Highest possible Step 1 score

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premedalt

premedalt

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"The gray whiskers show the minimum and maximum Step 1 scores, by MCAT
total score."

Apparently the highest scores (from this fair sample of students) are in the 270s. I think I read somewhere that 300 was the rumored highest possible score so I just thought it was interesting how far from that even the highest scoring students get.
Screenshot_20190814-162826.jpeg
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premedalt said:
"The gray whiskers show the minimum and maximum Step 1 scores, by MCAT
total score."

Apparently the highest scores (from this fair sample of students) are in the 270s. I think I read somewhere that 300 was the rumored highest possible score so I just thought it was interesting how far from that even the highest scoring students get.
Click to expand...

me thinks you need to work on your statistics.
 
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Even online (with no verification), I have never heard of anybody claiming a score over a 276. I think 280 is the theoretical maximum - somebody a few years back got every single question correct on an NBME and their scaled score was a 280.

Here's a blog post also looking at this question. It tells us that the distribution isn't perfectly even, especially at the high end. There are very very few people scoring above 270, and the line is basically at 0 at that point. There are less people scoring in the 250+ range than would be expected from approximating scores as a normal distribution.

Given how programs currently view step 1 (often many places lump scores above 250 into basically the same category), it really might be more worthwhile to aim for the mid 250s range and do other activities, such as research, than to aim for 260+. Just from eyeballing, it looks like there are about 1/5 as many people who score a 260+ as 250+, maybe even less. I do acknowledge my personal bias with regards to this though, as a neurotic person who scored a 268 but is short on research compared to other people applying to my desired specialty. Grass is always greener.
 
FindersFee5 said:
Even online (with no verification), I have never heard of anybody claiming a score over a 276. I think 280 is the theoretical maximum - somebody a few years back got every single question correct on an NBME and their scaled score was a 280.

Here's a blog post also looking at this question. It tells us that the distribution isn't perfectly even, especially at the high end. There are very very few people scoring above 270, and the line is basically at 0 at that point. There are less people scoring in the 250+ range than would be expected from approximating scores as a normal distribution.

Given how programs currently view step 1 (often many places lump scores above 250 into basically the same category), it really might be more worthwhile to aim for the mid 250s range and do other activities, such as research, than to aim for 260+. Just from eyeballing, it looks like there are about 1/5 as many people who score a 260+ as 250+, maybe even less. I do acknowledge my personal bias with regards to this though, as a neurotic person who scored a 268 but is short on research compared to other people applying to my desired specialty. Grass is always greener.
Click to expand...
okay come on who seriously has the ability to aim right at the "250" mark and say, you know what, I'm going to take today off and do x, and since I'm doing x I'm no longer going to get 260 but I'm going to get 255.

for real? after some point don't people just aim to get the highest score they possibly can?
 
watermelon master said:
okay come on who seriously has the ability to aim right at the "250" mark and say, you know what, I'm going to take today off and do x, and since I'm doing x I'm no longer going to get 260 but I'm going to get 255.

for real? after some point don't people just aim to get the highest score they possibly can?
Click to expand...

I scored 250+ on a practice NBME a few weeks before dedicated. I still chose to take a 7 week dedicated and busted my ass during it to squeeze every last point out. From a clinical knowledge standpoint, I am very happy about this choice. Dedicated was a deeply introspective time for me, almost like being on a meditation retreat. There were also a lot of shaky concepts that I solidified during this time and I learned a lot about how my own brain works.

From an applying to residency standpoint, though, I maybe should have taken a few more practice tests, and if I scored >250 on those as well, pushed my test way up and then used those 2 months for research. 2 free months is enough to pump out a pretty decent number of case studies/travel to conferences. An application with a 253 with 10 case studies, 4 presentations, and 3 papers probably looks better than a 268 with 3 papers (what I currently have).

Obviously the risk of falling below 250 is higher with that option as well, and I'm pretty risk averse so I went with the safer choice.
 
FindersFee5 said:
Even online (with no verification), I have never heard of anybody claiming a score over a 276. I think 280 is the theoretical maximum - somebody a few years back got every single question correct on an NBME and their scaled score was a 280.

Here's a blog post also looking at this question. It tells us that the distribution isn't perfectly even, especially at the high end. There are very very few people scoring above 270, and the line is basically at 0 at that point. There are less people scoring in the 250+ range than would be expected from approximating scores as a normal distribution.

Given how programs currently view step 1 (often many places lump scores above 250 into basically the same category), it really might be more worthwhile to aim for the mid 250s range and do other activities, such as research, than to aim for 260+. Just from eyeballing, it looks like there are about 1/5 as many people who score a 260+ as 250+, maybe even less. I do acknowledge my personal bias with regards to this though, as a neurotic person who scored a 268 but is short on research compared to other people applying to my desired specialty. Grass is always greener.
Click to expand...

I have heard legends of a guy with a 281.
 
Theoretical max was 300 in the past when the test had more items (varied by form, up to 300 total). But that would be a perfect score on the max length form.

These days all forms are 280 questions. Should follow that theoretical max is now 280. But based on the official percentile breakdown scores in the 270s happen less than 0.5% of the time.
 
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FindersFee5 said:
I scored 250+ on a practice NBME a few weeks before dedicated. I still chose to take a 7 week dedicated and busted my ass during it to squeeze every last point out. From a clinical knowledge standpoint, I am very happy about this choice. Dedicated was a deeply introspective time for me, almost like being on a meditation retreat. There were also a lot of shaky concepts that I solidified during this time and I learned a lot about how my own brain works.

