In February of 2024, it was reported that around 800 test-takers from Nepal likely cheated on their U.S. Medical Licensing Exam (USMLE), as their scores were significantly higher than the average.

According to MedSchoolInsider.com, the USMLE is the test that must be taken to be a "physician or treat patients in the United States." Strict rules and regulations are in place in order to avoid this, because the consequences would be having doctors that are not qualified to practice. It also runs the risk of losing the ability to practice medicine in the future.

Questions were raised in 2024, when Nepali test-takers where performing much greater than other universities. Even if the answers were incorrect, Nepali student still had identical answers. How is this possible if it is almost impossible to cheat on this exam?

It was later revealed that the test takers were all apart of a group chat, as the individuals wanted to get the “highest possible test score.” They likely used recall to put questions from the exam in the group chat, as well as purchasing a document titled Savior with 90% of the accurate test questions.

However, the individuals were caught due to the amount of time it took to answer each question. This exam is difficult to cheat on, because the amount of time someone takes to answer each question is timed.

“It only took them 20 seconds was because they were quickly guessing. If this were true, they naturally would not have guessed correctly 100% of the time when choosing between 5 different answer choices,” when the test usually takes 90 seconds per answer.

Test-takers were upset that these scores, whether one or all three scores were revoked, ultimately halting visas or careers.

Despite lawsuits brought to the National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME) who run the exam, the test-takers were ultimately given three options according to Rachel Robertson from Medpagetoday.com.

“They could either retake the exams at no cost (though if they failed they will be barred from the USMLE for 3 years)...they could request that the USMLE reconsider their score invalidation, or they could do nothing and have their score remain listed as "Score Not Available" and also be barred from the exam for 3 years.”

Robertson notes that most of the test takers have opted to retake their exams, and were given dates in 2024 to retake as well as 2025 and 2026.

Looking to the future for these individuals, "when they apply, program directors will be able to look at their entire USMLE transcript and see the highly suspect, invalidated score, indicating they likely cheated on their prior exam attempt," even if they take it again.

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