2009 Comlex Experiences

[sweetlenovo88]

Have not seen any posts with peoples' experiences this year. What questions did you use and was it helpful? Was it neuro heavy as before?

Waiting to hear some experiences,

Thanks

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[joeylux]

Seems like a few questions here are going unanswered so I'll do my best to address them though my memory is fading as it approaches 3 weeks.

Were there any chapmans points that were not covered in savarese? or did they only ask for the 5 in that chapter?

Thanks!

Personally I didn't have any Chapman points so sorry I cannot help.

Also, was there any microbio bugs that arent seen on the FA? One comsae question had a dental question! I was like we are not dentists!!

Yes, I had several micro questions that would either not have been answerable using FA because they weren't in the book or because the question was worded so poorly/vaguely that it was near unanswerable, even when I tried to find the answer after the test. My best advice would be as I stated above; make sure you know the "most likelys" e.g. most likely cause of UTI at certain age brackets etc, this is well delineated in FA for the most part.

Hey guys. I'm basically only using FA for USMLE, Savarese, and paging through Netter's. Do you think that will be enough to get a good score? If not, anything high yield that I could add quickly? Thanks

Are you doing a QBank? If not I highly suggest that you do as it's far too easy to lie to yourself/convince yourself that you know the material well enough but answering several hundred questions and analyzing the results will be proof of that. "Paging through" Netters is a waste of time if you mean that litterally (which I doubt). It'd be a much better use of your time to make sure you have the brachial/lumbar plexuses down, common muscle injuries (e.g. rotator cuff), and other things like strokes, locations, and their associated deficits. That is not to say you won't see a really specific question like "name the second most important muscle in abduction of this body part" but you're wasting your time if you're preparing for such minutia.

Did any of you guys do the COMSAE examinations prior to taking the COMLEX as part of your studying?? How similar were the exams in scope and question style?


Thanks for any input.

Nope, didn't take any nor did I know they existed, sorry.

How prepared will i be with FA as a primary study tool for micro? i have MMRS and microcards....but time seems to be of the essence right now.

Micro is definitely high yield. FA would have covered me for 80ish % of the questions that I saw. If you supplement with some Microcards you'll do great.

Question to those who took the COMLEX recently:

I know that tests differ, due to randomization, but how important is it to know EKG's? This is an area that seems to differ from the USMLE, which seems to only have very basic EKG's. In older threads detailing the COMLEX, I've seen anywhere from 4 to 20 questions, some of which are significantly beyond the basics of AFIB, VTACH, VFIB, and name the CA that is blocked in pt w/ AMI. I'm looking over Dubin anyway, but I just want to know how much to focus on it, in case I'm one of the unlucky ones that get 20 EKG questions.

I only had one EKG but as you mentioned and as I've heard from others, it's possible to have more. I wouldn't make knowing some of the more obscure waveforms my top priority but I wouldn't totally dismiss them, either. If you're familiar with heart anatomy, physiology, and pathology you should be able to reason through most of the EKGs with the help of the multiple choice elimination-a-thon.

 

[Redrox]

Took the COMLEX today, June 10th.

I normally don't like it when people post their experiences without adding their scores as well, but I thought I would throw my two cents in seeing as there are so few experiences already posted. That being said, I won't comment on my prep because I have no idea if it was good or not. My current stats, though, are as follows.

Kaplan Qbank: 72 cumulative (100%) random, blocks of fifty, April
USMLERx: 77 cumulative (100%) blocks of ten, along with school.
USMLEWorld: 74 cumulative (45%) random blocks of fifty
Combank: 76 cumulative (15%)
NBME 4: 242 May 22nd before review.
CBSSE?: 242 two months of school remaining
Biochem shelf: 740

The test:
More than twenty questions on the pathophyspharm of insomnia, more than that on obesity, felt like half the test consisted of multiple questions on the same case, two 12 lead EKG's, no cranial questions an MD couldn't answer, visceral somatic questions were the bulk of the test and did NOT correspond with either First Aid for the COMLEX or Savarese. Less than a handful of treatment questions. Very clinical oriented bugs and drugs, micro is very basic. I scored in the top 1% in the country for biochem, but they had a couple questions that I was clueless on but very few overall. The questions were not as badly worded as everyone says they are, that being said, USMLEWorld is the most representative.

Don't forget to bring your NBOME number, get more sleep than I did, bring a caffeinated beverage so you don't end up chewing on a tea bag in between blocks, know that there are 400 questions and not 336 like the USMLE, and know your peripheral nerves quite exquisitely well.

