sigh... not true
I don't know why this always gets perpetuated on SDN. The test is not curved to make it where a certain score "has" to appear. If everyone in the world who took Step 1 in 2012 got only ~5 questions wrong, they would ALL get a 276. Similarly, if everyone missed 20+ questions, then NOBODY would score 270+. The curve is set ahead of time. The fact that the results roughly resemble a bell curve is based on differences in human ability and preparation, not statistical manipulation after the fact.
I understand what you're getting at. I'm not saying that the NBME
must necessarily allot a particular high score to X-number of people per year just based on the curve. What I'm implying is more along the lines of: "the best predictor of this year's financial state is the previous year's financial state." I agree on your point that 280+ probably doesn't happen every year, but a small number of mid-270s definitely do.
i dont really know how much i got wrong...but after walking out from the exam hall i thought atleast 2-3 were wrong per block...esp the first block was pretty tough..there were 5-6 surprises and i could barely finish the block in time(abt 20 sec to go)..
i feel like i would have got atleast 10-15 wrong for the entire exam..(more than 5 almost sure)
If you had marked 2-3 questions per block, then you ended up getting most of them right. In order to get a 276, you literally have to get next to nothing wrong on that exam.
2-3 wrong per block is likely closer to a low-260s score. The two 264s and one 266 I had had on my NBMEs, with extended feedback, were 9 and 8 wrong, respectively, out of 200.
So for a 266, we're talking 8/200 --> 12/300 --> ~13/322 = ~2 wrong per block.
I only got a 262 on the Step1 and am fairly sure I got somewhere between 15-20 questions wrong on the exam, but probably closer to 18-20.
Does NBME publish results beyond 280? I am under the impression 270+ is the last column they publish. Correct me if I am wrong.
The last column they publish is >260. So this is
not 260+. It's 26
1+ (see first image; these are plastics stats, but the score columns are arranged identically for all specialties).
The highest theoretical score also is not a 300. It's 292. If you literally get 100% on the USMLE, you'll get a 292 (see second image).
Btw, with the second image, it's not accurate to say that every question you get wrong moves you down one row on the table. In actuality, some of those higher scores aren't even possible on the NBMEs. My guess would be that the highest scores on that table are more accurate, per incorrect question, with regard to the real USMLE (e.g. notice a 276 would be ~6-7 wrong), but on the NBMEs, 3 wrong is low-mid-270s.