Yes, because the exam content has not changed. The USMLE has retired older forms, but the difficulty curve of Form 9 remains a valid benchmark. However, always prioritize taking NBME 25-31 online if you can afford them. Use offline NBME 9 as a baseline or practice exam, not your sole predictor.
, where a legendary pinned thread promised the secrets of score conversion.
But there is a catch. While newer NBMEs offer an online interface with an immediate 3-digit score, many students acquire of NBME 9. Whether you are saving money, practicing test-taking strategy, or reviewing explanations in a group, taking NBME 9 offline leaves you with a critical problem: You have a raw score (e.g., 145 correct out of 200), but you have no idea what that equals on the real Step 1 scale (1–300).
NBME Form 9 is considered a "comprehensive clinical science self-assessment." Because the actual USMLE Step 2 CK is scored on a 3-digit scale (Passing ~209), we can approximate your conversion using community-curated data.
Subconscious biases—like giving yourself an extra 2 minutes to finish a block or ignoring a misread question—can artificially boost an offline score by 10 to 15 points.
You knew the concept but missed a critical modifier in the question stem (e.g., "except," "chronic vs. acute," "decreased vs. increased").
To convert your raw score into a meaningful metric, historical data from when NBME 9 was active can be used to approximate your three-digit score and your corresponding pass/fail probability. The NBME 9 Conversion Formula