8 Weeks To study for USMLE/COMLEX

[Gandyy]

Hello

I am a DO Student and may be in a predicament. Thus far I have completed my 2nd year of med school in decent standing. Above average grades, with no fails or anything like that.

We have 8 weeks to study for USMLE and COMLEX ( I am taking USMLE as I've been told it will help in the future with residencies)

I am absolutely no genius and would say that I have to work extremely hard to match up with classmates many times, and honestly wonder How I've made it this far.

THE real problem at hand is I have had hardly much time between classes to study for boards.

Is 8 Weeks enough, and does anyone have a general idea or study outline/plan for a below average Medical student intelligence test taker? My goal score is not super high, just a 225+ would be fine.

Edit: I understand that U World and First Aid are staples, but how should I go about using those etc?

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[TheOther]

Hello

I am a DO Student and may be in a predicament. Thus far I have completed my 2nd year of med school in decent standing. Above average grades, with no fails or anything like that.

We have 8 weeks to study for USMLE and COMLEX ( I am taking USMLE as I've been told it will help in the future with residencies)

I am absolutely no genius and would say that I have to work extremely hard to match up with classmates many times, and honestly wonder How I've made it this far.

THE real problem at hand is I have had hardly much time between classes to study for boards.

Is 8 Weeks enough, and does anyone have a general idea or study outline/plan for a below average Medical student intelligence test taker? My goal score is not super high, just a 225+ would be fine.

Edit: I understand that U World and First Aid are staples, but how should I go about using those etc?

8 weeks of dedicated should be plenty. As far as how high you can reach, it'll likely depend on your baseline knowledge and your resilience. How familiar are you with UFAPS (UWorld, First Aid, Pathoma, Sketchy)?

You'll probably want to start off with an NBME practice exam to gauge your baseline. And then hit UWorld hard, referencing First Aid constantly. Learn from UWorld and promote retention either by notetaking/review or making Anki cards. Supplement those two with Pathoma + Sketchy to cover path, micro, and pharm.

 

[PracticeAdmin]

You have time if you push through. Covering both Comlex, required for your license, and USMLE, to be more competitive with some residencies, with a goal of getting 225+ on the USMLE is achievable. I would recommend two passes of UWorld and two passes of COMBANK, which means about 160 questions per day. This should give you time to go over your incorrects. I would schedule your assessments, COMSAE and NBME, every two weeks and review the incorrects and review content in areas your are weak.

 

[Drrrrrr. Celty]

I did UFAPS + DIT. I got through Uworld once and I did about 400 questions in COMBANK. If your goal is to primarily do well on the USMLE then your job is to slowly build a strong foundation within both the foundations of the science and also how to approach the test in a systematic manner that will allow you to not answer questions incorrectly.

 

[Gandyy]

Ok thank you guys very much. One thing I had planned in my head before I read these responses was to just start reading and memorizing 30-50 pages of First Aid (depending on the section), and then doing around 70-100 UWorld questions a day. Supplementing this with Pathoma or Sketchy as well.

Its kind of along the lines of what you guys said. Does that seem too much or too little? Should I alter that somehow?

As far as COMLEX goes, obviously I do have to take that exam no matter what, doesnt going through FIRST AID cover most of COMLEX? Assuming I have my COMLEX date set up for 1 week later than the USMLE date, is that enough time to "cram" the OS portion of the exam?

Thanks again

 

[PracticeAdmin]

COMLEX has a different format and focus than the USMLE. I would recommend going through a Combank or Comquest qbank as your time per question is less than USMLE, and yes the OPP is something that you need to master as the getting these question correct can boost your overall score more than you would think. At this point you should think about going over a little more than 70-100 questions per day.

 

[Gandyy]

USMLE: UFAP method. As they say, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it"
COMLEX: the above + either OMG OMT or Savarese depending your learning style

I'll add that in my humble opinion, COMBANK is atrocious. It's an egregious insult to all DO students that Truelearn considers itself to be a good resource for COMLEX. COMQUEST is far superior, although I'll contend that neither is necessary if you are using OMG OMT and use our practice questions 🙂

Ok thanks guys. Thing I am trying to figure out then is after doing 30 pages of first aid every day (which takes quite some time), how should I divi up these questions from UWorld and whatever other source for COMLEX? Its a pain since I have to take both exams but I also think waiting to study for the OMT portion would maybe not be a good idea?

Also, is that the only real difference between the two exams? Like UFAP should cover everything else on COMLEX right?

 

[Gandyy]

The exams are different in how the questions are written. USMLE tends to be very focused and usually pointed in their questons. There will be one indisputable answer. COMLEX on the other hand tends to be more open ended and vague, requiring some knowledge of epidemiology to make informed choices. Many DO students remark that they don't like how COMLEX questions are written because there is considerably less detail.

Regarding how you divide your time, overwhelmingly students do UFAP for their 4-12 weeks (or however long you are studying) and then tack on an additional 1-4 weeks at the end for OMM. This varies depending on the student but seems to be the norm. UFAP will cover everything on COMLEX minus the 20-25% of the exam that will be OMM, which is significant.

Ah ok thanks very much