Step 2 CK percentiles, and what your score actually means
The real norm table, an instant lookup, and the thing about the distribution that changes how you should read your own number.
The passing score is 218, not 214
A surprising number of pages ranking for this question still quote 214. That was the old standard. The current minimum passing score for Step 2 CK is 218. If a page tells you 214, whatever else it says was written a while ago and not checked since.
The other number worth fixing in your head: the mean is 250, with a standard deviation of about 15. So a 250 is not a good score in the sense people mean when they say it, it is the exact middle. That surprises people who have spent months on forums where every posted score starts with a 25.
The same ten points are worth more in the middle
Scores are densest around the mean, so a ten point gain moves your percentile by very different amounts depending on where you start. Straight from the table:
| Moving from | Percentile gained | How it reads |
|---|---|---|
| 210 to 220 | +3 | thin air: points move you less |
| 220 to 230 | +6 | thin air: points move you less |
| 230 to 240 | +14 | moderate |
| 240 to 250 | +23 | dense: points move you a lot |
| 250 to 260 | +27 | the steepest stretch on the curve |
| 260 to 270 | +20 | dense: points move you a lot |
The steepest stretch is 250 to 260, worth 27 percentile points. Above 265 the curve flattens hard: the work required to add points keeps rising while the percentile they buy keeps shrinking. That is the quantitative version of advice you have heard as a vibe.
It cuts the other way too. If you are sitting at 230 and aiming for a specialty that matches nearly everyone in the 230s, extra points are buying percentile you do not need. Whether points are worth anything depends on your specialty, and the difference between specialties is enormous.
The full table
Published USMLE percentiles for LCME first-takers. Values between listed scores are linearly interpolated, which is what the lookup above does.
| Score | Percentile | Where that sits |
|---|---|---|
| 210 | 1 | below the 218 pass line |
| 215 | 2 | below the 218 pass line |
| 220 | 4 | below the mean |
| 225 | 6 | below the mean |
| 230 | 10 | below the mean |
| 235 | 16 | below the mean |
| 240 | 24 | below the mean |
| 245 | 34 | below the mean |
| 250 | 47 | the national mean |
| 255 | 60 | above the mean |
| 260 | 74 | above the mean |
| 265 | 85 | above the mean |
| 270 | 94 | top few percent |
| 275 | 98 | top few percent |
Source: USMLE Score Interpretation Guidelines, Table 2, LCME first-takers July 2022 to June 2025, N = 67,934. First-takers only, so repeaters and international graduates are not in this distribution.
Three ways this number gets misread
- Percentile is not your match probability. It is your rank among first-takers and nothing more. Two people at the same percentile applying to different specialties have completely different odds.
- Forums are not the distribution. People post good news. A subreddit where everything starts with a 25 is showing you roughly the top third with extra steps.
- A practice form percentile is not this percentile. Practice forms are scored on their own scales against their own reference groups. Convert the form first, then read the percentile off the projection.