Possible step 1 score report error?

This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.

vvinodbabu

New Member
10+ Year Member
Joined
Sep 22, 2010
Messages
8
Reaction score
0
Hello all,
I have taken my STEP 1 on August 31st, 2010 at Chennai, India. I just received my step 1 score report and I am amazed to find a very low score. I have talked over phone with ECFMG agent and she suggested me to request for a recheck. The lady over phone also told me that there was no single case of any wrong score report in her 3 years of service with ECFMG.

I am a very bright student of my class. I have worked with many top universities including Yale university and I have always been consistent in my performance as a student in all the exams I have attended so far in my life. I was very confident about getting a "99" percentile (not even 98) in my exam. I have also scored 95th percentile in NBME and performed well in other third party Qbanks like USMLE world. I did not face any difficulty answering most of the questions on my exam day. At max, I might be wrong with 4-5 questions per block in the exam. One more suspecting aspect of my score report is, I got a very low performance in "Behavioral sciences", but I am VERY sure I did very well in that subject.

I know you might have seen a lot of mails like this and I know its extremely rare to get an erroneous score report for a fully automated exam like STEP 1. But of note, my exam started 30 mins late during the exam day and when I inquired, the system administrator informed me that there is "an error" in the software.

Is there any1 else who have had similar experience in this whole world or am I the only most unluckiest person here? Any1 who have had success with rechecking their scores, please take some of your time off to post a reply as it means a LOT to me as this stage. Thank you for reading.

Members don't see this ad.
 
Hello all,
I have taken my STEP 1 on August 31st, 2010 at Chennai, India. I just received my step 1 score report and I am amazed to find a very low score. I have talked over phone with ECFMG agent and she suggested me to request for a recheck. The lady over phone also told me that there was no single case of any wrong score report in her 3 years of service with ECFMG.

I am a very bright student of my class. I have worked with many top universities including Yale university and I have always been consistent in my performance as a student in all the exams I have attended so far in my life. I was very confident about getting a "99" percentile (not even 98) in my exam. I have also scored 95th percentile in NBME and performed well in other third party Qbanks like USMLE world. I did not face any difficulty answering most of the questions on my exam day. At max, I might be wrong with 4-5 questions per block in the exam. One more suspecting aspect of my score report is, I got a very low performance in "Behavioral sciences", but I am VERY sure I did very well in that subject.

I know you might have seen a lot of mails like this and I know its extremely rare to get an erroneous score report for a fully automated exam like STEP 1. But of note, my exam started 30 mins late during the exam day and when I inquired, the system administrator informed me that there is "an error" in the software.

Is there any1 else who have had similar experience in this whole world or am I the only most unluckiest person here? Any1 who have had success with rechecking their scores, please take some of your time off to post a reply as it means a LOT to me as this stage. Thank you for reading.


Whats the worst that can happen if you recheck your grade? You're wrong and have the same score?

Theres a first time for everything. :luck:
 
Thank you very much for your support doc! I am rechecking it for sure.


Hey,

Do You know how to go to recheck the score ? I did 28 pt below my last cbssa predicted, please let me know what i need to do to have my score rechecked.
 
Members don't see this ad :)
Hey,

Do You know how to go to recheck the score ? I did 28 pt below my last cbssa predicted, please let me know what i need to do to have my score rechecked.
call them and request a rescore they let you know the process
 
There is a form 265 on ECFMG website, where inn you need to fill in your ECFMG ID, date on which the test was taken, and other details. You also need to pay 55$ per exam by either providing your credit card details or through a DD sent to their address. You can then send the filled-in form 265 to their address or send a fax to their number which is mentioned in that form.

Be informed that you need to apply within 90 days of receiving your score report to be considered for a recheck.

If you dont mind, may I know why you are going for a recheck? Is your case similar to mine? In that case, please dont hesitate to share it here as we both can do something about it together.
 
Last edited:
There is a form 265 on ECFMG website, where inn you need to fill in your ECFMG ID, date on which the test was taken, and other details. You also need to pay 55$ per exam by either providing your credit card details or through a DD sent to their address. You can then send the filled-in form 265 to their address or send a fax to their number which is mentioned in that form.

Be informed that you need to apply within 90 days of receiving your score report to be considered for a recheck.

If you dont mind, may I know why you are going for a recheck? Is your case similar to mine? In that case, please dont hesitate to share it here as we both can do something about it together.


