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Dissapointing Book

Customer Rating:
I found the First Aid for Step 2 to be a very helpful and concise review. I was quite dissapointed after buying and reading First Aid for the Match. It contains very little new information that can not be obtained through your college administration or through taking to the residencies themselves. It has very little on special students- older students, students with disabilities, students with a research background. It says little about students who have difficulty matching and have to go through the match a second time. It says little about what to do to make yourself more attractive to a residency who turned you down on the first time. I am sorry, but I would not recommend this book.

Great book for Figuring out Fourth Year and Applications

Customer Rating:
I really like this book and am glad I found it. I was not a fan of the First Aid for Step I, and so was leery of using this book but as I looked through it I felt it was very complete.

I have felt sort of clueless about the whole application process and how to figure out what I could do, what fields I wanted to go into, what fields are competitive but still - somehow - I could find a way in. There really aren't a lot of resources on this whole process and word of mouth is not enough. Considering how incredibly important the third/four years are in terms of strategizing for your future, I am surprised how few real resources there are. People talk about the Iverson book but I found it too simplistic.

I also need some handholding in simple areas I might be unfamiliar with, like how to write your personal statement, CV and application and this book does a good job of addressing that. Overall, I think this book is a sleeper and I totally recommend it.

Good book if you are in American med school

Customer Rating:
Probably excellent source of statistics of percentages of positions occupied by American graduate and foreign med grad, salaries, unmatched positions in each sub categories of residencies programs - are portrayed.
Although they are mere numbers, certainly other additional factors played in major role exemplified as nepotism, connection, US clinical experiences were simply ignored or not mentioned at all. It also lacks prospective point of view of foreign medical graduate and how they have to approach which oftentimes differ greatly from those of American graduates.

No other books showed and listed examples of comprehensive letter of recommendations, Curriculum vitae, personal statements and so ons. One comes to understanding what is required in producing decent documents when faced with these challenges.

Overall, this book shouldn't be a sole example to steer clear your residency positions if you are foreign med grad, but some portions of this book presents with second-to-none series of how to create good documents.