Highest ever score on Step 1? Anyone know?

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druggeek

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Just curious mainly about this. I heard the highest theoritical score is 300 but has anyone ever even gotten 290 even? And would such a score virtually guarantee you any residency/any where you want?
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Highest score I've ever seen was 277. And the answer to your second question is no - if you screw up really badly during clinicals/interviews, not even a 290 would save you.
 
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You know Sheldon from "Big Bang Theory"? He'd probably get a 300 on Step 1, but I wouldn't want him as my doctor. I'm sure there are plenty of people with super-high scores who would make terrible doctors... but if you had a 270, I think that would guarantee you an interview at any program.
 
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mmmcdowe said:
I've seen low 280's
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I have an insider PD at Hopkins who said they systematically reject 270+ scores because they are lacking sufficient social/personalization skills.

They do interview them, but from his experience, they are brain dead when it comes to interacting with other members of the team

the main thing they look for us how well you will fit in with the existing team. Team-dynamics is key, so if a person throws that off, it affects everyone
 
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DOMan79 said:
I have an insider PD at Hopkins who said they systematically reject 270+ scores because they are lacking sufficient social/personalization skills.

They do interview them, but from his experience, they are brain dead when it comes to interacting with other members of the team

the main thing they look for us how well you will fit in with the existing team. Team-dynamics is key, so if a person throws that off, it affects everyone
Click to expand...
I guess this means 270 is the best score. /thread
 
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A student from my school scored 276/99 in 2008.

Here is the link to his post: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=597742

Here is the link to his person: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8N1-8YiKxsg

He doesn't respond to PMs or posts anymore btw. He's not only received 1000s of inquiries from people on SDN, but he's in pathology residency now and has most likely just moved on from what used to be the hype of the USMLE Step1.

I've been following his routine for some time now and am looking to sit the USMLE at the end of this year. I'm praying his formula for success proves itself true.

~Phloston
 
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As Jason Chang (Pollux) mentions in his post, our school does not cover pharmacology, microbiology or biochemistry in the slightest, so it is ironic that University of Queensland has generated some of the world's highest USMLE scores. I'm not surprised by Jason's 276. Our students generally go through a "freak out" phase where we realize that our school isn't teaching us anything, then the result is our over-compensation with respect to external studying. To that effect, I've actually found that the subjects UQ doesn't teach to be among my strongest in QBank so far. UQ tends to incorporate a lot of what would be considered 2CK material into its preclinical years. For example, I've been tested on how to grade the severity of a patient's pneumonia, but never anything on the lysosomal storage diseases or monoclonal antibodies as drug-therapy. Interesting to say the least.

It's nice to see you're at Sydney Uni though. I studied abroad there for a semester during my undergrad, which ultimately led me back to Australia for my med studies. Great surf up here in Brisbane too ;)
 
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I think it is important to point out that Jason Chang scored a 258 on NBME 1 NINE MONTHS OUT. Scores like this are great to shoot for, but you have to realize that this person had amazing scores from almost the beginning of his second year. People like him would have beasted the exam regardless. If you can score a 258 and still have 9 months left to study, it doesn't really matter what you do; you'll get a high score. It's fun to read posts like this, but Jason Chang is an outlier.
 
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MrBeauregard said:
It's fun to read posts like this, but Jason Chang is an outlier.
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I think the purpose of this thread is to talk about the outliers. When the OP says "What's the highest ever score on Step 1?", I'm pretty sure that most of us aren't thinking "hmm... how can I beat that?"
 
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Phloston said:
As Jason Chang (Pollux) mentions in his post, our school does not cover pharmacology, microbiology or biochemistry in the slightest, so it is ironic that University of Queensland has generated some of the world's highest USMLE scores. I'm not surprised by Jason's 276. Our students generally go through a "freak out" phase where we realize that our school isn't teaching us anything, then the result is our over-compensation with respect to external studying. To that effect, I've actually found that the subjects UQ doesn't teach to be among my strongest in QBank so far. UQ tends to incorporate a lot of what would be considered 2CK material into its preclinical years. For example, I've been tested on how to grade the severity of a patient's pneumonia, but never anything on the lysosomal storage diseases or monoclonal antibodies as drug-therapy. Interesting to say the least.
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Yeah, I think we are quite similar when it comes to curriculum... so during second-year, I started a study group and we went through pharm, micro, biochem, and a few other topics that we thought were likely to be under-emphasized at Sydney Uni. Still, I don't know of anybody from my school who scored 270+ (but I don't usually ask people what they scored, so it's possible that it happened), so UQ must be doing something right.

