Failed Comlex Level I

[fortunate]

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Well, the grades for Level I COMLEX were recently posted and no good news for me.
What does normally happen in this case?

I wonder if I can still graduate in my year?

There is no way to begin the rotations before I pass Level I, so I guess I'll have to skip ~15 weeks of rotations to have enough time to study and to get my second score back.
I wish I reviewed something after the test, I feel that I forgot everything in 5 weeks!

Losing a year would be losing an enormous amount of money (interest and a year lost from my professional career).
Is that possible to squeeze 15 weeks of rotations into the breaks b/w 3&4 and during 4-th year.

For now I am planning to sign up for COMBANK again. As well as KAPLAN for Comlex question bank. At nights I would review the First Aid and OMT Review green book. And hopefully, the second attempt will be more successful.

Please, let me know if you have some experience here. Anyone who failed Level I the first time?

Thanks.

 

[blahwhatever]

I thought the COMLEX questions were harder than COMBANK. Uworld question style wasn't completely representative of COMLEX questions either, but I felt that it trained me to handle questions that were challenging. I would say, sign up for Uworld instead of Kaplan.

That being said I thought my COMLEX exam question style and difficulty was closest to COMSAE C, so if you haven't done that in the past, I would recommend COMSAE B and C. It's also a great way to gauge where you're at before the exam.

I would also recommend Kaplan videos, I watched the 2007 version. I'm a super slow reader, so the videos helped me a lot. The videos helped me understand concepts more than reading books. I mainly used Kaplan Videos (used Kaplan notes to follow along) + First Aid (I used it a lot, but didn't read it cover to cover like most people and did not annotate. I did try to completely memorize their Micro & Pharm sections after watching Kaplan videos though) + Savrese OMM Book + Uworld (Didn't complete, probably did about 55% of Qs) + Combank (Completed).

Hope this helped, good luck!

 

[desijigga]

I am sorry that you did not pass, I know it must be real hard but sometimes things like these happen. I have to say one thing, Comlex was the worst written exam I have ever came across in my short life. Even a monkey with no thumbs probably could have written better questions.

So what you should do is focus on FA + OMM green book+ Uworld + goljan audio (I know he is more for the usmle, but he really did help me integrate things). Know FA cold, I don't think anything else will come close to just knowing FA. Don't waste your money on combank, it was a useless q bank. I realize uworld is hard, but seriously its the best. Just do Comsae C towards the latter end of your studying like 1 or 2 weeks before you actual test date.

Keep your head up, what doesn't kill you only makes you stronger. Good luck

 

[tkim]

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/574821/Medicine/comlex.pdf

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/574821/Medicine/Cram%20Pages.pdf

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/574821/Medicine/simmonsquestions.pdf

Good luck.

 

[DiverDoc]

I recommend FA + USMLErx to master FA.

COMBANK questions

All 3 forms of COMSAE

Savarese

Thats what I did and it served me well. Dont beat yourself up with Uworld, when it will train you to over-think questions

 

[Aconquerer]

Fortunate, you are not alone. I also recently found out that I failed Comlex 1 :-( . But I know that we can and will overcome this!!

My school doesn't require me to take time off to study for it again. I've started rotations and am required to take it before moving on to 4th year. I'm trying to figure out how to balance rotations, studying for the shelf, and boards at the same time but I'm hoping that rotations like internal medicine, peds, and obgyn, all of which I have first, might help me to retain some of the information by seeing it applied. I also thought COMBANK wasn't the greatest QBank, and plan to try again using UW, FA + USMLERx + Kaplan videos. Oh, and Saverese of course. Then i'll take COMSAE'S in between.

I've also played with the idea of studying hard for the USMLE 1 now and taking a few NBME exams to see if I can do well enough on that exam to make up for this bump. What do you guys think? (Don't mean to hijack Fortunate!)

 

[fortunate]

🙂
No problem.

