What to make of the 2 means/SDs?

[bigfrank]

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Dear friends,

Has anyone found this to be strange? Many of us took the Step I within a few days and certainly within a few weeks of each other, and it appears that there are 2 distinct populations of score reports out there:

1. Mean = 217, SD = 24
2. Mean = 221, SD = 21

I know it's not a HUGE deal, but I did find it interesting. Does anyone know what to make of this? Is it that there are 2 distinct test banks of questions and half of us got each? Or, they put each person's exam in 1 of 2 "grading piles" and scored them that way. Either way, that's weird!

Best wishes,

 

[scootad.]

regardless, it is absolutely stunning to me that one of the means is 221. What the hell is going on? Are medical students getting smarter, more attuned to how to study, are the review books better? A 4 point jump in the mean is stunning. Just little more than 5 years ago 220 was a great score, now its average. Every year since then, the mean has been steadily rising with more 250+ scores than ever.

what is going on?

 

[Idiopathic]

regardless, it is absolutely stunning to me that one of the means is 221. What the hell is going on? Are medical students getting smarter, more attuned to how to study, are the review books better? A 4 point jump in the mean is stunning. Just little more than 5 years ago 220 was a great score, now its average. Every year since then, the mean has been steadily rising with more 250+ scores than ever.

what is going on?

Yes to all the questions. The mean is what it is, after all. Either the test gets easier or more people have access to better study prep. I vote for the latter.

And dont forget, the mean is set where it is by the NBME, as a way to describe the testing prowess of the current group of students. WIth that said, I think there may have been two major sets of questions, with variations within each set, that accounts for different means and different SD's. What I find most weird is how the mean went up and the SD went down, signofying a larger group of high scores, all packed closer together. More interesting than statistics should be.

 

[daisygirl]

I sure hope that the NBME people don't increase the passing score before I take my test. I'm getting worried since the mean has increased .

 

[Idiopathic]

I sure hope that the NBME people don't increase the passing score before I take my test. I'm getting worried since the mean has increased .

It is arbitrary anyway..."The NBME has decided that the mean shall remain where it is." Shouldnt students' performance decide that? It still weirds me out a little.

 

[DistantMets]

The NBME website says that the July 14th mailing was for test takers between May 26th and the end of June. Maybe the 217 mean was for the group prior to that? I would think another month on studying may account for the increase in the mean.

 

[bigfrank]

Maybe the average on my report was a typo then? I took the exam on 6/8/04.