The United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) is a professional three step exam conducted and sponsored by the Federation of State Medical Boards (FSMB) and the National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME).


Format of the USMLE Exam

The USMLE is conducted in three steps:

Step 1 is a one day test, it can be taken at the end of the second year of medical school or after that. It lay emphasis on knowledge of basic sciences, including anatomy, behavioral sciences, biochemistry, immunology, microbiology, pathology, pharmacology and physiology. All questions are multiple choice.

Step 2 is a two day test, which can be taken in the fourth year of medical school or after that. It has two components.

Clinical Knowledge (CK) includes multiple–choice questions on clinical sciences like surgery, internal medicine, pediatrics and obstetrics and gynecology.

Clinical Skills (CS), the second component is a practical test in which candidate has to examine and diagnose actors posing as patients.

For this step (CS) students have to travel to one of five testing centers in USA. Which are Philadelphia, Chicago, Atlanta, Houston and Los Angeles.


Step 3 is a two day test, usually taken after the first year of residency. This is the final assessment of whether or not you're prepared to practice general medicine in an unsupervised setting.

Examination Pattern

The exam is a multiple choice question, computer-based test taken in a single day over an eight hour period.
The test includes seven sections of 46 questions each for a total of 322 questions. One hour is allotted for each of the seven sections. That’s an average of one minute and 18 seconds per question.



Scores for Qualifying in the Examination :

A score of 192 is needed to pass the Step 1 exam. The average score in 2013 was 228 with a standard deviation of 21.