Step I COMLEX and UWORLD?

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DiverDoc

DiverDoc

KCUMB 2012
15+ Year Member
Ive heard that UWORLD is overkill for someone wishing to only take the COMLEX? Any DO students out there care to comment on this?
Thanks

For my studies I plan on using the following

2010 FA
BRS Path (like it better than RR)
MMRS
Savarese
COMLEX review (clinical anatomy)
Kaplan Pharm Cards

-----? Question banks
 
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DiverDoc said:
Ive heard that UWORLD is overkill for someone wishing to only take the COMLEX? Any DO students out there care to comment on this?
Thanks

For my studies I plan on using the following

2010 FA
BRS Path (like it better than RR)
MMRS
Savarese
COMLEX review (clinical anatomy)
Kaplan Pharm Cards

-----? Question banks
Click to expand...
If you want to do well on the COMLEX, I'd recommend doing UW. Granted, I've not taken either yet, but UWorld is known for being one of the most solid and relevant Qbanks for both tests. Everyone I know that has done WELL has done UWorld or Kaplan's Qbank.. I'm sure if you're just looking for a passing score, you could go without it, but who wants to barely pass?
 
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Reason the question was posted was because we had a ''board review talk" by someone ? at our school and mentioned that if your just planning on taking the COMLEX, then UWORLD is overkill and will do more harm than good by breaking your spirits (ie, excessively hard)
 
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DiverDoc said:
Reason the question was posted was because we had a ''board review talk" by someone ? at our school and mentioned that if your just planning on taking the COMLEX, then UWORLD is overkill and will do more harm than good by breaking your spirits (ie, excessively hard)
Click to expand...
I think whoever spoke was seriously undercutting your class's abilities. I also wouldn't underestimate the COMLEX's question difficulty. I know plenty of people who scored in a higher percentile (considering mean and standard deviation, etc) on USMLE than they did on COMLEX. Keep in mind that UWorld's questions are very hard - even great students only get about 3/4 right. But you can learn a lot from them because they require you to think in a more 2-4-step process. They test to see if you actually know the material, instead of semi-knowing the material. It's hard for me to imagine anyone at any school that would prefer to stick to the basic understanding when we're training to be physicians and not PAs.
 
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Advice # 1 - TAKE THE USMLE
Advice # 2 - Even if you ignore # 1, & opt to take COMLEX only, get UW. Since there is a more overlap in the way the Qs are asked (for Step 1) I think it will be beneficial.
Step 1 is all about MOA of drugs, weird ADRs, basic physio etc which is covered in COMLEX as well albeit not to the same extent....so UW does help (as long as you do a COMLEX specific Q bank as well since the formats are different).....don't bother with UW for Step 2
Advice # 3 - TAKE THE USMLE
 
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