Step I Step Question

[pathstudent]

What does the two digit score mean?

It can't be a percentile as my is 99 and I know my score is not in the top 1% (i.e 2.5 units of standard deviation above the mean).

 

[Scott_L]

From the USMLE:

http://www.usmle.org/bulletin/2003/scoring.htm

Hope this helps.

 

[Celiac Plexus]

Originally posted by Scott_L
From the USMLE:

http://www.usmle.org/bulletin/2003/scoring.htm

Hope this helps.

It doesn't help. All the site says is that the 2 digit score is calculated from the 3 digit score. It doesn't say how.

ANyone else wanna give it a shot?

 

[WakeMedHeel]

The 2 digit score is a double secret number designed by the Dean of Admissions at the Medical College of Faber University.

 

[Brewster]

Nobody really pays attention to the 2-digit score. Everyone I know focuses on the 3-digit result.

 

[pathstudent]

The two digit score USED to be your percentile rank, but then out of some sensitivity movement they decided to obscure it.

I have no idea what it means now. Supposedly if you pass your score is somewhere between 75 and 99.

I do know this, that for 2002 takers the average was 216 with a standard deviation of 22, so if you got a 238 you were in the top 20% and if you got a 250 you were in the top 5%, 260 puts you in the top 2%

 

[Santiago]

Originally posted by Scott_L
From the USMLE:

http://www.usmle.org/bulletin/2003/scoring.htm

Hope this helps.

Naaa..this doesnt help at all.
This is the biggest mystery of all-bigger then even Yeti, Bermuda..bla blah..
Nobody I have talked to till now really understands it...

 

[Renovar]

Originally posted by pathstudent

I do know this, that for 2002 takers the average was 216 with a standard deviation of 22, so if you got a 238 you were in the top 20% and if you got a 250 you were in the top 5%, 260 puts you in the top 2% [/B]

A standard deviation above the mean, the last time I checked, means you are at the 85th percentile, so doesn't it mean that a 238 means you are top 15%?

plus, this doesn't take into consideration the top or bottom heavy the curve is.

 

[Hercules]

Originally posted by Renovar
A standard deviation above the mean, the last time I checked, means you are at the 85th percentile, so doesn't it mean that a 238 means you are top 15%?

Yes.

 

[doc05]

Originally posted by pathstudent
The two digit score USED to be your percentile rank, but then out of some sensitivity movement they decided to obscure it.

I have no idea what it means now. Supposedly if you pass your score is somewhere between 75 and 99.

I do know this, that for 2002 takers the average was 216 with a standard deviation of 22, so if you got a 238 you were in the top 20% and if you got a 250 you were in the top 5%, 260 puts you in the top 2%

correction: +2SD (260), you are at ~ 97.5%ile.

 

[pathstudent]

+2SD would be a score of 260 (216 + 44), so that is the top 2.5%.

It is not surprising as about 5 people in my school cracked 260 including one freak who cracked 280 (so I have been told)