When do US students take the step 1?

[musiclover1]

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I am an IMG planning to take the step 1 in the next couple of months and was wondering when do the US students start to take the exam?

 

[strv04]

Peak time for US students is most likely mid June to mid July.

 

[Richspiders07]

Totally depends on the school... majority take it over the summer. Some schools (ie: Emory) students have already taken it / are in the process of. At my school we have to take the test by late April.

 

[musiclover1]

Thanks guys for the replies...I am not sure how NBME groups the cohorts and decides how to bell curve...and I am not sure if the rumors are true about committing USMLE suicide, if written when the US med students take it....LOL...Being an IMG i am trying to decide if I should take it end of march before you super smart US students take it or risk taking it in mid-april....

 

[glsknl]

Thanks guys for the replies...I am not sure how NBME groups the cohorts and decides how to bell curve...and I am not sure if the rumors are true about committing USMLE suicide, if written when the US med students take it....LOL...Being an IMG i am trying to decide if I should take it end of march before you super smart US students take it or risk taking it in mid-april....

i would be more worried about med students from australia at this point. i heard since pollux took the test the average went up 10 points and usmle is scrambling to make the exam less difficult by May/June. Now this may just be a rumor, but who knows....

 

[strv04]

I don't believe timing has any affect on where you will fall on the curve.

 

[lord_jeebus]

I don't believe timing has any affect on where you will fall on the curve.

👍

They call these "standardized" tests for a reason.

 

[Saladin MD]

Thanks guys for the replies...I am not sure how NBME groups the cohorts and decides how to bell curve...and I am not sure if the rumors are true about committing USMLE suicide, if written when the US med students take it....LOL...Being an IMG i am trying to decide if I should take it end of march before you super smart US students take it or risk taking it in mid-april....

Yeah, way to go by filling their already massive heads up more. 🙄

Not all AMGs are snobs...a lot of AMGs are cool, down-to-earth people. But some of them are snobs who think they are better than all IMGs...sorry to break the news to such people: but not every IMG even applied to American medical schools. Some of us--especially from the Indian subcontinent (Pakistan included)--are people who simply went straight to medical school without doing undergrad. I'm not saying that American medical grads are stupid; they certainly are not. They just aren't super human creatures that we should bow our heads down to. For example, the med school I went to has about 30,000 applicants for 100 slots. With our preposterously high population which fuels fierce competition in the few good schools we have, I'd say that an AMG should think twice before brushing us aside as inferior to them.

 

[strv04]

Your score on this test is directly proportional to the amount of work you put into it. It doesn't matter what the other guy is doing only what you do.

 

[agranulocytosis]

I believe the test is graded along a curve based on test takers in the previous year. For example, in your score report it will list the average for examinations similar to yours in a previous time frame, not the examinations taken along with yours.

What this means in terms of repeat questions, I don't know, because obviously there has to be new questions from year-to-year. What I do know is that my score report showed the average from the previous year's examinations, and put my score in terms of SD and standard error from that average.