Customized Assessment Services

The NBME now supports flexible, efficient construction, administration, scoring and score reporting of customized examinations.  The web-based Customized Assessment Services program allows medical school faculty to create an examination tailored to local curriculum.  A pool of approximately 8,000 items covering topics commonly taught in basic science coursework is available to design exams for discipline-based, organ-system and problem-based curricular approaches.

Through the secure NBME Medical School Portal, faculty can develop test specifications, review a computer-generated draft exam, select items, create custom score reporting categories, and preview the exam prior to test delivery.   

The NBME generates both total test percent correct scores and locally scaled scores for the total test and content areas defined during the test construction phase.  Other performance feedback includes summary statistics, a graphical performance profile for each examinee (when at least 40 have been tested), and two item analyses: an interactive online version and an Adobe PDF file.  Both show item statistics for comparison with a USMLE Step 1 reference group. 

Total test percent correct scores and basic summary statistics are available immediately after the close of a test session through the NBME proctoring system.  This information is accessible to the test administrator and can be downloaded to Excel or saved as an Adobe PDF file.

An official score report is posted to the NBME Medical School Portal within a week after the test administration date. A full description and samples of the score report components are available in the Customized Assessment Services Information Guide.

Customized Assessment Services Information Guide : Download the PDF

System Requirements for Test Construction and Test Administration: Download the PDF

Best Practices for Web-Based Testing on Wireless Networks: Download the PDF