ComBank or ComQuest

[the prodogy]

Which is superior?

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[The kitchen sink]

Which is superior?

ComQuest

 

[gmreed2]

I took the COMLEX Level 1 late in June and fortunately was able to complete all questions from both COMBANK and COMQUEST. I think COMQUEST came out later in the testing season so not many people were able to take it. Tried to remain objective but obviously this is my opinion so here it goes:

COMQUEST

• PRICE: $75 30 days, $120 60 days, $155 90 days, $225 180 days, $350 1 year (not sure about their discounts)
• NUMBER: Website boasts 1,000+ questions. I seem to remember there being ~1,200 (don't have service anymore).
• QUESTIONS: I felt that many questions were more "level 2" material, which makes me believe that they brought down a bunch of level 2 questions and turned them into level 1 questions. There were many questions regarding management that were pretty rough for MS2 knowledge. The majority of the COMLEX is about the "pathogenesis and scientific mechanisms of disease" (according to the NBOME).
• EXPLANATIONS: Explanations are longer. I often found myself skimming through the stem to find what I wanted and it was difficult to review a 50 question test in a short amount of time. I like to see: this patient had XYZ and here is why you should have selected the answer. COMQUEST's explanations go into the details of even relatively easy concepts; sometimes this is necessary and insightful, and sometimes you wish you didn't have to read so much. Depends on your study philosophy.
• SECTIONS: has a Dermatology section. There were a large number of Ethics questions which I don't feel to be particularly high yield (maybe 150 total which is especially pertinent if you select a random 50 question test and get 2-3 each time). Lots of law lingo and consent stuff that I never saw on the COMLEX.
• INTERFACE: The best thing about this bank is that the user interface is very similar in appearance to the software the NBOME uses when taking the exam. Otherwise the setup is pretty standard. I think the lab document is the same content as what you will see on exam day but it doesn't look the same. You can't strike out an answer choice.
• ERRORS: Grammatical errors are present but can be overlooked. There are other errors present (example: staphylococcus pyogenes as an answer choice).
• OVERALL: the content is decent but questionable at this point in time. The bank could use some work refining what they already have, but I would wait until this question bank matures as it is brand new. I'm sure they are still working out some of the bugs. I am concerned about the amount of "Level 2" content that is contained within the bank.

COMBANK

• PRICE: $89 30 days, $129 60 days, $169 90 days, $289 180 days, $389 1 year (10% off on facebook code; I think there was a 50% off or something crazy that came around the month of April)
• NUMBER: Website boasts 1,700 questions. I seem to remember there being ~1,900.
• QUESTIONS: The bank has been around for some time and does a decent job at making them as ambiguous as possible. There are some straight forward First Aid questions, but this is also seen on the COMLEX. The typical outline of a question is pretty indicative of what I saw on test day.
• EXPLANATIONS: The explanations are shorter and more to the point. There are references now with links that take you to Up-To-Date or eMedicine/Medscape; there are many references to First Aid 2012/2011/2010. Shorter explanations allow you to review more questions in a short amount of time. You could also quickly go to the bible and mark a topic you need to review for later.
• SECTIONS: pretty standard and well represented of the high yield COMLEX material: OMM, Pharm, Micro, OBGYN, etc.
• INTERFACE: Lab document is the exact same one you will use for the COMLEX. You can delete tests that you have created in the past. Provides you a graph so you can see how you are improving over time which makes you feel good. You can strike out answer choices.
• ERRORS: Grammatical errors are present but can be overlooked. There are errors present that people love to gripe about in class and on facebook class walls.
• OVERALL: The content was indicative of what is represented on the COMLEX. The bank could use some work refining what they already have, but overall it's good review for the test.

SIMILARITY TO COMLEX
For the most part regarding the "errors," at least from my experience and hearsay, many people love to gripe about a particular question they saw on COMBANK (e.g., "Can you believe that Niacin increases HDL is not the correct answer!?!"). The COMLEX is not so straight forward with the question stems and many times you are left feeling that there are multiple correct answers when, however, there is one "most likely" response. Many questions on test day will be ambiguous and leave you saying "WTF?" I felt that COMBANK had more of these questions which tends to fuel the anti-COMBANK bandwagon.

With respects to whether the COMLEX is actually harder than either COMBANK/COMQUEST, it's hard to say. You're going to read reviews that say both harder/easier for both. What is important is the content review: the high yield topics.

 

[mike1618]

I have to disagree completely with you. I did about a 1/3 of Combank and had to stop because the quality was so poor. It wasn't just the errors. It was the overall quality of the bank. The explanations were very poor. I also found explanations that were word-for-word errata from First Aid. I can see it having value if you were just using it for evaluating yourself, but in terms of a learning bank, Comquest blows it out of the water.

Comquest had very well-designed questions with very strong explanations. The explanations are where the value is at. It sounds like you prefer the light explanations that Combank has. I read every single explanation in Comquest and I feel like that is what made the difference in my scores.

You mentioned that they had lots of Level 2 material, but on my Comlex I felt like it best represented what I saw. Comlex is very weak in basic sciences and more about clinically relevant material anyhow, so I'm not sure how you would draw a line between Level 1 and Level 2 like you are doing. I went through most of Comquest and maybe found a couple of errors that were not content related. Whereas Combank was full of content-related errors. You also mentioned Ethics and Medical Jurisprudence to be too much. I took my Level 1 last month and mine was full of ethics and jurisprudence. The same can be said for my friends who took it this year. Comquest gave me a big advantage with the ethics and law section.

I may be biased on this because I give Comquest a lot of credit for taking my score of 420 on Comsae C to a 660 on Comlex Level 1. I feel very strongly that Comquest will be the standard for the Comlex within 2 years, the same way that UWorld has for the USMLE. Just my 2 cents.

 

[Soccer171983]

I have used comquest for step 2 and 3. I just recently started doing combank for level 3 and have found the questions to be very helpful with excellent explanations. From most the people i know, it seems like it is very 50/50 on step 2 with most people doing combank on step 3 because it is far superior on this test. If it was me i would do both! I do highly recommend combank from what i have seen because the question bank is enormous (2257 for step 3 compared to comquests <1100). Combank is a little steeper in price but they do often hand out 20% discounts that are easy to come by.

 

[faith100]

Since Comquest was relatively new when this thread was started, any updates from people who recently took the exam? Which Qbank do you feel prepared you the best?

 

[Agent47]

I just took mine on June 27th. I used both ComQest and ComBank. This is what I think..
ComQuest - I think it was not bad. It's only good for their explanation. I loved their explanations. I felt like I learned a lot from it. On the other hand their questions ..I felt were lot easier then real comlex. My real one had huge ass question stem where comQ usually have 2 or 3 lines questions stem. COMQUEST IS GOLD STANDARD FOR TEACHING COMLEX MATERIAL.

ComBank - Explanation is good but not as good as Comquest. Question stem were honestly more reflective of the real deal.

Overall, I think...none of these banks actually prepares you for the COMLEX. I felt their questions were much different then Qbanks. These banks help us learn the material ...and that's all...my personal experience...these do not help us prepare for question styles at all.

 

[acesup]

I did comquest and some of the questions that appeared on comlex swear I saw before on comquest.