NBME Free Exams

[FlyMissMD93]

For those of you taking a free NBME exam when they open them on Friday, what exam are you going to be starting with?

Also, just a general question that I have is what is a good NBME exam for me to take to get a baseline score for Step? Taking my exam June 10. NBME is releasing Forms 13, 15, 16, 17, and 19 on Friday for free to take.

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[efle]

None of those, they retired them for a reason - they don't resemble the current test. It might still be worth perusing them if you burn through all the higher quality material, but for predicting your score it's all about UWSAs and the current NBMEs (#18 and #20+)

 

[AnatomyGrey12]

None of those, they retired them for a reason - they don't resemble the current test. It might still be worth perusing them if you burn through all the higher quality material, but for predicting your score it's all about UWSAs and the current NBMEs (#18 and #20+)

They also released rational for the questions. I would take them just for that.

 

[efle]

They also released rational for the questions. I would take them just for that.

Wow, did they do that for the current forms as well? Can't believe they waited to add explanations until after they'd already voted it Pass/Fail lmao

 

[AnatomyGrey12]

Wow, did they do that for the current forms as well?

Honestly I don't know. I don't know anyone who had taken a current form recently but that would be awesome. Since NBME 7 for Step 2 is now free I'll probably take it at some point. I'll report back if there are explanations or not.

Can't believe they waited to add explanations until after they'd already voted it Pass/Fail lmao

I know lol. Would have been very nice to have those last year

 

[slowthai]

Wow, did they do that for the current forms as well? Can't believe they waited to add explanations until after they'd already voted it Pass/Fail lmao

Honestly I don't know. I don't know anyone who had taken a current form recently but that would be awesome. Since NBME 7 for Step 2 is now free I'll probably take it at some point. I'll report back if there are explanations or not.


I know lol. Would have been very nice to have those last year

They did not do it for the current forms. Would have been a major letdown, but I never expected the NBME to actually do some good.

 

[efle]

They did not do it for the current forms. Would have been a major letdown, but I never expected the NBME to actually do some good.

Maybe the old forms are more representative of what Pass/Fail Step 1 is going to look like. I know the new ones felt like they had their difficulty artificially spiked up to deal with the score creep.

 

[AnatomyGrey12]

Maybe the old forms are more representative of what Pass/Fail Step 1 is going to look like. I know the new ones felt like they had their difficulty artificially spiked up to deal with the score creep.

They definitely were harder, but I felt like the scale was much more realistic. Based on my score on those and how I felt about them, compared to my score and how I felt on the real thing, it wouldn't surprise me to find out that 23/24 had a scale very similar to the real thing.

 

[efle]

They definitely were harder, but I felt like the scale was much more realistic. Based on my score on those and how I felt about them, compared to my score and how I felt on the real thing, it wouldn't surprise me to find out that 23/24 had a scale very similar to the real thing.

Agreed, that's what I mean. The test had gotten hard and the new forms and scales reflected that. I think the test is going to get a little easier upon shifting Pass/Fail. The days of every Reddit poster getting 90-95% correct on the Free 120 are numbered.

My prediction is that upon Pass/Fail change, the new 20+ forms get retired and the old 13-19 with explanations take their place. Which, if I'm right, lends a lot of evidence to my suspicion that this Pass/Fail change was partly prompted by score creep and compression at the high end. There's just no way to take a test build for highest sensitivity at the 5th percentile / 65-70% correct, and make it accurately differentiate the top decile too.

 

[slowthai]

It's just so ridiculous. They should've done it for the current forms, and they honestly should've done it a long time ago. They're just playing games.

 

[CyrusHabs7695]

Are they only going to be free on Friday or for a few days/weeks?

And do you guys have a recommendation for the first one to take, haven't hit dedicated yet so don't really want to burn uWorld stuff yet

 

[AnatomyGrey12]

Are they only going to be free on Friday or for a few days/weeks?

And do you guys have a recommendation for the first one to take, haven't hit dedicated yet so don't really want to burn uWorld stuff yet

I'm pretty sure they're free for all of April

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

Are they only going to be free on Friday or for a few days/weeks?

And do you guys have a recommendation for the first one to take, haven't hit dedicated yet so don't really want to burn uWorld stuff yet

I'm pretty sure they're free for all of April

Your avatars are WAY too close together.

 

[slowthai]

Your avatars are WAY too close together.

Sorry. Just had to. Hope we're still bros @Matthew9Thirtyfive

Don't ban me pls