My roller coaster ride, of hard-work, determination right mentorship: 10 times more interviews with Sarthi guidance!!

From a 2020 matched Sarthi student who wishes to remain anonymous

I started off like any fresh graduate would start.. Naive and unknown of what I will be getting into.
Got resources online for my steps including uworlds in 2017 during my internship. After getting an average score on Step 1, it was a difficult decision to make to carry forward with low 220s, since the competition was very furious! But with my mentor's motivation, I went for CK and score in high 230s... Not a great improvement I agree. Passed CS in 1st attempt in 2018 after my graduation along with 4 months of rotations(all observerships in non-IMG friendly community hospitals affiliated with University).

In 2018-2019 application year, I knew I won't get as many interviews considering the fact that I applied without ecfmg certification, without hands-on experience, a bit of research (during my rotations) and having average scores. I got 1 interview on 9th October (attended on 31st October) and spent the rest of the season doing nothing but wait and get anxious. Also, I knew my chances were low because I messed up in some of the answers during the interview! I knew I failed to create an impression. Anyways, fast forward to March, I was disappointed as I did not match.

Was sad for a day, but having an amazing family and friends, I recoverd soon from the trauma. I knew I had to change my working style and become proactive. My first step in right decision was to join Sarthi! Talking to them, made me feel motivated that I could do it. He assigned me to one of the great mentor (has now a HARVARD affilation to himself). Talking to him made me motivated! I made sure to follow his directed path along with my old mentors. 

First and foremost was Step 3. Got done and dusted in 3 months. Meanwhile, I scheduled 2 hands-on externships in IMG friendly states to try and harvest interviews from these places. And my biggest achievement during these 6 months from March-September was my dedication in Research. With help of my mentor, I made few connections and worked hard to get research outputs in terms of 5 manuscripts and 6 posters. 

It absolutely wasn't easy to do rotations, research and step 3 all in 6 months. But it was definitely worth it as you will know by the end of this post.

With great support of experts of Sarthi panelists and journalists, I was able to get "americanize" my CV and PS. Applied to over 200 programs on 15th September. And the wait game began....

But the wait wasn't too long. To my shock, I received my first interview invitation on 16th September. I was stunned! so were my fiancee and parents. It was from a good program in Maryland! On receipt of the invitation, few tears rolled down my eyes as I could see 6 months of hardwork, perseverance and determination in action! Was ecstatic! September brought 2 interviews followed by 5 more until mid October!!

After 18th of October, there was a dry spell of about 1.5 months which was surprising because the pace of invites went down drastically!! End of Novemberand whole December, I received 2 more invites bringing my total tally to 9. Meanwhile, all my IVs were scheduled in December and January which I was focusing on. And after repeated show of interest to all programs individually tallying upto 100s of emails a week including personalized interest, program specific info, and availabilityon short notice gave my 1 extra interview on January. 15th. 

My total number of interviews compared to last year went 10 folds literally!!! I was feeling these double digit interviews!!! A huge thanks to the Sarthi team for making it possible!!!

My interviews showed ups and downs in performance but the videos, direction and techniques of ideal interview taking from Sarthi and my mentors was very helpful throughout the journey!


Throughout this journey of almost 3 years... It showed me EVERYTHING!!!! EVERY EMOTION, EVERY REACTION, and EVERY CHALLENGE!
One of the very important issues I personally had to deal with, coming from a middle class family from a developing country was to manage my finances! A huge appreciation that I would like to give, would be to my family, cousins and friends! 

This journey showed each one of us one thing in common - Hardwork and determination pays off!! No matter what!!!

And to sum it up, #iMatched. But the credits goes to all those behind my back! (My fiancee, My Parents, My huge loving family and my dear journey mates)

Thank you once again everyone!! :) :)