Shelf Exams vs. Step I

[dr. maybe]

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How do the questions on the shelf exams (pharm, path, micro) compare to the questions on Step I?

 

[Jaded Soul]

How do the questions on the shelf exams compare to the questions on Step I?

Clinical shelf or basic science shelf exams? The clinical shelfs don't compare to Step 1 at all.

 

[imtiaz]

I wanna know this too, I took the NBME basic sciences shelf and didn't score too great (64%) which correlates to like a 185 on step 1. I didn't study for it at all though, so I was just happy knowing that I could pass (albeit by 3 points) if I didn't do anything from the end of M2 year until exam day. I don't think anyone took that exam seriously as it didn't reflect on any of our grades it was merely administered for our own evaluation purposes. Our class average was 60% which was failing, but a few people just came in wrote their name on the scantron and handed in a blank scantron so that's what probably contributed to that. Anyway, how does this compare to the level of difficulty of step 1? What about qbank? I've heard mixed things, but if someone who has already taken step 1 fairly recently could shed some light on this that would be awesome.

 

[Stinger86]

The comprehensive basic science exam is very similar to the nbme online assessment exams, except that the CBSE has longer question stems (which is more like the USMLE). The exam is a great way to get used to the types of questions and formats tested on the Step 1, plus it lets you know where you need work. The fact that you didn't study for the exam at all and scored an equivalent passing grade is a good sign (most of my class got a failing score on the CBSE too).


To the OP, shelf exam questions are good practice for the real thing. While they may not be as difficult as the USMLE questions, they cover similar content and it's important to get used to the kind of question formats used for each science.