Advice for COMLEX III

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DO_Surgeon

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I just registered for COMLEX III next month. I am a general surgery intern, and have had the majority of my non-surgical rotations. I just bought crush step 3 and the NMS q book. Anyone have any advice for studying (length of time, books, important topics, etc) What about the new computer format and how many questions do you need to pass?
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So from what I gather, this is a very good replication of the abstract nature of step 1 and step 2 exams. Well I'm about to start studying for this damn thing.

Books:

SWANSON'S
OMT BOOK
FIRST AID III

Ya think that should do it?

Dr. DO MBA
 
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xXAnksXx said:
So from what I gather, this is a very good replication of the abstract nature of step 1 and step 2 exams. Well I'm about to start studying for this damn thing.

Books:

SWANSON'S
OMT BOOK
FIRST AID III

Ya think that should do it?

Dr. DO MBA
Click to expand...

are you kidding?
besides usmleworld why use anything else?
i heard u need a 350/800 to pass and there's only a handfull of omm questions
 
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COMBANK is coming out this month for step III. It should be kick-ass. Our school is actually thinking about buying us all subcriptions to raise our Step III pass rates. Here's the site: www.combankmed.com
 
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Steel_City said:
COMBANK is coming out this month for step III. It should be kick-ass. Our school is actually thinking about buying us all subcriptions to raise our Step III pass rates. Here's the site: www.combankmed.com
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Hmmm...are you sure the site and the company are legit? I checked them out and I was pretty excited about a COMLEX-specific question bank. However, the demo option doesn't work, and if you click on the Subscribe Now button, at the end it asks you for a ton of information (including credit card security code, cell phone number and cell provider), and the screen is not secured (the little lock doesn't appear at the bottom of the browser to indicate the data will be encrypted). Just seems fishy to me.

I hope the site is legit. Something like COMBank is badly needed, and I'm surprised people haven't jumped on the opportunity to create COMLEX-specific study aids.
 
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Shinken said:
Hmmm...are you sure the site and the company are legit? I checked them out and I was pretty excited about a COMLEX-specific question bank. However, the demo option doesn't work, and if you click on the Subscribe Now button, at the end it asks you for a ton of information (including credit card security code, cell phone number and cell provider), and the screen is not secured (the little lock doesn't appear at the bottom of the browser to indicate the data will be encrypted). Just seems fishy to me.

I hope the site is legit. Something like COMBank is badly needed, and I'm surprised people haven't jumped on the opportunity to create COMLEX-specific study aids.
Click to expand...

www.comlexedge.com
 
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InductionAgent said:
You must have your D.O. degree before you can take COMLEX III.
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Can you schedule it in advance...as in I anticipate to have my DO degree on 5/16...can I schedule it now in November for some time in late May or early June? Anybody done did this?

I just logged onto NBOME to try...it doesn't appear that you can.

Daddy needs to start moonlighting by early 2nd year. I gotz mad billz to pay.

Wurd.
 
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why dont u take one for the team and call the bozo's at nbome and let us know what you find out.
 
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AbuJadenDO said:
why dont u take one for the team and call the bozo's at nbome and let us know what you find out.
Click to expand...

I decided to take one for the team myself and just got off the phone with nbome...wow what a bunch of MIT grads they have over there.

I was lucky enough to speak to the 'not so sharp knife of the nbome drawer'

Not to bore you with details i'll give you a summary of the mind blowing conversation that took place.

Me: Do you need to graduate before scheduling step 3?
Nbome: No
Me: Okay, then can you help me schedule it?
Nbome: when do you graduate?
Me: May 2008
Nbome: Well then you can't take it.
Me: But you just said I dont need to graduate first.
Nbome: Yes, but only students in special circumstances can take it before graduation
Me: What special circumstances?
Nbome: Sorry If I misquoted you sir but you cannot schedule it until you are deemed eligible by your school
Me: How the heck do you become eligible?
Nbome: You need to graduate.


talk about going in circles!
:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:
 
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AbuJadenDO said:
I decided to take one for the team myself and just got off the phone with nbome...wow what a bunch of MIT grads they have over there.

I was lucky enough to speak to the 'not so sharp knife of the nbome drawer'

Not to bore you with details i'll give you a summary of the mind blowing conversation that took place.

