2012 COMLEX Level II Experiences and Scores Thread

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mabinante

mabinante

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I looked for a thread like this and didn't find one. I thought we could use this to give each other advice.

Please post your Qbank averages, practice exam scores and your score on the real deal.
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I was one of the people who was part of the 6/27 test screw-up. I received an e-mail today that I'm getting my score on wednesday, 8/8. This means either the first batch of scores are being released tomorrow and mine is a couple of days late because of the screw-up or that the next batch of scores is coming on 8/8.

Either way release is close.
 
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AnesThrow said:
I was one of the people who was part of the 6/27 test screw-up. I received an e-mail today that I'm getting my score on wednesday, 8/8. This means either the first batch of scores are being released tomorrow and mine is a couple of days late because of the screw-up or that the next batch of scores is coming on 8/8.

Either way release is close.
Click to expand...

Thx for the update!
 
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Just to reiterate for those who are studying for COMLEX 2 CE. UWORLD was good for shelves, but is completely different from the comlex exam. Studying UW for step 1 made you more than adequate for comlex. Not so much this time, as they are two completely different tests. UW will provide you with so much info that you can basically rule out most answer choices. Comlex... well... its like finding water in the desert. They don't give you much information at all.

Comquest was great for me as far as prep. Doing it in sets of 50 prepares you for the real deal. Question set-up is very similar. Content was similar although the real test emphasized OMM much more. Hope this helps!
 
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I took the comlex a couple of weeks ago and here are my experiences.

I dont think this is really an exam a typical medical student can study for. Despite using combank, comquest, uworld, blue print, case files, pretest I still had a lot of trouble answering a number of questions on this exam. I'm sure many of the questions on this exam are easy but the problem is that none of these questions have found its place in the sources medical students frequent. To make matters worse, this exam contained a fair presence of material on what i would deem Step 1 and Step 3. It had some obscure and not so obscure basic science questions and questions that are more appropriate for a 2 year internal medicine or family practice resident. I felt that none of the studying I did matter or would have mattered.

Overall, it was a disappointing experience.
 
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Did anyone take Comsae form A before the test? If so, were they similar? Did you score drop? I know these practice tests don't correlate, but was just curious
 
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Scores are out!!! Passed yay!!!=D=D=D=D=D=D=D almost did same as Comlex level 1

Took exam first week of July
 
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skatalite said:
Did anyone take Comsae form A before the test? If so, were they similar? Did you score drop? I know these practice tests don't correlate, but was just curious
Click to expand...

I took COMSAE A and got my COMLEX scores today...it UNDERestimated my actual score by 77 points...so i actually scored 77 points higher than i did on the COMSAE...hope that helps
 
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DoctaJMa

That does help. Congratulations! How far before the real test did you take form A?
 
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Took a Comsae (forget which) like 5 weeks before test and before studying and got a 461. 534 on level 1. Just got my score and got a 470. Not sure, but I was positive I did better on level 2 and felt pretty confident. Hard to predict, I suppose.
 
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anyone have any thoughts on how an 80% average on comquest the SECOND time around correlates to the actual exam? any personal experiences ?
 
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Did anyone take COMSAE C (school provided exam)? If so how was your score in comparison?
 
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Got mine back today as well. Took it at the end of June.

COMSAE C (3 weeks out): 475
COMSAE B (2 weeks out): 501

Step 2: 648

For comparison, my Step 1 score was a 544. The COMSAE I took before that one overestimated by 20 points.

I didn't use a board prep program. I studied the hell out of Comquest and UWorld...making notes on answer explanations made up about 90% of my Step 2 studies. I ended up with about 70 pages of notes on UWorld and 30 pages on Comquest. For this COMLEX, I spent more time reviewing Comquest than UWorld. As for books, I read Step 2 Secrets twice, skimmed through Step Up to Step 2, and crammed Savarese four days before the exam.

Overall, I'm thrilled with my results. My advice is the same as what most people have said: Q Banks >> books.
 
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I have a more detailed post about my study plan further back on this thread. Took the test on June 29th. Scored almost 100 points higher on Step II than Step I. My Comsaes were okay indicators, but not precise enough that I really trust them. I'm pretty pleased as I was just hoping for a 50 point upward trend.

Just waiting on the PE score now. :/
 
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Took Comsae B in Febuary got a 450, took Comsae A 2 weeks before got 550

Real deal COMLEXIICE 475?!?!
Took USMLE2CK got 230
 
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docman85 said:
Did anyone take COMSAE C (school provided exam)? If so how was your score in comparison?
Click to expand...


