What is a "shelf" exam?

[Dodge This]

What's a "shelf" exam? Who takes them (what year) and why? Who writes them and administers them?

Nobody at my school has ever heard of them, so I'm guessing it's not necessary as part of licensing.

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[docuw]

They are distributed by, written by, and graded by the NBME (the same organization that runs the USMLE). The tests are basically subject tests that consist of "board type" questions (including retired board questions). They are tests on one subject area that you might take after finishing micro/infx dz/immunology courses (as an example) to rate how well prepared you are in comparison with other medical students whose schools also forced them to take the stinkin' thing.

Some schools also use them as finals after a certain course. This is especially true for rotations in yrs 3 and 4.

 

[Radiohead]

we had to take a "shelf board" for our biochemistry final. it freaking counted 30% of our final grade. i actually had a question though....how do they calculate the score that they report to the course director. is it a national percentile or a percentage correct or what?

 

[docuw]

It is absolutely NOT a percentage correct. They use the same formula as the boards and come up with this magic number. No one really knows for sure how it is calculated. It is comparable to the MCAT I guess. You got a certain number of questions correct, and they compare that to how everyone else did.

 

[orthoman5000]

They set the number 70 equal to the national average and set a standard deviation of 8 points. That is how the shelf exam is graded. It is not a percentage correct, and it's not a percentile, but the number does have some meaning. I got this information off the NBME website just a few days ago as I was taking the Cell Biology and Histology shelf exam.

 

[KU Brendan]

Anyone know why it's called a "shelf" exam? After taking all of them last year and having all of my non-med school friends and relatives ask me why they were called that, I still haven't ever found a good answer. 🙂

--Brendan--

 

[Apollyon]

Originally posted by KU Brendan
Anyone know why it's called a "shelf" exam? After taking all of them last year and having all of my non-med school friends and relatives ask me why they were called that, I still haven't ever found a good answer.

I was told that it's shortened from "off-the-shelf" (ie, ready made, and not custom-made), meaning without any specific bias to question writers (since there's so many, whereas, at your school, on your exams, you know who wrote what, via the style, the words, the logic, and so on), or local perspectives (like if there are specifics on immigrant medicine, more than one question on medical conditions affecting certain groups, like thalassemias, sickle cell, or Tay-Sachs). It's "exam in a box" - just give it, and score it. Done. The questions are 'certified' good via statistics, so they're essentially challenge-proof (ie, if one does stand a challenge, that's one of those rarities by someone who is already in the scholar's program, or will now be placed in it), and they are simply better-written than the average.

 

[KU Brendan]

Thanks for the reply! That's about what I've heard before...I'm just not sure who started calling them that. Nowhere on the actual exams themselves does it ever say "shelf." 🙂

--Brendan--