USMLE June 24th, sooner if I can move it up some.

 

[Veronicacronica]

Took the COMLEX today, June 10th.

I normally don't like it when people post their experiences without adding their scores as well, but I thought I would throw my two cents in seeing as there are so few experiences already posted. That being said, I won't comment on my prep because I have no idea if it was good or not. My current stats, though, are as follows.

Kaplan Qbank: 72 cumulative (100%) random, blocks of fifty, April
USMLERx: 77 cumulative (100%) blocks of ten, along with school.
USMLEWorld: 74 cumulative (45%) random blocks of fifty
Combank: 76 cumulative (15%)
NBME 4: 242 May 22nd before review.
CBSSE?: 242 two months of school remaining
Biochem shelf: 740

The test:
More than twenty questions on the pathophyspharm of insomnia, more than that on obesity, felt like half the test consisted of multiple questions on the same case, two 12 lead EKG's, no cranial questions an MD couldn't answer, visceral somatic questions were the bulk of the test and did NOT correspond with either First Aid for the COMLEX or Savarese. Less than a handful of treatment questions. Very clinical oriented bugs and drugs, micro is very basic. I scored in the top 1% in the country for biochem, but they had a couple questions that I was clueless on but very few overall. The questions were not as badly worded as everyone says they are, that being said, USMLEWorld is the most representative.

Don't forget to bring your NBOME number, DO get more sleep than I did, DO bring a caffeinated beverage so you don't end up chewing on a tea bag in between blocks, DO know that there are 400 questions and not 336 like the USMLE, and DO know your peripheral nerves quite exquisitely well.

USMLE June 24th, sooner if I can move it up some.

sorry if i'm totally off, but did any of you take a practice test of some sort (for the comlex) at your prometric center? is there such a thing (like the free 150 for the usmle that you can there)??

 

[Redrox]

sorry if i'm totally off, but did any of you take a practice test of some sort (for the comlex) at your prometric center? is there such a thing (like the free 150 for the usmle that you can there)??

I had half-heartedly wanted to, but you need to schedule it the same as any other prometric exam and available slots are simply non-existent at the moment. That being said, if you do go for one, please remember to bring your scheduling permit. Yesterday somebody forgot their permit and made a MASSIVE fuss that held up my testing and got everyone off to a jittery start.

 

[Veronicacronica]

I had half-heartedly wanted to, but you need to schedule it the same as any other prometric exam and available slots are simply non-existent at the moment. That being said, if you do go for one, please remember to bring your scheduling permit. Yesterday somebody forgot their permit and made a MASSIVE fuss that held up my testing and got everyone off to a jittery start.

a comlex-specific practice exam or the free 150 for the usmle?

 

[Redrox]

a comlex-specific practice exam or the free 150 for the usmle?

Forgive me, I read poorly.

There is a practice exam: http://www.nbome.org/intro/m_cbt_tutorial.html#

but this is not available at the prometric. Also, I have not tried it, so cannot vouch for quality.

 

[bunnybear]

.

 

[bunnybear]

If you were taking the test in 1 week and were scoring in mid 70s on COMBANK and mid 50s on UW, what would you start reviewing at this point?
Which Microcards are you guys talking about?
""and know your peripheral nerves quite exquisitely well"" where would you read that from, could explain that a bit more?
Thank you for your help
Did you guys do COMSAE, and do you think COMBANK helps at all??

 

[pharo]

can anyone help with the biochem? For the last two months of studying I've been under the impression that comlex asked very little on it and haven't studied much of it. But now I'm hearing that there's a decent amount of it on the test. I know everyone has a different test but can anyone share how many questions of biochem that they had on their test?

 

[BCon902]

can anyone help with the biochem? For the last two months of studying I've been under the impression that comlex asked very little on it and haven't studied much of it. But now I'm hearing that there's a decent amount of it on the test. I know everyone has a different test but can anyone share how many questions of biochem that they had on their test?

Honestly, there was just as much biochem on my comlex if not more than my usmle, hard to swallow yes but i spent way too much time on it so I felt prepared. actual number...probably 30-50

 

[MCATTT]

Honestly, there was just as much biochem on my comlex if not more than my usmle, hard to swallow yes but i spent way too much time on it so I felt prepared. actual number...probably 30-50

Does that 30-50 questions include all the genetic diseases and enzyme deficiencies or are you just counting questions related to kreb cycles, PPP, .... other cycles... etc? Thanks.