My situation is not even close to yours, My exam didn't start late nor had exam interruption, the problem that I was considering recheck was I went down from my base line of 207 to failing mark of 179, went down 28 pts. If my case were similar to yours I will definitely get it rechecked. I still believe there must be something wrong on your exam day, the dive is just huge to be true. I will strongly encourage to go ahead recheck your score. just let us know how it goes.
 
My situation is not even close to yours, My exam didn't start late nor had exam interruption, the problem that I was considering recheck was I went down from my base line of 207 to failing mark of 179, went down 28 pts. If my case were similar to yours I will definitely get it rechecked. I still believe there must be something wrong on your exam day, the dive is just huge to be true. I will strongly encourage to go ahead recheck your score. just let us know how it goes.
Just a question: What do you think will change with a score recheck? A computer graded it the first time, what kind of mistake do you think happened?

Things happen, maybe you just had a bad day. Take it again and do your best to pass.
 
Hello all,
I have taken my STEP 1 on August 31st, 2010 at Chennai, India. I just received my step 1 score report and I am amazed to find a very low score. I have talked over phone with ECFMG agent and she suggested me to request for a recheck. The lady over phone also told me that there was no single case of any wrong score report in her 3 years of service with ECFMG.

I am a very bright student of my class. I have worked with many top universities including Yale university and I have always been consistent in my performance as a student in all the exams I have attended so far in my life. I was very confident about getting a "99" percentile (not even 98) in my exam. I have also scored 95th percentile in NBME and performed well in other third party Qbanks like USMLE world. I did not face any difficulty answering most of the questions on my exam day. At max, I might be wrong with 4-5 questions per block in the exam. One more suspecting aspect of my score report is, I got a very low performance in "Behavioral sciences", but I am VERY sure I did very well in that subject.

I know you might have seen a lot of mails like this and I know its extremely rare to get an erroneous score report for a fully automated exam like STEP 1. But of note, my exam started 30 mins late during the exam day and when I inquired, the system administrator informed me that there is "an error" in the software.

Is there any1 else who have had similar experience in this whole world or am I the only most unluckiest person here? Any1 who have had success with rechecking their scores, please take some of your time off to post a reply as it means a LOT to me as this stage. Thank you for reading.

That sucks man. I hope you recheck and they change your score. I can tell you, however, that there is a running thread on the Step 1 forum about score rechecks from cases similar to yours. I've never heard of anyone's recheck score being any different than their original score.

Sometimes I wonder if there is some glitch in the software that screws people like you (top student otherwise, etc) over and yet is never found on the rescore...

There's always Step II. :oops:

Best of luck!
 
Thank you very much for your support doc! I am rechecking it for sure.

I agree that you should have your score rechecked, but given that they so rarely change the scores when they do rechecks, what will you do if that's the outcome? You said your score is low, so I don't know if that means you failed. If you failed you should start preparing to retake it since it takes a whole 90 days for them to recheck it.
 
Just a question: What do you think will change with a score recheck? A computer graded it the first time, what kind of mistake do you think happened?

Things happen, maybe you just had a bad day. Take it again and do your best to pass.

I think vvinodbabu said the prometric manager told him/her that there was something wrong with the software, From that statement alone I think rechecking won't hurt. meantime vvinodbabu must move on and be ready to do extremely well on the step 2.
 
This is an unusual (yet unfortunate for you, vinod babu) circumstance for the software malfunction to occur.

Are you not given an option to "abort" the exam? Or at the end of it, have the option to not have your exam graded like we had for the MCAT?

So ultimately, you're telling me that if something like this were to happen on my exam day, I have no way out of it?

It doesn't make sense really. The exam company should operate like any business and allow the customer (the test-takers) to opt out of buying their product or at least have it exchanged for another one (give the option to re-schedule the exam at a later date for no cost).
 
Thank you all for your support. I began to realize that my chances about a complete turn around are very slim and began thinking about dropping my entire plans of being a physician in US. I am a very poor student from a third world country who have paid for my expenses towards these exams by even doing the worst of the jobs. I have applied for a recheck and I just pray for the best to happen.

One question which worries me still is if this kind of injustice happened to me, there is a chance it can happen to someone else in the future too. I just pray nothing of that sort happen to anyone else again in the future now that I know the pain involved.

One thing for sure is I am still unable to associate any mistake from my side, be it the preparation or my performance on the exam day to such a jaw-dropping score. Even though I passed my step 1 with a 82 percentile and cleared CS at first attempt, I am reluctant to go for Step 2 as the chances of getting into a residency for an IMG like me are very very less with such a dismal step 1 score.