I see most of you guys recommend UW questions bank. I looked at them briefly while studying for the first time. They were very well written, multi-step question that make you think. The explanations were also superb. However, in my opinion, they were very far for actual Comlex questions. I thought they were great learning tool, especially for USMLE, but very low yield for Comlex. Also, they would take forever to go over and I have to retake the test hopefully ASAP so I could begin my clinical rotations.
Similarly I listened to Goljan twice and he is Great but not really teaching you for those weird Comlex questions.

I did all the Combank and I was not the greatest representation of Comlex. I might try Kaplan for Comlex now.

I feel that during these 5 weeks of waiting and not studying I forgot everything. But re-reading the FA from page one might be also not very efficient... I guess I will start with the questions right away.

I wonder what could happen to me graduation wise. If I study for ~10 weeks, then wait for the results... Not sure if I would gradate with my year. Considering my loans, the interest, etc... - it's a disaster.

Thank you everyone for your advices and your sincere support!!!

Any more ideas?

 

[DocInProgress]

I thought COMBANK questions were the most similar to the COMLEX questions. In fact, I had 5-6 questions from COMBANK that were almost word-for-word similar.

What I suggest: COMBANK, UWORLD, FA, RR PATH, and COMSAE's.

 

[sexyman]

kaplan for comlex is absurdly easy- i dont think i would bother with that.

Like the others have said- Uworld is a great tool, you will learn a lot of medicine with World- and i strongly recommend Doctors in Training. I think Dr. Jenkins was on the money- I havent gotten my score back yet but I felt comfortable during the exam and like I said DIT was great.

So UWORLD + DIT + FA is my recommendation

 

[mutualfreedom]

I'm in the same boat too, failed the COMLEX 1. I used FA and COMBANK to study the first time.

I have rescheduled for the end of August. Using FA again, and got USMLErx for questions. Scores are still not high enough on USMLErx. I don't think COMBANK had enough questions to cover enough for the COMLEX; so I'm not getting it again. Using the COMSAE's to evaluate my scores until the test day.

When are you guys taking the exam again? Any other suggestions?

 

[nlax30]

I'll also recommend UWORLD. Used it when I did step 1 for both USMLE and COMLEX studying and liked it better than COMBANK or Kaplan question banks.

Also, do you have access to the Kaplan Step 1 Videos? We had access to those through school and I thought for the most part they were a great resource, especially Path, Pharm, Biochem, and most of the Physio. It can take a LOT of time to get through them so might be something to pick and choose certain topics to refresh on if you need actual lectures.

 

[ItsNotLupus2012]

Has anyone taken their test in the last few days? Some tips for places to concentrate during my last two weeks of studying would be great. I really have been focusing on Micro, Path and Pharm. Any experiences on how the test has gone in the past few weeks would be great.

 

[mutualfreedom]

I'd appreciate a heads up as well, anyone out there? 🙂

 

[mutualfreedom]

Passed! Life moves on! Thanks for the support guys!

 

[sportsfan]

hey mutual,

what did you use to study the second time around? I used FA, COMBANK, and DIT the first time through, I took 2 comsaes and got in the 450s on both. I even felt like I did well enough to pass on the actual test, but I failed by 1 point. I'm in the dumps right now, and don't know yet what my school's policy is, but I want to get started on planning how I'm going to attack it this time. What did you think worked when going back through?

 

[kabirm]

hey mutual,

what did you use to study the second time around? I used FA, COMBANK, and DIT the first time through, I took 2 comsaes and got in the 450s on both. I even felt like I did well enough to pass on the actual test, but I failed by 1 point. I'm in the dumps right now, and don't know yet what my school's policy is, but I want to get started on planning how I'm going to attack it this time. What did you think worked when going back through?

Hey Sportsfan couple questions-

1. Would you have done anything different through your first years to help you overcome this slump?

2. What did you think about DIT?

3. How much time did you have to study (I have very little time, thats why I ask)?

4.And would you say that Combank questions were easily answerable with using DIT/FA?


Again i'm sorry your in the position your in, I'm sure you can overcome it- as you have overcome so many hurdles to get where you are to- getting into medical school, completing medical school, and now dealing with this score hump. Your answers will provide good guidance for my next year- so I appreciate your time/and responses.