 

[Redrox]

I only had 5-10 of anything that could be called biochem, and that includes some overlap of what I truly consider to be pharm.

Just goes to show you how much is the luck of the draw.

 

[Counterstrain]

I took the exam about a week or so ago. Here are my thoughts.

1.) there was ALOT of micro, (and the vinettes def wanted you to know minutiae)

2.) The OMM portion was REALLY simplistic (mostly autonomics).

3.) They asked alot more genetics and biochemistry than I expected.

4.) There were WAY more images than I expected (path slides, CTs, blood smears.... you name it) (30+)

5.) I did have to use calculations a couple of times too.

That being said, I thought the exam was super-easy (albeit that's probably not a good thing; only time will tell).

Now a word of caution. My friend took the test recently, and had nowhere near the same experience. He thought it was insanely hard, and had more neuro than I remembered having.He also stated that they were asking him about viral genomes.

I concur w Joe that the Kaplan and USMLEWORLD Q-banks were the most helpful thing I did to prep (besides the notes from the live John Barone lectures my school bought for us).

Good luck to all.

Ps.
I went to the HARVARD of COMLEX!!!!

p.s.s. In response to this question

Was the biochem more disease based on your comlex? and, were the pics necessary to answer the questions?

Well most of the pics were not necessary to answer the ?, but they all helped me confirm my thoughts (that is, IF I actually knew what I was looking at). The biochem was 2/3 disease based, but I did have at least 3 or 4 pathway questions. I did not take the comsae, so I don't really know. I did feel as if Kaplan was way more in depth concerning depth of knowledge needed to answer the ?'s and I felt extremely prepared from their q-bank. Ultimately, I was glad that I was studying for the USMLE, as I got alot of questions on mine that people typically associate with the USMLE and not the COMLEX. GOOD LUCK!!!

 

[TXDO]

I took the exam about a week or so ago. Here are my thoughts.

1.) there was ALOT of micro, (and the vinettes def wanted you to know minutiae)

2.) The OMM portion was REALLY simplistic (mostly autonomics).

3.) They asked alot more genetics and biochemistry than I expected.

4.) There were WAY more images than I expected (path slides, CTs, blood smears.... you name it) (30+)

5.) I did have to use calculations a couple of times too.

That being said, I thought the exam was super-easy (albeit that's probably not a good thing; only time will tell).

Now a word of caution. My friend took the test recently, and had nowhere near the same experience. He thought it was insanely hard, and had more neuro than I remembered having.He also stated that they were asking him about viral genomes.

I concur w Joe that the Kaplan and USMLEWORLD Q-banks were the most helpful thing I did to prep (besides the notes from the live John Barone lectures my school bought for us).

Good luck to all.

Ps.
I went to the HARVARD of COMLEX!!!!

p.s.s. In response to this question




Well most of the pics were not necessary to answer the ?, but they all helped me confirm my thoughts (that is, IF I actually knew what I was looking at). The biochem was 2/3 disease based, but I did have at least 3 or 4 pathway questions. I did not take the comsae, so I don't really know. I did feel as if Kaplan was way more in depth concerning depth of knowledge needed to answer the ?'s and I felt extremely prepared from their q-bank. Ultimately, I was glad that I was studying for the USMLE, as I got alot of questions on mine that people typically associate with the USMLE and not the COMLEX. GOOD LUCK!!!

Hi,
this question may be asked so many time, but I wonder if you had straight-forward questions (kinnda recalled material-questions) or multiple step critical thinking questions like USMLE? Did you take both? Which one did you feel more comfortable with?
Good luck with your exam results.

 

[Counterstrain]

Hi,
this question may be asked so many time, but I wonder if you had straight-forward questions (kinnda recalled material-questions) or multiple step critical thinking questions like USMLE? Did you take both? Which one did you feel more comfortable with?
Good luck with your exam results.

I actually just answered this for someone via PM. Here y'all go.

Did u feel as tho the kaplan comlex was representative of the real thing?

If you've done alot of UW you'll be overprepared. The question banks were way less straightforward IMO. The real test was definitely 1.) I know it, or 2.) I don't. The vinettes (for the most part) were way shorter than any Q-bank ?'s that I had done.

