[D.B.M.D.]

The Step 1 Committee is scheduled to assess the minimum passing score for the USMLE Step 1 examination at its meeting on December 7-8, 2009. New Score is propose will be effective for all examinees as of January 1, 2010. Please visit www.usmle.org on December 9th for the final outcome!

 

[indian]

Oh my God!

Oh my God
That's really scary
Please tell us when you get the final decision

 

[ahassan]

OMG!

that's the day i get my cs result.

now i'm double tensed out!!

 

[StepTaker]

Just my guess

I'd guess that they will increase the minimum passing scores to 186 or 187 maximum.
Probably they have seen that you guys are so smarter than previous generations and so they should increase the passing score to reflect a standardized assessment and that scores are read on the same scale throughout the years.

I wrote about score calculation here
http://www.usmle-forums.com/usmle-articles/720-how-usmle-scores-calculated.html

To see the current official passing scores see this page
http://www.usmle.org/Scores_Transcripts/minimum_passing.html

 

[lemontea88]

Does increasing the passing score affect how much does it take to score a 95 or a 99? Does this mean we now have to score much higher in our 3 digit to reach the 99th percentile?

 

[D.B.M.D.]

Listen! Whether or not the score is raised or not (we will know for sure by the 9th of this month) you need to focus all your energy on an optimum score....if there raise to an extra 2 Standard Deviations, that shouldn't matter because your still aiming for a 99! Don't panic over this by any means, but just be aware of it...thats all!

 

[StepTaker]

Does increasing the passing score affect how much does it take to score a 95 or a 99? Does this mean we now have to score much higher in our 3 digit to reach the 99th percentile?

I think that raising the minimum passing score affects more your 75th percentile rather than it affects your 99th percentile.
In other words, you might see more people failing the exam (or less passing). However, I don't think you'll see less people getting 99.
That's my understanding though, I might be wrong.

 

[lemontea88]

But I sure do hope you are right!

 

[StepTaker]

I predicted that

My prediction came so close
http://www.usmle-forums.com/usmle-step-1-forum/1045-change-minimum-passing-score-usmle-step-1-a.html