COMLEX pass rates

[MSc44]

question......
ok after wanting medicine my whole life, and then when i finished UG getting cold feet, then doing a masters in mol bio.......im studying for the april mcats now. My question is this (most likely due to my own neurosis) what percent of americal grads cant pass comlex. I ask this question because i grew up watching my father fail the usmle numerous times, by 1 and 2 points each time(graduated from a school in tampico mexico in the late 80's). My situitation is completly differant then his he was not even a science major was out of school 15 years before he went back to med school had 2 kids a wife family house etc.....I on the other hand am 24 fresh out of school high UG gpa and high Grad GPA. I guess if i did not get into a US DO school I would give st george a try, but because of this incrediable fear i have i want to do all i can to get into a US DO school. I could probably make a US MD school if i do well on mcats but im not the greatest standardized test taker, and i would actually prefer the DO degree. Anyway what is the average rate of first time passers on comlex.........are there people who never pass this exam

sorry if this question sounds crazy, just needed to get it out

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[dr.z]

I think the national average for passing rate was in the range of 80% or little better. I assume there may be people that never pass the COMLEX, but if they don't they cannot graduate.

 

[OSUdoc08]

question......
ok after wanting medicine my whole life, and then when i finished UG getting cold feet, then doing a masters in mol bio.......im studying for the april mcats now. My question is this (most likely due to my own neurosis) what percent of americal grads cant pass comlex. I ask this question because i grew up watching my father fail the usmle numerous times, by 1 and 2 points each time(graduated from a school in tampico mexico in the late 80's). My situitation is completly differant then his he was not even a science major was out of school 15 years before he went back to med school had 2 kids a wife family house etc.....I on the other hand am 24 fresh out of school high UG gpa and high Grad GPA. I guess if i did not get into a US DO school I would give st george a try, but because of this incrediable fear i have i want to do all i can to get into a US DO school. I could probably make a US MD school if i do well on mcats but im not the greatest standardized test taker, and i would actually prefer the DO degree. Anyway what is the average rate of first time passers on comlex.........are there people who never pass this exam

sorry if this question sounds crazy, just needed to get it out

It depends on the school. The national average is 89-90% for Step I. Many schools are above 95%.

 

[InductionAgent]

Anyway what is the average rate of first time passers on comlex.........are there people who never pass this exam

sorry if this question sounds crazy, just needed to get it out

The test is essentially set up so that about 10% of people will fail over time. That is, the mean raw score is scaled to equal 500, and the standard deviation to 79; a scaled score of less than 400 (more than 1.26 SDs below the mean, a.k.a. Z-score < -1.26) is failing. In a normal distribution, approximately 10% of scores have a Z-score of -1.26 or less.

Each school has a different policy on how many times a student can re-take the COMLEX before it is strongly suggested that they consider a different career. I personally know of one guy that did not pass Level 1 until his 4th try. This did set him back a couple of years. The people I'm aware of failing it more than once either lacked discipline and motivation or had a lot going on at home (e.g. a new baby). With the new computer-based testing, you may not have to wait as long between attempts.

Finally, I would bet most people that failed the COMLEX Level 1, especially more than once, weren't asking questions about it years before taking it.