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Overview and Mission

The primary mission of the NBME Subject Examination Program is to serve medical education by providing high-quality assessment tools as well as information and assistance to medical educators.

NBME subject tests are achievement tests in a broad sense, requiring medical students to solve scientific and clinical problems. Although students' performance on the tests will reflect the learning specific to their course and clerkship experiences, their test scores will also reflect educational development resulting from the overall medical school experience. These tests are constructed to be appropriate for a broad range of curricular approaches and have at least four distinct advantages over locally constructed examinations in the assessment of student achievement.

The tests provide national norms and relevant descriptive information.
Considerable care is taken in preparing these materials, with items selected only after extensive review and pretesting.
These tests concentrate heavily on application and integration of knowledge rather than recall of isolated facts.
They attain better accuracy of measurement.

NBME subject tests are intended to complement other sources of information about the educational progress of medical students. The test results should be interpreted in light of other available information. Likewise, curriculum evaluation cannot be based on test results alone. The quality of teaching can and should be evaluated by frequent peer observation and student feedback, not inferred solely from the level of test scores. Medical school faculty and administration should not view the results of NBME subject tests as the beginning and end of evaluation.

Program Goals

The multifaceted program goals are:

to provide high-quality assessments that are efficient and cost effective
to provide new forms of assessment that promote improvements in learning and instruction
to conduct and disseminate research that informs medical school faculty and policymakers and promotes their understanding of assessment
to provide information on student educational accomplishments to help advance educational improvement and equity
to furnish support services for a range of assessment and educational programs

Policy on Use of Subject Examinations

The NBME provides subject tests in the basic and clinical sciences for the purpose of assessing the educational achievement of individuals in specific subject areas. These examinations may be provided to medical schools and other institutions with a legitimate interest in the education of physicians or other health professionals. All institutions using these examinations must comply with test administration standards, including security provisions.

Subject tests are primarily designed for use as final examinations after courses, clerkships, or other units of instruction. Scores achieved on NBME subject tests cannot be used by examinees for credit toward the examination requirements for medical licensure in the United States.