Question on how NBME Shelf Exams are scored

[DrDoogie]

I was curious....I'm not sure what my school means when they say you need an 85 or above to get honors on a particular clerkship. I didn't get too picky about what the "85" means, but from your experience, what does number refer to? I've tried searching different threads but don't know what it means...definitely a lot less straight forward than pure 1st two objective grades or even the Step I.

So the test is 100 questions...is the 85 the raw score or national percentile?? Additionally, does the 85 mean you only got 15qs wrong (if not, then on average, how many?)

Thanks guys.

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[Transformers]

Yeah i keep reading the mean is assumed to be a 70 with a str deviation of 8....which sounds fishy if the national percentile is used bu your clerkship director.

That is, a raw score of 70 (30qs wrong) puts you at the 50th percentile, which would mean you failed.
On the other hand, raw score of 78 and 86 put yo at the 84th and 97.5th percentile, respectively.

It just sounds weird if thats the case because its as if the better you do, the higher (national percentile) your score becomes but the worse you do, the lower your score becomes.

 

[DrDoogie]

bump

 

[thedoctor8706]

I'm not sure if an 85 means you only missed 15 questions, but that number is the score given on the NBME grade report. And while it relates to a specific percentile, if your clerkship is asking for a score of 85, I highly doubt it's the same thing as a percentile of 85.

 

[FIREitUP]

I'm not 100% certain, but I think the score is referring to the scaled (i.e., curved) score. from my understanding, those taking the tests earlier in the year have a more generous curve and therefore a given raw score will reflect a higher curved score earlier on in the year vs. later in the year.

 

[mdeast]

I'm not 100% certain, but I think the score is referring to the scaled (i.e., curved) score. from my understanding, those taking the tests earlier in the year have a more generous curve and therefore a given raw score will reflect a higher curved score earlier on in the year vs. later in the year.

If you read the score report (not sure if you school gives you these), it states the score is not a representation of % correct, but rather scaled so that the average score is 70. I don't think it's a normal distribution though (most likely very right skewed), so I'm not sure if standard deviation applies very well.

My school usually sets a grade less <5th national percentile as failing, and a >80 or 85 national percentile as honors. Everything in between is pass.

I don't think the curve changes throughout the year (this really doesn't make any sense to me), but maybe I'm wrong.

 

[FIREitUP]

If you read the score report (not sure if you school gives you these), it states the score is not a representation of % correct, but rather scaled so that the average score is 70. I don't think it's a normal distribution though (most likely very right skewed), so I'm not sure if standard deviation applies very well.

My school usually sets a grade less <5th national percentile as failing, and a >80 or 85 national percentile as honors. Everything in between is pass.

I don't think the curve changes throughout the year (this really doesn't make any sense to me), but maybe I'm wrong.

from what i've heard the curve varies throughout the year because as you progress through rotations you have more knowledge under your belt so the averages are higher. this is what i've heard; i can't say i have any proof

 

[JJMrK]

There are two numbers reported when you get your grade. One is the raw score, which is equal to 100 minus the number of questions you got wrong. At my school that's usually what they meant when they said "you must get a score of X to pass/honor." There is also a table that's sent out with each score report to the clerkship director that has a percentile chart for the previous academic year. Each raw score has an percentile associated with it. It is also broken down temporally by "quarter," and yes, the Q1 percentiles for a given raw score are usually higher than their Q4 equivalents. Sometimes your grade will be based on percentile, but at least at my school the overall percentile was used, not the one broken down by time of year. You should be able to google one of these percentile charts to get an idea of what the breakdown is.