Me: Do you need to graduate before scheduling step 3?
Nbome: No
Me: Okay, then can you help me schedule it?
Nbome: when do you graduate?
Me: May 2008
Nbome: Well then you can't take it.
Me: But you just said I dont need to graduate first.
Nbome: Yes, but only students in special circumstances can take it before graduation
Me: What special circumstances?
Nbome: Sorry If I misquoted you sir but you cannot schedule it until you are deemed eligible by your school
Me: How the heck do you become eligible?
Nbome: You need to graduate.


talk about going in circles!
:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:
Click to expand...

I called this morning during my commute, but you beat me to posting. They said you have to call the school to determine your eligibility, but the bulletin online, which they referred me to, says you can schedule it up to 6 months before you actually take the test. So how do we schedule it in advance without graduating? Sounds like the next step is to call COMP and find out what determines eligibility - the obvious answer is graduation, but come on...we should be able to schedule it in advance on good faith that we'll graduate on time. Perhaps not though, I did read that if you take it and you are not eligible...you lose your money and your results are voided.
 
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COMBANK rocks...:laugh::laugh:. This is one bad-%#$ question bank. All kinds of COMLEX tips/pearls on the homepage too under "exam advice."
 
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VentdependenT said:
Swanson's is not going to help you. Its worthless IMHO for this exam. And its a pain to slog through.

I did well on step III by studying:
a few bits of my old CRUSH STEP II which I was already familiar with.
some parts of my BOARDS AND WARDS, which I was already familiar with.

High Yeild OB-GYN. This is a must have if you stink with ob stuff. As I did.

STRONG MEDICINE. Best single source for stepIII.

NMS step III. A hell of a lot more intuitive and less daunting than NMS for stepII and I. A damn fine question book. Highly recommended.

About one-two hours flying through guts, rashes, and fever work up in pediatrics with my PEDS BLUEPRINTS.

About 20 minutes pounding Savarese autonomics in the skull. I didn't even bother with the rest.

I spent about a month total studying. About 30 minutes a day when I was sitting on the john. Thats how UNMOTIVATED I was to take this thing.
I crammed for 5 days before the exam.

I felt the test was INSANE. I thought I flunked it FOR SURE. Got in the 94% or something nuts like that. So whatever I did worked.

TAKE THIS THING YOUR INTERN YEAR OR YOU WILL HATE YOURSELF. Nothing worse than studying for your respective field's board exams AND THIS THING at the same time. Especially when you've forgotton most of it.
Click to expand...

I'm taking this approach. I'm using Strong Medicine, HY Ob/Gyn (used this for Step II as well), Kaplan Qbook and UW.

I'm done with both parts of COMLEX II and have the next 2 months off practically so I figure I start review a bit for COMLEX III. I'd love to take that bad boy < 3 months into internship.
 
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My full-proof recipe for dominating this test:

Blueprints OB/GYN and ER
Green OMT book
Boards and Wards
COMBANK Qbank for questions (a must)

I studied a total of one month and rocked out on COMLEX III. It was by far my best performance of the steps. Make sure you go over your EKGs the day before the test.
 
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I would not waste an excessive money buying a bunch of crap for this. Some of the questions are so crappy, no amount of studying is going to help you. I just did a question bank of my choice, in this case Kaplan (cheap off of ebay). Then, I reviewed my Step 2 stuff for any "holes". I crammed OMM the day before, and did very well on Step 3.
 
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A few people get away with cramming for this test, but they are in the minority. I know a bunch of people who have struggle with it. I think it's better to prepare thoroughly just to be on the safe side since you never know what you're going to get with this test. NBOME is just all over the place with there questions. I know smart people in ortho and optho programs who have failed one or more times on COMLEX step 3. Just showing up for the test is not enough in my opinion.
 
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livewires said:
A few people get away with cramming for this test, but they are in the minority. I know a bunch of people who have struggle with it. I think it's better to prepare thoroughly just to be on the safe side since you never know what you're going to get with this test. NBOME is just all over the place with there questions. I know smart people in ortho and optho programs who have failed one or more times on COMLEX step 3. Just showing up for the test is not enough in my opinion.
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Agreed.

COMLEX III (and internship) will be the last time in my career I will get to learn my general medicine. I really want to hammer in these concepts. And besides knowing my **** I've set a personal goal of topping my COMLEX I and II scores (> 650).

Just call me crazy...
 
