Anyone have any idea of the conversion factor to convert from offline NBME scores to three-digit scores?
Don't bother trying to convert the offline NBMEs to actual scores. There are hypothetical conversion charts floating around if you Google for them, but they're not particularly accurate. That's also just because the older question-styles are becoming increasingly obsolete. If you want predictions, take the online NBMEs under timed conditions. Get the extended feedback, always.
I just have pathology left for the first review before FA and Qbanks. I really feel that minutiae that I studied in Kaplan Pharm, Biochem, Anatomy, Microcards are completely forgetten! or at least remember there is something about that word or concept but can not remember it! Is that normal? How to retain more info, guys?
You haven't forgotten the info. It sits in your preconscious, not conscious, state. On the real deal, particularly late in the exam after you've built considerable momentum, certain buzzwords / question structures will trigger the information to explode to the surface, whereas before the exam you probably thought you had forgotten most things.
IMO when you're scoring >260s it's probably luck of the question draw relative to your knowledge holes given how few questions separate scores at that end. I'd guess it's less than 1 question to 1 point on the extreme ends. I suspect some three digits are skipped over for every testing period.
Those 7-9 questions that separate a 260-270 are divided into three categories:
1) the ******edly low-yield minutiae ones testing some pure, obscure fact
You either know it or you don't and it's not in FA. You need to have a photographic memory
in addition to having coincidentally encountered the detail in the past. It doesn't matter how well-prepared you think you are. Suddenly the idiot who decided to memorize the different functions of the individual G-protein receptor subunits got his payout. On the other hand, the same idiot didn't spend the time to learn the T-cell receptor structure, but the question coincidentally asked him about the G-protein receptor instead; it was a total toss-up and he got "lucky."
2) the variable-difficulty conceptual ones that require calibration
For instance, seeing some strange lesion on a CT scan (something only someone reading thousands of pages of radiology could prepare for) and needing to infer the most likely disease process in the patient. These require a deep and broad understanding of multiple subject areas (e.g. anatomy + pathology) in conjunction with the ability to draw an astute conclusion. Questions in this category are the most painful after the exam and constitute the majority of "stupid errors" in people scoring high; the question wasn't exceedingly hard but the correct conclusion was drawn
only after sleeping on it for five days. These are the ones where you say, "of course, I'm an idiot" eight days later.
3) recondite graphing / ethics / biochem questions
These require practically no external knowledge but lots of intuition. These are the "IQ" questions, and there are probably 2-3 on everyone's form. Such questions include interpreting obscure graphs or having to infer what to say to a patient in an unfamiliar situation, when all of the answers are similar. You might even get an easy biochemistry pathway, but the question requires that you figure out how combinations of down-/upstream mutations, etc., impact the effect they're looking for.
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If you want that 270, you need to answer questions in all three categories correctly. #2+3 are theoretically most in our control (i.e. just get sleep the night before). #1 is serendipity occurring in a person who studies very hard.
Cheers to 2013 
