Score Report Delay for Step 1 Takers in Late May and June!!!

[automan2]

Normal score reporting for Step 1 usually occurs in 3-4 weeks.
However,
because of necessary modifications to the test item pool as well as
the
processing load caused by a heavy volume of test takers, there will be
a
delay in score reporting for most Step 1 examinations administered in
late
May and June. The target date for reporting Step 1 scores for most
examinees
testing from May 18 through late June will be Wednesday, July 18, 2007.
It
is possible that scores may be available earlier and we will notify you
if
that occurs.

Melanie V. Nelson
Program Officer
Medical School Programs
National Board of Medical Examiners
3750 Market Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104
Phone: 215-590-9719
Fax: (215) 590-9446
E-mail: [email protected]

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[winsicle]

because of necessary modifications to the test item pool ]

kinda scary

 

[lord_jeebus]

Seems to happen every year

 

[automan2]

What are the chances they are tired of Goljan and books like First Aid that ask prior student for answers and then publish them?

They could be going through, and making all new questions! HA

 

[Big Sky]

if reading wasn't enough. starting june 1 they are going to have audio and video incorporated into questions. it will be interesting...

 

[drguy22]

Normal score reporting for Step 1 usually occurs in 3-4 weeks.
However,
because of necessary modifications to the test item pool as well as
the
processing load caused by a heavy volume of test takers, there will be
a
delay in score reporting for most Step 1 examinations administered in
late
May and June. The target date for reporting Step 1 scores for most
examinees
testing from May 18 through late June will be Wednesday, July 18, 2007.
It
is possible that scores may be available earlier and we will notify you
if
that occurs.

Melanie V. Nelson
Program Officer
Medical School Programs
National Board of Medical Examiners
3750 Market Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104
Phone: 215-590-9719
Fax: (215) 590-9446
E-mail: [email protected]

HA my test is May 17th!!

 

[Pinkertinkle]

if reading wasn't enough. starting june 1 they are going to have audio and video incorporated into questions. it will be interesting...

Oh yeah, says who?

 

[lord_jeebus]

Oh yeah, says who?

Agreed, there has been no announcement

A small number of multiple-choice items in the 2007 USMLE Orientation Materials contain exhibits involving audio and/or video clips. Instructions for practicing with items with associated media clips on Step 1, Step 2 CK, and Step 3 are provided in the Tutorials for each Step examination in the orientation materials.

Multiple-choice items with associated media clips will be introduced in USMLE examinations no earlier than Summer 2007. An announcement will be posted to the USMLE website approximately 2 months before any items with associated media clips appear on an actual USMLE examination. Additional information will be posted to the USMLE website as it becomes available.

 

[winsicle]

if reading wasn't enough. starting june 1 they are going to have audio and video incorporated into questions. it will be interesting...

i would think questions with a/v would be experimental this year, i mean they wouldn't grade us on things like auscultation ability as MS2s, would they?

 

[Baditude]

I heard July 1st is the start date for the new test style! It would make sense then that they are going to be busy May -June getting ready to make the change.

 

[predodoc]

does anyone know if the "new" test starts June 1st or July 1st ? I take it on June 1 but if there are potential problems and all kinds of new questions then I might try to push it up a day.

 

[lord_jeebus]

does anyone know if the "new" test starts June 1st or July 1st ? I take it on June 1 but if there are potential problems and all kinds of new questions then I might try to push it up a day.

Well, they say you'll get 2 months notice before they add them, so at the earliest it would be the beginning of July.

 

[Teejay]

A quick question! Are there any score variations between those that take the exam earlier(jan-feb-march) to those who take the exam later (june) since the scoring is done on a curve basis and majority of students take it in june?

 

[blz]

A quick question! Are there any score variations between those that take the exam earlier(jan-feb-march) to those who take the exam later (june) since the scoring is done on a curve basis and majority of students take it in june?

it's the same way they do the mcat. the curve is somewhat predetermined based off of experimental questions. you're compared against everyone who has taken the test, not just who you've taken it with.

 

[beastmaster]

necessary modifications to the test item pool

I don't see how this affects anything. But it's nice that they are jolting the item pool. I wonder what new wonderful things they'll ask us about.

 

[automan2]

I don't see how this affects anything. But it's nice that they are jolting the item pool. I wonder what new wonderful things they'll ask us about.

Like I said before, I heard a rumor that they are trying to even the playing field for anyone who doesn't have first aid or who is able to spend thousands on kaplan classes.

The NBME gets pissed when they find out people are "remembering" questions and then they see there topics published in books like first aid or taught in kaplan courses.

So, to fix this, they are coming up with new ways to ask old concepts that nobody has ever seen before, expect the scores for the test this summer to go down big time, as they are also upset with the way the mean is rising and their goal is to try and bring it down to 200.

