Converting Basic Science shelf to USMLE

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tbrown

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I recently took the NBME combined basic science shelf. Is there a way to convert your score to a prospective USMLE I score. Also, does anyone know the national mean and SD for this shelf? I know national mean for most shelf's is 70, but I also heard the mean for the CBSE is in the 60's?

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This is what I got from last year (I'm assuming it's approximately the same).

Passing score on the mock exam was 62, corresponding to a Step 1 passing of 182.

Our class average was 59.7, corresponding to a 175. (Because no one took it seriously - they gave it to us after a bunch of tests and said - "this is fun, isn't it?")

They say after studying you should go up 20-40 points on your "Step" average, which is about right. I hope that helps you figure it all out - do a little math and you'll be able to come up with some numbers.
 
When your school gets the CBSE scores back, they'll also get a breakdown of how they correlate to a USMLE score, plus all the statistics. I think all you have to do is ask your dean or whoever about it.
 
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The breakdown is as follows....

63 = 183 (passing)
70 = 200
80 = 225
90 = 250

Scores are scaled to have a mean of 70, std dev = 8; std error of mean = 3 (basically means 95% of time you'll score from 64 to 76 if your avereage was a 70).

*Don't ask me why the average for this test corresponds to a 200???? Maybe the average has crept up from a 200 to a 215 since the original scale was put out??? Who knows...

As you can see, every 2 points = 5 points for step 1
 
so is the 2 digit "mock" score supposed to corelate with the three digit USMLE score...
 
I just talked to someone yesterday about the CBSE.

no real correlation since it is completely not USMLE format. he said no vignettes or anything clinical...just regurgitative basic science info.
 
dcpark74 said:
he said no vignettes or anything clinical...just regurgitative basic science info.
Who did u speak with?
And which test are u referring to? The CBSE definately had some crazy clinical passages
 
I definitely had some crazy clinical passages....
high on the cytokine content too...
It got my ass in gear though...
 
Are we all talking about the 200 question test? That thing was mad clinical and ripped me a new A-hole.
 
The 200q CBSE I took a few weeks ago was very, very close to every example of a recent Step 1 I've seen. It was definitely not simple regurgitation and was full of clinical vignettes.
 
The vingettes were hella long, and by the time I got done reading them I forgot what the hell I was looking for. On top of that each question had like 10 answer choices and it took way too long to elminate it down to 2 choices to guess from. I'm in deep doo doo :eek:
 
Long Dong said:
The vingettes were hella long, and by the time I got done reading them I forgot what the hell I was looking for. On top of that each question had like 10 answer choices and it took way too long to elminate it down to 2 choices to guess from. I'm in deep doo doo :eek:
yeah I need to go up more like 40 than 20 points on my "step" grade.
So, is 6 weeks enough to repeat the first two years of med school?
 
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