Plus, from looking at some of your other posts, it looks like you're not far from that number yourself...
 
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Phloston said:
Do you have a post, forum or webpage that you could provide a link to that elaborates on that particular experience? That would be great! So we could all learn from that. Otherwise anyone here could just say "294," but that doesn't mean much.
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It's an internal file provided to us by my school that lists the range of scores of past classes over the last few years. I believe this person went into some surgical specialty, but I have no other information to supply about that person. Also, I didn't realize that this thread was about step 1 strategies, just the highest score that I've heard of. ;)
Also, supposedly some MD/PhD in my class broke 280, but our scores haven't been released yet.
 
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MrBeauregard said:
I think it is important to point out that Jason Chang scored a 258 on NBME 1 NINE MONTHS OUT. Scores like this are great to shoot for, but you have to realize that this person had amazing scores from almost the beginning of his second year.
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Keep in mind, Jason took the exam at the end of third year, not second year. That being said, he's made it explicit that his preparation timeline is in no way meant to reflect what should be a definitive study plan. His post serves as a mere source of input for other students sitting the exam in Australia.

We're very well aware of the fact that most students in the US simply don't have the option of taking the exam any later than the termination of second-year. UQ and other schools in Australia run on an entirely different calendar.

As Goljan said, if we had all of the time in the world and could just put our feet up, we'd all kill the exam, so we just to work on being a bit less nervous when it comes to the brevity of the actual study timeline.
 
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MrBeauregard said:
I think it is important to point out that Jason Chang scored a 258 on NBME 1 NINE MONTHS OUT.
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Yeah, I 100% agree with you. Also, it is important to point out that he put in work regardless. Browsing his old posts it seems as if he put in well over 1000 hours. So, yes he is an outlier in terms of his excellent score, but he still worked his booty off.
 
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druggeek said:
I'm surprised there arent any official stats to show scores.
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there are. they just aren't geared to this conversation. Step exams aren't designed to measure the 99.7th percentile accurately. they are minimal competence exams, designed to assess pass versus fail. the only really reliable point on the scale is currently around the 6th percentile, where recent cohorts have measured up against that standard.
 
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DOMan79 said:
I have an insider PD at Hopkins who said they systematically reject 270+ scores because they are lacking sufficient social/personalization skills.

They do interview them, but from his experience, they are brain dead when it comes to interacting with other members of the team

the main thing they look for us how well you will fit in with the existing team. Team-dynamics is key, so if a person throws that off, it affects everyone
Click to expand...

I jsut wanted clear up any misconceptions. I don't feel that 270+ are "socioapthic savants" i was just relaying what i heard..that's all
Danbo1957 said:
Wrong, so wrong. :rolleyes: Try again.
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so as an attending you would accept someone based on their score alone? even if he/she was a total jerk and threw off team dynamics? that sort of shows that your program only looks at scores and nothing else.....not a place I would want to be

and instead of just calling me out...why don't you provide some perspective on what programs do look for and actually be useful?


tfc said:
But being a super duper team player will make up for a 190 step score according to that top secret insider.

:
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not really top secret..but rather not provide names on a public forum...i hope you understand
 
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DOMan79, I don't think Danbo1957 meant to be negative with his comment. I think we're all aware that, yes, character and ability to integrate with a team are definitely important, but I think he was just indirectly broaching the fact that a score that high, in the end, should, out of mere principle, eclipse any character flaws that a person might have. This is keeping in mind that Asperger's might be better tolerated in a surgery program, whereas paediatrics would obviously necessitate less of a schizoid creeper.
 
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No score is considered alone, but it's the first thing that I look at on paper. Those very few that score 270+ always Wow! you in some way, there's reasons behind that number. "Team dynamics" don't really factor in the application process at the top residencies where they really want clinical and/or research exellence. And a 190? That's 40 points under the cutoff for most top programs.
 
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Most of the people I've met with super-high scores were also fairly decent communicators. Usually, if somebody is smart enough and hard-working enough to score a 270, they've also learned how to interact with people (even if it's not a talent with which they were born).

Maybe my school is different, but I only know a couple of people who are strange enough to cancel out a potentially high score... but neither of them have particularly high scores either.
 
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shan564 said:
Most of the people I've met with super-high scores were also fairly decent communicators. Usually, if somebody is smart enough and hard-working enough to score a 270, they've also learned how to interact with people (even if it's not a talent with which they were born).

Maybe my school is different, but I only know a couple of people who are strange enough to cancel out a potentially high score... but neither of them have particularly high scores either.
Click to expand...

