Background The ability to provide performance insights of various United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) Step 1 assessments is of great importance to medical educators. Two custom pre-clerkship assessments used at the Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (KSOM) are National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME)-derived end-of-semester final examinations and subject examinations. The authors sought to determine if performance on these custom assessments can provide feedback on a medical student's readiness to undertake the USMLE Step 1 examination. Methodology Deidentified student performance data were provided by institutional databases for the KSOM graduating class of 2023 (N = 60). Pearson correlation analyses were utilized to evaluate the strength of the correlation between USMLE Step 1 performance and NBME subject examinations versus NBME end-of-semester final examinations. Results The results indicated that the NBME end-of-semester final examinations have a statistically higher correlation to the USMLE Step 1 score than the majority of the individual NBME subject examinations. However, the mean NBME subject examination score (Semester 1: r = 0.53, p < 0.05; Semester 2: r = 0.58, p < 0.05) demonstrated significantly higher correlation to the USMLE Step 1 performance than the NBME end-of-semester final examination score for both Semesters 1 and 2 (Semester 1: r = 0.50, p < 0.05; Semester 2: r = 0.48, p < 0.05). Conclusions These results showed that the mean of the NBME subject examination score was a better metric to assess readiness for the USMLE Step 1 than the NBME end-of-semester final examinations. However, each NBME end-of-semester final examination score showed a better correlation than the majority of the NBME subject examinations.
Keywords: assessment; exam performance; licensure examination; medical education; usmle.
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