Wish you all success and good luck with your future endeavors.
 
Even though I passed my step 1 with a 82 percentile and cleared CS at first attempt, I am reluctant to go for Step 2 as the chances of getting into a residency for an IMG like me are very very less with such a dismal step 1 score.

Hi vvinodbabu,
I have been following your thread and am really sorry to hear what happened to you. I have 2 pieces of general advice for you, that you could use for any phase of your life:

1. It feels like this now, and you will probably hate me for saying this, but this is not the worst thing that could ever happen to you. I hope this is, and nothing worse than a low Step 1 score ever happens to you. But as someone who had a similar mentality to yours (it's an Indian thing maybe), I learnt the hard sad way that life has other plans for most of us. Trust me, obstacles in your life only make you a stronger and better person. Hardships makes us behave in ways we had never thought possible, developing our strength of character and resilience.

2. Elaborating from #1. above, do not give up on taking Step 2. You are already 2/3rds of the way there. Take Step 2 whenever you feel ready, but don't let the shadow of Step 1 fall on your preparations for Step 2. A lot of IMGs can get into residency in the USA with a low Step 1. A few specialties and a few programs in most specialties will not consider you, but others will. You are not defined by your Step 1 score. It is only one parameter, albeit an important one, in your journey as a physician.

Again, I am advising you as someone who is much older (I'm assuming you are about 21-22) and who now has a different perspective on life, do not give up at this stage, take things in your stride.

A little thought to ponder: "We must be willing to get rid of the life we've planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us."

Good luck,

JB
 
Thank you all for your support. I began to realize that my chances about a complete turn around are very slim and began thinking about dropping my entire plans of being a physician in US. I am a very poor student from a third world country who have paid for my expenses towards these exams by even doing the worst of the jobs. I have applied for a recheck and I just pray for the best to happen.

One question which worries me still is if this kind of injustice happened to me, there is a chance it can happen to someone else in the future too. I just pray nothing of that sort happen to anyone else again in the future now that I know the pain involved.

One thing for sure is I am still unable to associate any mistake from my side, be it the preparation or my performance on the exam day to such a jaw-dropping score. Even though I passed my step 1 with a 82 percentile and cleared CS at first attempt, I am reluctant to go for Step 2 as the chances of getting into a residency for an IMG like me are very very less with such a dismal step 1 score.

Wish you all success and good luck with your future endeavors.

Never give up, never give up, people here going to tell you if you're IMG your chance for residence is slim, but I' ll tell you that your passing score on step 1 one will be much appreciated by PDs compare to AMG who didn't pass on first attempt. keep your chin up and take that step2 you'll end up somewhere. you may not get into DERM or ORTHO, but your chance becoming a licensed physician in US is much alive than you would think, one day performance shouldn't define you, most importantly do not reject yourself, let the PDs reject you. NEVER GIVE UP,NEVER GIVE UP,NEVER GIVE UP.
 
Hi vvinodbabu,
I have been following your thread and am really sorry to hear what happened to you. I have 2 pieces of general advice for you, that you could use for any phase of your life:

1. It feels like this now, and you will probably hate me for saying this, but this is not the worst thing that could ever happen to you. I hope this is, and nothing worse than a low Step 1 score ever happens to you. But as someone who had a similar mentality to yours (it's an Indian thing maybe), I learnt the hard sad way that life has other plans for most of us. Trust me, obstacles in your life only make you a stronger and better person. Hardships makes us behave in ways we had never thought possible, developing our strength of character and resilience.

2. Elaborating from #1. above, do not give up on taking Step 2. You are already 2/3rds of the way there. Take Step 2 whenever you feel ready, but don't let the shadow of Step 1 fall on your preparations for Step 2. A lot of IMGs can get into residency in the USA with a low Step 1. A few specialties and a few programs in most specialties will not consider you, but others will. You are not defined by your Step 1 score. It is only one parameter, albeit an important one, in your journey as a physician.

Again, I am advising you as someone who is much older (I'm assuming you are about 21-22) and who now has a different perspective on life, do not give up at this stage, take things in your stride.

A little thought to ponder: "We must be willing to get rid of the life we've planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us."

Good luck,

JB

I couldnt have said it any better.
Good Luck Vinod, I really hope that the recheck will be in your favor :luck:
 
Top