Help! with NBME score coorelation question

[dividedsky]

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I know that the score you get from the 2 NBME $45 practice tests has a pretty good coorelation with your actual step 1 score...but...how would you guys rate the difficulty of those exams compared with step 1?

specifically...question length (very short I thought) and level of difficulty and any other info you have...

thanks!

 

[ziffy 850]

I asked this question in another thread, but didn't get an answer. I have no idea what the score means-only that it was a two digit score, not three. I'd love to know what the scoop is and how to interpret.

 

[dividedsky]

no, my score from NBME self test was a 3 digit score...

for example, a 550 on NBME coorelates to a 230 on Step 1.

I asked this question in another thread, but didn't get an answer. I have no idea what the score means-only that it was a two digit score, not three. I'd love to know what the scoop is and how to interpret.

 

[Stinger86]

I know that the score you get from the 2 NBME $45 practice tests has a pretty good coorelation with your actual step 1 score...but...how would you guys rate the difficulty of those exams compared with step 1?

specifically...question length (very short I thought) and level of difficulty and any other info you have...

thanks!

Personally, I felt the assessment exams were more difficult than my Step 1 (mainly because the assessments had a few reeeeaally oddball questions on there that were totally impossible for me to answer). As far as question length goes, step 1 questions are, on average, longer, although you will probably see a few (relative comparison) that will be that short.

I have no idea what the score means-only that it was a two digit score, not three. I'd love to know what the scoop is and how to interpret.

Are you talking about the assessment exams? The score you receive is a 3-digit one that can be used to gauge how well you'll do on the real thing. They give you the mean and standard deviation (for the 3-digit assessment exam), so you'll have to do a little footwork and look up the most recent mean and standard deviation for the actual step 1 and compare the two (i.e., if you scored one standard deviation above the mean on the assessment exam, then take the actual step 1 mean and add exactly one standard deviation). It's not pure science, but it's a decent guide.

 

[Idiopathic]

I felt that in the end they were a little bit harder than the real thing. They were pretty much right on for me (I outscored my predicted score by a tiny bit, I think).

 

[ziffy 850]

You know- I don't know what the h... I took. It was some practice exam on the computer at this testing center-supposedly to familiarize us with the actual exam, but in the end, they gave me a printout with a percentage correct-I have no idea what it means.

How do you sign up for the NBME assessment? I have to assume that is not what I took.

 

[JMD]

I hear alot about the NBME assessment, but can't seem to find how you go about taking/getting them. Can someone fill me in?

 

[JMD]

Forget it, found them on the NBME website under self assessment...they are only 200 questions each though, right? I guess I thought they would be full-length exams.

If I have q-bank, with plenty of questions left to do, is it worth paying for the NBMEs?

 

[dividedsky]

I think it's worth it. It actually gives you a 3 digit score correlation. Qbank can't do that. and people here have said it's pretty close to dead-on in prediction of many peoples actual scores, whereas Qbank is less predictive.

on the negative side, you can't find out what you got wrong, and there are no explanations given.

 

[SLUsagar]

I think it's worth it. It actually gives you a 3 digit score correlation. Qbank can't do that. and people here have said it's pretty close to dead-on in prediction of many peoples actual scores, whereas Qbank is less predictive.

on the negative side, you can't find out what you got wrong, and there are no explanations given.

agree overall with above...doesn't seem worth it initially to buy NBME over Q, but trust me, get at least 1 test from nbme (some people do one at the beginning, study, then one at the end...that works too i guess -- i instead the full length practice exam AT the prometric site that comes with the full package Qbank series).
but yah, qbank is less predictive per say, it's a better study tool actually, with all those great explanations. NBME is indeed the more predictive tool..but really impossible to study from.