Shelf Exam: What's Passing at Your School?

[GreenShirt]

At my school "passing" a Shelf Exam is considered two standard deviations below the mean NBME score. What is passing considered at your school? Do program directors care what you scored on your shelf?

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[daveyjwin]

Here's what my school said

April 20, 2009

Dear daveyjwin,

We have received the results of the NBME (USMLE) shelf examinations administered at LECOM. We have also received, for comparison purposes, the mean scores for all third year medical students in the nation who have taken these same examinations. Listed below are the national mean score and LECOM's minimum passing score for each of these examinations. Please note that our minimum passing scores are not arbitrary, but have been determined by statistical analyses set by the NBME.

Cumulatively, your score(s) for the examination(s) is (are) listed in the last column:

Examination
National Mean
Minimum Passing Score

Internal Medicine
75.2
58

Obstetrics / Gynecology
72.6
56

Pediatrics
74.6
58

Psychiatry
76.3
51

Family Medicine
72
49

Surgery
71.8
54

 

[GreenShirt]

Ok, good to know that 1.5-2 SD is pretty standard. It just seemed like a pretty large cushion to me.

 

[tfom08]

Ok, good to know that 1.5-2 SD is pretty standard. It just seemed like a pretty large cushion to me.

That's pretty standard for other standardized tests. In medical school, not many people are retained/failed. Two standard deviations means about 2.5% of people will fail. That's comparable to Step 1, where the passing score (184?) is approximately 2 SDs below the mean.

Basically, it IS a large cushion, and that's how the schools want it. If someone is close to failing a shelf exam, they either have trouble with standardized tests (slow reading?) or did not prepare well at all during the clerkship.

 

[Pinkertinkle]

if you worry about what's acing, then you won't have to worry about what's passing.

Program directors definitely care if you're honoring rotations, and since in general scoring well on the shelf is critical to doing that, yes it matters very much what your scores are.

 

[ForensicPsych]

i have a big dilemma in my school. so apparently in my family medicine rotation, they used to have an "in-house" exam as their final exam during the clerkship during 1st block (june - september). apparently, one of the faculty members leaked out the bank of questions to a few of their students. and of course, the students passed it on to other student, so after they found out about this, they discontinued the "in-house" exam. but keep in mind....the last month of the first block (september month) basically had all the questions for the in-house exam, and after deliberation, they allowed the students to pass.

so then, they started giving the NBME family med shelf exam in october. however, people were failing miserably, because they set the passing score as a 65, when the averages were a 69 with a standard deviation of 6. i ended up getting a 60. after a bunch of us students that failed kept complaining about how unfair this was, they ended up moving down the "passing score" to a 63. so still....i "failed" this shelf exam.

how is this fair?? i spoke with the clerkship director several times, and now they are set on this score of 63 as passing. the deans won't even do anything to really change this passing score.

does anyone have any thoughts on what else i can do?? by the time i will retake this family med shelf, i will have been 8 months out of my family med rotation. i am really feeling down about all of this, and the numbers are completely unfair. i am really trying to get into EM (nevermind my username), and now i can't even start my 4th year until i retake this exam.

any comments are appreciated.

 

[kdburton]

Wow... over half of the schools set 2 SDs below average as a passing score?! I never really thought of that before, but that is pretty bad.

 

[stankem]

on the other hand what's an A for most people...some buds at other schools claim they need >90 raw to count as an A. I'm of the opinion they must be mistake. >99 percentile for an A?

 

[GreenShirt]

I thought the NBME standardized all scores to a mean of 70 with a deviation of 8. So 62 is the 1st SD and 54 is the 2nd SD on all Shelf exams. Minimum passing score for all Shelf exams is 54 at my school.

Our score reports from NBME only list the standardized scores...do schools have to request raw scores separately? Raw scoring would be a lot stricter than standardized.

How about your school? Raw or Standardized scores used for scoring?

 

[Doctor4Life1769]

Heh, we have to get a 70 on all our shelf exams for it to be "passing" ... below 70 and you gotta retake (except FP and psych, and maybe peds). This sucks for me 🙁

 

[GreenShirt]

Heh, we have to get a 70 on all our shelf exams for it to be "passing" ... below 70 and you gotta retake (except FP and psych, and maybe peds). This sucks for me 🙁

Raw, I'm assuming? otherwise you go to a very prestigious school if they expect they're students to perform above the national average.

 

[Doctor4Life1769]

Raw, I'm assuming? otherwise you go to a very prestigious school if they expect they're students to perform above the national average.

Honestly, I don't know, all I know is we gotta get a 70. I just took my 1st shelf last month and have surg this month - havent received my score from last month.

 

[ForensicPsych]

doctor4life....that's gotta be a bit brutal for your school to say that you have to get a 70 to pass. in that case, i really feel for you.