This page is about Step 1 only. Step 1 is reported as pass/fail, so there is no three-digit score to calculate and nothing here pretends otherwise. It covers what the result is, how the day is structured and paced, and where your practice percentage sits against the USMLE's own approximate guidance. Step 2 CK, which does still report a number, gets one signposted section at the end. Free, no sign-up.
The USMLE reports a recommended pass or fail outcome on all Step examinations, and for Step 1 that is the entire result you receive: no number, no percentile, nothing to convert. The USMLE does say examinees “typically must answer approximately 60percent of items correctly to achieve a passing score”. That sentence contains the word approximately and it is not a cut score, so treat it as orientation and nothing firmer.
One correction worth having, because half the internet states it both ways: a Step 1 passing standard ispublished. The USMLE's minimum-passing-score table footnotes Step 1 with “on the three-digit score scale, the passing standard is 196”, and adds that future reviews of it will not be reported as a three-digit score at all. What you never receive is your own three-digit score, so there is nothing on your side of the exam to hold against 196— and no question-bank percentage converts to that scale. The standard exists; it is simply not a target you can aim at.
| Session | One 8-hour session |
| Blocks | 14 blocks of 30 minutes, no more than 20 questions each |
| Items | No more than 280 in total |
| Pacing | About 90 seconds a question at a full block |
| Tutorial and break | A 5-minute optional tutorial and at least 55 minutes of break |
| Results | Typically 2 to 4 weeks after the test date; the USMLE asks you to allow at least 8 weeks when planning around them |
This arrangement took effect on 14 May 2026. Before it, the same 280-item cap was served by 7 blocks of 60 minutes with up to 40 questions each. The day was re-sliced, not shortened: both give 420 minutes of testing and the same 90 seconds a question. What changed is how often you reach a break, and how much break there is: the minimum break allotment went up from 45 to 55 minutes while the optional tutorial came down from 15 minutes to 5. The280-item cap is not restated on the Step 1 exam page under the new arrangement; it carries over because the USMLE's changeover notice says the total number of items does not change. To drill against the format, see the Myndaq USMLE Step 1 course.
Step 2 CK is a different examination and it still reports a three-digit score, on a scale running from 1 to 300. Its minimum passing score is 218 for examinees testing on or after 1 July 2025, replacing the previous standard of 214. That older figure is still the one most prep material quotes, so check the date on anything that tells you otherwise. On precision the USMLE publishes two different indices and they are not interchangeable: the standard error of measurement is about 6points on Step 2 CK, which describes how much one examinee's own score would move across repeated testing, while the standard error of difference — about 8points — is the one the USMLE says to use when asking whether two scores differ meaningfully.
You are not given one. Step 1 is reported as pass/fail only, so you never receive a three-digit result. A standard does exist: the USMLE footnotes its minimum-passing-score table with “on the three-digit score scale, the passing standard is 196”, and adds that future reviews of it will not be reported as a three-digit score. Since you are never shown your own number, there is nothing you can hold against 196 and no question-bank percentage converts to that scale. The USMLE also says examinees typically must answer approximately 60 per cent of items correctly to achieve a passing performance — guidance with the word “approximately” in it, not a line you cross.
218 on the three-digit scale, for examinees testing on or after 1 July 2025. It replaced the previous standard of 214, which is still the number most prep material and most people’s memory will give you. Step 2 CK and Step 3 scores are reported on a scale running from 1 to 300. The USMLE publishes two precision figures for Step 2 CK and they answer different questions: the standard error of measurement, about 6 points, is how much one examinee’s own score would move across repeated testing, while the standard error of difference, about 8 points, is the index the USMLE says to use when asking whether two scores differ meaningfully.
From 14 May 2026, Step 1 is one 8-hour session of fourteen 30-minute blocks with no more than 20 questions in each, plus a 5-minute optional tutorial and at least 55 minutes of break time. Before that date it was seven 60-minute blocks of up to 40 questions, with a 15-minute tutorial and at least 45 minutes of break. The day was re-sliced, not shortened: either way it is 420 minutes of testing and about 90 seconds a question. The 280-item cap still holds, though the Step 1 exam page no longer restates it under the new arrangement — it carries over from the USMLE’s changeover notice, which says the total number of items does not change.
Results are typically available two to four weeks after your test date, though the USMLE notes that in rare cases various factors may delay score reporting — and it asks you to allow at least eight weeks before making plans that depend on having them.
Not to any standard worth acting on, and this page does not try. The published Step 1 standard sits on a three-digit scale you are never shown, and no question-bank percentage converts to it, so there is nothing on your side of the exam to predict with. The most an honest tool can do is place your practice percentage next to the USMLE’s approximate 60 per cent guidance and leave the interpretation to you and your school.
Every figure on this page was read on the USMLE's own pages and PDFs on 2026-09-20, each linked below. That includes the block structure, which is sourced to the Step 1 exam page and the USMLE's May 2026 changeover notice rather than to the scoring pages. Nothing here is taken from a prep site or from a summary, and where the USMLE does not state something — the 280-item cap under the new block arrangement, for instance — this page says which sentence carries it instead.