Shelf Exam Percentiles??

[mustang1]

My school just gives us a raw score for each of the shelf exams. Are the national percentiles/means for each of the NBME shelf exams published somewhere? Thanks so much!

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[evilbooyaa]

I would be curious for this as well. Is there some public domain that posts means for all year 3 shelf exams depending on when the test is taken?

 

[Instatewaiter]

I havent looked this up since I was a 3rd year but according the NBME website from a few years ago, the means tend to be in the 70s with an STD around 7. It changes based on the time of the year you take it.

 

[mustang1]

Thanks so much!

 

[SoDakMLS]

We recently took the computerized Microbiology shelf. For that exam they set the average score at 50 with a standard deviation of 10 points. So if you got a 60, you'd be at roughly the 84th percentile, 95th with a 70, etc. We did receive a "What does my score mean?" sheet with it; perhaps they have them for other exams?

 

[HLxDrummer]

Maybe ask the school for percentiles? Is there a reason they don't have them?

My school gave us raw and percentiles.. they told us the raw scores are meaningless

 

[FSU2013]

Search function is your friend.

The scaled score means nothing. If you read the fine print in nbme scores it does technically say that average is 70 with a SD of 7. If you keep reading you will see that the the score was scaled a couple decades ago.....so they are entirely irrelevant.

Ignore that number, the percentile is the only number that means anything.