From an applying to residency standpoint, though, I maybe should have taken a few more practice tests, and if I scored >250 on those as well, pushed my test way up and then used those 2 months for research. 2 free months is enough to pump out a pretty decent number of case studies/travel to conferences. An application with a 253 with 10 case studies, 4 presentations, and 3 papers probably looks better than a 268 with 3 papers (what I currently have).

Obviously the risk of falling below 250 is higher with that option as well, and I'm pretty risk averse so I went with the safer choice.
Click to expand...
I think you'll be fine.
 
Highest verified score I’ve encountered was a 282. IMG from a Mediterranean country who was in surgical residency at my institution. Genius all around and really easy and fun to work with. I’m not sure what year the score was from
 
FindersFee5 said:
Even online (with no verification), I have never heard of anybody claiming a score over a 276. I think 280 is the theoretical maximum - somebody a few years back got every single question correct on an NBME and their scaled score was a 280.
Click to expand...
7331poas said:
I have heard legends of a guy with a 281.
Click to expand...

I remember an old thread where people were making fun of some LinkedIn accounts where the people had listed their Step score on their page. One of the people was a Carib grad cardiology fellow somewhere that had a 283 listed for Step 1.

That is the only anecdote I’ve ever heard above like a 272.
 
I know a confirmed 270 at my school (DO) this year. Heard of another 270+ from an upperclassman but I haven’t confirmed that one but he has done write up on hear about his score.
 
At some point the statistics become unreliable, much less the pragmatic implications of ultra high scores. I mean really, from the perspective of a program director who is ultimately hiring an employee, do you think 250 vs. 260 vs. 270 actually makes a difference? Answer: no. The only real utility of step 1 beyond being a comparison contest is that it correlates with board certification passage rates. If you're scoring 250+, it's essentially guaranteed that you have the academic capacity to pass your board exams. Anything beyond that is irrelevant and useless with respect to your ability to learn and perform well as a resident.
 
Highest I've heard of was 276 (anecdote obviously).
 
Something, perhaps, to be gleaned from OP's figure.

There seems to be a local maximum among MCAT scores on the lowest end of the X-axis. In my interpretation, these are folks who got into medical school by the skin of their teeth and made a concentrated effort to do well from there on out.

I don't put much faith into these sorts of data, but they are fun to look at.
 
ktyler789 said:
Something, perhaps, to be gleaned from OP's figure.

There seems to be a local maximum among MCAT scores on the lowest end of the X-axis. In my interpretation, these are folks who got into medical school by the skin of their teeth and made a concentrated effort to do well from there on out.

I don't put much faith into these sorts of data, but they are fun to look at.
Click to expand...
elaborate about this? I don't get it
 
watermelon master said:
elaborate about this? I don't get it
Click to expand...

Just a hypothesis as to why the tracing of the mean (MEDIAN sorry) projected USMLE score has the shape it does for OPs image. You’d expect a straight line (ie y=x) but that isnt the case on the low end (left end).

More likely than not it is just an artifact of the data as the overall trend is still apparent.
 
Kid in my class got >275
Highest I ever heard of was ~284 iirc. It was a foreign medical graduate. I believe he was Egyptian. It's always these foreign docs who absolutely crush it with these ungodly numbers. Americans aren't hungry enough for it.
 
premedalt said:
"The gray whiskers show the minimum and maximum Step 1 scores, by MCAT
total score."

Apparently the highest scores (from this fair sample of students) are in the 270s. I think I read somewhere that 300 was the rumored highest possible score so I just thought it was interesting how far from that even the highest scoring students get. View attachment 276186
Click to expand...

Ah another pre-med obsessed with step scores
 
mistafab said:
Looking at sdn alone you can convince yourself that many, many 13 yr olds take step 1.
Click to expand...

Idk about 13, but at my med school 10 years or so ago there was a kid who entered at 14, so took step 1 at 15. Then my school made him complete a phd so he'd be at least 18 by the time he was in clinical years.
 
Currently on away rotation in IR. Program director has had an applicant in the 280s.
 
I'm telling you guys, there is an older thread here making fun of people who were putting their Step scores on their LinkedIn profile pages. One Carib guy had a 283 Step 1 and a 285+ CK score and was a cardiology fellow at the time and the program was shown on the screenshot of the profile. He was easy enough to find in real life on their fellow roster and was a real person. I guess the score could be doctored or straight up lied about but I doubt it.
 
AnatomyGrey12 said:
I'm telling you guys, there is an older thread here making fun of people who were putting their Step scores on their LinkedIn profile pages. One Carib guy had a 283 Step 1 and a 285+ CK score and was a cardiology fellow at the time and the program was shown on the screenshot of the profile. He was easy enough to find in real life on their fellow roster and was a real person. I guess the score could be doctored or straight up lied about but I doubt it.
Click to expand...
I think a lie
 
Yeah I've always been really curious why they mention 300 as the max score when anything over 280 seems unattainable. How would this work? There's at least a handful of reports of 528 MCATs and 43 or 44 MCAT scores on the old scale.
 
Dantes said:
Yeah I've always been really curious why they mention 300 as the max score when anything over 280 seems unattainable. How would this work? There's at least a handful of reports of 528 MCATs and 43 or 44 MCAT scores on the old scale.
Click to expand...
Someone got a perfect score on the MCAT a few years back.
 
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