Scoring Question

[Pinner Doc]

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I just took the 150 NBME practice questions at the test center. I was trying to figure out what my score (82%) was worth, and really started to flip out when I saw a bell curve in the front of First Aid that said an "82" corresponds to a 3-digit score of 200. When I got home, I plugged the score into the score estimator, and discovered that an 82% corresponds to a much higher score.

First, how accurate is this score estimator?

Second, and more important... if the two digit score that you receive with your three digit score is NOT a percentage, *what is it*?? What is its purpose, other than to confuse us? 😕

 

[AmoryBlaine]

I just took the 150 NBME practice questions at the test center. I was trying to figure out what my score (82%) was worth, and really started to flip out when I saw a bell curve in the front of First Aid that said an "82" corresponds to a 3-digit score of 200. When I got home, I plugged the score into the score estimator, and discovered that an 82% corresponds to a much higher score.

First, how accurate is this score estimator?

Second, and more important... if the two digit score that you receive with your three digit score is NOT a percentage, *what is it*?? What is its purpose, other than to confuse us? 😕

The scoring process of Step1 is arcane and secret. If you got 82% of the questions right on the real thing chances are you would rock it. As for that score estimator, I don't know, if you play with it it seems like a few Qbank points up or down DRASTICALLY changes your score.

 

[AlternateSome1]

I just took the 150 NBME practice questions at the test center. I was trying to figure out what my score (82%) was worth, and really started to flip out when I saw a bell curve in the front of First Aid that said an "82" corresponds to a 3-digit score of 200. When I got home, I plugged the score into the score estimator, and discovered that an 82% corresponds to a much higher score.

First, how accurate is this score estimator?

Second, and more important... if the two digit score that you receive with your three digit score is NOT a percentage, *what is it*?? What is its purpose, other than to confuse us? 😕

The two digit score is not a percentage, so using the FA chart in this way is incorrect. The online score predictor is probably a LOT closer to being accurate. I am not sure what the two digit score really is, but to give you an idea of how off it is, a 55-60% is often estimated to be a low pass; a low pass has a two digit score of around 76-79.

 

[Idiopathic]

The two digit score is an arbitrary measure of competence for licensure. 75 was set as the passing number so that states could consider your as having met the requirements for licensure. This is why the values for the three digit scores change a lot but the passing two digit score is always 75.

With that said, its calculated based on the mean and SD, jsut like the three digit and its spelled out pretty well when you get your score. All it allows you to do though is see where you scored relative to other test takers. You will never know what your % of questions right is, but some simple statistics will get you your 'percentile'.