I'm Niloofar Karimi. I'm a hospital physician at Royal North Shore Sydney. In November 2022 I was a GP in Tehran with a 14-month-old daughter and an AMC application open since the year before. This is the timeline of how that became this — and what I would do differently.

The first realisation: AMC isn't just a knowledge exam

I sat AMC CAT (the MCQ) in February 2022 and passed first attempt. I thought the Clinical exam (16-station OSCE) would feel similar — wrong. The Clinical grades you on the system you use, not what you know. Australian rotations follow ISBAR strictly; I had to retrain myself out of the Iranian habit of starting with the chief complaint.

What I'd change

If I could rewind to month one of prep, I'd start with mock OSCEs from week one — not after I'd "finished" the content review. The content was already in me. The performance wasn't.

I rebooked the Clinical for December 2022 after a fail in October. Eight weeks of focused mock days with a coach in Sydney over Zoom. Passed.

The move with a toddler

The visa pathway (subclass 482 sponsored) was finalised before we left Tehran. RNS sponsored me directly. We landed in Sydney February 2023; childcare took six weeks to find. Don't underestimate that gap — I lost a month of orientation prep.

What I'd tell anyone in my old position

Three things: (1) start mock OSCEs from week one, (2) line up childcare via Australian-side networks before you fly, (3) the AHPRA portal is buggy on Safari — use Chrome.

I work at RNS now. The first ward round on day one was the easiest part of the whole process.