The OMM questions on mine were WAAAAYYYYYY easier than the combank ?'s for the most part. I did have a couple of questions about things I never heard of in Savarese / School (Lloyd's test in particular), but if I remeber right it didn't make or break the question. The rest of the OMM on my exam was reflex points, and were super obvious (ie. no T-9, T-10 R, T12 L; but rather T 5-9 vs. C 3-5 vs. S2-4 vs. T10-L2). I had at least 3 ?'s about psoas spasm. Most of my neuro was bleeds and hemmorrhages / blood supply ?'s, and peripheral nerve ?'s concerning reflexes / sensory loss.

The other thing about the COMBANK is that there are no picture based ?'s, and as I said before; the COMLEX was riddled with pictures (on most of those ?'s it was definitely a MAJOR advantage if you knew what they were too).

That being said good luck to all!!!

P.S. I'm still prepping for USMLE on the 19th, but as far as the test is concerned; the COMLEX was definitely the most straightforward test I'd ever taken. The vinettes were Uber-short for the most part. That being said, some of my colleagues have told me that thier tests were not the same. Based on prior conversations with people in the class of 2010 however, I feel as if those couple of people's tests were anomalies. (I also know that one of the guys was in the bottom 10% of our class; so him having a lil' difficulty is understandable).

 

[joeylux]

Ps.
I went to the HARVARD of COMLEX!!!!

Vanilla face?

 

[Doctor4Life1769]

I took the exam about a week or so ago. Here are my thoughts.

1.) there was ALOT of micro, (and the vinettes def wanted you to know minutiae)

2.) The OMM portion was REALLY simplistic (mostly autonomics).

3.) They asked alot more genetics and biochemistry than I expected.

4.) There were WAY more images than I expected (path slides, CTs, blood smears.... you name it) (30+)

5.) I did have to use calculations a couple of times too.

That being said, I thought the exam was super-easy (albeit that's probably not a good thing; only time will tell).

Now a word of caution. My friend took the test recently, and had nowhere near the same experience. He thought it was insanely hard, and had more neuro than I remembered having.He also stated that they were asking him about viral genomes.

I concur w Joe that the Kaplan and USMLEWORLD Q-banks were the most helpful thing I did to prep (besides the notes from the live John Barone lectures my school bought for us).

Good luck to all.

Ps.
I went to the HARVARD of COMLEX!!!!

p.s.s. In response to this question




Well most of the pics were not necessary to answer the ?, but they all helped me confirm my thoughts (that is, IF I actually knew what I was looking at). The biochem was 2/3 disease based, but I did have at least 3 or 4 pathway questions. I did not take the comsae, so I don't really know. I did feel as if Kaplan was way more in depth concerning depth of knowledge needed to answer the ?'s and I felt extremely prepared from their q-bank. Ultimately, I was glad that I was studying for the USMLE, as I got alot of questions on mine that people typically associate with the USMLE and not the COMLEX. GOOD LUCK!!!

How clear are these images? On the Kaplan Diagnostic, I often had a hard time determining what it was showing due to the poor quality. Also, are the images in color or black/white?

 

[Counterstrain]

Vanilla face?

Hey Vanilla! Have you seen Pamela??

 

[Counterstrain]

How clear are these images? On the Kaplan Diagnostic, I often had a hard time determining what it was showing due to the poor quality. Also, are the images in color or black/white?

Images were in color, except for the MRI's CT CXR's etc.

They were clear. No problem with SEEING them. Knowing them however... That's another story

 

[Doctor4Life1769]

Images were in color, except for the MRI's CT CXR's etc.

They were clear. No problem with SEEING them. Knowing them however... That's another story

Yeah, I've always had issues with histological images or random path images that don't give the full picture of what's going on ....

Did the Q stem usually help in getting to the answer, or did you really need to know what the image was about to get the answer?

 

[Sarafml]

When I took the usmle, they gave me a paper certificate/receipt that I took the exam.

I didnt get anything like that for the comlex

Is that bad?

 

[Counterstrain]

Yeah, I've always had issues with histological images or random path images that don't give the full picture of what's going on ....

Did the Q stem usually help in getting to the answer, or did you really need to know what the image was about to get the answer?

Yeah for the most part. I had about 3 where it was all picture or wild guess.

 

[Redrox]

Last five q on mine were matching, black and white photos, no text. The rest of test pictures (and there were many) were pretty well set up in the stem.

 

[MAK]

any comments on biostats (calculations, etc), genetics (not the diseases, but the laboratory techniques and the molecular stuff), and embryo.

I know most people say that these are not heavily tested, but for some reason I have a feeling that they are out to screw me. What type of defense mechanism is that btw?? lol

 

[Redrox]

None springs to mind. Could be that there were some, although if so, easy to a forgettable degree.

