the official COMAT shelf thread

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I'll go ahead and contribute to this thread because it's helped me a lot since 3rd year started in August. So far I've taken 3 COMAT's: peds (100+), psych and surgery (110+). I use Firecracker, UWorld, COMBANK and UTD as my main resources. I did Case Files for peds and psych; onlinemeded.org and Pestana's review note for surgery.

Overall, the questions were better than I thought they would be. OMM was there but only in the form of viscerosomatic reflexes and I definitely did not need the information to answer the questions. I feel that the peds COMAT was more difficult than I expected. There were not much common peds conditions (asthma, UTI, URI, etc.) Instead there were more zebras that I've never heard of before (Laurence-Moon syndrome?!?). Psych and surgery COMAT's on the other hand were very reflective of what I'd seen during my rotations. I'd definitely recommend to looking up the breakdown of each COMAT and the practice questions (~15) on NBOME website.

I'll continue to update after I'm done with the other COMAT's. I heard a rumor from my school that they'll make us take the new ER COMAT next year...
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Lukat said:
I'll go ahead and contribute to this thread because it's helped me a lot since 3rd year started in August. So far I've taken 3 COMAT's: peds (100+), psych and surgery (110+). I use Firecracker, UWorld, COMBANK and UTD as my main resources. I did Case Files for peds and psych; onlinemeded.org and Pestana's review note for surgery.

Overall, the questions were better than I thought they would be. OMM was there but only in the form of viscerosomatic reflexes and I definitely did not need the information to answer the questions. I feel that the peds COMAT was more difficult than I expected. There were not much common peds conditions (asthma, UTI, URI, etc.) Instead there were more zebras that I've never heard of before (Laurence-Moon syndrome?!?). Psych and surgery COMAT's on the other hand were very reflective of what I'd seen during my rotations. I'd definitely recommend to looking up the breakdown of each COMAT and the practice questions (~15) on NBOME website.

I'll continue to update after I'm done with the other COMAT's. I heard a rumor from my school that they'll make us take the new ER COMAT next year...
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Any updates? You take FM COMAT? How has firecracker been this year for you?
 
Yes did anyone take the Family Med comat, what book do you recommend using and any must-know topics?
 
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Can anybody comment on the quality of COMBANK's COMAT subscription?
 
An updated post on IM, OB and FM COMAT's. Disclosure: I passed them all with comfortable margins: IM (100+), OB (110+), FM (90+).

I used Firecracker to study for OB and IM; and UWorld and COMBANK to prep for all of these exams. I also skimmed through Case Files for OB since I wanted to get good score for the rotation. OB COMAT was relatively easy in my opinion. Nothing that I didn't see during the rotation. In this case, I feel that Case File/Firecracker alone was enough to pass. An unbelievable number of vaginal bleeding questions so make sure you know the presentations and managements for each diagnose. Knowing the definition of common OB complications will score you 4-5 questions (placental abruption, placental previa, PPROM, etc.) I got 1-2 OMM questions (review what sacral/pelvis dysfunctions pregnant pts tend to get). IM COMAT was the one I worried the most but turned out to be not as bad. I feel that it was well-balanced and did not have many OMM at all. I feel that UWorld prepped me pretty well for this COMAT. FM turned out to be my worse score not because it was hard but it was my last exam and I could not bother to study for it any more (starting to focus on board prep). There were decent amount of OB and Peds questions. I had a good number of OMM questions here too, like 7-8 but they were all reasonable (e.g. viscer0-somatic reflexes, how to set up OMM techniques, etc.)

I like Firecracker a lot and was using it throughout most of my rotations. However, toward the end of third year, I feel its time to switch gear to other resources that will not take 3-4 hours of my times just to go over an enormous amount of questions. Overall I recommend it for people who can dedicate at least 2-3 hours per day everyday on it. It definitely helps me with peds, OB, surgery and psych COMAT's but again, you need to find out ASAP which resource works for your style of studying. I did skim through some Case Files. I did not like the series very much (too dense for my taste) but again it's personal preference here, I know many of my classmates used the series and liked them.

I definitely recommend doing all the practice questions on the NBOME websites and looking at the break-down on each exams. They definitely resemble the questions you'll see on the real deal.
 
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Are score reports given out like with Level1? Got my FM score back through the school but nothing from NBOME.
 
dfib slim said:
Are score reports given out like with Level1? Got my FM score back through the school but nothing from NBOME.
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It takes about a week to be posted to your NBOME profile.
 
