one with the good contact made it. also, u got ot have real good scores...prelim is easy to get, not cat...another thing that help in surg is pre hands on in surg, or prevous surgry residency back home...again contact helps big time. u may bring it down to urology, again not much for fmgs in there and since i knw couple of careeb and fmgs which good credit and usce/hands on/did 1-2 yrs prelim in surg and didnt make it and had to swich to other residency. thre are attending who can abuse fmgs to work hard for them in ther project and trash them at the end(say like by easy excuse, like poor credit, old grads, grad cut off...or u call it, they can easiy put x done to take y or else , i mean they tae whoever they like and not promissing. be careful and put ur feet on solid rock. gl

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John2007 the idea of doing research for a long time is primarily to develop contacts who would call the Program directors. They would make you get the interviews and residencies although finally you might get a prelim in a very good university. I personally know of many people like ten people who are IMG ( from my country ), cleared steps, did research for 2 years.. the research attendings would call the PD, they would get the residencies.. Job gets done that way.. However thanks again for making me apprehensive about surgery..

Any other surgery guys here and any other views??

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and u think only 10-30 people have contacts?? EVERYONE who applies has contacts even if they dont admit it!!...and if all the contacts must be callig the PDs then his phone will blast!!....i also know several people who have got rejected even after that fonecall. So,dont rely on this strategy!!...Go do step 1 and 2 first.AFTER that do research.

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drvikas thank you very much for the info...

Any other opinion???

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Any other views/opinions/comments...