Air Force COMLEX/USMLE

[soccerbabe7582]

Hello and thank you for your opinion in advance.

I know this has been asked in the past but it has been a few years since the last time I saw a post on this.

I am a D.O. student and have been preparing for BOTH USMLE/COMLEX. In reality though, I am very confident I can pass both, but know that I will probably score higher on the COMLEX vs USMLE just by the nature of my training.

Given that, when we apply to the military match, do we report BOTH or just one? What I am worried about is that I will score really well on one and average or lower on the other. Also, if I end up deferring, and have one score I am not as happy with compared to the other, I am afraid it will screw me in the end.

Thoughts/comments? I have both scheduled for next week and just can't sway myself one way over the other.

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[eagle03]

Take both (Comlex/USMLE step 1 and 2 ck). Take both b/c the AOA and ACGME merge (if you get deferment). USMLE will always be the standard medical licensing exam. Especially take both if you're interested in a competitive specialty (ENT, Optho, Derm, Ortho, Rads, etc). I have friend in another branch interested in Ortho, and he'll be taking USMLE Step 2 now that he wants to do Ortho but hasn't taken USMLE Step 1. He was originally thinking a less competitive specialty then fell in love with Ortho. Also, a DO military resident asked me what my USMLE step 1 score was for the competitive specialty that I am interested in. There are cases of DO students getting competitive specialties with just Comlex in the military but maybe some of our attendings can elaborate on those students who took both. I imagine it gives you an edge if you did well on both versus DO students who didn't take USMLE interested in the same specialty. Ofcourse, other factors are involved especially in Air Force (FS/GMO stints).

I took both COMLEX and USMLE. Don't let fear of doing well on one versus bad on the other keep you from taking both. Give it all you got! Good Luck!!

 

[soccerbabe7582]

Take both (Comlex/USMLE step 1 and 2 ck). Take both b/c the AOA and ACGME merge (if you get deferment). USMLE will always be the standard medical licensing exam. Especially take both if you're interested in a competitive specialty (ENT, Optho, Derm, Ortho, Rads, etc). I have friend in another branch interested in Ortho, and he'll be taking USMLE Step 2 now that he wants to do Ortho but hasn't taken USMLE Step 1. He was originally thinking a less competitive specialty then fell in love with Ortho. Also, a DO military resident asked me what my USMLE step 1 score was for the competitive specialty that I am interested in. There are cases of DO students getting competitive specialties with just Comlex in the military but maybe some of our attendings can elaborate on those students who took both. I imagine it gives you an edge if you did well on both versus DO students who didn't take USMLE interested in the same specialty. Ofcourse, other factors are involved especially in Air Force (FS/GMO stints).

I took both COMLEX and USMLE. Don't let fear of doing well on one versus bad on the other keep you from taking both. Give it all you got! Good Luck!!

Thank you for your input. For our military application, do we report both scores if we have them or just one? If we can just report one, I think I would feel much more relaxed about it just in case haha