Seriously.
 
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Danbo1957 said:
No score is considered alone, but it's the first thing that I look at on paper. Those very few that score 270+ always Wow! you in some way, there's reasons behind that number. "Team dynamics" don't really factor in the application process at the top residencies where they really want clinical and/or research exellence. And a 190? That's 40 points under the cutoff for most top programs.
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yea..that's what I figured. Most clinical/research teaching institutions focus on scores as the primary factor, which is great for numbers.

I didn't mention anything about a 190....
 
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DOMan79 said:
I didn't mention anything about a 190....
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I just mean that there is a number cutoff at the low end (190 is just passing) at the top programs. A 220 with a great application would get consideration in EM, IM, or GS at a mid-level residency, but won't be considered at a Top 25.
 
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Danbo1957 said:
I just mean that there is a number cutoff at the low end (190 is just passing) at the top programs. A 220 with a great application would get consideration in EM, IM, or GS at a mid-level residency, but won't be considered at a Top 25.
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Is that really true?
 
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SteinUmStein said:
Is that really true?
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it may be at his institution, but my source who's family is a PD himself at Hopkins and says he overlooks scores if the person has tremendous LOR's and a great personality. It's not just an interview with him and fellow attendings, but rather a half day type of thing were the student has lunch with the other residents, etc. They then ask them to rate what they thought of that student and that is at least 25% in determination if that student gets accepted.

If he has incredible scores, etc, but no current residents like him, it's an automatic disqualifier. It may be diff at other departments at other places, but to him, this is very important.That is a place I would like to be at. it's not all about numbers in my opinion and patients don't like doctors based on board scores.

Throwing off "team-dynamics" affects everyone including the staff and patients

That goes a long way in patient satisfaction and that is something his department cares about a lot.
 
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shan564 said:
Sounds about right to me... not sure why it should be a surprise. You can't expect to get into a top-25 program with an average score.
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I'm pulling this information off of the IM Match Thread 2012 from a poster named hannibalct:

"- MD/PhD at top 10 school
- Step 1 218 (eff u carnitine shuttle), Step 2 248
- no AOA at our school, no ranks
- multiple first author pubs (sadly doing this **** for multiple years, good times)
- honors in all med school clerkships
- no away rotations
- 20 applications, rejected by some big ones (BWH, UCSF, Hopkins, Stanford, BID, Wash U) and some not big ones (UNC and Colorado)
- interviewed at MGH, Duke, Penn, Michigan, Cornell, Chicago, NWestern, UW, Yale, Pitt
- ranked 10 places
- matched at MGH
- matched at 1st place on rank list
- things that I think helped my app: phone call from PD, research, MD/PhD, but really, the process makes no discernible sense (recruiting calls from Duke, no love at UNC)"

That being said, MGH is not average. In this case, research was key to the application.
 
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SteinUmStein said:
Is that really true?
Click to expand...

also keep in mind that he only interviews those who have rotated there before so he has an understanding of how his personality and character is.

If someone has a 230, versus a 240..yet the 230'er rotated there and established great relations, he will choose the 230 in a hearbeat over taking a chance with the 240'er who didn't rotate there
 
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Phloston said:
I'm pulling this information off of the IM Match Thread 2012 from a poster named hannibalct:

"- MD/PhD at top 10 school
- Step 1 218 (eff u carnitine shuttle), Step 2 248
- no AOA at our school, no ranks
- multiple first author pubs (sadly doing this **** for multiple years, good times)
- honors in all med school clerkships
- no away rotations
- 20 applications, rejected by some big ones (BWH, UCSF, Hopkins, Stanford, BID, Wash U) and some not big ones (UNC and Colorado)
- interviewed at MGH, Duke, Penn, Michigan, Cornell, Chicago, NWestern, UW, Yale, Pitt
- ranked 10 places
- matched at MGH
- matched at 1st place on rank list
- things that I think helped my app: phone call from PD, research, MD/PhD, but really, the process makes no discernible sense (recruiting calls from Duke, no love at UNC)"

That being said, MGH is not average. In this case, research was key to the application.
Click to expand...

Keep in mind that he likely did not make the step 1 cut off for the other other big name places for IM (BWH, UCSF, Hopkins, Stanford, BID, Wash U). Research likely helped, but even more rare than research is someone who honors ALL their 3rd year rotations. Those of you who have done 3rd year know how rare that can be. The MD/PhD probably helps too.
 
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Of course, there are exceptions... if you have a PhD and a 248 on Step 2, that more than makes up for the average Step 1 score.
 
