Begin your medical education

Your pre-clinical (first and second) years of med school are mostly listening to lectures and reading. These lessons are the foundation for your career in medicine.

Your classes also help prepare you for passing your first licensing exam—either the United States Medical Licensing Examination^® Step 1 or the Comprehensive Osteopathic Medical Licensing Examination of the United States Level 1.

For passing classes and the licensing exam, it’s important to build a support network. Your family and friends, as well as senior medical students, residents, faculty and staff, can all be helpful resources. Turn to them for emotional support, advice on courses, study tips and insight on exploring specialties.

Your clinical experience begins by your third year of medical school, or earlier for some institutions that have a consolidated pre-clinical curriculum or longitudinal clinical experiences in the first and second year. But by year three, you spend most of your time in a hospital or clinic, where you apply your new knowledge and build clinical skills. Expect to complete six core hospital or community-based rotations, though this list varies a bit by medical school:

Many med schools also include emergency medicine, radiology and neurology as core rotations, and these rotations may very in length.

Rotations let you develop the skills you need to excel as a family physician. You’ll strengthen procedural, cognitive and patient interaction skills, and the experience will be a reference point in the journey toward choosing your specialty.

After you rotate through a core clinical specialty, you’re tested on your knowledge in standardized shelf exams. To prepare for the family medicine shelf exam, many medical students use the AAFP’s practice board review questions, which medical student members can access for free.

Usually toward the end of third year you take your second licensing exam of medical school, the USMLE Level 2 CK or COMLEX-USA Level 2 CE. This exam evaluates you on your clinical knowledge. Your clinical skills are also assessed.

The fourth year offers more flexibility to schedule elective and away rotations, and time to reflect, evaluate and make key decisions about your future. This is when you experience clerkships and sub-internships with greater responsibility and clinical autonomy. Fourth-year medical students also research residency programs, submit applications and conduct interviews and rank programs as part of the Match process.