My PLE Journey Part 5 | The Finale

This is the final part of my Physician Licensure Exam (PLE) journey (Philippine's medical board exams) last October 2023, which blended in with my USMLE Step 1 journey too (which I took and passed in December 2023). Only one part left for the PLE arc.
This video is basically my last 11 days in the Philippines, which encompassed the 2 weekends in which the board exams were held back in October. Then afterwards, I was off to LA to take the USMLE Step 1.
My next upload will be my Step 1 tips. No vlogging of the journey this time, because I went beast mode because I only had about 5 weeks to study for it. So I didn't have much time to vlog.
Anyway, spoiler alert: I passed both the PLE and the USMLE step 1!
And so, I'm currently studying for USMLE Step 2 CK, which I am targeting to take on March 2024, if you're interested, you can see that content on instagram!
Find me on ig: @jmss_md_img

[@tutuboahenejnr5430]

Hi, how do you compare the level of difficulty of the PLE questions to that of USMLE,per your experience?

[@jmss_md_img]

@@tutuboahenejnr5430 hi thank you for watching!
Honestly i think both exams have their own difficulties. The difficulty with the PLE is the scope of what is fair game in what they ask. There’s a sort of randomness to the questions that makes it quite difficult to adequately prepare for, but I think those questions are purposefully included to separate the average test taker from the truly exceptional (or perhaps the people who have really good luck in guessing, lol). But the PLE is graded on a curve, so that balances out the “unfair” questions because most likely, the average test taker will not be able to answer those questions.
The USMLE is difficult but it’s definitely more fair. Meaning that if a test taker get a question wrong it’s more likely due to inadequate preparation on the student’s part rather than the test makers asking a random question that a handful of students will actually know the answer to. That’s not to say that there aren’t questions that feel ‘unfair’ on the exam, because there certainly are, but it’s likely that those ‘what the f-‘ questions are experimental, and will not count towards the final score. A certain percentage of usmle questions are experimental and the test makers say that outright.
As for the average PLE and USMLE question, the material covered is the same, but the way the question is asked is different. The USMLE typically has longer questions that require 2-3 step reasoning to get to the right answer, whereas the PLE mostly only has 1-2 step reasoning to get to the right answer. That doesn’t make one harder or easier than the other in my opinion, because the material you have to know for both exams are essentially the same, and the randomness of the PLE makes it hard to study for.
But think of the PLE as a sprint because you only have 2 hours to answer 100 questions per subject, whereas the USMLE is like a long distance race, where you have 1 hour to answer 40 questions.

[@tutuboahenejnr5430]

@jmss_md_img thank you for the response.I couldn't agree more with your assessment, based off comments of previous PLE takers.
Best wishes on your residency match too 🤞