 

[Counterstrain]

any comments on biostats (calculations, etc), genetics (not the diseases, but the laboratory techniques and the molecular stuff), and embryo.

I know most people say that these are not heavily tested, but for some reason I have a feeling that they are out to screw me. What type of defense mechanism is that btw?? lol

No biostats (actually no ****ty ethics ?s either on mine; god I HATE those) all my psych was straight disorders, defense mechanisms, and pharm. Genetics only got as technical as pedigrees on mine. And only a couple for embryo (fetal blood supply, and brachial / aortic / pharyngeal arches and pouches)

 

[zest]

Which micro cards are helpful for COMLEX?

Thanks

 

[Doctor4Life1769]

I think Micro is Micro so it wouldn't matter. However, I haven't taken it yet.

 

[joeylux]

Which micro cards are helpful for COMLEX?

Thanks

http://www.amazon.com/Microcards-Re...=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1245106456&sr=8-1

 

[bunnybear]

What were u guys Avg-ing on COMBANK and COMSAE?

 

[MCATTT]

http://www.amazon.com/Microcards-Re...=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1245106456&sr=8-1

I am using these cards as well. They go along with micro ridiculously simple book. It is like an outline of that book.

 

[Kuba]

COMLEX in the A.M... will report back and compare to USMLE.

 

[bbqbakedlays]

Good Luck! I too take it tomorrow am and will write it up vs USMLE which I tool last friday.

I hope this goes ok .....the word on street from my classmates who have finished is viscerosomatic reflexes x50, micro and behav.


T minus 9 hrs 20 mins till its on like donkey kong!

 

[bbqbakedlays]

Ok so here is the low down...took COMLEX today and I took USMLE last Friday. Here are my thoughts:


1) MUCH more Straight forward and first order than USMLE. MUCH easier than USMLE world, but similar topics and questions, just not as much thinking; Uworld was really spot on content wise (even had repeat questions)!! I didnt do Kaplan. COMLEX was similar to, yet better written than COMBANK. Very Similar to COMSAE. I found the COMSAE most helpful for focusing the OMM portion and seeing how they would ask the questions.

2) My exam was heavy on Viscerosomatic Reflexes, asked them OVER and over. The OMM included chapmans points, some outside of Savarese (I had to remember back to our class and the review lecture I watched the other day by our school). LOTS of LBP diagnoses, understanding the gold std imaging, PE findings, postitions that exacerbate for slipped discs, spinal stenosis, etc. KNOW those, Savarese has a good section in one of the chapters with all that. A few counterstrain treatment positions, muscle energy treatment positions. LOTS of Contraidication questions for OMT in a clincal vignette fashion. Some of everyones favorite fibular and radial head dysfxn. Not too much sacral, some scoliosis...I felt like I had a LOT of OMM.

3) Pharm was VERY first order and straight fwd. Not heavily tested, very high yeild drugs with thier MOAs or side affects. They seemed to like the Overdose and anecdotes for toxicities. I used the pharm flash cards by Lange and they were enough.

4) I was expecting the micro to be crazy per others posts, but actually it was very straight fwd. There were a few that were hard to deduce bc I didnt think they were high yeild so I didnt know them as well, but the matching was AWESOME bc you can deduce stuff..lol. I did have trouble with the Hep B/C serology bc they were pretty detailed and had similar choices. BOOO! Also, ramdom vaccine sequelae questions.

5) Pathology: Lots of Repro and endocrine path. OVER and OVER. A few paraneoplastic questions, lots of pregnancy issues. Some CV with murmurs, mixed in with Anatomy a bunch too. Had to know the anatomy to get the answer. If you listened to Goljan you are MORE than prepared. It is first order usually, only a handful where you had to really think. Also, make sure you know the differences btwn all the Hematomas, subarach vs intracerebral hemorrhage, and you can tell the difference in presentations, CT/MRI etc.

6) Hardly and biochem. Like maybe 4 out of 400 questions. ARGH. Not very much Embryo, if any, only a little Immuno. Not one biostat question thank god. I had plenty of that crap on the USMLE.

7) Physio: Very little, mostly cardiovascular and questions about Repro. No lung, hardly any renal.

8) THIS WAS RANDOM. Asking wound types like shotgun vs handgun..I was like WTF?!?! LOL. Also, lots and lots of stuff that I wouldnt have been able to answer without an MPH in epidemiology and a masters in psychology. So, I prob missed a lot of these bc I felt like I had to guess alot. MEH.

