ManuNastai
Transilvanian..
Topics: 55
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In the light of the disscussions that were started here on the forum, I gave some thought on how reliable is the information in the Exam Score Thread... a lot of people find the scores in these topics to be by far greater than most people get. It is fairly common to see in the experience threads of different users advices not to look at this thread because will cause discouragement.
What is the purpose of these threads??
Well, people post there their scores that they got in different question banks (Kaplan QBank, USMLE World, NBMEs etc) and their score in the real exam. So what? well, users that are still durring their prep can correlate the scores that they got in the Question banks with those of the previous posters and get a "prediction" of their scores in the real exam and if this is lower thaan their target, they postpne the exam and learn more.. etc.. Great thread, then!... If you think of this issue one can say that the only way this will not be usefull if different posters will lie about their scores.. Personally, I don't think so. The issue that was brought up in the disscussion between Leaders was the fact that many users register just to post in there and there are many posts in there from people who we know nothing about, newbies who we don't know if they can be trusted.
There's another issue about this thread that bugs me. No doubt about it that the scores that are posted are very high!!! People say very often that "nowadays on being an IMG and having a shot at a US residency you gotta have scores close to 99s". I don't know about this.. this is debaitable. There's another saying: "Most IMGs have very high scores, 99/99". I cannot believe this as hard as I'd try and I cannot test this, but I can try to make a graphical distribution of the scores that are posted in the exam score thread and compare it to the normal distribution. How can I make the normal distribution? Well, I can't make an exact one, but I can make a comparable one to the distribution from the Exam Score Thread (EST), by using the values that are written on the score report.
How did I do it? I gathered the info from the EST (scores provided by 334 users) and I made a graph. Note that the blue line is drawn by myself. For comparation, I knew the Mean and St Deviation of scores from my Score report. I tried to approximate the normal distribution. It is not the real one, but is a distribution that has the same Mean and StDev as the real one.
LEGEND: The distribution with the information gathered from the EST is represented using columns. The blue line corresponds to it. The dark blue columns are represented at the Mean and at 1 and repectively 2 Standard Deviations from the Mean of the Real Distribution. The red line tries to approximate the distribution.
The Mean of the distributin from the EST is 236 with a StDev of 17.7
the Mean of the real distribution is 217 with a StDev of 23.
CONCUSION: There is an obvious difference between the two. I don't want to get into the explinations for this. I only stress the fact that in the EST from what I see the people that post are mainly the ones with high scores. Out of 20.000 users there are 334 posts with a lot of high scores.
So, my advice is to people who didn't get 99s... don't get dscouraged!!! Not all of the IMGs get 99s. if you got a 98 you're not a loser or stupid  . If you read the EST, you'd probably get the idea you gotta take a 99. If you don't, is not the end of the world. Remember, most of the people psting in there are probably the ones with very high scores!! So, I ask for all the test takers who have their score to post it, in order to get a more accurate distribution.
Any imput on this issue will be highly appreciated
Edited by ManuNastai on 05/14/07 - 05:16 AM
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"Love is the only inflamation of the heart that drains in the vagina" (translation after Dr Petre Florescu, Professor of Pathology, UMF "Iuliu Hatieganu", Cluj Napoca
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| doc179
Forum Guru
Topics: 67
Posts: 1,217
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You are right. Its a known fact that only 99ers post their exam experience and score and not others. I myself know a atleast one wh has got into 80s and never posted his/her experience and score in the forum. Its more like people getting discouraged rather being encouraged by those 99 threads. People please who did not get that perfect score, please post your scores and experiences it would definitely be of help to a lots and lots of people in this forum. They would understand whats real is, they would know what to do and what not to do to get a 90+ score, they would also know that getting in the 80s is not a bad thing.
This is what I think...Good luck to everyone and oh yes one more request...friends please when you go thru an exam experience or a score thread...please think twice whether what they have posted is believable , whether its humanly possible and then either get discouraged or encouraged..well I would suggest to get encouraged and look at the positive side always.
Good luck for your exams.
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| rezaaa
Forum Senior
Topics: 8
Posts: 148
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i think you are right about the fact that majority of the people who post their score report are 99ers. On the other hand out of all the test takers these ppl are not in the majority (according to ure calculation.... u sure have a lot of time to do it by the way! lol). So ppl with low scores (or even slightly low scores or anything below 99) dont get discouraged...
