I took the COMLEX May 30th and USMLE the 23rd but have been so busy with moving and rotations that started this week. I got a lot of advice on here and off here from IrJanus and Bleaker along with the rest of SDN so I really thank you all for that.
I promise to get more in depth with my experience and any questions once I actually get my score back... I came out of the USMLE feeling confident; however, I came out of the COMLEX feeling disappointed in myself.
I'm trying to go for an orthopedics residency on the east coast and was hoping to hit a 700+ on the COMLEX. I don't consider myself super smart so I just tried to crush both tests by putting a tremendous amount of hours into studying. Along with studying 8+ hours /day throughout school year, I was putting up 12+ hours the month before these exams. However, after taking it, I really haven no clue where I stand.
Here are my stats:
All dates are recorded in reference prior to my USMLE exam date of May 23
7 Months: 65% Kaplan Diagnostic
5 Weeks: 240 School sponsored basic science shelf
1 Month: NBME 7: 247
Mock COMLEX "Board exam" (x2) average: 700
2 Weeks: NBME 12: 254
1 Week: NBME 13: 257
During the week before: UWSA 1: >265 UWSA 2: >265
May 24: COMSAE B: 712
Offline NBME 6, 11: >240ish
Uworld First Pass: ~75% (Don't gauge yourself with uworld!)
Uworld Second pass started one month before and reviewed marked answers, and glad I did.
->Before taking the USMLE I had ~8000 questions done including uworld x2, Kaplan (couple Q's here and there), COMBANK (Need to fit in COMLEX studying somewhere), and the self assessments.
COMQUEST: ~ 800 questions of mostly OPP (gold), repro, micro, ethics
The COMLEX:
For me it was a little bit of everything with a focus on Repro, Micro, some neuro, and A TON of anatomy. When I would lurk SDN I would see people saying that for the comlex "you either know it or you don't". I thought they meant that you could actually study these things and know them, but at least 5-7 questions on each set I had absolutely no clue EVEN scouring through low yield books like Robins, Step up to medicine step 2, anatomy atlas. It seemed like the questions were either ridiculously easy or so random, which makes it hard to distinguish someone who studied 14+ hours a day from someone that got lucky on test day. COMSAE B was NOTHING like my test because COMSAE B actually had like 95% of the material I studied.
I don't mean to make anyone nervous. I think that if you study hard for the USMLE, then do COMQUEST OPP questions you'll get over 600+ easy, which is more than enough for almost all DO residencies. As Slyvanius said, study what you know and take it knowing you'll get those random questions.
I don't think the COMLEX is an unfair test. Unfortunately, as DO students we don't have a book anywhere near as perfect as FIRST AID USMLE Step 1 for our Level 1. Imagine taking the USMLE using only random COMLEX level 1 books, you too would think that the questions were "unfair" and "random". Just keep this in mind.
As far as Qbanks. UWorld was #1. For my test, and know that n=1, COMBANK was completely useless. Although it had a similar format to the test, the concepts tested were as good as if you just plowed through Uworld (except for OMM).
I got through about 800 COMQUEST questions since it opened like 5 days before my comlex. I believe this will be the #1 Qbank for DO students studying for the level 1 in future years.
Hopefully I will get more time to answer some questions. Overall, I felt my score could range anywhere 600+. Regardless of my score, I will bust my ass and work as hard as I can to get where I need to be. To any of you still taking the test, I wish you the best of luck.
what book sources did you use besides FA? how many hours/day were u doing? Can you briefly explain your schedule/sources/study techniques u used?
