I was just wondering what everyone thought of the COMLEX exam.
COMLEX
- Thread starter UHS2001
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The test was gruelling, sitting there for four hours straight. The test seemed to focus on bugs, drugs, and dermatome levels. There was very little pathology or physiology. They get very specific on the drugs. The kind of stuff they ask is the things that are in the textbooks, but not always in the review books. They tried to disguise things we are all familiar with by using terms no one has ever seen. There were several drugs I, as well as many others had never even heard of, much less studied. I think they were trying to prove that the COMLEX is no easy test. I guess they figure that may help the test become more well-accepted.I think instead of making the test fair and difficult, they would just ask things in such a way, so that the question made no sense. I can tell you one thing, I spoke to many people (some excellent students and some average) and they all said the same thing, this test will have one heck of a low mean score.
Jay
Jay
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Just finished taking the USMLE...very different tests. I'm inclined to think that the COMLEX was harder. On the USMLE you knew the right answer when you saw it---I'm still trying figure out some of the choices they gave us for the COMLEX. Lots of anatomy on the COMLEX (which I expected), lots of pharmacology (often asking to distinguish between what looks like 2nd and 3rd line drugs to me), and lots of microbiology. I thought it was very clinically oriented.
The USMLE: Lots of graphs and figures and interpretation of experimental results. Seemed to me that if one didn't study to the max but had good deductive skills, then one could do very well on the exam. Very little anatomy, reasonable pharm, picky biochem and molecular bio, LOTS OF PSYCH, good God! Also very clinically slanted I thought. Isn't this Step I?
The USMLE: Lots of graphs and figures and interpretation of experimental results. Seemed to me that if one didn't study to the max but had good deductive skills, then one could do very well on the exam. Very little anatomy, reasonable pharm, picky biochem and molecular bio, LOTS OF PSYCH, good God! Also very clinically slanted I thought. Isn't this Step I?
I also took the USMLE yesterday - thank god that is over. It was very clinical - that's the way it's moving since so many schools are getting the students clinical experience in the first 2 years. I personally like that. I am a much better clinician than a hard scientist. I had one question that referenced a graph that wasn't there (they had to mark it down as an "irregularity"). Besides that - no problems - it was actually not as bad as I thought.
As for all the psych - good god.
A teen-ager walks into your office, what do you say next?
A colleague tells you he's addicted to morphine, what do you say next?
(I'm being a little sarcastic, but those aren't far from the truth)
Anyway, good luck to everyone who still has the test to take. I'll be thinking of you while I spend the next 2 weeks in Belize!!
Good luck all!
As for all the psych - good god.
A teen-ager walks into your office, what do you say next?
A colleague tells you he's addicted to morphine, what do you say next?
(I'm being a little sarcastic, but those aren't far from the truth)
Anyway, good luck to everyone who still has the test to take. I'll be thinking of you while I spend the next 2 weeks in Belize!!
Good luck all!