Contrary to popular belief, I felt the test was very well written, relatively straight fwd, and there were only a handful that were not clear, off the wall, or outside the scope of a step one exam. lol. I was suprised to see the next step management showing up as much as it did...

Anyway, Im definately glad that I studied and took the USMLE first. Being prepared for that definately prepares you for COMLEX. I took the three days in between to study the OMM and I feel like that was enough, but I liked and payed attention in OMM so I didnt feel like I had to cram it. I dont feel awesome about it, but comparatively, after the USMLE I wanted pull my hair out...and after today, I just kinda shrugged my shoulders and felt much more satisfied. I hope my score doesnt suggest otherwise.

All I can say is I am exhausted, Im so excited to not go to the library for a long time, and I cannot wait to start rotations.

I hope this helps, feel free to ask me any questions if you like.

Take care and good luck!

 

[MAK]

4) ... but the matching was AWESOME bc you can deduce stuff..lol.

5) Also, make sure you know the differences btwn all the Hematomas, subarach vs intracerebral hemorrhage, and you can tell the difference in presentations, CT/MRI etc.

First off, congrats! and thanks for the detailed synopsis....im jealous and I cannot WAIT to sleep in for like 4 days straight. Anyways, a couple of quick questions:

what do you mean matching, i know you didnt do kaplan, but the kaplan comlex questions always had like 5 questions at the end where you have to pick the best answer from a list of like 10 choices, and choices can be used more than once....was that similar?

also, besides the random gunshot questions, lol, how was the neuro part of it? was it the basics like lesions and stuff or none at all?

third, you know how usmle has lots of pictures and multimedia questions, did comlex have those as well?

and lastly, do you think reading savarese front to bak and doing all the questions is necessary and sufficient for the omm portion?


thanks a lot for the help!

 

[Lamont]

"basic" ekg's my a**. i had one that was ridiculous.

lots of "low yield" on mine. it was just great.

 

[Kuba]

I agree with bbqbakedlays. I took the COMLEX Tuesday and the USMLE last Friday. I thought the COMLEX was much easier than the USMLE. Mostly first order questions and not much problem solving.

OMM: Obv. lots of viscerosomatics. Couple Chapman point questions that I had no idea about and completely guessed. Other than that the pelvic, sacrum diagnosis was pretty easy.

PHARM: Mostly the basic toxicities that are bolded in FA. A couple random drugs but most of them were expected and easy questions.

MICRO: Again, mainly the expected bugs. Nothing too crazy.

PATH: Only a few hard questions again. Lots of Neuro, Reproductive, CV.

PHYS: not much at all. Also almost no histo.

BEHAVIORAL: SOME VERY RANDOM QUESTIONS. Prob the area where I missed the most questions.

ANATOMY: second hardest section on my exam. Some very low yield HEENT material that isn't in FA. I pretty much completely guessed on those 4 or 5 q's based on innervation and arterial supply. They asked the tiny branches, not the main supplies.

All and all, I think it went well and I think it will be a stress-free experience if you have taken the USMLE before it.

 

[bbqbakedlays]

First off, congrats! and thanks for the detailed synopsis....im jealous and I cannot WAIT to sleep in for like 4 days straight. Anyways, a couple of quick questions:

what do you mean matching, i know you didnt do kaplan, but the kaplan comlex questions always had like 5 questions at the end where you have to pick the best answer from a list of like 10 choices, and choices can be used more than once....was that similar?

also, besides the random gunshot questions, lol, how was the neuro part of it? was it the basics like lesions and stuff or none at all?

third, you know how usmle has lots of pictures and multimedia questions, did comlex have those as well?

and lastly, do you think reading savarese front to bak and doing all the questions is necessary and sufficient for the omm portion?


thanks a lot for the help!

1) The matching was like what you described. It was a sentence describing something...and they would have 5 choices. Each subsequent question had a different sentence with the same 5 choices. Once, twice or not at all are the options.

2) I was pretty nervous for the neuro but it wasnt bad in my opinion. I had one or two eye questions, some of the what artery is blocked given a constellation of symptoms...nothing outside first aid. Lots of CT/MRIs/pictures of brains....sayign what is wrong or where the lesion is.

3) I had a fair amt of pictures but no multimedia.

4) The savarese is perfect...I ran out of time and didnt get to do all the tests in the back, I would have liked to. I thought it had everything except the weird champans point question.

