We’ve made an analysis of Firecracker’s effect on Family Medicine NBME shelf scores.1 We compared the Family Medicine NBME shelf scores of these Firecracker users against the nation average and found Firecracker users score an average of 7 points higher.
Distribution of scores:
Firecracker users significantly outperform the national average by nearly 1 standard deviation. The Firecracker average score was a 77.1 compared to the national average of 70.0 (p<0.001)2. The standard deviation of Firecracker scores was also significantly less than that reported in national statistics (6.4 compared to 8.0, p<0.001).
Correlation with usage:
Similar to what we’ve repeatedly found in our USMLE Step 1 and COMLEX Level 1 score analyses3, there is a significant and positive correlation between increased Firecracker usage and Family Medicine shelf exam scores (r=0.40, n=34, p=0.02).
Predictive power of practice exam:
The practice exam is a significant predictor of shelf scores (r=0.52, n=31, p=0.002) and is able to predict Family Medicine shelf scores within 4.1 points on average.
If you have any questions about the Firecracker Family Medicine Clerkship or this analysis, send us a note at [email protected].
1. Data collected between 2016-02 and 2017-02. This report does not include data from the Musculoskeletal shelf exam.
2. https://www.nbme.org/PDF/SampleScoreReports/Family_Medicine_Score_Report.pdf
3. Firecracker Step 1 Whitepaper
