Preclinical Grades Inconsistent with NBME

[.hematoma.]

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Hi folks,

I've been a long time lurker of SDN and I thought it's time that I finally make an account. I am a first year at a west coast medical school (mid-tier), and I have noticed that my NBME subject test scores are really inconsistent with my actual course grades... I wanted to know if this is a red flag I should be worried about.

I've only taken Anatomy, Physiology, Histology, Neuroscience, and Behavioral Science/Ethics so far, and I've taken the NBME subject exams for the first 4 (it's part of our course grade at my school; anywhere from 10-20% depending upon the course). Although I have been consistently above average on all of the NBME's relative to my classmates, my score usually lies around a 50 (not sure if this is percentile or not, but this is the score that shows up on the sheet that I get). On the other hand, I have gotten honors in all 5 of the courses except Anatomy (again, honors is variable... usually it is a 90%+ overall grade or top 15%, which are typically synonymous).

So should I be concerned about those NBME performances, or should I cut myself some slack? Not sure of my field interest yet, so I don't want to eliminate my chances for something surgical or ROAD.

PS Yes I know that preclinical grades are low on the spectrum of valuable things for residency selection (I am involved with research, volunteering, etc, so I believe I am covering those bases), but I feel that in some ways my NBME scores are pointing towards a potentially low Step 1 score.

TLDR: Honoring most courses, getting 50s on NBMEs (but above class average). Should I be worried?

 

[Jabbed]

Hi folks,

I've been a long time lurker of SDN and I thought it's time that I finally make an account. I am a first year at a west coast medical school (mid-tier), and I have noticed that my NBME subject test scores are really inconsistent with my actual course grades... I wanted to know if this is a red flag I should be worried about.

I've only taken Anatomy, Physiology, Histology, Neuroscience, and Behavioral Science/Ethics so far, and I've taken the NBME subject exams for the first 4 (it's part of our course grade at my school; anywhere from 10-20% depending upon the course). Although I have been consistently above average on all of the NBME's relative to my classmates, my score usually lies around a 50 (not sure if this is percentile or not, but this is the score that shows up on the sheet that I get). On the other hand, I have gotten honors in all 5 of the courses except Anatomy (again, honors is variable... usually it is a 90%+ overall grade or top 15%, which are typically synonymous).

So should I be concerned about those NBME performances, or should I cut myself some slack? Not sure of my field interest yet, so I don't want to eliminate my chances for something surgical or ROAD.

PS Yes I know that preclinical grades are low on the spectrum of valuable things for residency selection (I am involved with research, volunteering, etc, so I believe I am covering those bases), but I feel that in some ways my NBME scores are pointing towards a potentially low Step 1 score.

TLDR: Honoring most courses, getting 50s on NBMEs (but above class average). Should I be worried?

Can you post a screenshot of your de-identified score report? Not sure if 50 is a raw score, scaled score, or a percentage..

 

[.hematoma.]

Can you post a screenshot of your de-identified score report? Not sure if 50 is a raw score, scaled score, or a percentage..

Hi! I'm not able to screen-shot at the moment, but they do not explicitly say what kind of score it is. For neuro for instance, the following is written:

"The web version of this subject examination is scaled to have a mean of 50 and SD of 10, based on a scaling group of first time takers from US LCME-accredited medical schools... majority of scores range from 20 to 80."

From this, my guess is that it's a raw score

 

[joker2400]

Hi! I'm not able to screen-shot at the moment, but they do not explicitly say what kind of score it is. For neuro for instance, the following is written:

"The web version of this subject examination is scaled to have a mean of 50 and SD of 10, based on a scaling group of first time takers from US LCME-accredited medical schools... majority of scores range from 20 to 80."

From this, my guess is that it's a raw score

It's a scaled score. I scored in the 50s on all of mine, typically .5-1 SDs above my classmates, and got a solid step score. You are doing fine.

 

[Jabbed]

Hi! I'm not able to screen-shot at the moment, but they do not explicitly say what kind of score it is. For neuro for instance, the following is written:

"The web version of this subject examination is scaled to have a mean of 50 and SD of 10, based on a scaling group of first time takers from US LCME-accredited medical schools... majority of scores range from 20 to 80."

From this, my guess is that it's a raw score

It sounds like a scaled score tbh. I wouldn't worry about it (be aware though that the NBME content might not be overlapping with your class content, which means that you might have that much more to cover come dedicated study time).

 

[Southplains]

That's a scaled score. 50 means you're at the top of the bell curve compared to other med students taking that subject NBME, a 60 would be one standard deviation above the mean, etc.

Don't worry about it you're doing fine.

 

[.hematoma.]

Thanks so much everyone for your input!