USMLE scoring question

[paean]

Can someone please give me an idea of what passing, fair, good, and excellent step 1 scores are? I'm clueless.

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[southerndoc]

USMLE Step I:

Passing: 182
Mean: 216
Standard Deviation: 21

So anything above a 216 will put you in the top half of testers. Anything above a 237 will put you in the top 16%. Anything above a 258 will put you in the top 2.5%.

I posted the breakdown of percentiles on another message board. Do a search for "Z table" and it should pop up. Or just search for my screen name and look for my posts. Keep in mind that the Z table percentiles I posted are estimates only.

 

[paean]

Thanks!

 

[Rigomortis]

Just out of curiosity, does anyone know what the highest score possible is? Is it a 300? 270 (haven't heard of one higher before)?

 

[southerndoc]

I've heard rumors of someone scoring a 290, but who knows if that is true.

I think the score we get is a raw score. There are 350 questions total with about 50 questions being used for research. So theoretically there is a possible 300 score, but about 5-10 questions are usually omitted because of errors. So realistically 290 is the highest score possible under most circumstances.

That's my take on the whole scoring deal.

 

[MustafaMond]

Absolutely Wrong about the score being raw.

The 3 digit is just as curved as the 2 digit, which is just as curved as a dude w/ Peyronie's Disease.

Geek-How do explain the 3 digit staying the same over the years? The USMLE (when i took step 1) was 4 books of 180 qs each (600+ qs). That year the mean was 210 w/ an SD of 15

 

[southerndoc]

So my theory is crap then.

Oh well.