FAQ#17: USMLE Agency

I received an email from a student asking about how to obtain study materials.

Hi, Dr.Jay, good day for you!

I'm *** here. I would like to ask few questions (starter questions) regarding the exam.
First of all, do we need any agency to settle the middle works to go for the USMLE? or we can buy the materials and  just prepare for it on oueselves? 

I did not use an agency when I started my preparation for USMLE. I bought the Kaplan study materials online, just like what my sister is currently offering. I then prepared for the exam myself.

I have met 2 of the agencies that offering help with USMLE, and off course the costly one. I'm not sure what else is counted in except the materials as they charge each step about rm12000-14000.

This is the main reason for me on why I did not go through any agency. It is too expensive for me.

Do you think its worth to work with the agency to get the USMLE done successfully? 

What these agencies offer are probably the official Kaplan USMLE course. You can go with the official course if you can afford the RM 14,000 course fee. I would not recommend any other materials other than Kaplan materials complimented by some other books which I detailed in my other blog post (http://usmle-for-malaysia.blogspot.co.id/2013/02/how-to-study-for-usmle-step-1.html and http://usmle-for-malaysia.blogspot.co.id/2013/02/how-to-study-for-usmle-step-2-ck.html)

Are those videos and books enough for us to prepare for the exam? Do we need any extra tutorials/classes?  

If you go through the videos, it is like going through a live class.


Do we really need to use the latest version of materials or all of them contain the same? 

Medicine does not change a lot from year to year. I would say that as long as your material is within the last 5 years, you will be okay.
The materials I used were 4-5 years old when I studied for my exam. I still did pretty well. Study materials don't really get updated, but how questions are phrased do. You will learn new styles of questions by doing the question banks.


How to register for the exam? Do we need to pay? Manual or online?

You will need to apply online. Please refer to this blog post: http://usmle-for-malaysia.blogspot.co.id/2016/05/applying-for-usmle-exam.html.