NBME 9 to Step 2 CK

NBME 9 prints about 5.5 points low. NBME 9 prints roughly 5.5 points low against the common scale, so the converter credits those points back before projecting. Your printed number does not change on screen. It is an old form and it fades quickly under recency weighting, but it is not worthless: a recent 9 still carries real signal.

NBME 9 conversion table

Printed score to projected Step 2 CK range, for a form taken in the last month. The range is about a 68% band: roughly two in three students land inside it, which is why it is a range and not a single number. Take the exam further out and the band widens.

Rows shaded amber have a projected floor below the 218 pass line. Percentile is against LCME first-takers. Your printed score is never restated as a lower number: where a correction applies it lives inside the math, not on your report.

Blend several forms and add your exam date

How the projection works

Three steps, and the constants are published rather than described. First the printed score is put on the common scale: NBME 9 gains 5.5 points inside the math. Then it is shrunk toward the population mean of 250 with a slope of 0.79, which is what stops a single high form from projecting a fantasy. Then 9 points are added for the measured gain from practice form to real exam.

Fit on 258 real posted score reports and tested blind on 32 it had never seen: average miss 4.1 points, bias statistically zero. Reddit posters skew toward good news, so treat the range as honest rather than generous. Full methodology, including where the model stops being trustworthy.

Questions

Is NBME 9 still worth taking?

It is worth counting if you already took it. As a form to sit down and take now, prefer a newer one: 9 is old, it fades fast under recency weighting, and the correction it needs is a sign it sits slightly off the modern scale.

Why does NBME 9 print low?

It was equated in an older era against a different cohort. Fit on 160 students and 1,043 dated forms with person and timing controls, form 9 reads about 5.5 points below where the same student lands on the modern scale, so the model credits that back.

How much does the date I took it matter?

A lot, and more than most converters admit. Forms are weighted by recency with a roughly 21 day half-life, and the width of the projected range depends on how far out your exam is. A form from three months ago tells you much less than one from last week.

Other forms

• NBME 10
• NBME 11
• NBME 12
• NBME 13
• NBME 14
• NBME 15
• NBME 16
• UWSA 1
• UWSA 2
• UWSA 3

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