I scored 101 points higher on COMLEX level 2 CE than I did on COMSAE C when VCOM made us take it. I think that is because I did a month of intense studying after taking COMSAE C.
 
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Took it yesterday. It was pretty random as expected and I did have the car seat questions. Personally felt it was fairly heavy on urology material which sucks for me, oh well. Fair amount of OB/GYN and Peds. With the exception of GU I wasn't surprised at the subjects they harped on, but a lot of the questions came out of left field. OMM on my exam was fair (but I prepared a ton for it thanks to you early test takers!) it was huge on inhalation and exhalation ribs and treatment of rib segments based on the diagnosis. I was thrilled that cranial was minimal as opposed to step 1. Also, as others have mentioned it seemed like for 50% of the questions there were 2 "correct" answers and you have to guess. Depending on my luck I may have done well, or awful. I'm no superstar like others on here (530 step I) but my goal is 500+ and I have no clue if I will get it.

Also, had neurofibromatosis and PKD genetics questions (like 5 questions) seemed like a level 1 questions and was surprised to see them.

I prepared with COMQUEST and barely got through once. I think it was great and if I could have done it 2x I think it really would have helped (so I would know the most correct thing to do next, even though in the real world you do all the tests at once). Also read most of USMLE secrets. Took COMSAE A 488 and COMSAE B 550, but thought A was easier than B :laugh:, classic NBOME!
 
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Got my results yesterday. Took the exam on 6/29/12. I feel very fortunate as I barely passed. Don't feel like the score is reflective of my knowledge but oh well. The test was tough.

My stats for those of you in my same predicament: (and they aren't good so you'll know I'm being truthful)
Level 1: 430
Comsae c two weeks before exam day for baseline:299 (I crapped my pants when I got the score)
Comsae a one week before test: 345
Consae b one day before test: 379
1500 q avg on uworld: 52%
500 q avg on com bank: 58%
Read through first aid once - read the high yield 10 pages at the back which probably got me 10 points on test day, highly recommend skimming that right before the exam
Level 2: 405

Barely eeked by.
 
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Found out my score today (I expected an email or something so I didn't even check yesterday). I studied exclusively for USMLE (world, secrets) and read through Savarese once before COMLEX and did the OMM questions out of COMBANK. I got a 247 on USMLE, but was honestly not expecting much out of COMLEX. I had a 629 on level 1 for reference. Anyway, I ended up with a 653 and I'm really happy/surprised. I feel like I must have made some good guesses on many of the sequential questions. If you miss some of those I think it can really hurt you since if you miss the first one, you'll probably miss the entire group. I also felt like the OMM was very limited and basic on my test, so that must have helped me a lot as well. Regardless, I didn't expect such a good score. Good luck to everyone still waiting, it's likely to turn out better than you anticipate!
 
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Took my exam on 6/29. As per the usual with COMLEX, it felt like a mess. I was honestly stunned today when I looked at my three digit score to find that I BARELY passed. I felt like I did bad on the day of the exam - but not to such a shi**y degree :(. I'm still in a state of shock as to how my score is so low when I was averaging 70% on both UW and Comquest, I was expecting at the minimum to score in the 500s. This result has just completely screwed me out of most DO residencies. Anyone else in the same boat? My only hope now is to wait for my USMLE Step 2 score. :scared::bullcrap:
 
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Mansion said:
Took my exam on 6/29. As per the usual with COMLEX, it felt like a mess. I was honestly stunned today when I looked at my three digit score to find that I BARELY passed. I felt like I did bad on the day of the exam - but not to such a shi**y degree :(. I'm still in a state of shock as to how my score is so low when I was averaging 70% on both UW and Comquest, I was expecting at the minimum to score in the 500s. This result has just completely screwed me out of most DO residencies. Anyone else in the same boat? My only hope now is to wait for my USMLE Step 2 score. :scared::bullcrap:
Click to expand...

While I do not yet have my score from July 11, I have heard from many classmates the same story. It seemed like COMLEX 2 was a much worse exam and there was nothing that anyone could do to prepare for the crapshoot of an exam and I think even people who scored well will agree with this.

On a side note, having receive my USMLE step 2 scores, I made about how I felt, it seemed similar to the practice exams I took and the score was also within range... Not sure why the NBOME chooses to make such an off the wall exam?!?!
 
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docman85 said:
While I do not yet have my score from July 11, I have heard from many classmates the same story. It seemed like COMLEX 2 was a much worse exam and there was nothing that anyone could do to prepare for the crapshoot of an exam and I think even people who scored well will agree with this.

