step1&2 %ile

[eilis721]

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I was checking out a website for a residency program that I'm interested in, and it said that you need 85% percentile on Step 1 and 2 to apply. Does anyone know what score this equates to? I checked my score sheet again, but there is no mention. Thanks for the help.

 

[El Duderino]

This seems rather odd. Are you sure it didn't say a two-digit score of 85? Percentiles are no longer reported on the score sheet, although you can calculate them - 85th percentile would be around 1 SD above the mean, if I'm not mistaken, but I haven't really seen any programs that have that kind of score as a prerequisite. Most competitive programs just state that applicants need "competitive scores" - or don't they?

 

[docmemi]

so i was told today that the national mean is about 215 for usmle step 1.

and a 240+ would be just awesome i hear. there are 300 total questions, correct? what do i need to get to get a 240?
thanks.

 

[El Duderino]

240 is definitely very competitive. There are 350 questions, 50 of which are included for evaluation purposes only, they are not counted toward the total score. Noone knows how many correctly answered questions correlate to a certain score, but they say around 60% correct is required to pass. I suppose, given the mean (217 when I took it) and the SD (23 when I took it), one could make an estimate of the percentage needed to get say 240 assuming that 60% is in fact the passing score (182 on the three-digit scale).

OTOH, this information is hardly useful, since you don't know the difficulty level of the questions you will be getting on the actual exam...

 

[bigfrank]

I was checking out a website for a residency program that I'm interested in, and it said that you need 85% percentile on Step 1 and 2 to apply. Does anyone know what score this equates to? I checked my score sheet again, but there is no mention. Thanks for the help.

The score you're wanting is >240. Good luck.