Official NBME details from AAOMS

This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.
Whew. A few thoughts....

- The questions were legitimately tough. Many had five-six steps to them.

- Time management is key. I went too slow on the first block, so we'll see how that section goes. After that, I tried to pace myself quicker, which I actually think helped calm me down and focus.

- Great point about buzzwords. They were non-existent. The only ones I can remember were the description of the nephrotic renal disorders question. It was frustrating to figure out what disease they were looking for. You figure it out in what seemed like an eternity - only to be tripped up by the final part of the question (this happened a lot).

- There were some questions, no matter how much you study, that I was never going to get. One receptor bond question that actually made me laugh out loud at how preposterous it was (and not in a good way).

I studied pretty hard for this exam, and I still came away feeling like I tried to catch a football over the middle. The mean (according to the NBME website) should be scaled to be 500. If I break 650, I'll be happy.
Members don't see this ad.
 
Last edited:
thewingman said:
Can you guys post how long you prepared for this test?
Click to expand...

I have been looking at stuff passively since February. But the detail that this test demands at times rendered that pretty useless. I ran through Pathoma a day ago and I swear that I knew 5-6 questions off of that alone. I became serious with about two months to go before the exam.
 
The Anhedonia said:
i share the same feelings.

- it was rough, harder than i expected.
- studied First aid + Uworld + goljan
- above poster was right --> not alot of buzz words which made it even harder.

will be interesting to see the results.
Click to expand...

x3

I wish they gave us at least 1 break.
 
Members don't see this ad :)
Spaceman Spif said:
The mean (according to the NBME website) should be scaled to be 500. If I break 650, I'll be happy.
Click to expand...

Are they going to use a curve they've already established based on previous NBME's or are they going to set up a curve based on our scores? Also, do you know if we will get a percentile rank?

If they use our scores to make a curve, then our NBME score probably won't be easily converted to a USMLE score, which kind of stinks. I think it would be nice to be able to show programs, especially 6 year programs, how we might perform on the USMLE.

I suppose it would depend on your percentile then. I wonder what percentile would be competitive? What percentage of students in your class took this exam?
 
As far as I know, only 6 people took the exam from my school. In terms of scaling, you're probably right - the scale may be from the scores of the test takers and not the regular scale.

Side note - did anyone remember seeing a DENTAL related question? Not even a branchial pouch/cleft one....
 
Spaceman Spif said:
As far as I know, only 6 people took the exam from my school. In terms of scaling, you're probably right - the scale may be from the scores of the test takers and not the regular scale.

Side note - did anyone remember seeing a DENTAL related question? Not even a branchial pouch/cleft one....
Click to expand...


nope no dental questions. there was that one that started with girl has bleeding from brushing but then the stem changed a lot so that's bout as close as it got. :cool:

in terms of scaling - i think it's going to be based on OUR collective scores (as dental students taking this exam in 2012) and NOT based on prior NBME scores.

I'm going to the AAOMS conference next week to attend the seminar being given about this very topic, i'll report back as soon as there are answers ......

you guys think they'll stick to the "1-week" in score turn around?
 
The only question remotely dental related was the gag reflex one. At least I know I got one right!
 
Spaceman Spif said:
As far as I know, only 6 people took the exam from my school. In terms of scaling, you're probably right - the scale may be from the scores of the test takers and not the regular scale.

Side note - did anyone remember seeing a DENTAL related question? Not even a branchial pouch/cleft one....
Click to expand...

None!

This was a test aimed at Physicians, not Dentists.

FWIW, I studied FA, Goljian, old tests, and UWorld. The amount of details it draws on is tremendous. I almost feel like I should start studying again to be ready for next year if I don't match.
 
The Anhedonia said:
also, does anyone else think there was a disproportionate amount of psych on the exam?? too many psych meds :thumbdown:
Click to expand...

I agree. The replacement question about the woman with all of those failed psych meds was tricky. I have already seen three psych questions I missed (the malingering one, the schizoid personality one, and the std deviation one where I put 5 instead of 2.5%).

I hope that they still hold to the week results. I think I read somewhere that it was supposed to be 3 days because they were hoping to present the results at this year's AAOMS conference.
 
Last edited:
After the exam, I told myself I wouldn't put myself through that again. But I feel like I would have a better handle on what to use if I did (plus I already have UWorld notes from this time around). I'll wait for the score first. Here's what I did this time:

- UWorld with notes on anything I didn't know/understand
-First Aid 2x
-Pathoma 1x
-Biochem flash cards

Most med schools give their students at LEAST a couple of weeks off to get ready for this thing. I was trying to read a bunch of things after being in clinic all day, which made being completely prepared almost impossible. With extra time, I could have done a bunch of passes through FA and missing a 'malingering' question wouldn't have been an issue :/
 
Spaceman Spif said:
With extra time, I could have done a bunch of passes through FA and missing a 'malingering' question wouldn't have been an issue :/
Click to expand...


i-see-what-you-did-there.jpg
 
Members don't see this ad :)
don't discuss question specific guys, we don't want the nbme or the aaoms to be upset and jack up the curve hehe
 
This should be a sticky post! AAOMS can rank those who took NBME over weekend once they receive the results back from NBME! We might receive both our score and rank from NBME next week! Best of luck to everyone!
 
