USMLE Preparation in Asia

[Victoria Adams]

Do any Asian Med Schools offer any type of formal USMLE preparation? I understand that Fatima University in the Philippines is developing some practice questions and I wondered whether any other schools had something similar.

Vic

[trauma]

Do any Asian Med Schools offer any type of formal USMLE preparation? I understand that Fatima University in the Philippines is developing some practice questions and I wondered whether any other schools had something similar.

Vic
No school has any formal USMLE prep hookup. There are many Kaplan review sites in the Philippines but for formal prep within the school, Fatima or UERM may be interested as they have the most US citizens IMG.

[Victoria Adams]

OK, thanks!

[Locutusofborg]

There is a Kaplan review school in Cebu that some students in my school have used in the past. However, this is done on own time. Some of our departments use USMLE-style questions on exams (Anatomy for example), but I think its true for the entire Philippines that USMLE prep is largely self-driven, and not an intergral part of the curriculum.
My advice to prospective students, however is to consider the benefits as well as the downfalls of a USMLE-focused education. There is a reason why Kaplan is a review course, not a medical school! USMLE is only one aspect of your medical education. Studying to the exam will give you a high score but will make you a lousy doctor. Medical curriculum is very hard, and the more you read the more you know. Packaging your education into review books and handouts is better for the USMLE but it will shortchange you in your understanding of medicine. So pick a school on its merits in medical education first. As far as the boards go - if you understand the topics in medicine, you will pass after some individual or Kaplan-based review.