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| doc.jay
Forum Senior
Topics: 18
Posts: 81
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You demonstarte an exteremely imp posrt and I think this is an imp post since at the end of the day, the score distribution is still bell shaped. If you only went by the reported scores on this forum, one could have imagined that it was skewed too much in favour of the >240 range.
USMLE scores have the same issues as SAT, GRE or any other std exams - serious grade inflation which makes it difficult to use the score objectively... in my opinion, scoring high only assures you that PDs will take you seriously ... other than that its the 'other' things which count too. I've heard of numerous instances of applicants with double 99s who were not even invited at a few categorical IM programs .... 
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| silver
Forum Guru
Topics: 21
Posts: 770
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i'm just glad finally someone has come forward to prove what some of us had been saying all along
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| born_ready
banned
Topics: 4
Posts: 42
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hi
@manunastai
are you romania?
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| ManuNastai
Transilvanian..
Topics: 55
Posts: 838
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No, I am from romania
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"Love is the only inflamation of the heart that drains in the vagina" (translation after Dr Petre Florescu, Professor of Pathology, UMF "Iuliu Hatieganu", Cluj Napoca
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| vwilldoit
Forum Senior
Topics: 18
Posts: 189
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are you manunastai  ?
nice long post, will log off and read it while still disconnected
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just do it .....
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| docsuccess
Forum Newbie
Topics: 2
Posts: 30
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I agree with you 100%!
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| zolpidem
Forum Junior
Topics: 10
Posts: 80
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yeah...thats pretty true...
fact is that more people appreciate to hear from the high scorers...
and high scorers post their experiences more..
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| arlete
Intern in 2009!!!!!
Topics: 30
Posts: 2,208
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Very interestng.
Don't forget: people lie, too.
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When men make the rules, God decides the exceptions.
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| ManuNastai
Transilvanian..
Topics: 55
Posts: 838
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I've done it for CK too
http://www.prep4usmle.com/forum/thread/54070
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"Love is the only inflamation of the heart that drains in the vagina" (translation after Dr Petre Florescu, Professor of Pathology, UMF "Iuliu Hatieganu", Cluj Napoca
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| born_ready
banned
Topics: 4
Posts: 42
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Ceau
Manu@I m feeling kinda scare now.i have exam in oct.i did general path and half physio.Feeing ver exausted.help me out!
ms f mult
Bye
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| Luckyall
Forum Guru
Topics: 11
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Manu, are you romania ? Wow !
Ceau !
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| Jackofknives
Ipwnpoker.com
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A copy of the score report posted here will hold a lot more weight than some random person claiming that he/she got a 99.
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There are many things in this world that can’t be changed no matter how hard you try. That’s why you must not hesitate when the time comes where you have to give it all you’ve got.
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| ManuNastai
Transilvanian..
Topics: 55
Posts: 838
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well, let's not be that dramatic...
posting in this thread is not meant to be a way to prove something. that's the whole thing.. I can't imagine why anyone would lie here, that's why I don't think this ishappening.
the conclusion I was trying to draw is that people who get a lower score than 99s should not feel discouraged or frustrated, because the people that post in there are mostly only the ones who get high scores (even if I think all of us should post). not all IMGs are 99/99ers and that does not mean they cannot get a residency spot.
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"Love is the only inflamation of the heart that drains in the vagina" (translation after Dr Petre Florescu, Professor of Pathology, UMF "Iuliu Hatieganu", Cluj Napoca
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| P4a99
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... PROFETIONAL INDEED! ...
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2008 Step 1 Study Plan Discussion ........ My Blog
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| born_ready
banned
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ceau,
thx alot for every thing
ai grija
pa
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| keepgoing
Forum Guru
Topics: 62
Posts: 1,673
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good job 
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| pdoc
Forum Newbie
Topics: 8
Posts: 22
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nice thread.
i hope, that we will soon read some posts from scorers in the mid 80s.
i also hope, i could read some posts with students who average in the mid 50s at UW. its so frustrating not hitting the 60.
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| E2O
Forum Senior
Topics: 19
Posts: 190
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this s SSSooOOO true.
At the time I posted my score on the score thread between 15-20 before me had posted a 99 and I felt the I did very poorly. with the distribution you have put up there I now know that a lot more people get scores in my range than 99 thank man
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