On a side note, having receive my USMLE step 2 scores, I made about how I felt, it seemed similar to the practice exams I took and the score was also within range... Not sure why the NBOME chooses to make such an off the wall exam?!?!
Click to expand...

Agree and Agree...

I took the USMLE step II on June 26th and scored a 258
I took the COMLEX 2 days later and scored a 550.

There wasn't that much OMM on my test. I think I geared my studying towards the USMLE and it showed in my score. Honestly, I left the USMLE knowing that I had done pretty well... Leaving the COMLEX though- I felt that my score could fall anywhere between 300-700 (so basically I had no idea)

After all is said and done I'm just glad I passed the comlex PE (took it June 8th) and the CK. I might not even release my comlex scores since they are lower then my USMLE and I'm only applying allopathic. Will this look bad? Do allopathic residencies even care about Comlex if you have USMLE?
 
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comlex sucks. If you go in there mentally expecting a fair test, and freak out, you will prob suck.

The good thing about comlex? NO ONE thinks it is fair. And they scale it. Therefore, the stupid questions they ask should be fixed by the scaling.

I had a lot of tropical disease on my comlex. Out of the 100 students that took those questions with me....how many were sure of them all? 5? 10 at most?

Keep ya cool, and remember the scaling. Word.
 
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Took mine July 2nd and just checked my score.
COMSAE A: 502 before really getting into the study grind.
COMSAE B: 583 after about 4 weeks of studying hard and 1 week before the exam.
COMLEX II: 653, from 602 on level 1.

My insight:

Regarding the "vague questions" that everyone complains about and the "unimportant, irrelevant material" that people claim to be all over the exam, I have one piece of advice that helped me tremendously. COMLEX gives you facts in the question stem, and while some of these facts seem irrelevant, they aren't. If you are stuck between 2 answer choices, go back to the question and relate every single bit of information to your 2 possible answers. One of them will encompass everything and one of them won't. Do that and you'll eliminate some headaches, even though it may take a bit more time. Practice this strategy on your COMBANK questions and on your COMSAE and I can guarantee it'll help anyone who doesn't already do it.
 
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After having to reschedule my CE due to the July 27th fiasco, I took it today. First half seemed better. Longer stems, fewer vague questions, more straight forward. Second half was similar to everyone else's experiences. Many more one line stems, random bugs and drugs, etc. Overall I feel alright. Took USMLE Step 2 CK and scored a 246 so I'm not too worried about my COMLEX CE score. I'd say at least 15% of my test was urology. Very few (single digits) questions on HTN, DM, CAD, etc. OMM was pretty straight forward. Lots of Chapmans Points and sacrum. Surprising amount of questions related to head pathology and wanting to know what bone or muscle was causing the problem. The images were poor quality, especially radiographs.

I'm glad to be done with this test. It's been the bane of my existence ever since I had to reschedule. Trying to study while on an AI is less than ideal. Haven't done any qbanks since I took it the first time. I was worried that may hinder my capability to score well. Luckily I think I kept enough of my knowledge to get a score I'm happy with.

Now I can do ERAS and move on with applying to residency.
 
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Mansion said:
Took my exam on 6/29. As per the usual with COMLEX, it felt like a mess. I was honestly stunned today when I looked at my three digit score to find that I BARELY passed. I felt like I did bad on the day of the exam - but not to such a shi**y degree :(. I'm still in a state of shock as to how my score is so low when I was averaging 70% on both UW and Comquest, I was expecting at the minimum to score in the 500s. This result has just completely screwed me out of most DO residencies. Anyone else in the same boat? My only hope now is to wait for my USMLE Step 2 score. :scared::bullcrap:
Click to expand...

Hey man, at least you passed. That means you don't ever have to take this exam again and can move on enjoying your last year of medical school. I'm still waiting for my score, and to be honest, I'll be estatic if I pass. The test felt that bad.
 
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Got my score back: 604. Slight increase from my 601 on Level 1. Good enough for me. Also found out on Tuesday that I passed the PE, so I'm done with COMLEX until next year.

I was aiming for a good score on the USMLE and just aimed for a comfortable pass on the COMLEX, so all I can do is give advice to people with the same focus:
Schedule your tests so that you take USMLE 1st, and COMLEX 2nd. (The days between is up to you and how much time you want to spend reviewing OMT.) Use Uworld to prep for the USMLE--it will serve you well. After that test, review the OMT source of your choosing, and you should comfortably pass COMLEX 2 CE.