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Well, it looks like that guy still got rejected by a bunch of places that have a cut-off system. Of course, every program is different... I guess MGH is the exception to that rule.

Personally, if I were a PD, I'd want to make a cut-off formula that considers Step 1 and Step 2 and adds some bonus points for exceptional extras (i.e. a PhD). But that might be too complicated to be practical.
 
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anbuitachi said:
i heard harvard also systematically reject those w/ 270.. dont know if its true
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:laugh: Yeah, I don't know where people are getting their cut-off information, but I know of residents at my (top-25) institution who have <220's. None of them have PhD's that I'm aware of. We're not talking derm or ortho though obviously.
 
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SteinUmStein said:
:laugh: Yeah, I don't know where people are getting their cut-off information, but I know of residents at my (top-25) institution who have <220's. None of them have PhD's that I'm aware of. We're not talking derm or ortho though obviously.
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yep..that's what i was trying to say....scores are not everything. They look at the whole package

I wish we could find out which programs only look at scores and have cut-off levels....I will stay far away from them
 
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Every residency has its own numbers cut-off; and there are exceptions like the above referenced great applicant. At my place we haven't taken a Step 1 under 230 in the last four years that I've been on the IM committee-- we see so many applicants with greater than 230 that we only interview whom we really want. And FYI, we reserve specific spots for home applicants, instate applicants, and several IMG applicants from Mexico.
 
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Well, I understand the rationale, but I was wondering if programs in Texas have a tendency to have all of their IMG spots reserved for Mexican graduates. I'll probably be applying in Dallas/Houston/Austin/San Antonio... my Spanish is a bit rusty, but I'm sure it'll pick up when I'm living there.
 
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shan564 said:
...but I was wondering if programs in Texas have a tendency to have all of their IMG spots reserved for Mexican graduates.
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All Texas programs can take IMG's from anywhere. We want to keep three or four IM match spots for Mexican grads because of our specific relationship with Mexican health entities. There are IMGs from every country on the map working in Texas after doing their residencies here.

At UT-Houston and MDAnderson we want high quality IMGs, as we see Houston as an international city and the Texas Medical Center as a resource for the world. You will find foreign grads in every department; example:

http://www.uth.tmc.edu/schools/med/imed/Assets/pdf/0708Roster.pdf
 
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Danbo1957 said:
All Texas programs can take IMG's from anywhere. We want to keep three or four IM match spots for Mexican grads because of our specific relationship with Mexican health entities. There are IMGs from every country on the map working in Texas after doing their residencies here.

At UT-Houston and MDAnderson we want high quality IMGs, as we see Houston as an international city and the Texas Medical Center as a resource for the world. You will find foreign grads in every department; example:

http://www.uth.tmc.edu/schools/med/imed/Assets/pdf/0708Roster.pdf
Click to expand...

no Caribbean IMGs? lol
 
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DOMan79 said:
no Caribbean IMGs? lol
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UT-Houston internal medicine has a couple. Right now, there are also a few Caribbean grads at UTSW and at UT-San Antonio. I will say, Caribbean applicants need to bring a lot with them in addition to their MDs...
 
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Phloston said:
I'm pulling this information off of the IM Match Thread 2012 from a poster named hannibalct:

"- MD/PhD at top 10 school
- Step 1 218 (eff u carnitine shuttle), Step 2 248
- no AOA at our school, no ranks
- multiple first author pubs (sadly doing this **** for multiple years, good times)
- honors in all med school clerkships
- no away rotations
- 20 applications, rejected by some big ones (BWH, UCSF, Hopkins, Stanford, BID, Wash U) and some not big ones (UNC and Colorado)
- interviewed at MGH, Duke, Penn, Michigan, Cornell, Chicago, NWestern, UW, Yale, Pitt
- ranked 10 places
- matched at MGH
- matched at 1st place on rank list
- things that I think helped my app: phone call from PD, research, MD/PhD, but really, the process makes no discernible sense (recruiting calls from Duke, no love at UNC)"

That being said, MGH is not average. In this case, research was key to the application.
Click to expand...

This guy has a lot going for him despite his lower step 1 score, including the fact that he's published a LOT (and IM tends to be more generous about it than, say, neurosurgery). Being an MD/PhD is actually not a huge advantage on applications. He also honored all his 3rd year clerkships, and he goes to a top 10 school, which, like it or not, makes a big difference (it makes no sense, but it's just one of those hard truths so long as PDs continue to care about it).

There's usually more than meets the eye to these stories, and definitely notice that he got rejected by a ton of top IM residency places.
 
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