New Examinee Interface for NBME® Self-Assessments

In June 2026, NBME launched a new examinee interface for the Comprehensive Self-Assessments to align more closely with the interface of the USMLE® Step exams. This is the third set of updates to the portfolio of NBME Self-Assessments to bring more consistency to the user experience. A similar effort for the NBME® Clinical Science Mastery Series (CSMS) was completed in two batches: the first in October 2025 and the second in January 2026.  

The current update applies to the Comprehensive Basic Science Self-Assessment (CBSSA), Comprehensive Clinical Science Self-Assessment (CCSSA), Comprehensive Clinical Medicine Self-Assessment (CCMSA), and IFOM® Clinical Science Self-Assessment. 

“As part of NBME’s commitment to improving the testing experience across all medical school exams and the USMLE®, we are pleased to introduce a new examinee interface,” said Michael Jodoin, NBME Senior Vice President, Customer & Portfolio Management. “We want to help examinees feel more prepared by providing a more consistent testing environment and this release completes the interface update across all NBME Self-Assessments. We will share additional communications as updates are made to other NBME medical school assessments.”

Key features of the new interface include improved navigation for viewing items and answer explanations, searchable lab values and a notes feature. In addition, examinees can now use a text resize – up to 200%; image controls, including invert color, contrast, and zoom; a dark theme option; and an improved highlighting tool. 

As part of this change, NBME is now offering a free Sample Assessment on the MyNBME® Examinee portal (select Purchase>Self-Assessments) laid out in the new interface. This assessment includes a tutorial and a total of 12 sample questions.  

For questions, contact NBME at support@nbme.org.