COMBANK and COMQUEST might raise your score above the "comfortable pass" level I was shooting for; but it's up to you to decide whether a higher score on COMLEX 2 is really worth the cost and effort of one of those question banks in addition to UWorld.

Good luck, folks. And good-bye to the Step 2 forums forever!
 
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Out of curiosity: to those who got their scores back yesterday, when did you take the exam?

I'm trying to figure out some sort of pattern in score releases (though I speculate that it is totally random).
 
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ok. just took it today. Everything everyone else said was mostly true. I had a ton of omm; sacral diagnosis, cranial mechanics, ankle joint. Chapmans points, how to treat rib dysfunctions and diagnose. There was soo much omm

Other subjects in this order regarding amount:
OB
GYN
Peds
musculoskeletal
GI
Legal/ethics
Pulm

Didn't have the car seat question. I had absolutely no calculations. I felt like it was fair. There were a few off the wall questions....like JACO and hospital liscensure. But, I agree with a previous statment made earlier...if you read the question and felt as though there were multiple correct answers, there was definitely clues in the stem to point you in the right direction. However, I feel like the stems were longer than I expected..compared to comquest anyway.
 
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skatalite said:
ok. just took it today. Everything everyone else said was mostly true. I had a ton of omm; sacral diagnosis, cranial mechanics, ankle joint. Chapmans points, how to treat rib dysfunctions and diagnose. There was soo much omm

Other subjects in this order regarding amount:
OB
GYN
Peds
musculoskeletal
GI
Legal/ethics
Pulm

Didn't have the car seat question. I had absolutely no calculations. I felt like it was fair. There were a few off the wall questions....like JACO and hospital liscensure. But, I agree with a previous statment made earlier...if you read the question and felt as though there were multiple correct answers, there was definitely clues in the stem to point you in the right direction. However, I feel like the stems were longer than I expected..compared to comquest anyway.
Click to expand...
The best was the full-page questions that ask "What spinal level?" You'd think I would have learned and read ahead to see what I'd be asked.
 
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Took this monstrosity today...felt like i had a lot of OMM ... i felt like the test was fair overall....i had about 60% medicine questions and 40% WTF ones...had tons of weird OB , GYN , pulm, GI, renal, weird MRIs and CTs ... had some buzz words and i was pleasantly surprised! had a fair amount of OMM...rib dysfunctions and how to treat them...if u have a basic idea of how to treat ribs, it was fair game....had cranial but nothing too complicated , I think savarese was sufficient to prepare me for this...had to thank comquest for those legal terms and service terms etc ... felt the question stems were definitely long ... i started getting tired towards the end and was annoyed that the question started with one disease and ended up something completely different....I marked about 110 questions overall...which is the same number i marked for step 1 ... if i do the same as step 1 i'll b a bit disappointed..hoping for something a little bit better then step 1 score...i guess we'll find out in 6 wks....would definitely recommend comquest...i got a bunch of questions because of that wonderful qbank...at the end of the day, its THE COMLEX...super vague as always...gonna pray until the scores come up :-/
 
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I agree. The stems were super long ....only to have some basic question at the end that didn't require the epic paragraph preceding it. I was surprised and annoyed b/c I ran out of time and had to rush on a few blocks. I had a good bit of images as well. Mostly MRs and CXRs. I had like 4-6 EKGs as well.

Also, at least 50% of the questions were 2-3 part, so if you messed up the first one, you could easily get screwed on a lot of questions.


I am also pissed b/c I had a question about hospital accreditation. How in the hell am I suppose to know that? I went through all of the comquest questions and not one of them was about hospital accreditation. I mean, it wasn't even an easy question..like, what is the name of the organization responsible for approving hospitals are accredited? It was more specific about what actually happened if they failed the review etc. sooooo ridiculous. Out of all the bookoos of medical knowledge that we learn, they couldn't dip into some of that? I mean what the hell!!!
 
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skatalite said:
I am also pissed b/c I had a question about hospital accreditation. How in the hell am I suppose to know that? I went through all of the comquest questions and not one of them was about hospital accreditation. I mean, it wasn't even an easy question..like, what is the name of the organization responsible for approving hospitals are accredited? It was more specific about what actually happened if they failed the review etc. sooooo ridiculous. Out of all the bookoos of medical knowledge that we learn, they couldn't dip into some of that? I mean what the hell!!!
Click to expand...

Yea I had some like that. Not about accreditation but instead dealing with ancillary roles in the hospital and their responsibilities like social workers and case managers. Pretty much just a "eeny, meeny, miney, moe" type of deal. Seemed like stuff I could've picked up on rotations had I paid attention. I'll learn it well in internship.
 
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