USMLE – United states medical licensing examination
The United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) is the official examination to obtain a medical license in the United States. The USMLE includes four examinations divided into three steps (Step 1, Step 2 CK & CS, and Step 3).
It is coordinated by the Federation of State Medical Boards (FSMB) and the National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME) in the United States.
The USMLE assesses the student’s explanation, to measures how well a student is able to integrate and apply scientific knowledge, concepts, and skills to a clinical scenario.
The goal of the USMLE is to ensure every future physician in the US can apply knowledge, concepts, and principles of medicine to real-life scenarios in a safe and effective manner.
In order to practice clinical medicine in an unsupervised setting (i.e. outside postgraduate training programs), all physicians (international graduates and domestic graduates in the USA) must be licensed by the medical licensing board of the state where they plan to practice.
Students and physicians trained outside the US take the same test, and are scored by the same standard as US medical school students.
USMLE is designed to test problem-solving, not simple memorization.