Of course there was a catch

So today I figured out the real challenge of going abroad to study medicine. On top of having to pass and master all these subjects (so you don't kill any people at work) and pass the USMLE (United States Medical Licensing Exam) like all the other med students in the US, the med students abroad have to basically teach themselves medicine the American way, on their own. In other words, the catch is that if you go out of the country, whatever country you end up studying in will teach you medicine their way (duh I should've known that right?) and so it's up to the students to study for every subject that semester (which is about 11 at a time) while at the same time (preferably before) learning that subject the American way, or the way it's gonna come out on the USMLE, otherwise you'll be desperately trying to learn ALL of the subjects the American way at the same time (needless to say that's a horrifying idea). So now we have to be both the teacher and the student. Ugh, I knew about this, I just wanted to do this so bad I didn't care, but now that I'm here I see what a challenge this is really gonna be. I see some of these older students breaking their heads scrambling to retain crazy amounts of info in one semester to take a test that let's be honest, only roughly 50% of international med students can ever pass anyway so I'm not gonna lie it's a little scary. BUT the good thing is I met an awesome guy today from D.C. named Dave and he gave me some seriously great advice. He said if he knew about some good review tools like the Dr. Najeeb videos, the Gunner Training, and the USMLE WordQbank when he was a freshman he would've studied in advance and he "would've been a beast by now," LOL as he put it. On one hand you do have to pay $30/month for it, on the other hand, I'd rather pay $30/month, pass the first time with a good score, save myself a required semester of basic med sciences review (if you pass the simulated USMLE test you save yourself a whole semester!) and come home faster (yes I'm still trying to figure out ways to get back to the Bronx sooner), and not split the semester in half as many students do because of the amount of work, stay here for longer, possibly fail the USMLE. Catch my drift? So shout out to the homie Dave! You know I didn't think this abroad thing could get any more complicated...but it just did. Oy vey :-\