The USMLE Step 1 (more commonly just Step 1 or colloquially, The Boards) is the first part of the United States Medical Licensing Examination. It assesses whether medical school students or graduates can apply important concepts of the sciences fundamental to the practice of medicine. US medical students, as well as Canadian medical students who wish to seek licensure in the US, typically take Step 1 at the end of the second year of medical school. Graduates of international medical schools (i.e., those outside the US or Canada) must also take Step 1 if they want to practice in the US. Graduates from international medical schools must apply through ECFMG, and the registration fee is $850. For 2015, the NBME registration fee for the test is $590, with additional charges for applicants who choose a testing region outside the United States or Canada.

Format

The exam is an eight-hour computer-based test taken in a single-day, composed of seven 44-question sections with a total of 308 multiple-choice questions. One hour is provided for each section, allotting an average of a minute and eighteen seconds to answer each question. Between test sections, the test taker is allotted a cumulative 45 minutes (during the test day) for personal breaks. (There is a 15-minute tutorial at the beginning of the exam, which the test-taker can choose to skip and have that time added to break time.) If the taker finishes any section before the allotted one hour time limit, the unused time is added to the break time total. The test is administered at any of several Prometric computer testing sites.

Squarepusher is the principal pseudonym adopted by Tom Jenkinson (born 17 January 1975), a UK-based recording artist. His compositions draw on a number of influences including drum and bass, acid house, jazz and electroacoustic music. His recordings are typified by a combination of electronic sound sources, live instrumental playing and digital signal processing. He is the brother of Ceephax Acid Crew (Andrew Jenkinson).

Early life

Tom Jenkinson grew up in Chelmsford, Essex. The first school he attended was affiliated with Chelmsford Cathedral giving him exposure to organ music, which he has subsequently acknowledged as an influence on his work. He took an interest in music very early in life, and simultaneously became interested in music reproduction equipment.

Much of his early experience of music was from scanning through various radio stations for anything that caught his ear irrespective of style or genre, and he was also fascinated by radio static and amplitude modulation artefacts on the Short Wave band.