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Lessons · Medicine foundations · the accredited school, and what an international graduate needs instead

An accredited school, or the certification that stands in for one

Every road to a licence begins with a medical degree from an accredited school. A graduate of a school outside the country reaches the same starting line by a different door: a certification from the body that verifies international medical education, which involves the examinations as well as the credentials.

Hone is a place to practise a career, one idea a day. This is one of its lessons, written out in full and free to read without an account.

In beta. This lesson was written for Hone and has not yet been checked by a physician. Practice material, not professional advice. What that means.

What it is for

It is the fork that decides how long everything else takes, and it is decided years before anybody asks about it. Two people with the same degree, one earned here and one abroad, meet different requirements at almost every later step -- the certification, often more postgraduate years, and sometimes a different application route. Knowing which road you are on is what makes the rest of the page readable.

How to think about it

Establish which of the two you are, then read every later requirement through that lens, because state pages frequently give two answers to the same question and only one of them is yours. Am I reading the row for a domestic graduate or the row for an international one? Boards set these rules themselves and change them, so any figure you plan around has to come from your own board's page rather than from here, from a colleague, or from a summary written in another year.

Worked example

Accredited school at home
The straightforward door. Accreditation is the thing that matters, not the school's reputation.
A school abroad
Certification by the body that verifies international medical education stands in its place.
That certification includes examinations
It is not a paperwork exercise; the national papers are part of it.
The fork follows you
Later requirements often differ by which door you came through. Read your own row.

Your turn

Name the property of a medical school that a board actually cares about.

The school has to be

The trap

Reading a state page as though it gives one answer. Many give two, one for each door, and taking the wrong row is how somebody plans a year that does not exist. Boards set these rules themselves and change them, so any figure you plan around has to come from your own board's page rather than from here, from a colleague, or from a summary written in another year.

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