This sucks because residency directors will be a few years behind....

 

[Pinkertinkle]

Like I said before, I heard a rumor that they are trying to even the playing field for anyone who doesn't have first aid or who is able to spend thousands on kaplan classes.

The NBME gets pissed when they find out people are "remembering" questions and then they see there topics published in books like first aid or taught in kaplan courses.

So, to fix this, they are coming up with new ways to ask old concepts that nobody has ever seen before, expect the scores for the test this summer to go down big time, as they are also upset with the way the mean is rising and their goal is to try and bring it down to 200.

This sucks because residency directors will be a few years behind....

OH NOoeos!!1 The sky is falling!

Stop the alarmist paranoia. The mean will stay about the same, they could have arbitrary reset the mean to a lower point it if they wanted, but they don't. The concepts first aid and Kaplan and other review books teach are important, they're not going to stop testing them. Even if they come up with new ways to ask about them, we'll have all the tools to figure it out. If you were just memorizing answers, then you may be in trouble, but that's not the right way to study anyway.

 

[beastmaster]

Like I said before, I heard a rumor that they are trying to even the playing field for anyone who doesn't have first aid or who is able to spend thousands on kaplan classes.

The NBME gets pissed when they find out people are "remembering" questions and then they see there topics published in books like first aid or taught in kaplan courses.

The NBME has changed maybe 10% of its testable content in the last 10 years. What changes is the wording and perhaps graphical presentation. These things can't really be remembered. So I doubt these folks are doing review book biopsies looking for content leaks.

 

[javandane]

So, to fix this, they are coming up with new ways to ask old concepts that nobody has ever seen before.

they've been doing this for years, so it's certainly nothing new. if you've read even a fraction of the posts about recent exam experiences, the common theme is that concepts are tested in ways not typically seen in courses/review resources.

expect the scores for the test this summer to go down big time, as they are also upset with the way the mean is rising and their goal is to try and bring it down to 200.

absolute horse****. if your goal was to psyche out the weaker test takers who hover on this forum, perhaps you've partially succeeded. but you have no factual basis to make this claim.

 

[automan2]

they've been doing this for years, so it's certainly nothing new. if you've read even a fraction of the posts about recent exam experiences, the common theme is that concepts are tested in ways not typically seen in courses/review resources.



absolute horse****. if your goal was to psyche out the weaker test takers who hover on this forum, perhaps you've partially succeeded. but you have no factual basis to make this claim.

I am able to post this with certainty, as I have spoken with two different professors who are on the usmle test question panel for pathology, and I was told (along with the rest of the class) that the pathology questions (and many other areas) are getting completely revamped because students have been scoring too high, and their goal is to reduce the mean back to around 200. You can doubt as much as you want, I don't care, but if I were you I would start to study instead of talk out of your behind.

She told us they, as a group have access to Qbanks (she said they used the big three, Qbank, UW, and USMLERx) and access to the review books, and they are upset that direct questions are magically appearing in these sources, so that is why everything is getting an overhaul.

 

[predodoc]

I agree that the questions might be changing some and that they are going to test new kinds of Qs ect, but making the mean to 200 just doesnt make much sense. If they do this, the standerd dev would have to be like 8 unless they change the passing score(185). Since Im assuming they would like for most people to pass(85%+), that means a 216 and 224 would be like 2 and 3 st. dev. above the mean. And there is no way that someone who scores in the 99 percentile will now only get about a 224 while just a few months before that would be be like 260. If you are telling the truth about the path teachers changing the Q's then those teachers dont know much about statistics.

Correct me if Im wrong. I might need some tutoring on my statistics.

 

[bigdan]

Perhaps test changes are coming...content/style/revamping...

But wouldn't all these new changes have to go thru the "experimental phase" for a little while? The questions would show up, but not count. Then folks would see them, and tell the FA/Goljan/UWs of the circuit would then adapt their material...and so on and so forth.

Learning what's in FA is a big enough challenge for me - worrying about what's not in there is out of my league.

dc

 

[lord_jeebus]

They would not reduce the mean because one purpose of the three-digit score is to have a measure that can be compared between years.

For instance, a 230 from a Step I taken in 2007 is intended to reflect an identical performance as a 230 from 2001.

 

[lord_jeebus]

She told us they, as a group have access to Qbanks (she said they used the big three, Qbank, UW, and USMLERx) and access to the review books, and they are upset that direct questions are magically appearing in these sources, so that is why everything is getting an overhaul.

I do believe this, however. I specifically remember questions that made me think "wow, they really want to punish people that memorized First Aid without understanding the concepts."

 

[drguy22]

I do believe this, however. I specifically remember questions that made me think "wow, they really want to punish people that memorized First Aid without understanding the concepts."

o well..watever..im gonna fail either way..