From what I understand (as per Dr. Damjanov who's here at Ross lecturing this week), they are changing the format for Step I in the near future as well.
Step I will me more like Step II, which has more matching and multiple lists (of up to 12-14 items) from which to select. According to Damjanov, you are not able to employ the classic test taking strategies (e.g., eliminating the obvious, buzzwords, etc.) that can be used on the current, predominately five-responses, multiple answer format.
This may be a reason, in part, why the Step II scores are historically lower than Step I. However, the other reasons mentioned are equally valid.
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