flajar
Forum Junior
Topics: 7
Posts: 29
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Anyone know why the Nbme has decided to drop the three digit to getting a 99 all the way to a 236. I think as early as even a year ago, a 243 was considered a 98 but recently have heard people scoring a 238 and getting a 99. What the hell is goin on??? anyone know how this effects competitive programs that set cutoffs for board scores??? any help greatly appreciated
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| epica
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Because of curve, many FMG now have 99.
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| GOGETA
I'm Dr. GOGETA
Topics: 321
Posts: 2,718
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It depends how HARD is the test you took.
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As a general rule, the better it felt when you said it, the more trouble it's going to get you into.
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| coolmavs
Forum Elite
Topics: 21
Posts: 328
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As far as my knowledge is concerned, the curve and mean and SD, in short all the numbers of significance, are NOT based on FMG data. They are purely based on the data of AMG's.
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| flajar
Forum Junior
Topics: 7
Posts: 29
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i think this is all really a myth about getting a harder vs an easy test. It makes no sense for nbme to give someone an easier test vs a hard test. Psycologically if one gets a hard test, they will panic and tend to get even more questions wrong than they normally would. I hear all the time about people saying they got a really hard exam, but honestly i call bullshit. people probably thought their exam was harder than others cause subject areas were hit that they werent strong on, or simply didnt know what the question was asking. Its completely unfair to give separate exams, ie a hard vs an easy one. Just my two cents. Im sure the nbme database has a pool of intermediate, easy, and hard questions and they select an x amount from each area and make an exam??? of course i could be wrong entirely but i see no justification in makin an easy vs hard exam
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| tee40
Forum Senior
Topics: 5
Posts: 117
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good point flajar...........
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| dinosaur
Forum Newbie
Topics: 6
Posts: 25
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I'm repeating the Step 1 for the 3rd time (yeah, this takes guts to admit) and both of my tests were brutal, a lot of molecular genetics, gene codes, and so on. The rest of the test felt moderately hard (this is a board examination after all), and I almost passed the test. The bad news is that the molecular route will be the future of medicine so the boards are really hammering this aspect, and they KNOW students are weak in this aspect so they just go ahead and let it rip on the questions. I don't think they give some students difficult tests and other easier tests. It's just that some topics, if you haven't studied them, are really impossible to even guess the answer.
The good news is that everything is in the Kaplan Biochem book, which also includes molecular biology and genetics. I did the entire book with all of the videos and all of the Qbank questions for these subjects and definitely feel more confident now, but still there is some stuff that is beyond the scope of the first years of med school that they throw in.
Even worse is that they have all the reason in the world to put in these difficult questions, because there is a review book out there - biochem from Kaplan - that discuss all these difficult topics, so it is fair game for them. That's my take.
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| obgyne2b
Forum Junior
Topics: 1
Posts: 56
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I agree w/flajar, difficulty is relative to the test-taker. I know my weak areas, so likely, encountering those questions will be "hard" for me. Certain subjects have always been easy for me, so these questions will be "easier" for me on the real thing. It's all relative.
If in fact the 99 was lowered to accomodate a lower 3-digit score, it is possible that (and this is my personal theory) they added past experimental questions as ones to be scored and raised the pass mark accordingly. So overall, the test may be more rigorous in certain disciplines, e.g. molecular genetics, and scores adjusted accordingly.
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| zolpidem
Forum Junior
Topics: 10
Posts: 80
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i think 2 digit score and 3 digit score depends on lot of factors
3 digit score is nothing but your performance...it depends upon your preparation and if questions are easy to you then you will score more...if questions are hard to you then you will score less..
2 digit score depends on all the test takers ...i think the experimental questions will fix the percentile for each question....for example if only 50 members out of 100 people answered that question then that is 50th percentile question.. like that only if 20 percent answered a question correct then that is 80th percentile question and if only 1 out of 100 answered that question correct then it is 99th percentile question
so questions in your 3 digit score are compared with other students performance who took the same question and that will decide your over all 2 digit score
recently if people are gettin 99 for 235s means... many found it difficult to answer those questions...
So 2 digit score is just comparision of your 3 digit score... and 2 digit score depends on the overall performance of many students who took the exam
i think in one way..the questions might be hard...n that might be the reason for 99 for 230s
This is purely my opinion... please correct me if i am wrong...
thank you..all the best
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| ShweHope99.9998
Forum Fanatic
Topics: 12
Posts: 2,624
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I agree with Zolpi .
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| sany
Forum Senior
Topics: 7
Posts: 120
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Hi zolpidem
This as a clear concept of percentile !I agree with you. Thank you
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sany
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| ManuNastai
Transilvanian..
Topics: 55
Posts: 838
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yes dudes, but I have a 95/235 (I took the exam in november) and i'll apply for the 2010-2011 match, so I'll compete with IMGs who will have a higher 2 digit score for the same 3 digit score comared to me... what then?
me and I'm sure most of the people in my situation feel preety pissed..
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| multifactorial
Forum Guru
Topics: 28
Posts: 546
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it is basically your three-digit score that they pay more attention to.hypothetically speaking,there was a day when people scored 250 and got a 90 and a day when people scored 200 and got a 99.in this instance and in every related instance,your three-digit score only will have significance.and u have a great,great score and you shouldnt have a problem with the match or with a score-tally.all the best.
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| rezaaa
Forum Senior
Topics: 8
Posts: 179
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we all have strengths and weaknesses in certain subjects....although we will work hard on our weak areas in general they will always reamin somewhat weak. that is how nature is that is how human beings are. none of us are perfect. i think that is the reason that if u get more questions on subject u r weak in naturally u will think the test is harder. on the other hand u might find it easier if it was your easier subject. also one more thing we tend to remember those questions we found difficult or hard and tend to forget those we found easy. i think i read somewhere in first aid that is a standardised test and the difficulty for everyone is almost the same. the person who took 220 five years ago will also get 220 today but the difficulty of the test willl channge as the knowledge base of medicine grows. of course this is the era of genetics and molecular biology and that might be why they are stressing these subjects . you wouldnt have found these subjects on the board 20 years ago.
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| obgyne2b
Forum Junior
Topics: 1
Posts: 56
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Yes, rezaaa, I agree with your post, it makes such good sense!
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