COMLEX 1 Scores and Residency?

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Scottistheman

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Anyone know what COMLEX 1 scores correlate to what residencies you can get? Is there anything like the table in First Aid that lists median and quartile ranges of scores for each specialty, but for COMLEX scores?

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The residency Ive seen with stats posted is ortho, but im sure all the surg subspecialties are very competitive.
 
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or ne one know where to get this info from? seems like a wild goose chase the past few days. ever since i got my scores back i want to know what i'm competitive for!!!
 
Best thing to do is e-mail individual programs that you are interested in. The sense I get from doing that is exactly what everyone says...600+ for anything competative (ent, ortho, rads, etc). Obviously if you have some amazing research or somthing along those lines, 600 may not be a cutoff or screen.
 
If you want to find out a round about # do some conversions.
for example.

Avg USMLE is about 217 with a standerd dev of 23. So a 240 would be 1 sd or about 84 percentile. So if ENT had an avg score of 240, and a 240 is about 84%....then just find the 84% for comlex. 500 AVG and sd of 80(I think). So a 580 would be 84% on comlex.

but.... if you are applying allopathic I believe they usually like higher scores comparitivly to usmle.
Now this is just my opinon but a guesstimate that I think works is to take the usmle % and add 10%. Now convert that back to a comlex score. for example..240 usmle= 84% +10%= 94 % = about 2 SD on comlex= about 660.

But like others will say... its not all about boards. The specialty and difference b/t allo vs osteo residencies will play a big difference in what comlex they like.
 
If my score was 597, would i miss those cutoffs for 600 and not be competitve or would that be considered in the same boat? is a 597 competitive for rads, derm, optho? any of those
 
If you want to find out a round about # do some conversions.

It depends when you took your exam.
If you want to know your true percentile, go to www.nbome.org
On the left side of the screen is a link called "Score Conversion." It pops up a little window that calculates your percentile score.
 
If my score was 597, would i miss those cutoffs for 600 and not be competitve or would that be considered in the same boat? is a 597 competitive for rads, derm, optho? any of those

Doubtful that 600 is a cutoff. The cut off is probably somewhere around 550 and then the applicants above that line will be looked at more seriously. I talked to a specialty surgery program thy stated they cut off at 540. It was a neurosurgery residency.
 
It seems everyone is saying that with 600 or more, you should easily get into any DO specialty. Am I going to need something else exceptional on my application to be in pretty good shape to obtain a competitive residency (ei ortho, neurosurg, ENT, ...), besides just rotating there?

Anyone knows what kind of score you need to get interviews at competitive programs without having to do an outside rotation?

Thanks for any feedback
 
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I'm wondering if a Step 1 of 568 would make me competitive for GS, EM, or Urology. Thanks for the thoughts!
 
I was wondering what my changes of landing a good IM residency and ultimately GI fellowship with step 1 scores of 500 comlex/200 usmle?
 
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