ROSE1010 said:
This should be a sticky post! AAOMS can rank those who took NBME over weekend once they receive the results back from NBME! We might receive both our score and rank from NBME next week! Best of luck to everyone!
Click to expand...

yeah, between the messages we have received from AAOMS, it's between "72-hours" and "within 1 week", i'm hoping for the former.
 
I agreee....very difficult test. No dental questions at all...Reflecting back, I would not have changed the way I prepared, but the sheer volume of material you are needed to know is not covered in a regular dental education. Even if you just rote memorized First Aid, you will not do well because the questions are multistep and require reasoning.

Med students spend their entire days in class followed by studying some more late at night. We spend some time in class, but also a significant amount of time in preclinical doing lab work.

I remain optimistic, however, and do think that studying for this test will help me once and if I do match. I can already say I have a better understanding than most of my classmates do about basic systems and pathology. I wish everyone else the best.
 
If this thread will get stickied, then we should probably have some standard format once scores come in. How about the following:

NBME Score:
UWorld/Kaplan/etc percentages:
Time spent preparing:
Resources used:
Comments/other:
 
Just had a thought.....

I think I have come to terms with taking the test again. It is DEFINITELY to the test takers benefit. Think about it - a good score may be "good" for only this year of applicants. The scores will be lower than they will be in the future thanks to word of mouth, this thread, etc. But for those of us in our third year and lower, we will be at a slight disadvantage if we don't take it again and HOUSE it. I assume that the test will be given twice next year (maybe in the spring to coincide with the Fall applicants' cycle). So those who took it this time may end up taking it two more times and getting a really good score versus those who chose to "sit" on their score because it was good in this batch. So in the end, person B would be at a disadvantage.....
 
....However, if the scores are just percentiles based on the group of test takers for THAT cycle, a lower score (such as 160/184) maybe a 98th percentile this time around. While in the future it may be HARDER to score a higher percentile. Clearly I'm thinking about this too much lol....
 
It all depends...You have to look at the total number of people taking the test. We had about 400 or so people apply before for 200 spots. However, if now only 300 or less people take it, you would not have to score as high to still match, i.e., you can be 50th percentile and still match.
 
Why do you assume that they will start to administer the test twice a year from now on?

Its way to hard to speculate as to whether the percentile or scaled score is going to be more important for the OS application at this time. It will be interesting to see how this all plays out........

Also, do you really think that people in the following years are going to do THAT much better than this years batch? I mean, I can see how all the uncertainty of not knowing exactly how difficult this test would be this year made all of us unsure about which sources would be best. However, the questions were very detail oriented and the subject matter so large that even after using First Aid, Pathoma, UWORLD, old tests, ect. there were plently of questions that I had not seen in any of these sources. Even if we could say with some certainty that say First Aid is all you need for the test (which I wouldn't recommend), really getting in there and learning all the info in there is going to be very difficult for anyone, espcially given that we all are spending most of our time engaged in dental school. I guess I just think that even if you gave someone 12 months to study for this test (which I think is the only advantage the next years group has) and gave them say 5 study sources, it doesn't mean they will do any better than someone who studied very hard for 3 months.
 
I agree that next year batch will do better for sure. When the words get around, people will study harder and plus, there will be repeats, so people who take the test 2nd time will have the upper hand.
 
I couldn't remember seeing any of the questions on old NBME exams. There are so many different ways they can/have/will ask a question on a given topic. It's not like NBDE where there are clearly recycled questions word-for-word and given answers.
 
WannaBeDentist said:
I couldn't remember seeing any of the questions on old NBME exams. There are so many different ways they can/have/will ask a question on a given topic. It's not like NBDE where there are clearly recycled questions word-for-word and given answers.
Click to expand...


there were none (i did all the old exams). also i think this exam was more difficult than the prior ones.
 
KillaCam, interesting point. A 95th percentile could be a 245 USMLE score this time around. But next year it WILL be higher. I can only speak for myself in this regard. I know that with 12 months of studying and reviewing what I've already done, I (and others who took it this time) will be a lot better prepared. Remember, programs only consider your highest score. It behooves you to take the exam the full three times (if need be) to get a high score.
 
IMHO, the best chance to do well (figuratively speaking) would be this 1st time where nearly everyone is in uncharted waters. The key, as someone mentioned, is whether the emphasis will be placed on the percentile or the actual USMLE score. I think it would be the former due to the fact that the focus should be on the applicant pool and not on the Medical school barometer (gauge the actual test takers.)

