Step 1 changing number of questions?

[emadhafiz786]

Step 1 - Change in number of items/Delay in score reporting
Starting on or around May 15, 2010, a transition period will begin in which the number of items in current forms of the Step 1 examination will change from 336 items to 322 items. Although the transition will occur quickly at many test centers, there may be some locations where the changes take slightly longer to complete. The overall transition period will likely last approximately 6 weeks.
Posted March 23, 2010 [-] Click HERE to close announcement
Please note that:

Scores on new and old forms will be comparable; the decrease in the number of items per form will be accounted for in scoring the examination results.
The length of the examination day will remain unchanged.
Most score reporting of Step 1 results occurs within four weeks of testing. However, because of the change in timing described above, as well as routine modifications to the test item pool, there will be a delay in score reporting for most Step 1 examinations administered in late May and June. The target date for reporting Step 1 scores for most examinees testing from May 15 through late June will be Wednesday, July 14, 2010.


Will this have any effect on the complexity of questions? How will this change affect the over all exam?

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[Distiller]

Well I'm not sure about complexity, but there will be a few more seconds per question, which might seem to be in our favor because more time to answer/check each question, but having fewer questions means you'll need to get fewer questions wrong in order to get that high score (as opposed to when it was 336 q's). So there's more time but it better be used to make sure there are no careless errors because you can't afford to have those now more than ever , but when were careless errors ever not bad

No idea about complexity but I don't think it'll change ..

 

[PistolPete]

There will probably be 1 or 2 more audio/visual questions per block, hence fewer overall number of questions and slightly more time per question.

 

[kunfu]

So long story short I received conformation that the reason the amount of time per question is increasing is because of an increase in clinical context. Take that to mean what you will. They specifically said it was not because of an increase in multimedia questions.