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Done!. My goal was to get a 351 on comlex 3 and I did a bit better than that. Just wanted to give a head's up to people taking it soon

1) Its pretty much step 2 all overagain
2) Swansons peds and ob/gyn questions were verbatim
3) Usmle World is Def an overkill
4) First Aid for step 3 is a garbage book. Worthless. Just use your step 2 first aid.
5) Know chapman's hokey pokey and chapter 2 from Simmons or 9 from Savarese? sp? (inside and out)
6) Its pretty easy to pass you only need about 55-60% per my calculations.

Good Luck.


Southbeath Tri April 13th sign up@ www.southbeachtri.com
 
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I agree...USMLE world is overkill and takes you in the wrong direction. COMBANK is definately much better for questions. Swanson's is good but I can't stand all of their "all of the following EXCEPT" answer choices. You just don't see these on COMLEX.
 
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I used Swanson FP, Crush, and Usmleasy. I read Saverese once and glanced at Boards and Boards and Wards. I thought it went well. We'll see what the final scores say, I took it Feb 25th!
 
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I took step 3 today and to my surprise it was actually a fair exam, unlike its predecessors. The majority of the questions were written concisely but devoid of the confusion and hocus pocus randomness that was so prevalent in steps 1 &2. I think if you do kaplan q bank and use two reference books like board & wards and FA(FA 2 is probably better than FA 3) you should be able to pass this exam comfortably. I spent a month in preparation for this exam (2-3 hrs/day) and it may have been overkill. I'm not a good standadized exam test taker but I was in disbelief at how direct the questions were. Of course there were a few Q's that were off the wall but that is to be expected, it is the comlex afterall! Overall, my exam had an equal breakdown of medicine/obgyn/peds/ with a sprinkle of OMM/psych/surgery/preventative medicine stuff. Good luck to all those that are taking it.

How long do you to have to wait for the score reports?
 
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niceguydoc said:
I took step 3 today and to my surprise it was actually a fair exam, unlike its predecessors. The majority of the questions were written concisely but devoid of the confusion and hocus pocus randomness that was so prevalent in steps 1 &2. I think if you do kaplan q bank and use two reference books like board & wards and FA(FA 2 is probably better than FA 3) you should be able to pass this exam comfortably. I spent a month in preparation for this exam (2-3 hrs/day) and it may have been overkill. I'm not a good standadized exam test taker but I was in disbelief at how direct the questions were. Of course there were a few Q's that were off the wall but that is to be expected, it is the comlex afterall! Overall, my exam had an equal breakdown of medicine/obgyn/peds/ with a sprinkle of OMM/psych/surgery/preventative medicine stuff. Good luck to all those that are taking it.

How long do you to have to wait for the score reports?
Click to expand...

I took it yesterday as well and agree with you completely. The WTF factor was way down. I felt like if you read the q's carefully and had studied the basics (all the things that pop up on I and II) you'd do fine. Most of the time, you could rule out the wrong answers with the information in the stem. I actually used almost the whole allotted time for the first time ever. I went at a comfortable pace, and re-read only my marked q's.

I will say there was a lot more OMM and osteopathic principles on this exam than I expected. But the questions were not crazy and off the wall, they were very reasonable. Just zip through the high points in Savarese or Simmons reviews and you should do great on those q's.

I agree there was not an over-representation of any one field.
 
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taking it again, tommorw, been doing premier review and combankmed, with some strong medicine

maybe ill pass
 
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Just took the COMLEX Level 3 today.

I thought it was mostly a mix of internal med/peds/OB-gyn with approximately 3-5 OMM questions in each section.
For the most part, I felt that this was the first test the NBOME put out that was straightforward. Of course there were definitely a few obscure questions here and there and some where I thought had more than one answer.

For the OMM questions, it was mostly innervations. I had one sacrum question and a few extremities.

Pictures/EKGs were very straight forward.

For my prep, I used Crush Step 3 (read it twice), blue Savarese OMM book, and USMLEworld question bank for one month. I spent maybe 1 hour a night and definitely did not have my head in to studying at all.
I think because I am a PGY-2 IM resident that really helped.
Lots of medicine.

Hopefully that is the last COMLEX exam I will ever have to take again!!!
 
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Yeah, some were straight forward, some were questionable, and some were just straight gangster.....

I thought KAPLAN Q-book was good, some good concepts from the NBOME booklet as well. I don't know what else I could have done....