For example, if the highest score this round was an equivalent of 260, that would be the 99th percentile. That would be the level everyone in the "test pool" was chasing, and thus that score would be the watermark. But some applicants can't even get into Plastics with that score if you rated it with a Med School-type outlook. There are guys in the other forums who are posting 270s! FWIW, I think percentiles will be scrutinized the hardest.
 
We are all speculating at this point. It would be awesome if someone can post the results that are presented at AAOMS. Maybe there might be some insight into how they will use the scores.
 
Spaceman Spif said:
KillaCam, interesting point. A 95th percentile could be a 245 USMLE score this time around. But next year it WILL be higher. I can only speak for myself in this regard. I know that with 12 months of studying and reviewing what I've already done, I (and others who took it this time) will be a lot better prepared. Remember, programs only consider your highest score. It behooves you to take the exam the full three times (if need be) to get a high score.
Click to expand...

Not necessarily. Studying for the test again comes at the cost of hours that could be spent rounding out a better overall application (more research/externships, better grades, etc.). If you're already in the top half of OS applicants as far as NBME goes, what improvement you could manage on your score might not be worth the time cost. The tricky part is figuring out where that cut-off lies, given that there's no yet published data for this test applied to the pool of dental students.

Of course, you could just take the test annually with minimal time spent refreshing yourself on the material. The highest of 2-3 similar scores is still statistically better than a single score. Deterring this, though, is one of the reasons the test is intentionally only given once a year. Very difficult to keep your NBME game up (let alone improve it) over the course of an entire year without significant effort and time.
 
The Anhedonia said:
there were none (i did all the old exams).
Click to expand...

My point exactly, I don't see future test takers benefiting tremendously from our experience. The only thing I see them gaining is some perspective. I would say this test is harder than any test ever given in dental school....period.

I sense a hint of where AAOMS must be heading if they continue with the NBME. All programs might as well be 6yrs with the knowledge that this test is based on.
 
Regardless of how the curve maybe, I see one thing they will for sure be looking for: whether you can pass the usmle. If your score is in the passing range (comparable to a 188 on the usmle), then you can reasonably argue to the program director that you have met the program requirement (as far as I know, all the programs require only that you pass the usmle). So a passing grade will for sure get you in a program.
That's all I'm hoping for, a passing grade, just like in dental anatomy :p
 
WannaBeDentist said:
I sense a hint of where AAOMS must be heading if they continue with the NBME. All programs might as well be 6yrs with the knowledge that this test is based on.
Click to expand...

in 10-20 years i'd argue that this will happen. pretty interesting internal debate among various OMS's if you're looking for something to read. Just search JAAOMS's archives and you'll see a bunch of articles debating this.
 
KillaCam said:
Why do you assume that they will start to administer the test twice a year from now on?
Click to expand...

I emailed Mary at the AAOMS about this and she told me there will be two test dates next year: one in the spring and one during summer. She said they haven't gotten to the point of specifying exact dates yet though.

And I fully agree with everyone, that exam was brutal. Akin to running backwards through a cornfield naked. I plan to put some solid time in between now and next year and shoot for getting a score I'm happy with for the spring date. I think there are certainly enough resources out there to do well; I just didn't put in enough time.
 
Anyone heard anything from the AAOMS meeting about NBME score range analysis?
 
If you can, use the template created in the last page to report your scores.
 
From what I am gathering, our performance was compared with the performance of everyone who took the exam, including 2nd year med students - NOT just the dental students that took the exam.
 
My score report says i got a 62 which is equivalent to a 180. That's not even passing Step 1 :( I should definitely retake, right? I studied for 2 months using FA and pharm/micro cards. I also did about half of Uworld questions. I guess that wasn't enough... I honestly didn't have enough time with being on Clinic and having to study for classes...
 
What template are you referring to Spiff?

It would be nice to see the range of scores that people got here. the score report isn't very helpful for comparison against other dental students
 
I just figured we could start posting.

NBME Score: 79
UWorld/Kaplan/etc percentages: 62% Uworld
Time spent preparing: 3 months
Resources used: FA Uworld 5 NBME exams 5, 6, 7, 11, 12
Comments/other:
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
You must log in or register to reply here.
Next unread thread

Similar threads

G
nbme
Replies
2
Views
352
Gladiator2020
G
G
NBME exam registration
Replies
2
Views
393
Gladiator2020
G
C
***Official OMS 2024 Match Results***
Replies
35
Views
7K
Galsen OMFS
G
adam's_song
**Official PASS 2025 Pediatric Dentistry Residency Interviews/Information
Replies
2
Views
274
konica55
K
snailz
**Official 2025 Ortho Pass/Interviews/Match/Non- match**
Replies
8
Views
1K
LeagueofLigTies
LeagueofLigTies
Top