passing score NOT passing anymore

[markglt]

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step 1 passing score now = 188/75
when i took step 1 passing = 185/75
i got = 187/76
if programs set their filter at just the passing score how will i make it thru if my score is not passing anymore??

 

[Arcan57]

Programs that filter based on Step 1 score are going to set the filter somewhat higher than the minimum passing score. You have to have passed Step 1 to take Step 2, so from a program's perspective setting a Step 1 filter at 185-188 is not going to have any discriminative value. With that score there are specialties and locations that will not consider you, but you are not any worse off then when the passing score was 185.

 

[ShyRem]

Sorry. I think I mis-read the question and thought your score THIS Year was not passing. You'll be fine if you passed last year with a 187.

 

[ozzidoc]

You have to have passed Step 1 to take Step 2.

Nope. You can take 1, 2 CK and 2 CS in any order.

 

[gutonc]

step 1 passing score now = 188/75
when i took step 1 passing = 185/75
i got = 187/76
if programs set their filter at just the passing score how will i make it thru if my score is not passing anymore??

I have mentioned this issue before and it is why I believe the 2-digit score is more relevant for comparison. In that setting, passing is always 75. So no matter when you took the exam you can be compared to others in your cohort (whatever that means). For instance, as an MD/PhD, I took Step 1 5 years before most of my graduating classmates did. When I took it, a 3-digit passing score was 4 points less than it was the year my classmates all took it.

But again, it won't matter for you. If they screen by "passed Step 1 on first attempt" you'll get through. Nobody's going to screen 186 vs. 185.

 

[turquoiseblue]

in ERAS they will get your usmle transcripts, which will show the word pass or fail on them, plus you enter that info on ERAS and write pass or fail, so they will doubly know you passed back then, even if the number isn't passing now.

 

[justaregularmed]

Isn't this sort of the exact reason the second number exists?

 

[Law2Doc]

I have mentioned this issue before and it is why I believe the 2-digit score is more relevant for comparison..

It may be more useful for comparison, but no residency program directors focus on it the way they do the 3 digit scores, and thus no US med students focus on it. And that's actually fine -- if a program wants a 210 minimum, they don't really care what the 2 digit score is, or what the cut-off passing grade was in a particular year. The cutoff or averages used by the USMLE folks are irrelevant.

 

[lord_jeebus]

I can no longer find the paper on their website, but the NBME has said in the past that the three-digit number is designed to facilitate comparison between different years (with a caveat that comparing scores taken many years apart may not be valid), and that the two-digit score is not intended for this purpose. So a 230 in 2008 should be equivalent to a 230 in 2010, but a 96 in 2008 cannot be said to be equivalent to a 96 in 2010.

By extension of this logic, the rising three-digit score for passing means that the NBME is raising the performance it requires to assign a Pass. This cannot be accomplished with the two-digit score, because some state medical boards require that 75 always equal Pass.