USMLE Step 1

The USMLE Step 1 (more commonly just Step 1 or colloquially, The Boards) is the first part of the United States Medical Licensing Examination. It assesses whether medical school students or graduates can apply important concepts of the sciences fundamental to the practice of medicine. US medical students, as well as Canadian medical students who wish to seek licensure in the US, typically take Step 1 at the end of the second year of medical school. Graduates of international medical schools (i.e., those outside the US or Canada) must also take Step 1 if they want to practice in the US. Graduates from international medical schools must apply through ECFMG, and the registration fee is $850. For 2015, the NBME registration fee for the test is $590, with additional charges for applicants who choose a testing region outside the United States or Canada.

Format

The exam is an eight-hour computer-based test taken in a single-day, composed of seven 44-question sections with a total of 308 multiple-choice questions. One hour is provided for each section, allotting an average of a minute and eighteen seconds to answer each question. Between test sections, the test taker is allotted a cumulative 45 minutes (during the test day) for personal breaks. (There is a 15-minute tutorial at the beginning of the exam, which the test-taker can choose to skip and have that time added to break time.) If the taker finishes any section before the allotted one hour time limit, the unused time is added to the break time total. The test is administered at any of several Prometric computer testing sites.