Family Medicine COMAT

[FutureDO2016]

Hello what do people that already took the Family Medicine COMAT recommend using to study for it? The topics are so vague and generalized...what book is most helpful? Also, what topics did you focus on?

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[Mr. Mojo Risin]

I replied to your thread in the osteo forum, but here is my response again.

I'm reading through other threads, but I just went through the entire Official COMAT Shelf thread and this is what I pulled from it regarding the FM COMAT:

I had the FM one, and I thought it wasn't too bad. I do agree the questions were all over the place, and honestly, the test felt too much like a blur for me to even remember what they were. The linked questions at the end were for the most part easy, although I had no idea on the last five (a bunch of fungal terminology that made me scratch my head). I wonder when we get our results.

Just took FM COMAT. Impressions:

- Didn't think it was too terrible...but a number of qs were ambiguous.

- My test had tons of random geriatrics qs that I wasn't really expecting. I had to think back to our geri class to reason through these (think I did decently on them, fortunately).

- There were also a number of random ethics qs that I hadn't expected either. I was able to reason through most/all of these, however, so if your ethics background for step 1 was solid you may be ok here.

- Surprised at the lack of relevant questions...I saw zero HTN qs, maybe 1 q on pneumonia, zero hyperlipidemia qs, zero DM qs, perhaps a couple qs on GERD.

The amb care chapter of Step-up was solid gold, but you need to read some parts of the pulm, cardio, and all of the infectious dz chapters to really be in good shape. The AAFP GME questions were great also (go to their website and sign up for a free "membership").

This exam seemed ok but apparently our class average on the peds COMAT was 58% (!), so it does sound as though some of these exams are rough.

Btw, does anyone know when/how these scores get delivered to us?

family med, know your fp ob and peds. know your visceral somatics.

Just took the FM COMAT.

Impressions: absolutely, positively horrible. No other words will do. Poorly written, vague questions. If you thought the COMLEX was bad this might push you over the edge.

Study CaseFiles a few times; study PreTest a few times; do Blueprints if you'd like; read UptoDate on your patients. At least you'll know what you should for FM.

The COMAT won't test you on hardly any of that. Random geriatrics, crazy behavioral and/or policy questions. Very little evaluation of one's clinical knowledge. Crappy OPP questions that don't test much common knowledge. Management questions that you won't find the correct answer to in any text a third year would use during their rotation.

I could have studied for another two weeks and not gotten any more questions right.

Fam Med:

This one I also mostly used blueprints and I felt the questions from the back of the book were very representative of what I saw on my exam. I scored well above the national average on it.

I always go to the NBOME website and take their 15 q exam and it seems like a decent place to figure out what they are focused on, on Fam Med I felt it was useful, on psych I didn't feel it was.

Hope this helps people out.

Questions on the AAFP website were a great learning tool. I also read through case files. Should be plenty

Internal Medicine will have more laboratory values (CBC/BMP) in the question stems, while Family Medicine will have more vital signs and screening/prevention-oriented labs. IM will cover all of the IM subspecialties quite evenly, at least as outlined on the blueprint. Family Medicine may contain questions that have to do with Pediatrics and OB/GYN, but these subjects will not be represented on the IM exam. Either way your study strategy should be the same: do all the required coursework, focus on an IM/FM-specific review book, q-bank, etc. You should be reading daily on the topics you've seen throughout the day.

For the FM shelf I recommend the AAFP board review questions and the Ambulatory section of SUTM. Both very representative of the content on the exam.