NBME percentage vs actual score

[temmie]

Hey guys

I am curious about how the practise NBME score correlates to the percentage of questions you get right. For example if you get 70% of the questions right, approximately what score does that correlate to e.t.c

Specific examples will be highly appreciated.Thanks🙂

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[HIJay]

for one of mine it was nbme 3 85.5% or 29 wrongs and it was 570 nbme score i think if i remembered it rght, come out to be 234 usmle score

 

[Cards21aceking]

http://www.medfriends.org/step1_estimator/

should be what you're looking for

 

[registered user]

for one of mine it was nbme 3 85.5% or 29 wrongs and it was 570 nbme score i think if i remembered it rght, come out to be 234 usmle score

How do you know you missed 29?

 

[HIJay]

i have the ans and compared it right away after i took the nbme

 

[temmie]

i have the ans and compared it right away after i took the nbme

Ok that makes sense. I have heard about the online estimator but i am not sure how they get their result or what the estimation is based on.

More inputs will be appreciated.
Thanks

 

[MaxMoonMD]

If I remember correctly I had a score of 470 (211) in NBME4, which correlated to something around 80% right answers.

But I guess there are some more variables besides the amount of right answers, e.g. which answers you got right (compared to previous test takers), how stable was your performance to a certain topic (e.g. respiratory questions in physiology, pathology, biochemistry).

 

[HIJay]

the online estimator (medfriends) gets their score from previous students who have submitted their scores for each qbanks and their actual usmle score. at least thats what it says on medfriends site

 

[ertugrul]

If I remember correctly I had a score of 470 (211) in NBME4, which correlated to something around 80% right answers.

But I guess there are some more variables besides the amount of right answers, e.g. which answers you got right (compared to previous test takers), how stable was your performance to a certain topic (e.g. respiratory questions in physiology, pathology, biochemistry).

In both form 1 and 2, 75% right answers is equal to 470 too.

 

[registered user]

#1: I missed about 56 q's (although I have issues with a few answers), so about 72% correct = 480 (214).

 

[ISABELLE22]

I missed 48 out of 200 and got a scaled score of 206.

 

[Cards21aceking]

Isabelle....which form were you describing?

 

[temmie]

Hmm. Interesting..........the mystery of board scores, especially since the pass score is about 186 or so. I wonder what percentage you have to get wrong to get below that......interesting

 

[registered user]

NBME 4: ~80% correct=500 (219)

These exams must be scaled differently or something. -56 for NBME 1 = 214, -40 for NBME 4 = 219. Just seems like 16 more correct answers ought to get you more than 5 more points.

 

[lankysudanese]

Just seems like 16 more correct answers ought to get you more than 5 more points.

you would think so. but i agree with MaxMoonMD (see below) and think that the scoring scheme is much more complicated than a direct correlation to the % correct answers.

But I guess there are some more variables besides the amount of right answers, e.g. which answers you got right (compared to previous test takers), how stable was your performance to a certain topic (e.g. respiratory questions in physiology, pathology, biochemistry).

 

[registered user]

Yeah, I agree with that. I guess it was just disappointing to only see a 5 point increase after killing myself for 2 weeks.

 

[waterlily]

So people have said that NBME 3 is the most difficult out of all of them, and then 4...so does that mean your score would be lower for form 3 or have you found it to be scaled to a similar score as your others? I took form 4 a week ago, and I just did form 3 and had a 12 point drop!! I'm a bit freaked out. Has anyone else seen a drop in their form 3 score...or am I possibly just getting burnt out on studying?

 

[lankysudanese]

So people have said that NBME 3 is the most difficult out of all of them, and then 4...so does that mean your score would be lower for form 3 or have you found it to be scaled to a similar score as your others? I took form 4 a week ago, and I just did form 3 and had a 12 point drop!! I'm a bit freaked out. Has anyone else seen a drop in their form 3 score...or am I possibly just getting burnt out on studying?

i dropped 11 points when i went from form 4 to forms 1 and 2. that was mainly b/c nutrition was heavily tested in forms and 1 and 2, which was not the case in form 4. so the drop was actually beneficial b/c i went and spent some time going over nutrition (which was well represented on my exam - it had its own performance bar on the score report).

so my advice is to not freak out. try and figure out what caused the drop and work on that weak area. with 4wks to go, you want to be constantly evaluating yourself, especially using the NBMEs which provide the most detailed and subjective evaluation.

Good Luck

 

[Terpskins99]

So people have said that NBME 3 is the most difficult out of all of them, and then 4...so does that mean your score would be lower for form 3 or have you found it to be scaled to a similar score as your others? I took form 4 a week ago, and I just did form 3 and had a 12 point drop!! I'm a bit freaked out. Has anyone else seen a drop in their form 3 score...or am I possibly just getting burnt out on studying?

I think you just answered your own question. The medfriends estimator doesn't know which NBME you're punching in. And in general, most people find form 3 to be the most difficult (i.e. score the lowest in). I scored 18 points higher on the real USMLE than on that particular form.

And yes, I think you're stressing yourself out.

 

[Sarah1980]

I think you just answered your own question. The medfriends estimator doesn't know which NBME you're punching in. And in general, most people find form 3 to be the most difficult (i.e. score the lowest in). I scored 18 points higher on the real USMLE than on that particular form.

And yes, I think you're stressing yourself out.

I thought form 4 was considered to be the hardest ?
anyway it seems that the reliability of the nbme is based on when someone takes the test ...i.e taking an NBME two days before the test will be predictive versus 2 months earlier ..

 

[registered user]

Anyone know what kind of questions the "general priciples of health and disease" section encompasses?

 

[oreosandsake]

so confused.

I just took nbome form 2 and got 80% 160/200

what does the equate to? anywhere on this forum, where the number you got correct is charted with the score?

 

[HIJay]

so confused.

I just took nbome form 2 and got 80% 160/200

what does the equate to? anywhere on this forum, where the number you got correct is charted with the score?

its on the nbme site! and it gives you the chart after the test, that is if you paid for the test

 

[oreosandsake]

Yeah...

accidentally closed the window afterwards. 🙁

 

[registered user]

You should have an email or something somewhere with a link to their site. Go to it, log in like when you did to take the exam. It will have your results, etc.

 

[HIJay]

you can also go to the nbme site and view a sample result , it has the chart on there