Im sure you will do great!!! Enjoy your sleep!!

 

[MJB]

All and all, I think it went well and I think it will be a stress-free experience if you have taken the USMLE before it.

I could go for that...took the USMLE yesterday, and take COMLEX Saturday.

I would hope I won't have the same timing issues.

 

[Entgegen]

I could go for that...took the USMLE yesterday, and take COMLEX Saturday.

I would hope I won't have the same timing issues.

...I wouldn't worry about timing. You'll have gobs of time, trust me.

Just took it today and had my USMLE this past Sunday. COMLEX was more straight recall, less brain-power questions. And it's freakin' LONG. You really have to fight to stay focused, or else you'll actually get lazy and bored taking this exam.

And I have to agree that if you've already taken the USMLE, the COMLEX really is a pretty stress-free event. I nearly had an acute MI starting my USMLE I was so nervous, but this exam was no sweat. Just know your spinal levels for OMM. That's where the bulk of my OMM questions came from.

 

[Doctor4Life1769]

"basic" ekg's my a**. i had one that was ridiculous.

lots of "low yield" on mine. it was just great.

You're being a story-teller as your avatar suggests right? Sounds like this experience was unique ...

 

[Kuba]

I could go for that...took the USMLE yesterday, and take COMLEX Saturday.

I would hope I won't have the same timing issues.

I finished the COMLEX with 2 hours to spare and I had time trouble on one of my USMLE blocks, don't worry about timing.

 

[Scotty_G]

Alright so I have the Comlex soon finally! USMLE is done woo but anyways. All I really want to know is about the OMM stuff. I have savarese but I don't want to read the whole book. I am super unmotivated now lol. I did the high yield chapters: viscero/chapman/sacral motion/cranial... is that enough to get most of the questions? What other chapters are high yield or tested?

 

[sparkplug]

complex timing

 

[whifftester]

Hi Everyone,

I am a first time poster, but long time reader and I took both the COMLEX and USMLE Step 1 last week. I wasn't sure where to post this question since there aren't too many COMLEX threads, but I am wondering when is the soonest I can expect my COMLEX score! I know that the USMLE should come via mail in around 6 weeks, but is it the same for COMLEX? Our school had the Kaplan course and the instructor said that we may actually be able to see our COMLEX scores online by as early as 2 weeks, which would be amazing! But does anyone know how soon we can get it if they aren't posted online? Should I expect it in the mail or do you think we can log in to NBOME and see our scores? There is a section when you login that says "view scores" so I am not sure if I can expect to see it there. I am dying to find out the results!! Thanks so much for your help guys!!

 

[fozziewan]

Alright so I have the Comlex soon finally! USMLE is done woo but anyways. All I really want to know is about the OMM stuff. I have savarese but I don't want to read the whole book. I am super unmotivated now lol. I did the high yield chapters: viscero/chapman/sacral motion/cranial... is that enough to get most of the questions? What other chapters are high yield or tested?

Know Rib Dysfunction: Dx, "Key" ribs, Muscles used for MET for Tx rib dysfunctions. Savarese has all you need for the Rib stuff.

Know Chapman's points for bladder and bowel, specifically the way the bowel is represented on L and R LE's. Savarese has a good drawing for this. On my COMLEX I had about 10 Chapman's points questions. All easy and straight outta Savarese

Viscerosomatic reflexes: Review the Savarese chapter on Facilitation. Its High Yield for the exam.

Sacral dysfunctions: I did not find these questions challenging at all. I was given more than enough diagnostic info to answer these q's.

Cranial: Know your more common strain patterns. Savarese's "Trigger Points" in the Cranial chapter are High Yield for this. I had maybe 2 or 3 Cranial questions, all basic and straightforward.

Good luck!
-S

 

[getgapondametro]

Hey guys, i took the COMLEX today and the USMLE on this past monday, the 15th...thought I would add my $0.02 and fill you in on my experiences

1st of all i felt that if you study for the USMLE first and I mean really go balls to walls (no offense) on the sciences, take the USMLE and then spend a few days on the OMM viz savarese, you should be fine. This is what i did and i felt pretty well prepared. The USMLE is much more 2 and 3 step reasoning, which longer cases and vignettes and involves more thinking, the comlex is much more straight forward and either you know the answer right away or you dont; in which case you get it narrowed down to 2 answers and then make an educated guess. in every answer set there are like 2 obvious wrong answers, 1 that could be it and 1 or 2 that look really good. So the exam itself if much more straight forward.

