How hard is it to get a 225-230ish Step 1? Any advice, currently getting 55% UWORLD. Also what should I get to match Psych?

[phagocytosis41]

Hey all. I currently am planning to take Step 1 at the end of Jan. I am going through FA/Pathoma/Etc and doing about 30 Qs a day timed. I'm getting around 50-55% but I do expect it to go up as my studying progresses.
However, ... I am wondering how hard is it to actually get a 225-230 on Step 1? Do you have to get like 80% of all the Qs correct?

I'm asking this because as a OMS-III I am planning to do Psych. I got a 498 on COMLEX 1 hence why I am trying to take Step 1 to at least get a 220. Any ideas on what I need to get on Step 1 to match Psych?

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[NecrotizingFasciitis]

Nobody knows for sure how many questions correct correlates to what score on Step.

The mean for this year's Step 1 exam was ~230. The majority of people that I have talked to & read about (& from personal experience too) that have taken both exams scored about the same(ish) percentile-wise on comlex/step. Your comlex score is a bit below the national average (assuming it will be 530 - 550 per usual), so I think if you address what your weaknesses were on Level 1 & attack them, you should definitely be able to hit 220+. Make sure you're taking those UWorld questions seriously & understanding the concepts behind correct/incorrect answers.

Maybe someone else can chime in on the psych stuff; I don't have much knowledge there.

Good luck!

 

[hungrydoc710]

Avg for psych who matched was around a 225 on step.
I also am interested in pysch.

Psych isn't crazy hard to match (MD or DO), so your chances are good with a 220+ score and a broad enough app, esp if you aren't picky about location.

I'm only an OMS2, can you tell me why you liked psych so much? I am very interested in how the rotations will be for that. Psych, IM, and Gen Surg are my current interests at the moment.

Cheers!

 

[Sleepingdoc]

Psych does not look too much into Step scores but it does look at what attracts you to the profession, and your committment to it... Yes psych is getting comeptetive, so i do see them requiring higher scores in the future.

 

[deleted645092]

Nobody knows what the exact percent-correct is to get different scores on Step 1. The closest I've seen to an admission of the raw score range is from the First Aid for Step 2 CS book, where there is a blurb mentioning that current estimates put a passing score for Step 2 as 60-70% correct. However the book isn't published by the NBME so it's still someones (presumably educated/ researched) guess, and it's for Step 2 not Step 1, and the average for Step 2 is in the low 240s whereas Step 1 is the high 220s/ low 230s, with the UWorld 50th percentile being in the high 60s % correct for Step 2 while it's somewhere in the high 50s I believe for Step 1.

Edit: As for what you need to do to improve your score, you need to take a close look at your score report and see what sections were below average. You'll want to spend ~50% more time studying the weak subjects compared to anything that was above average. Step 1 focuses more on the molecular side of things whereas Level 1 focuses more on the clinical side. Not that it's nothing but molecular mechanisms and cell biology, but if I were to try and pinpoint the biggest difference that would be it. So add some dedicated time just to work on those.