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Major bump but how do you feel UWorld helps in preparation for COMATs? Should I invest in COMBANK/COMQUEST specific?
 
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Do you guys recommend using Uworld for COMAT studying?

Also, our schoo l bought us a subscription to COMBANK level 2 qbank, but not the COMAT bank. How different are these and should be get the COMAT bank
 
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Use Uworld for COMATs and Step2/Level2. Use Combank for OMM Qs before Level 2 if at all. Don't waste your money on the COMAT bank.
 
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dfib slim said:
Use Uworld for COMATs and Step2/Level2. Use Combank for OMM Qs before Level 2 if at all. Don't waste your money on the COMAT bank.
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Perfect, and kinda the answer I was hoping for haha. Thanks!
 
Any advice for those who took the Emergency Medicine COMAT? I've just been working on COMBANK's EM section, not sure what else to do for it.
 
Any advice for the FM COMAT? Also, does anyone know the average raw score for this particular COMAT? Having a hard time finding that info.....
 
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How does the scoring for these work? Is it just based off of standard deviations? I know that the avg is 100 and 110 is 1 SD above, but is there a max?
 
MelMcT2009 said:
How does the scoring for these work? Is it just based off of standard deviations? I know that the avg is 100 and 110 is 1 SD above, but is there a max?
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It's scored just like you said. Not sure of the max but my highest was a 131 on one of them. My school uses a 90 as a pass.
 
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dfib slim said:
It's scored just like you said. Not sure of the max but my highest was a 131 on one of them. My school uses a 90 as a pass.
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What numbers are you guys using? Aren't there only 125 questions per COMAT?
 
jw3600 said:
What numbers are you guys using? Aren't there only 125 questions per COMAT?
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It's not scored by how many questions there are. It's all by a mean of 100 and an SD of 10. So, a 140 would be 4SDs above the mean.
 
dfib slim said:
It's not scored by how many questions there are. It's all by a mean of 100 and an SD of 10. So, a 140 would be 4SDs above the mean.
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Is there anywhere to read about that?
 
115+ on IM COMAT. Thoughts - just do UWorld IM questions.
 
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postbacpremed87 said:
115+ on IM COMAT. Thoughts - just do UWorld IM questions.
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You didn't read any textbooks? I started reading step up to medicine but it's tough to do after getting home from the hospital. I just shifted focus to uworld questions but am getting nailed because a decent amount of material is completely new/ I never learned anywhere else
 
kabooya said:
You didn't read any textbooks? I started reading step up to medicine but it's tough to do after getting home from the hospital. I just shifted focus to uworld questions but am getting nailed because a decent amount of material is completely new/ I never learned anywhere else
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The multiple paragraph explanations after each question read just like a textbook. I learn more from their explanations than anything. I didn't know about CHADS2, Duke,or Light criteria until I read their explanations.
 
postbacpremed87 said:
The multiple paragraph explanations after each question read just like a textbook. I learn more from their explanations than anything. I didn't know about CHADS2, Duke,or Light criteria until I read their explanations.
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Completely agree with this.

120 on IM.

Did the UW IM questions (only got through like 900 of them, so still a good amount left) and bought the COMBANK COMAT questions the day before and ran through them quickly. They were a total waste of money IMO. Emphasized a lot of stuff that wasn't even remotely tested.

Didn't have time to read any books. Referenced step up here and there, but that was it. Used uworld explanations as my "book" and that was more than enough. I'd assume the outcome would have been better had I gotten through them all.

Also, the Emma Holiday ppts are golden.

Good amount of micro on the test!
 
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MelMcT2009 said:
Completely agree with this.

120 on IM.

Did the UW IM questions (only got through like 900 of them, so still a good amount left) and bought the COMBANK COMAT questions the day before and ran through them quickly. They were a total waste of money IMO. Emphasized a lot of stuff that wasn't even remotely tested.

Didn't have time to read any books. Referenced step up here and there, but that was it. Used uworld explanations as my "book" and that was more than enough. I'd assume the outcome would have been better had I gotten through them all.

Also, the Emma Holiday ppts are golden.

Good amount of micro on the test!
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Thanks so much guys. I was really struggling with reading step up to medicine (which a lot of people recommended) but now I think I'm just gonna be more thorough with uworld.
 
kabooya said:
Thanks so much guys. I was really struggling with reading step up to medicine (which a lot of people recommended) but now I think I'm just gonna be more thorough with uworld.
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Yeah I had initally planned to do Step up, but I've never been a person who could learn from just reading a book, and there just wasnt enough time to read the entire book and do all of the questions. Better retention with questions! Best of luck!
 
