Why the difference?

There are a lot of great DO students who are smart people, but the truly brilliant folks end up at MD schools 99.9% of the time. I wonder what that 93% looks like if you exclude, say, the top-30 research-based med schools in the country. That is, the Ivy schools, Baylor, Stanford, UT-Southwestern, maybe Duke, Washington U, etc.

It may not make a big difference. Then again, it may.

He's saying that DO students are only passing COMLEX step 1 76% of the time on the first try. Now that I think about it, that can't be right. He must mean USMLE.

And yeah, they're different tests.

TexasTriathlete said:

He's saying that DO students are only passing COMLEX step 1 76% of the time on the first try. Now that I think about it, that can't be right. He must mean USMLE.

And yeah, they're different tests.

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Yeah, that's what I assumed as well.

Tensyle said:

yea but the tests are really similar arent they? its not like USMLE is that much harder that DO students are behind by 17% if they take it too.

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Well, they are similar, but they are also different enough such that if you don't study for both, you may not do well on the USMLE. Also, osteopathic medical students aren't required to pass the USMLE, which could also be a factor.

I think they emphasize different things; I have no clue what though.

If you study for the USMLE you only need to review OMT (and have a magic decoder ring to make sense of many of the questions in general, I hear) to do well on the COMLEX.

However, after preparing for the COMLEX, you probably need to really bone up on biochemistry, molecular biology, biostatistics and psych to do really well on the USMLE. Psych is covered on both, but more in depth on USMLE I believe. And while both cover genetics and immunology, those questions are more highly represented on the USMLE. COMLEX, I hear, pretty much sticks to pharm, physio, path, microbiology, and OMT with a sprinkling of genetics, immuno, and psych.

Not only are the tests non-trivially different in subject coverage, but school curriculums are as well. Biochem, molecular, and biostats are not only more important for the USMLE but are also more emphasized at MD programs (not that all DO schools completely ignore them - some may - but they don't get the same emphasis as say micro or pharm).

Add in the fact that many DO schools specifically prepare students for the COMLEX either through a focused "review" or "integration" type section or course late in the second year, or by arranging for KAPLAN or similar to come to the campus and teach COMLEX review sessions, or both, and you can see how DO students would easily do much better on COMLEX on average than the USMLE.

But remember - that is an average. There are many DO students that do exceptionally well on the USMLE; the ones that realize that it is solely their responsibility to find out what subjects to cover for USMLE and prepare appropriately. I think a lot of students just figure "I'll take both in case I need it for residency" and don't do a whole hell of a lot extra to prepare for the USMLE.

At my school in particular, first time COMLEX pass rates are typically in the mid to upper 90's, while first time USMLE pass rate hovers in the low 80's.