Doing well on NBME but not class exams

[PatchAdams25]

Hey everyone! I'm 2 blocks into med school. We have professor made tests and an end of block NBME final.

I am doing slightly below average on professor exams (~80%) when the average is usually mid-upper 80's. However, we have had 2 NBME exams and I have done really well (95%+ on both where the class average is ~90%).

Is this a decent sign going forward? I feel like I am learning the material well but always get a little tripped up on the professor-made exams (also tend to test a decent amount of minutiae). Although I would like to do better in classes, my primary goal is to learn this material well for Step. Any advice/similar experiences would be appreciated. Thanks ya'll!

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[libertyyne]

Look at your raw performance on the NBME to compare yourself to national sample vs in school sample. If you are still doing well, or are where you want to be in terms of percentile then keep on keepin on, otherwise titrate up.

 

[68PGunner]

Hey everyone! I'm 2 blocks into med school. We have professor made tests and an end of block NBME final.

I am doing slightly below average on professor exams (~80%) when the average is usually mid-upper 80's. However, we have had 2 NBME exams and I have done really well (95%+ on both where the class average is ~90%).

Is this a decent sign going forward? I feel like I am learning the material well but always get a little tripped up on the professor-made exams (also tend to test a decent amount of minutiae). Although I would like to do better in classes, my primary goal is to learn this material well for Step. Any advice/similar experiences would be appreciated. Thanks ya'll!

Keep up the good work. Don’t worry about your professor exams.

 

[PatchAdams25]

Look at your raw performance on the NBME to compare yourself to national sample vs in school sample. If you are still doing well, or are where you want to be in terms of percentile then keep on keepin on, otherwise titrate up.

They scale it to 70 with an STD of 8... I have been right around 1 std above the average. Just want to make sure (and trust) that I am learning this stuff the right way regardless of how I am doing in class (although I do hope to improve)

 

[libertyyne]

They scale it to 70 with an STD of 8... I have been right around 1 std above the average. Just want to make sure (and trust) that I am learning this stuff the right way regardless of how I am doing in class (although I do hope to improve)

our professors do weird stuff with the nbme , they will get the NBME results and then make the average of the class the average score on the NBME and then compute percentages. I had a score of 99.9 in the class on one which when I looked at the raw score was only a 85th percentile for national profile. I would look at the nbme score and see if you are where you want to be. Also some NBME exams are instructor selected meaning they go through and select individual questions vs the standardized one.

I guess all I am trying to say is be careful in drawing conclusions about your preparedness unless you are doing that with the NBME provided score and comparing where you stand nationally. Class scores and scales on these things are usually off and may give you a false sense of security.

 

[Goro]

Hey everyone! I'm 2 blocks into med school. We have professor made tests and an end of block NBME final.

I am doing slightly below average on professor exams (~80%) when the average is usually mid-upper 80's. However, we have had 2 NBME exams and I have done really well (95%+ on both where the class average is ~90%).

Is this a decent sign going forward? I feel like I am learning the material well but always get a little tripped up on the professor-made exams (also tend to test a decent amount of minutiae). Although I would like to do better in classes, my primary goal is to learn this material well for Step. Any advice/similar experiences would be appreciated. Thanks ya'll!

You have nothing to worry about!