MD Any insight regarding what will be a passing score for Step 1?

[456432]

Incoming M1 here. Step 1 will obviously be P/F for me, but I'm curious if anyone knows what would be considered "passing"? Is it something like getting over the 50th percentile (the equivalent of getting a 501 on the MCAT)? Or will it likely be much harder than that to pass?

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[Schwifty]

It will be like 6th percentile. No way they are going to fail 50% of med students. Currently 94% of US students pass the first try.

 

[ontiquicuo]

Isn't 194 already set as passing for Step 1? Is that expected to change?

 

[Redpancreas]

Isn't 194 already set as passing for Step 1? Is that expected to change?

I don't think by much. They may increase it a bit.

 

[Lawpy]

The last time the NBME raised the fail rate of a USMLE because of stupid HMS guys who made awful arguments, the test ended up being universally hated even more by everyone until covid 19 saved the day by ending the exam for good

Very unlikely Step 1 fail rate will increase unless med students screw it up again with #EndStep2CS fiasco.

 

[ChymeofPassion]

Incoming M1 here. Step 1 will obviously be P/F for me, but I'm curious if anyone knows what would be considered "passing"? Is it something like getting over the 50th percentile (the equivalent of getting a 501 on the MCAT)? Or will it likely be much harder than that to pass?

Don't think they'd have half of all medical students fail Step 1 (pass being >50th percentile).

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

Is it something like getting over the 50th percentile

Just think about this for a second. A 50th percentile score means you did better than half of all med students taking the exam.

 

[efle]

It has always floated around the 5th percentile for the last 10+ years. Over time that has meant creeping upwards (the modern distribution is shifted 30 points up from the 1990s).

So my guess is also that they keep it around the 5th percentile. If anything I think that will mean lowering it in the coming years, since removing all the competitive pressure will let the distribution drift back down some.

We will probably never know since we won't see numbers anymore. They'll probably just announce a First Time Pass Rate and never tell you a scaled value or percentage correct.