Average NBME self exam score?

[Bluesaurus]

What are these national shelf exams set to as the average? 75% or something?

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[sjdsn135]

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe the mean is 500 with a standard deviation of 100.

But there is also a 2 digit score, where I believe the mean is 50 with a standard deviation of 10.

Furthermore I think the mean is usually around 60-70% of the questions correct (I'm basing this on something I seem to remember a professor saying).

So say you got a 600 on the anatomy shelf, that means you scored in the mid 80th percentile nationally.

 

[SGuttenberg]

The NBME does not reveal the number you got correct for shelfs. You must use the score report they send your school in order to find your percentile. This changes from test to test. Even the same subject test taken at different times of the year will have different scoring.

On the 3 digit scores at some point 500 was set as mean and 100 is set as the SD. for the 2 digit scores 70 was the mean and 8 was the SD. Difficult tests and easy tests (students did well/poor) are adjusted for by shifting these numbers so the same raw score means the same thing from test to test.

Your %ile is calculated by seeing how well you did compared to everyone who took the test in the same period as you. In the clinical shelfs your %ile is compared to people who took the test in the same quarter as you because raw scores increase as 3rd year progresses due to previous rotations helping with the current one. This means someone who got a 70 first quarter and someone who got a 70 last quarter did the same on the test but, getting a 70 in the first quarter is harder because students have had no other rotations, hence the first quarter 70 will have a higher percentile.

Also remember raw score does not mean the number you got right out of 100. its a statistical representation of how you did. Nobody except the NBME knows how many correct answers on any particular test you will need to get a particular raw score. The adjust this based on student performance. I think %ile is relevant for the clinical shelfs because there is a real advantage to taking a shelf later in the year.

 

[ChiDO]

FM: 72.7
IM: 76
OB/Gyn: 72.9
Ped: 75.8
Psych: 76.7
Surg: 72.4

 

[thesauce]

FM: 72.7
IM: 76
OB/Gyn: 72.9
Ped: 75.8
Psych: 76.7
Surg: 72.4

Source?