2 simple questions about part 1 format

This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.

tRNA

Member
15+ Year Member
Joined
Apr 28, 2005
Messages
286
Reaction score
2
Its my first time taking NBDE part 1 so i have a quick question about the format, i read the ada guide and i called ada for this but they were mean about it and didn't really answer my question, so hopefully someone here can.

to my understanding, it's not like the DAT ie the questions are not grouped by subject, instead all subjects intermingled together, correct?

my second question is: it says somewhere in the guide that once you exit a section you will not be allowed to re-enter it again. Ok, so there are 2 sections total and that statement applies to these 2 sections, is that correct?

just 2 simple questions, anyone who took the exam please let me know, i don't know why ada had to be so mean about it..
thanks alot

Members don't see this ad.
 
For your first question, the answer would be YES (Questions are mixed and they do not follow an specif order, you could get 1 from anatomy, 2 from biochem, another from anatomy, next micro and so forth...)

For your second question, the answer is YES again (Once you finish the first section, you have the option of reviewing your marked questions if you have time remaining, or proceed to the one hour scheduled break, or you could also skip the break and proceed to the second part of the test). When you don't have more time remaining section one will end and you won't be allowed to return to it, same with section 2.

Hope this helps :)
 
Thank u very much dentdreamer , best wishes to u :)

1 more question:
when u guys take the practice exams and grade yourself, you're just looking for at least 300/400 ie 75% true?
Just want to make sure that there isn't any weird method that they use to calculate this
thanks
 
Last edited:
You're very welcome and thanks for the good wishes. :)

Yes, that's right, you should be looking at missing no more than 20 questions per section on the practice tests. 300/400, but according to my calculations you can miss 140 qs and still make it, of course there are no scores anymore, so I don't know if that has changed....

I just did one practice test due to time constrains, but it helped me gauge my knowledge.I managed to get a good score and it was very similar to the one I got on that practice test, so you should definitely practice as much as you can.

Good luck with your part 1.
 
Members don't see this ad :)
If I still have time to review Section 1, can I change my answer? What is the practice exam? I was wondering if that is ASDA exams or something offered by test center? Thanks.
 
Yes, if you have time remaining you can review and change your answers, and by practice tests I was referring to ASDA released papers.
 
I was under the impression that in order to pass the exam you needed to get at least 220-240 questions correct. If you look at old exams and take the number that you answered correctly and apply them to the standard score you will see that getting 300/400 questions correct would put you in the top %ile of individuals taking the exam. So while I think that everyone should aim for 300/400, this seems very difficult to achieve. These standardized exams are also weighted differently so there is really no way of knowing how to calculate a passing score. While I agree that mathematically, 300/400 will give you a 75%, I think that for the NBDE 300/400 would total out to around an 84%. Good luck to everyone in all of your studies and keep your head high!
 
Top