Correlation of NBME pharmacology subject exam performance with medical school internal pharmacology scores and academic metrics

This study evaluates the extent to which the National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME) Pharmacology Subject Examination scores correlate with medical school pharmacology internal exam scores and other academic metrics such as undergraduate grade point average (GPA), and Biology, Chemistry, Physics, and Mathematics GPA (BCPM), and Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) scores. This study also aimed at curricular assessment of pharmacology in relation to pharmacology internal exam score with NBME Pharmacology subject exam performance. Data from 290 medical students graduating between 2019 and 2023 were analyzed using R (version 4.3.1). Multicollinearity was evaluated using variance inflation factor (VIF) analysis. Pearson correlation coefficients were calculated to examine associations between variables. Multiple linear regression analysis was performed using the NBME Pharmacology Subject Examination score as the dependent variable and internal pharmacology exam score, GPA, BCPM, and MCAT scores as predictor variables. Statistical significance was established at a p-value of < 0.05. A strong positive correlation was found between NBME Pharmacology scores and internal pharmacology exam scores (r = 0.69, p < 0.001). MCAT scores showed a moderate correlation (r = 0.45, p < 0.001), while GPA and BCPM were weak but statistically significant predictors (r = 0.18 each, p < 0.01). Multiple regression analysis identified internal pharmacology exam score (β = 0.6, p < 0.001) and MCAT (β = 0.3, p < 0.001) as significant predictors, with an adjusted R² of 0.54. VIF scores were ≤ 2.1. Performance on the NBME Pharmacology Subject Exam showed a strong correlation with internal pharmacology exam scores and a moderate correlation with MCAT scores. These findings underscore the value of aligning the pharmacology curriculum with the NBME content framework to ensure that internal assessments more accurately reflect and predict students’ pharmacological knowledge and, to some extent, their overall academic performance. Moreover, the observed relationship between MCAT scores and Pharmacology NBME subject examination scores suggests that MCAT performance may continue to serve as a meaningful predictor of future academic achievement. Similarly, the weaker associations observed for GPA and BCPM should be interpreted cautiously within the context of this specific dataset.