Thread: MCB Shelf, how much curve?

Can some one who's taken the shelf tell me about how much they curve the exam? I'm worried that I did not do well because the questions seemed longer and more difficult than on any test taken so far.

I believe they will curve it similar to the Anatomy shelf...in that the 3 digit score translates to a certain percentage, and then they look at the class average and decide from there. The professors know that the averages will always be below the national mean of 500(which makes sense) so they curve it up based on that.

The exact percentage they set the class average to after the curve...I have no idea. Personally, I was not expecting so many genetics questions to appear on there, and a lot of our classmates feel the same way. I'm sure everyone will be fine!

The questions will be longer and more involved than questions you've taken in blocks. It is to be expected as these are all old Step questions. And many of the questions on MCB II blocks (esp. from the visiting professors) were very surface-level questions that are more fact recall than "work out the answer" questions that are common on the Step. But again, that is to be expected and most people do walk away from Shelves thinking they didn't do all that well but it usually ends up okay.

I believe the curve was 12 points last time

it seemed there was barely enough time to read the questions. Most of them were a good paragraph long. I suppose I'll just wait and see how it went.

just checked my grade from last semester, and my grade on the shelf jumped 12.4% after they curved it.