Surgery Shelf Score/Percentile

[liquid magma]

Hey there,

Does anybody know approximately what a raw score of 75 on the surgery shelf translates into percentile. My school just posted my score, and we need a 70% to be eligible for Honors. I am really shaking in my boots. I have no idea if my score is considered good or bad or what?

Thanks

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[southerndoc]

I think a 75 is around the 80th percentile (nationally).

 

[doc05]

I think a 75 is a little higher; maybe 85%

 

[Airborne]

The mean for most shelf exams is 70 with an STD of 8. I couldn't be bothered to figure out what percentile a 75 figures out to be, but a 78 (ie 1 STD above the mean) is the 83-84%.

 

[Christiangirl]

Just looked it up. Sorry but it is only a 77 percentile.

 

[Airborne]

C'est la vie -

There is always Family Practice.

 

[liquid magma]

Thanks for all the responses.

I guess I made the cutoff (now I'm just keeping my fingers crossed--hoping my grade will be good). I finally built up the courage to email the Surgery secretary at my school and she said that a 75 on the shelf is at the 84th percentile.

Does anyone have any idea what the national average is. My roommate got a 68 and is too nervous to call the office (and anyway it's closed for the weekend now). Anyone out there want to venture a guess.

Best o' luck

 

[puffy1]

I asked the secretary what I scored for my shelf exam and she said that I got a 92...I'm not sure if that's curved up, if that's a percentile or score or what. She said that was a good score...

It didn't matter since I got hammered on my evals.

I guess I've got a lot of learning to do...I was pretty open about my desire to NOT do surgery, and I felt like I had a good rapport with my ortho resident and did everything that was asked of me (which was basically, "look, I'm busy, stay out of my way"). He gave me an 85 for my 2-weeks there.

I had a horrible time in plastics, the resident was socially-challenged, the attending was the personification of what people think arrogant surgeons are...and I got a 90 for my 2-weeks when I was sure I was going to get hammered.

Then for my month of trauma, where there wasn't much to do (surprisingly), my classmate and I were cutting up constantly with the residents, and I scrubbed in for ONE surgery the entire time...and I got a 95 for the month.

This goes to show that 1) you've got to play a different game with different folks and 2) you still have no idea what people think of you so 3) be yourself and sleep peacefully at night.