How can a 65-70% be just passing on Step 1?

[bananasewq]

Hey everyone,

I was wondering if someone could explain to me how a 65-70% is correlated to a Step 1 score of 194, the minimum passing score. It doesn't quite make sense to me logically.

From 65-70% to 100% is 30-35%. This is between 84 and 98 questions on Step 1, which is 280 questions. The highest step 1 score possible is a 300. However for arguments sake, let's be so generous and bump that down to 280 as the highest score possible for anyone taking the test.

From 280 to 194 is 86 points. From just passing at 65-70% correct to 100% correct is 84 to 98 questions. That means just about for every one question you get correct from 65% to 100% is correlated to only getting 1 point of Step score. I mean by this logic Missing ~20 questions (92.86%) is a 260. Missing ~30 questions (89.2%) is a 250. Missing ~40 questions (85.7%) is a 240.

Is this really how step 1 is scored or am I missing something here...It just seems 65-70% for passing is a pretty high mark to reach...

Edit: Well actually now that I think about it, this may actually be how it is. The average score is around a 230. that's missing ~50 questions on step 1, roughly 82.1%. The average scorer would be getting 82.1% on step 1 by this logic.

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[Postictal Raiden]

How do you know that one needs to score 65-70% on the exam to pass? No one has this type of information. I bet not even the people who score the test know this until they analyze the performance of the cohort they are working on.

Your USMLE score is merely a reflective of how well you did compared to others who took the same test. In theory, this means that you could score 230 on an exam that you correctly answered 80% of the questions but needing only 60% to get the same score on another version (a presumably more challenging version).

 

[bananasewq]

In first aid 2017, it states "The NBME does not report the minimum number of correct responses needed to pass, but estimates that it is roughly 60–70%."

That being said, can I ask what you got on your step 1? I saw one of your posts about a year ago estimating how many you believe you missed on the test. Can you expand on that? If you'd rather PM that information, that's ok too. If I'm asking too much, then just ignore this.

Thanks for your perspective!

 

[dushash]

In first aid 2017, it states "The NBME does not report the minimum number of correct responses needed to pass, but estimates that it is roughly 60–70%."

That being said, can I ask what you got on your step 1? I saw one of your posts about a year ago estimating how many you believe you missed on the test. Can you expand on that? If you'd rather PM that information, that's ok too. If I'm asking too much, then just ignore this.

Thanks for your perspective!

That just means it could be 60%. Which is very reasonable. FA 2017 do not set passing %. So it may very well be 55% or 59%. Probably no one knows except a few people who know, but they aren't talking.