Question banks are the best thing to do. For some reason in the past two years, Nbome has gone out of their way to make purposely vague test questions on both Comlex and Comat. I read Case Files for IM, and only did about 250 general IM questions on Combank. I got a 104. I found the questions were a lot more similar to the question bank types instead of case files, and, just like Comlex, many questions just leave you scratching your head.

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Scored 120 on the psych COMAT. Read First Aid for Psych, did UWorld and COMBANK psych questions, watched onlinemeded videos.
 
Taking a non traditional approach to the COMATS...not reading any books. Just doing a ton of questions. Was initially stressful doing it this way because I felt like I should be reading, but it has worked out, so just do what works for you.

Just finished peds and got a 128

Did all of UWORLD, COMBANK, and USMLErx.
 
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MelMcT2009 said:
Taking a non traditional approach to the COMATS...not reading any books. Just doing a ton of questions. Was initially stressful doing it this way because I felt like I should be reading, but it has worked out, so just do what works for you.

Just finished peds and got a 128

Did all of UWORLD, COMBANK, and USMLErx.
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Did you use combank qbank or COMAT?
 
MelMcT2009 said:
COMLEX Qbank . Used the COMAT bank for IM and it was junk
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The entire content of the comat tests, comat qbanks, comlex qbanks, etc. is all garbage. Their questions, explanations, and examinations are embarrassing and have no place in medical education.
 
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jw3600 said:
The entire content of the comat tests, comat qbanks, comlex qbanks, etc. is all garbage. Their questions, explanations, and examinations are embarrassing and have no place in medical education.
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Nah. The combank Qbank is ok. Definitely subpar compared to uworld, but some of the questions are ok.
 
MelMcT2009 said:
Nah. The combank Qbank is ok. Definitely subpar compared to uworld, but some of the questions are ok.
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I mean they might help prepare you for a poorly written test but I wouldn't recommend trying to gain knowledge from it.
 
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MelMcT2009 said:
Nah. The combank Qbank is ok. Definitely subpar compared to uworld, but some of the questions are ok.
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I always thought Combank was detrimental to your knowledge base.
 
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dfib slim said:
You never know. You could have broken 260.
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Lol no. I didn't break 260 because of the amount of stats/ethics on my test. Nothing I saw on combank contradicted anything I read on uworld. Their questions are decent. Their explanations just suck. But to say that it makes you worse off is dumb.

If you've exhausted the other better qbanks there's no reason not to do it
 
dfib slim said:
You never know. You could have broken 260.
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On the flip side, maybe you would have broken 265 if you did combank ;)

Mostly just messin with yah :) the bank is definitely subpar for sure.
 
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I assume you mean just the IM portion? If so, I'm at 74% on timed tutor.
 
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Honestly, peds is pretty tough. I've only done a few questions to check it out, but it's kind of like it's own thing. As long as you have good notes and can review them well, you are in a good place still.
 
recycledpaper said:
127 on IM COMAT.

Just do UW.
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Just wondering, about how many questions did you get through on Uworld prior to your COMAT? For whatever reason, my body has decided to take 400 years to do anything productive during third year. Gotta work on getting that 40 questions + review in 2 hours alá dedicated back!
 
runthiscity said:
Just wondering, about how many questions did you get through on Uworld prior to your COMAT? For whatever reason, my body has decided to take 400 years to do anything productive during third year. Gotta work on getting that 40 questions + review in 2 hours alá dedicated back!
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I did about half of them. Took me awhile too, but it comes back like riding a bike.
 
Bump.

Recommendations for psych COMAT?
 
Would anyone recommend getting the COMBANK COMAT Qbanks?
 
Brorthopedic said:
Would anyone recommend getting the COMBANK COMAT Qbanks?
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I don't recommend them, but for what it's worth I scored 110+ on all COMATs using them with step up and/or master the boards. They are only about 125 questions each and I had maybe 5 repeaters on each COMAT max. You would be better served using UW as this thread suggests in the earlier posts.
 
jrlob91 said:
I don't recommend them, but for what it's worth I scored 110+ on all COMATs using them with step up and/or master the boards. They are only about 125 questions each and I had maybe 5 repeaters on each COMAT max. You would be better served using UW as this thread suggests in the earlier posts.
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Got it. What about the Qbank for the CE?
 
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