ECFMG ups USMLE Fees for IMGs

Got this unsavory bit of email from the ECFMG Reporter the first thing this morning:

The examination fees for USMLE Step 1 and Step 2 CK will increase from $740 to $780 for each exam registration. The examination fee for Step 2 CS will increase from $1,295 to $1,355 for each exam registration. The fee to extend a Step 1/Step 2 CK eligibility period will increase from $50 to $65 per request for each exam registration.

Come January 1 and chasing the great American Dream becomes that bit expensive!

Which reminds me, I have got to go pick up the car from the servicing outlet. They called me yesterday requesting me to take my car before they were forced to sell it of to someone. Well, going to pick it up means getting set back by a grand or two in repairing costs: that’s what is putting me off. Talking of expenses of riding a car, one must speak of the fuel prices, which keep going up by leaps and bounds. And with the recent hike in petrol prices by Rs. 2.95, each liter of petrol is now flirting with the coveted Rs. 60 mark. With crude oil going for 90$ per barrel in the international market, it is a reasonable thing to expect another hike in the near future. I just hope that the Chevy Volt, which is purported to be the first commercially produced electricity run car gets here fast. I read somewhere that Ghana was starting to mine petroleum as well, and expected $1 billion in annual revenues. I just hope that helps in cooling the fuel prices somehow (though my experience says that once the price of something is hiked, it rarely comes down ever again!).

Well, that and the fact that I have completed my first month as a blogger: YAY! 25 posts (before this one), over 600 page views, 40+ SPAM comments AND connecting with a few of the bloggers I really admire: I did not expect so much to happen so quickly! But anyways, it feels good to know people (and SPAM bots) read so much of my writing!

And that brings me to the fact that it is Day 3 of the 25 day round up to the exam (I wrote about it HERE). Its just the 3rd day into the countdown and I am already behind schedule, mainly due to a nagging fever-flu syndrome which laid me down all day yesterday. But after plenty of fluids, ibuprofen and wholesome sleeping, I am up and about again. With MAJOR catching up to do! I have to go get done with the 2010 May AIIMS question paper today before I even start thinking of moving onto the next thing. I was supposed to have completed it yesterday evening.

That and its high time I got off my inertia of lethargy and wrote the answer to the PIMP #1.