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Downloaded NBME Forms

27K views 30 replies 23 participants last post by  MedicoZia 
#1 ·
Hi guys,
I downloaded NBME Forms 1,2,3,4,and 6.
I noticed that everybody is talking about predicting my USMLE score from NBME.
My question is, can I estimate my score when I do the downloaded forms. like for example I get 75% of the questions correct then what will be my predicted score?
 
#2 · (Edited)
Downloaded NBME cannot predict the score

No you cannot.

For two reasons:

First, you don't know which questions you got right and which questions you got wrong. Even if your downloaded forms have mentioned the correct answers these are just speculations from the download maker and for sure it's not exactly correct. The correct answers for the NBME are not revealed publicly, only perhaps partially with the new Expanded Performance Feedback system.

Second, even if we assume that you know the correct answers and therefore you know how many questions you got right and wrong this will not help you in predicting the score. The NBME score is calculated from a statistical distribution curve that was derived from thousands of test takers. It's a score that is scaled from 200 to 800 with a mean of 500 and a standard deviation of 100. This 800 score is not simply the quadruple of the 200 questions (4 blocks) that you get in each form rather it's a unique score that nobody knows how it's calculated.

Your only reliable chance of getting an appropriate prediction is by paying that $45 and take the official online NBME and when you finish it they'll tell you your score followed by a chart from which you can correlate your three digit NBME score with your predicted three digit USMLE step 1 score.

You may find some formulas and equations in other websites that claims to help calculate the prediction based on the number of questions that you get right. But in my (and my friends) experiences these formulas do not work and always give inconsistent results.
 
#5 ·
NBME Percentage to three digit score conversion

OK I attach to this post a document that include a table which correlates the NBME percentage correct with the NBME three digit score.
Am not sure what is the origin of this document but it seems reliable many students are using it.

Have a look at the attached PDF
 

Attachments

#6 ·
OK I attach to this post a document that include a table which correlates the NBME percentage correct with the NBME three digit score.
Am not sure what is the origin of this document but it seems reliable many students are using it.

Have a look at the attached PDF
I tried that table and then I did the online NBME, it's absolutely wrong. I think it was done by clinicalreview.com and all they did is just extrapolation from the available NBME data and it not necessarily true.
 
#23 ·
Originally Posted by Cerebro89 View Post
Hi guys,
I downloaded NBME Forms 1,2,3,4,and 6.
I noticed that everybody is talking about predicting my USMLE score from NBME.
My question is, can I estimate my score when I do the downloaded forms. like for example I get 75% of the questions correct then what will be my predicted score?
 
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