COMLEX Questions

[Ary Lall]

I have a few questions.

1. I know Pathoma is good, but is it worth it for COMLEX? I know it has some very high yield for USMLE, but for those who aren't taking USMLE, is it worth it?

2. For the Savarese, do you recommend doing the practice exams in the back or the end of the chapter questions?

3. Is it true that COMSAEs are not predictive at all about your score?

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[Ary Lall]

Thank you to those that gave their advice 🙁

 

[OneTripAcross]

I have a few questions.

1. I know Pathoma is good, but is it worth it for COMLEX? I know it has some very high yield for USMLE, but for those who aren't taking USMLE, is it worth it?

2. For the Savarese, do you recommend doing the practice exams in the back or the end of the chapter questions?

3. Is it true that COMSAEs are not predictive at all about your score?

I haven't taken the COMLEX yet (I will in a few days) but I can say that Pathoma is widely supported on the boards. I, however, found it kind of a waste of time once my dedicated study period started, but thought it was great during classes. I'm using FA, UWorld and ComQuest and those combined seem to cover path well enough for me.

I read through Savarese once a few weeks ago and did the quizzes at the end of the chapter. After that the OMM questions from ComQuest were easy so I am not going to do the long as hell practice tests in the back of the book as I think they are over-kill.

The COMSAE's are kind of all over the place as far as accurately predicting scores as far as I have read. I am still wondering how well they actually correlate but I don't think you will find a definite answer. I will say through my searches on this website is that they tend to under-predict, and often by a wide margin. The higher you score on the COMSAE's though, this relationship seems to be less prominent and tend to be more of a good ballpark for what you can get. And obviously, there are outliers.

 

[preDoGuy24]

I have a few questions.

1. I know Pathoma is good, but is it worth it for COMLEX? I know it has some very high yield for USMLE, but for those who aren't taking USMLE, is it worth it?

2. For the Savarese, do you recommend doing the practice exams in the back or the end of the chapter questions?

3. Is it true that COMSAEs are not predictive at all about your score?

Pathoma is awesome, why would the path concepts he covers not be applicable to the comlex? Comlex isn't anything different, they just present it in a rough shod confusing manner that purposefully makes you want to hurt yourself. Do pathoma. SCLC is the same if you are taking comlex or USMLE.

Savarese questions are probably good, most things I've heard from the last few people taking comlex is not to focus on techniques but just the classic anatomy, Chapman's, etc that everyone says is high yield. If you aren't good at OMM the extra questions probably won't hurt.

There is a thread with a link in the DO forum with score correlations. I have yet to take my comlex, but have taken one comsae and am taking another one in a week or so. Ask me in July/august and I'll let you know if it correlates with me. Overall I would say it probably gets in the + or - 30-50 points for most people. My first one was a 554 over a month ago.


Tldr. Do pathoma.
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[JSMcTilty]

I love Pathoma, so I'd recommend that for sure. As far as Savarese, I'd say if you have the time, you might as do the practice questions at the end, but I don't think it would really hurt you much if you did't get to it.

 

[SLC]

I never used Pathoma so I can't comment there. I have Goljian Audio and that was right on the money.

My COMLEX was today and now that it's behind me I wish I'd studied more lower limb anatomy, and Pharm; mainly innervations and More second-third-fourth line drugs. One of the questions had a drug I'd never even heard of, it wasn't in FA, and it isn't even on the list in Epocrates for the condition it was being asked about. But when I looked it up by name, there it was and the side effect was just what the question was asking about. I had to use process of elimination on every other drug in the list to get the answer. Luckily it seems like it was right.

Also, the OMM was super easy and straightforward, I didn't eve crack Savarese and I'm sure I got nearly all of them correct. I was shocked when I didn't get any Chapmans Reflex questions, ZERO.

I did get a lot of Viscerosomatic Relex questions, and a few basic treatment questions (like whether indirect or direct was better for a particular application and stuff like that.).

Just study hard, and expect some curveballs. Most people will probably miss them so don't get too worked up over it, but also don't assume there's such a thing as minutiae that won't be tested because I saw it today.

 

[survivordo]

Best way to study for the COMLEX is to study like you are taking the USMLE. This will give you the depth of content knowledge you need. The trick is to then do a bunch of COMLEX practice questions so you get used to their "different" style. I would do pathoma if you have time for sure.

You should do the practice questions in savarese. OMM is a fairly discrete subject area and you KNOW a good amount of it will be on the exam. If you do all of savarese and understand the questions you WILL rock this portion of the exam. Easy as that! Don't give up easy points!

COMSAES are useful for for getting a feel for the exam but yeah... it seems like they can be either spot on... or over under by about 150 pts... so the score will give you a VERY basic ballpark. Still feels good if you do well though!

Survivor DO

 

[BigSib]

1. I know Pathoma is good, but is it worth it for COMLEX? I know it has some very high yield for USMLE, but for those who aren't taking USMLE, is it worth it?

At this point in the game it's probably best to focus on what you feel is your weakest subject. If that's pathology or whatever then go for it.

2. For the Savarese, do you recommend doing the practice exams in the back or the end of the chapter questions?

Yes, but only if you are bad at OMM questions.

3. Is it true that COMSAEs are not predictive at all about your score?

No, the COMSAE is predictive but not perfect. Reportedly a 0.7 correlation for Phase 1. For the best predictive score you should take the test in a library on an unfamiliar computer at 8:00am; take it timed and take it seriously. Unfortunately the score report is difficult to analyze on how you are to improve.

Ultimately you should take as many COMLEX-specific questions as possible. COMSAE's are the best, with COMBANK/COMQUEST a good option as well.