Failed COMLEX I. Please help me.

[ballbay]

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[YankeeCandle1141]

Take it in 5 weeks.

Dont turn one red flag into two if you can avoid it. Failing comlex and delaying your education will be two red flags. Even though its only one mistake, there are PDs wouldnt even read your application after seeing the failure and the delay.


On the other hand, failing it and staying on track with your class year will be a forgivable mistake.


Its dumb i know, but look at it from the eyes of somebody glancing at your application

 

[ballbay]

Thanks for your advice. Hoping that I don't fail again and get delayed by a year.

I know I need to study differently this time. Not sure if I'll have time to do all 3 question banks again, but I'm open to any suggestions.

 

[YankeeCandle1141]

Thanks for your advice. Hoping that I don't fail again and get delayed by a year.

I know I need to study differently this time. Not sure if I'll have time to do all 3 question banks again, but I'm open to any suggestions.

Why would you do more questions?? Look at your qbank %s and study your weak spots. Look at your comlex score histogram thing and study your weak spots.

 

[GUH]

Thanks for your advice. Hoping that I don't fail again and get delayed by a year.

I know I need to study differently this time. Not sure if I'll have time to do all 3 question banks again, but I'm open to any suggestions.

Unless you did really well in microbiology, I'd try sketchy micro since it's fast and high yield. Also same for Savarese if you didn't excel in OMM.
Another two or more runs through pathoma (at least the book if not also the videos) would also be advisable if you did poorly in pathology. FA is always high yield. Really knowing those sources well should be a high priority unless your problem is with timing, lack of attention span, or test anxiety, in which case you need to do practice blocks and get any necessary medical/psychological treatment.
I don't think five weeks is enough to pass through all three question banks and properly review the answers unless you get a high percentage of them correct, which I'm guessing you don't.

Good luck and I look forward to your update saying you passed!

 

[user3]

not to derail this, but should we probably score at least 550-ish on COMSAE's to truly feel safe for passing?

From other threads I have seen, it seems like it isn't unheard of for people to fail even after scoring as high as the (low?) 500's on COMSAEs.

 

[GUH]

should we probably score at least 550-ish on COMSAE's to truly feel safe? From other threads I have seen, it seems like it isn't unheard of for people to fail even after scoring as high as the (low?) 500's on COMSAEs.

My COMSAES were much lower than 550 and I passed by a reasonably wide margin, as was the case with most of my classmates with similar COMSAE scores. A 550 is quite a bit above the average for any COMSAE, and I think the COMLEX 1 first-time passing rate is above 90%.

You do not need to score a 550+ on any COMSAE to pass COMLEX1. The stories you heard are definitely outliers. That being said, take your COMSAES seriously and under testing conditions. If you're worried that a single COMSAE will overestimate your score, take another one.

 

[hallowmann]

My COMSAES were much lower than 550 and I passed by a reasonably wide margin, as was the case with most of my classmates with similar COMSAE scores. A 550 is quite a bit above the average for any COMSAE, and I think the COMLEX 1 first-time passing rate is above 90%.

You do not need to score a 550+ on any COMSAE to pass COMLEX1. The stories you heard are definitely outliers. That being said, take your COMSAES seriously and under testing conditions. If you're worried that a single COMSAE will overestimate your score, take another one.

Both COMSAE C and D overshot my real score by a decent margin. C by much less, but D by a ton. I've heard A and B are more in line with the right score.

I'm not sure what your experience was GUH, but the issue of failing seemed to be more with the people scoring ~400 on the COMSAE. OP scoring >400 on a COMSAE means that 39x is probably in the margin of error, but OP scoring >450 and still failing may point to a clear deficit in specific topics that unfortunately get heavily tested on the COMLEX (like 3 systems/topics comprised the majority of my exam).

 

[wjs010]

My COMSAES were much lower than 550 and I passed by a reasonably wide margin, as was the case with most of my classmates with similar COMSAE scores. A 550 is quite a bit above the average for any COMSAE, and I think the COMLEX 1 first-time passing rate is above 90%.

You do not need to score a 550+ on any COMSAE to pass COMLEX1. The stories you heard are definitely outliers. That being said, take your COMSAES seriously and under testing conditions. If you're worried that a single COMSAE will overestimate your score, take another one.

So what is a minimum score on the comsae's to know whether to delay or not?

 

[YankeeCandle1141]

So what is a minimum score on the comsae's to know whether to delay or not?

Your comsaes are a very very weak indicator of how you will do on the real test.


This is one of the most frequently asked questions on this forum, and there honestly is no answer. Thats why everyone keeps saying the same thing every time it comes up.


Your comsae score has variables.

1)How prepared you were when you took it.
If you are 15% done with your study plan, congrats, you have wasted money and more importantly study time on a useless test. Get back to studying.
Your score "correlation" to your real score is going to reflect that... So when someone says they scored a 450 on comsae x, then a 500 on the real thing, you dont know if they took the comsae as an m1 or if they took it 50% of the way through studying


2) test conditions.
Taking test from your couch with your dog on your lap and the tv on is a lot different from ting it under real life conditions with real life pressure. Some people respond to pressure negatively, some positively. I can consistently nail a 600 with music playing and unlimited coffee and pee breaks. Put me in a silent room thats freezing cold, with a career altering test in front of me and I lose 100+ points right there. Some people focus more under those conditions and score higher


3)n=1. You could take the same comsae 10 times just with minor changes in the wording of questions, and you would probably get 10 different scores.
Being able to reason out an answer by crossing out 4 wrong answers is only a viable strategy if you know the material well. In other words, would you know the answer if the 4 distractors were different? Or if the question asked for the treatment instead of the diagnosis?
You arent going to get the same questions on the real deal. You probably wont even get the same content distribution. You need to know the material, not the questions.





And then throw in the part where nobody posts their comlex score online, and you have a very useless piece of data.

Go back to first aid/savarese/uworld/combank. Comsaes are fun, but they arent going to help you.

 

[wjs010]

Your comsaes are a very very weak indicator of how you will do on the real test.


This is one of the most frequently asked questions on this forum, and there honestly is no answer. Thats why everyone keeps saying the same thing every time it comes up.


Your comsae score has variables.

1)How prepared you were when you took it.
If you are 15% done with your study plan, congrats, you have wasted money and more importantly study time on a useless test. Get back to studying.
Your score "correlation" to your real score is going to reflect that... So when someone says they scored a 450 on comsae x, then a 500 on the real thing, you dont know if they took the comsae as an m1 or if they took it 50% of the way through studying


2) test conditions.
Taking test from your couch with your dog on your lap and the tv on is a lot different from ting it under real life conditions with real life pressure. Some people respond to pressure negatively, some positively. I can consistently nail a 600 with music playing and unlimited coffee and pee breaks. Put me in a silent room thats freezing cold, with a career altering test in front of me and I lose 100+ points right there. Some people focus more under those conditions and score higher


3)n=1. You could take the same comsae 10 times just with minor changes in the wording of questions, and you would probably get 10 different scores.
Being able to reason out an answer by crossing out 4 wrong answers is only a viable strategy if you know the material well. In other words, would you know the answer if the 4 distractors were different? Or if the question asked for the treatment instead of the diagnosis?
You arent going to get the same questions on the real deal. You probably wont even get the same content distribution. You need to know the material, not the questions.





And then throw in the part where nobody posts their comlex score online, and you have a very useless piece of data.

Go back to first aid/savarese/uworld/combank. Comsaes are fun, but they arent going to help you.

Thank you. And yea I get how you feel. It really sounds like a life altering test