What is needed?

Determination and Patience:

Determination to succeed and patience are two must-have attributes that every residency aspirant. Securing a US residency is a long and expensive journey. One has to keep reminding himself, "This too shall pass" and "Sweet are the fruits of hard work", the latter especially true in this case.

Start early:

What is early? Early is as soon as possible.

This is true for any field. More so for securing a US residency. The preparation for US residency is a little unconventional.

So one needs to set goals early and then work towards achieving them. Slow progress is ok, provided it is continuous. Perseverance matters more here than intelligence.

Examinations:

To get into a US residency position, one needs to clear what are called USMLE Steps. Basically, these are examstesting your medical knowledge.

There are 3 exams that are mandatory to be cleared before one can start a residency.

1. Step 1

2. Step 2 CK

3. Step 2 CS

Another exam, very helpful but not mandatory, called Step 3 will be discussed separately.

Books:

As mentioned elsewhere, preparing for US residency is unconventional. This starts from the preparation of the exams. Nobody can question the fact that concepts built during the medical school are central to a USMLE steps preparation. Exhaustive and rote learning are not as useful as maybe in some other exams. There are books that are specially designed for preparation of USMLE steps. Some of these are so good that they can almost be studied exclusively during the preparation, provided that standard textbooks were mastered during the medical school education.

Money:

Perhaps a question that every aspirant asks. Money is needed for examination fees, trips to US and residency applications. Additional expenses maybe required for additional US trips for clerkships and research, taking online training lessons and online question banks. Expenditure on books etc is negligible when compared to the rest. Generally, $7-8000 are required atleast. Most of the applicants end up spending close to $10,000 before starting residency finally.