COMLEX Team Fired? Strange Timing?

[JGimpel]

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It looks like there just appeared new job openings at every level of the NBOME, the demons that make the horrible COMLEX exams. It's not like everyone got fired at once or something, but I wonder how long it will take to get things straightened out to make sure the exams are up to par with the AOA AND ACGME standards. It's odd timing to have these postings up there around the same time as the ACGME's pulling the AOA under its purview.

http://www.nbome.org/employment.asp?m=inf

I hope that the new DOs in training aren't affected adversely by this.

 

[Eiot]

Nice work, detective.

 

[sylvanthus]

Awesome.

 

[angldrps]

why were so many people fired?

 

[Dissected]

Holy moly. Those are some big time positions open at every level. Good find indeed. Im curious as to what the story is.

Things are changing, folks.

 

[DrMom]

I got a recruitment email about these positions in early October. It looks like they're restructuring and it encourages those in current leadership positions to reapply. Here's an excerpt:

"Effective January 1, 2013, the NBOME is reorganizing and expanding our National Faculty with new leadership positions and changes in positions for our item writers. Our focus at this time is on the committees that are involved with developing and reviewing content for our COMLEX-USA cognitive examinations and our COMAT examinations. As part of this transformative process, we will be recruiting to fill a number of faculty leadership positions, which are listed here. In addition, we are creating a number of new departments that organize our subject matter experts by specialty, so they can be easily and quickly deployed to respond to the needs of a given examination.

As a result of the expansion and reorganization, all current contracts for Level Coordinators, Vice Coordinators, Level Chairs and related independent contractor positions will expire or cease, effective December 31, 2012. Existing National Faculty members are encouraged to apply and remain active within this new structure."

 

[oms2]

many school districts also use that tactic when they reorganize.

 

[MedPR]

Too big of a coincidence imo. Looks like they're trying to step things up and make it more comparable to the USMLE.

 

[DrMom]

Looks like they're trying to step things up and make it more comparable to the USMLE.

I'm hoping this is their end goal.

 

[JGimpel]

OK, more interesting information:

The leadership at the top of this group:
Senior Vice President for Cognitive Testing
Vice President for Cognitive Testing & Research
are both permanent positions that are supposed to help run the rest of the organization. The only one above them is the President/CEO that probably has little to do with the day to day business of it. The rest of the open positions are for one-year contract positions that do have to re-apply every year. How much quality can you insure if there is nobody looking over the work at the top, and all your workers are temporary? From the faculty I've heard brag about it, a lot of them are hired over others because they can say "I actually wrote question(s) for the COMLEX." I heard the same thing at our school. Once their year is up, they're out and another person is in to mess with the question pool.

I think that this is more shocking than the other stuff happening this week, but it could just be my Xanax wearing off.

 

[nicknickp3]

http://www.aacom.org/news/latest/Pages/gme.aspx

 

[angldrps]

I have read many posts on complaints from test takers who have taken both USMLE and COMLEX regarding how badly written COMLEX is. Hopefully, all this means that they are working on changing this.

 

[HockeyDr09]

Did anyone else notice that the OP's username is the same as the President of the NBOME?

Scroll to the bottom

CONSPIRACY!

 

[angldrps]

Did anyone else notice that the OP's username is the same as the President of the NBOME?

Scroll to the bottom

CONSPIRACY!

WOAHH!!😱 Good catch!

 

[Mosonik]

.

 

[RomanTaylor]

I have read many posts on complaints from test takers who have taken both USMLE and COMLEX regarding how badly written COMLEX is. Hopefully, all this means that they are working on changing this.

The DO I deployed with said the same thing.

 

[JGimpel]

Wow! You guys caught me! I am indeed J. Gimpel (just call me The Gimp) President of the NBOME. I hate myself, all DOs and DO students, in fact, anyone with more hair than me (almost everyone.) I demean students whenever possible, am so horrible to work for that everyone that works for me quits within a year so I just said SCREW IT, make them all 1 year contractors so I don't get embarrassed anymore! If the COMLEX is gone, I won't have a job and nobody else will hire me, so I'll be around forever and just for finding me out...I'm doubling the cost of each of my exams and making them only available in Romanian. Oh yeah, let me add 10 Romanian translators to the job postings next week.

I work at the following address outside of Chicago in a small office on the 2nd floor of the building (not the entire building like the picture implies) that overlooks the swamp next to it. Come visit me there most of the year:
8765 W. Higgins Rd Suite 200 (Da Swamp)
Chicago, IL 60631-4174

A few days out of the year, I go to watch DO students do the PE exam in Conshohoken from my private office on the 6th floor of the same building they're sweating on the first floor of. At any moment, I can push a button and fail anyone I like, so be on your best behavior at all times!
101 West Elm Street (Da Dumps)
Conshohocken, PA 19428

I usually leave around 5PM unless it's Wednesdays where I leave at 4PM to pick up the goat I sacrifice to Lucifer; my half-brother...

You guys are hilarious! Get back to studying!

Sent from my...seriously, change the default settings on your phone, future doctor!

 

[costales]

Okay. Yeah, your exams suck. But you won a T shirt:

 

[JGimpel]

OMG!!! I double dare you to send one of those t-shirts to The Gimp's main address! It might just inspire some sense of humor in the guy and help us all out. He can't get much worse...😀

NBOME will be Hospice in the next 10 years.

 

[MedPR]

I'm hoping this is their end goal.

I hope so too. I've never taken the USMLE or COMLEX, but I've heard that COMLEX questions are not well written and sometimes mirror a troll weed-out UG class.

 

[JGimpel]

The questions are written "strangely" for sure, but can vary greatly in length, difficulty and point value using the current pool of test items and the people that write them. Usually, students can pass the test if they do USMLE World a few times through and pick an OMM-specific resource, like Savarese or Boards Boot Camp OMT Handbook but the questions can be so out of left field sometimes that there would be no way to prepare for them.

Incidentally, it looks like Gimp is now looking for residents to write the questions for the COMAT exams you get while on rotations. It looks like changes from the top down are happening...all the way down.