About Dr. Thuc Huynh

I'm a family medicine doctor with an internet addiction and a business streak.

I collect Cool Health Infographics from across the web and share them with you. I write about physician salaries on MDsalaries.net. I launched Scrubd.In as a medical apps shopping site. And I'm chief operating officer for Scutwork.com which is the first site to aggregate residency reviews.

I'm about to launch another site to help all medical students.

On this blog, I write about my journey as a physician and business(wo)man. Dig deeper into the blog and you will see past residency experiences.

Feel free to ask me questions by clicking on the Ask Me Anything button.
Hello sir. I'm a foreign medical grad. I took the USMLE step 1 twice and have failed thus far. It's been hard. At first I self-reviewed and that didn't work out for me. The second time around, I took the doctorsintraining online review and that didn't work out for me either. My fellow foreign grad friend who is in the same situation heard that our resumes in hospitals, if we ever pass, is at the bottom of the pile and that they don't even look at it. Is this true? Please advise.

Hello Ma’am.  Er, I mean sir.  I’m the ma’am.  :)

I’m sorry you’ve had a tough time with the USMLE Step 1.  It’s a hard exam.  Failing any exam will be a negative mark on your residency applications but it’s not the end of the world.  Remember that you also have Step 2 CK and CS. 

Concentrate on passing Step 1 on your third try with a good score.  Try a live Kaplan course or the Pass program.  Compensate for those fails elsewhere such as good recommendation letters, good clinical grades, good personal statement, etc.  Do well on Step 2 CK.  And pass Step 2 CS on the first try.

There will be less residency programs that you’ll be able to apply to because of the requirements of passing within a certain amount of tries as well as score thresholds.  What you’ll need to do is apply to places that are very IMG friendly.  Another thing you should consider is doing electives as audition rotations at places where you could potentially do residency.  It will give you that leverage where the faculty and residents will have seen you, your work ethic, and fund of knowledge.

Good luck!

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