[Sabio]

Update June 2011:
The number of questions yet again decreased from 352 to 346 (six questions less). This means that six out of the eight blocks will have 43 questions instead of 44 questions each.

The USMLE has officially released that they decreased the number of USMLE Step 2 CK questions from 368 to 352 questions
See the official announcement here
http://www.usmle.org/General_Information/announcements.html

This will translate to 44 questions rather than the previous 46 questions per block.

This will be in effect starting from August 10 2009.

I can only see that this is Good News for us.

One of the most common difficulties encountered in CK exam is time, many students frequently tell that they just randomly click on the last 5 questions as there is no time to read them

The NBME must have recognized this issue and decreased the number of questions accordingly.

-

 

[indian]

Woooow
that's great news
however am thinking that it could be no more 237/99 scores in usmle
that would have to change if they changed the number of questions, right?

 

[Sabio]

that would have to change if they changed the number of questions, right?

That's a good question really!

As far as I know is that they pre set a standard deviation on a preset median which then accordingly calculates the two digits and three digits scores

Now that they decreased the total three digit score by 16 points I think they have to lower the median

So probably now the 99 score will start to appear earlier than 378 perhaps 376 or so

I don't know, let's see

 

[indian]

I've been looking around forums for the last two hours and I am glad I found finally some good news to cheer up with

 

[indian]

Thanks for the important info
I was not aware of this
Hope this will make our exam easier
I was really worried about the time

 

[khanar]

This really means that CK items are very very long clinical cases

 

[1TA2B]

Thanks Sabio

This is useful!

How about time per question? How much time on average should we spend per question? I know the length and difficulty level can be highly variable though.