Correlation between NBME subject exams and Step 1 performance?

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maniax

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Has anyone who has taken both the USMLE Step 1 as well as the NBME subject exams for each of the basic science courses seen a real correlation between performance on these boards and perfomance on the Step 1. For example: would consistently scoring one standard deviation above the mean on the boards (600 raw score) suggest that a student will likely score one standard deviation above the mean on the Step 1?

This thread has been covered numerous times not to mention you can go over the 2007 scores thread and see what nbme correlates to what Step 1 Score. But im not a douche so ill just tell you i scored a 232 on Form 2, 2 weeks before Step 1 and scored a 248 on the step. Form 1 and 2 are really good, Form 3 is so bad I never even took Form 4 (underestimated my score by 24 points). just my opinion as there are a lot of high scorers on this forum who swear by all 4 nbmes
 
I think the OP was talking about NBME Subject Exams AKA "SHELF EXAMS" and not the NBME Forms.
To give you my take on it, I feel the shelf exams are harder compared to the Step 1 notably for 2 reasons:
1. A lot of the questions on my histology, physiology and neuro shelves were path. For example, 80% of physiology was pathophys...which is a 2nd year course. Also I saw some diseases on histo and neuro that were not even taught to us until the 2nd year.
2. I also feel that a lot of the 1st year courses made more more sense after you studied the path.
 
Thanks. Yes, i was referring to the "shelf" exams that some med schools such as my own require students to take at the end of the course as an objective measure for student performance compared to students across the country. I'm not sure how much that means though, because I have no idea how many med schools require students to take these "boards" as they are called at my school.
 
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I haven't taken the basic science shelf exams, but if you are scoring +1 SD on them, you should be confident that you are learning the core material very well and have the baseline potential to score very highly on the exam, depending of course on your motivation and review strategy.

I did take the clinical shelf exams, and usually scored only about 1/2 to 1 SD over the mean. My Step 2CK was about 2 SDs over that mean.
 
the physio shelf was representative
the microbio shelf was NOWHERE near representative, way toooo hard
Pharm shelf was on point
Path shelf was on point, but much much much easier. Step 1 path has gotten harder.
Behavioral Sci was also on point, slightly tougher

those were the only shelves i took
 
the physio shelf was representative
the microbio shelf was NOWHERE near representative, way toooo hard
Pharm shelf was on point
Path shelf was on point, but much much much easier. Step 1 path has gotten harder.
Behavioral Sci was also on point, slightly tougher

those were the only shelves i took

Anyone else think path shelf was easier than the path on Step 1? I just took the path shelf and was really hoping it wouldn't be quite so hard on the step.
 
This thread has been covered numerous times not to mention you can go over the 2007 scores thread and see what nbme correlates to what Step 1 Score. But im not a douche so ill just tell you i scored a 232 on Form 2, 2 weeks before Step 1 and scored a 248 on the step. Form 1 and 2 are really good, Form 3 is so bad I never even took Form 4 (underestimated my score by 24 points). just my opinion as there are a lot of high scorers on this forum who swear by all 4 nbmes
Here's hoping. :x:
 
Each NBME is 200 questions, whereas the Step 1 is around 300 real questions and ?50 experimental - so the NBME has less to go off of to give you a score - so it's less accurate.
 
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