My only real complaint is well 2 things, first, the COMLEX 1 is a little too clinical for a basic science exam covering the first 2 years of med school. I got probably like 15-20 questions that were probably more suited for a step 2 level exam, questions on HIPPA policies and government regulations on medicare and medicaid, yahh wtf?? Also, I got a few questions on treatment protocol and without getting into specifics it was just a little over my head, and I was and EMT for 6 yrs before med school so I've seen and heard a good amount of med terms.

The other gripe I had were that some of the vignettes were too short and didnt have enough information for you to pick a right answer, example being a female pt with blood noticed in the stool, exam reveals hemorroids, wht vessel caused the bleed? Well we obviously need more info, is it a painful or painless bleed? Is it visual to the eye or was it palpated upon DRE? It could be one of 2 veins and both veins of course were answer choices, so a few questions were poorly written

Finally I can give this advice, know your micro in and out, up and down, backwards and forwards. Know the drugs to treat all the bugs too and their pertinent side effects. Also know your neuro pretty well, some may not have neuro questions, but I had like 25-30 just neuro and neuroanatomy questions. They loved epidural hematoma's. Finally, Savarese will do you just fine for the OMM part, I read it 2x and did the questions in the back and it def prepared me well for it. I had like 7-8 sacral dx, 4-5 ribs, and 20-30 viscerosomatics.

Overall, if you take the comlex after USMLE you will find that its more laid back, the hard part is focusing because I felt it impossible to sit down and regain focus after taking the USMLE to do OMM and the fact that the comlex is 400 questions (9 hours) was just crazy. And you cant take a break after 50 questions, you MUST do 100 before you can break, so its a veryyy long day. Any questions let me know...


PS.. i did a program called DIT (doctors in training), i havent gotten my scores but I must say the course was AWESOME and no matter what I recommend it to everyone I talk to, its a great course and the fact that its active, rather than passive learning makes a huge difference vs Kaplan and Falcon, etc.

 

[IdontTakeCall]

hey guys. took the comlex yesterday, thought id share my experiences.
overall, i feel very good about how it went. i took the COMSAE 4 days earlier and i thoguth the real test was a lot easier than the practice COMSAE moslty because liek every 7th question on the real test was an easy omm question. it was alot closer to the NBOMEs statement that the test is 20% om in my opinion. i had alot of omm. and it was easy peasy stuff. tons and tons of thoracic vertebra with " whats the diagnosis or more frequently, " how would u set up the patient for a direct technique". I didnt even use savarese either. I just studied my schools om text, digiovanna and schiowitz, and used the first aid for the comlex to cover it all, and i think there wa slike 1 maybe 2 omm questions i wasnt 100% on so in my opinion savarese is overkill.
next, DEF DEF DEF no every single word cover to cover in medical microbio made simple. there was so much micro on that test it was disgusting. the questions ranged from real easy, blah blah coagulase positive organsim, whats the bug....to more difficult questions that only had a bare bones description of the organism. so def study micro even into the odd parastites and the viral taxonomoy as they were on there too.
next, pharm was a decent amount but not as much as i had prepared for. lots of mechanism questions and side effects. also, know what drugs you can and cant use in pregnancy and make sure you read the question stem to make sure its not a pregnant chick before u get to the choices.
lastly, the rest of the test. i really hit path hard, goljians audio x2, goljians book and BRS book. way overkil. alot of it was useful but there isnt as much straight path as the USMLE so it was a little much. good amount of behavioral sciences and a fair amount of anatomy. most of the anatomy was brachial plexus or lower leg anatomoy. virtually no embryology and only a handful of my beloved biochem questions. so the motto was true for me, bugs, drugs and omm.
also, for thsoe who didnt take a practice COMSAE, i suggest you take one. it is IDENTICAL to the rela thing in terms of mechanics and how the computer screen looks. the questions are very very similar except that there isnt a viscerosomatic reflex on every single question like there is on the comsae. but overall, it was a much closer replica to the real test then kaplan qbank though those are good too. best of luck to all hit me up with questions if u have any.

 

[Exanogen]

did you guys have any specific questions on setting up treatments for a sacral dysfunction, or how to do counterstrain for a specific tenderpoint etc?

 

[IdontTakeCall]

yes a large percentage of my omm questions where how would u set up this patient for a direct or indirect technique. not many specific setups liek hvla or fpr, but more engage barrier or engage freedom indirect/direct setups.