Experimental Questions on Exam

[femme]

Are the experimental questions peppered into the entire exam, or is there one block of them entirely?

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[peter90036]

here and there, its not like the lsat.

 

[docmd2010]

does anyone know how many experimental questions there are?

 

[synapse lapse]

Nobody knows anything. Noone knows how many experimental questions there are, or rather they are all in one block or spread out. Noone knows exactly how the NBME derives their statistics, what means they use to grade the questions, or even what the highest score possible is.

 

[Green Chimneys]

Alexander makes a good point. We really don't KNOW anything. However, from what I've seen, people who have taken the test said that their video question (if there was one) was at the very end of a block. I think it's likely that video questions are experimental at this point, since they have not previously been used on the exam. I'd speculate then, that all the experimental questions are at the end of blocks. This makes sense because if students don't get to the experimental questions, or take too long on them, it should not impact their score, which is the intent of these questions (to test them out under live test conditions without adversely impacting the rest of the exam).

Even if this theory is true, whether the last question in every block is experimental, or the last 3, or only questions in certain blocks is anyone's best guess. Unfortunately, you have to put the same effort in to those questions as all the rest.

 

[femme]

my audio question was in the middle of the block... meanwhile an entire block of questions seemed really weird to me, and i have been doing NBMEs and scoring pretty high.

 

[osli]

I'd speculate then, that all the experimental questions are at the end of blocks. This makes sense because if students don't get to the experimental questions, or take too long on them, it should not impact their score, which is the intent of these questions (to test them out under live test conditions without adversely impacting the rest of the exam).

A logical theory, but one could alternatively propose that if the point of the experimental questions is to test them out under live conditions then placing them consistently at the end where students are going to be more rushed for time will not yield accurate statistics for their analysis.

But it does seem like many students get AV questions near the end, so there may be a purpose to that.