I just hope I pass, 350 only right?
 
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Just took it for the first time yesterday. I agree with what has been said so far just wish I would have figured that there was going to be that much Peds. All i remember is that every time I clicked on on "next" a a Peds question popped up I said to my self "...I wish I would have hit peds a little harder. I'm an F'in dumba**.".
We'll see... but just in case anyone is woundering I used the Lange Step 3 sample exam that was written by the DO with the pink and black cover, Crush and Strong Medicine. Really wish I would have done more Peds. Later Folks.:cool:
 
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I just went to the NBOME website to see about requesting the $8, 200 question practice booklet and to my surprise - its gone - now they have this phase I self assessment for $50, not even appropriate for 4th years/interns about to take step III.

WTF?

Anyone able to purchase this booklet recently? I used similar booklets for both steps I and II and found them both to be helpful as they were old test ?'s written exactly the same way.
 
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some advice...

don't buy qbank or usmleworld for Step III. if you could get through your intern year and passed step I and II, you'll be fine. i spent one week going through the boards and ward (the green copy from like 10 years ago) and ordered the $8 200 question NBOME practice exam.

you'll do just fine...don't stress out.
 
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For those that did USMLE World. Did you just do the multiple choice questions, or did you do the clinical case scenario questions as well? From what I understand, the COMLEX does not have the case scenario questions like the USMLE has. Am I correct?
 
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cuddlepuppy said:
some advice...

don't buy qbank or usmleworld for Step III. if you could get through your intern year and passed step I and II, you'll be fine. i spent one week going through the boards and ward (the green copy from like 10 years ago) and ordered the $8 200 question NBOME practice exam.

you'll do just fine...don't stress out.
Click to expand...

Can I get my hands on your $8 200 questions? Thank you.
 
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Hi ,

Took step III at the end of Feb. and got my scores the other day (~5 ww). What I did for it, lots of questions, but my attention span for reading has lowered by the minute since MS I.

Kaplan qbook
HY OB/GYN peds for more questions
Savarese green OMT book
The Toronto Notes: great big Canadian review book, highly recommend, think of every medical specialty condensed down to what an FP needs to know about it, great for boards and clinical rotations

I studied for it a fair amount, I figured this is the last time I want to give any money at all to the NBOME.

As for the test,

Questions were relatively straight forward, typical NBOME stuff such as read the question and the answer you want isn't there, imaging was absolutely atrocious/atrioshus/verybad. So if an xray shows up good luck. Just glad to be done with it.
 
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Two words:

VERSED and KY.........

This test is classic COMLEX. That being said, even the least clinically inclined 'terns can make it through (just like me!)
 
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cremaster2007 said:
I used Swanson FP, Crush, and Usmleasy. I read Saverese once and glanced at Boards and Wards. I thought it went well. We'll see what the final scores say, I took it Feb 25th!
Click to expand...

I got my scores back roughly 5 weeks after taking the test and did extremely well. Goodluck to those of you taking/waiting for scores.
 
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what is usmleasy?

why do I keep hearing that USMLE WORLD is overkill? I am taking both USMLE & COMLEX so would you still recommend usmleasy?

swansons fp- are there questions in this book?

thanks
 
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medicineman1 said:
what is usmleasy?

why do I keep hearing that USMLE WORLD is overkill? I am taking both USMLE & COMLEX so would you still recommend usmleasy?

swansons fp- are there questions in this book?

thanks
Click to expand...

Swanson's is entirely questions with explanations.

USMLEasy is basically a Q bank like USMLE WORLD. I've good things about both. I got USMLEasy because it was the first site I went to and paid. I scored 99th percentile on Step III, so it helped me, but look at both and decide which site suits you best.
 
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Hey all... I'm taking exam april 28th. Kind of nervous about it because I know some residents who failed it a few times. Though I don't think their study habit is as strict as my.

I did alright on comlex I and II, passed it during 1st try w/ cushion. I don't know why but just nervous about this one.

I did about 800 kaplan qbank questions and doing usmleworld questions now, about 500+ so far,which seems a bit harder... any comments on that ?

I'm also an ob/gyn resident and using green OMM book to look up facilitations. The OMM on partIII is similar to part II ??? meaning a lot of facilitation and innervations as to specific techniques?

Also... 350/800 ? to pass? that means you don't even need 50% of the questions right? Is that correct?
 
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