Failed COMLEX PE can't reschedule because of COVID-19

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crazynoodle512

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I took my COMLEX PE in December of 2019 in Chicago and found out that I failed my exam in February. I was having a serious family emergency at the time of the exam which served as big distraction while I was taking the test. I failed the humanism portion and have worked with numerous faculty members at my school to improve my performance and feel confident in my abilities to retake the exam and pass on a second attempt. I rescheduled the exam for May and found out this week that it is cancelled due to COVID-19. The earliest spot available to retake the exam is June 2nd in Pennsylvania but this exam will most likely be cancelled as well. I would like to have a passing score by 9/15 but it seems that this will be highly unlikely. I will probably have to report my failed attempt with no successful retake which seems like it would be an application killer. I would like advice as to how to approach this when it comes to ERAS and the residency trail. I am looking to apply to IM and to stay in Texas. I am so disheartened right now and would appreciate any advice.
 
Agree with above, schedule the June date and hope for the best. No one knows how this is playing out. Hopefully you'll have a pass before apps go out. If not, apply broadly.

Can I also say that its kind of ridiculous schools are having people take the PE in Dec of 3rd year. You haven't even seen a ton of patients yet, let alone had a lot of time to adjust to 3rd year or study the test much, especially given all the random check boxes you have to do. I'm sorry this happened OP, they shouldn't have had you schedule so early.
 
hallowmann said:
Agree with above, schedule the June date and hope for the best. No one knows how this is playing out. Hopefully you'll have a pass before apps go out. If not, apply broadly.

Can I also say that its kind of ridiculous schools are having people take the PE in Dec of 3rd year. You haven't even seen a ton of patients yet, let alone had a lot of time to adjust to 3rd year or study the test much, especially given all the random check boxes you have to do. I'm sorry this happened OP, they shouldn't have had you schedule so early.
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Our school(same as OP) pushes us to take it during our family med rotation(half the class would be in the fall), because our internal data shows more failures during spring and during 4th year. We have a pretty good program that trains us for the PE starting 1st year. I believe the mindset is that the further we get along , the more bad habits we pick up so it's best to get it out of the way while we're trained to talk to standardized patients in a certain way. I personally took it in October of 3rd year and I wasn't even one of the earlier ones.
 
popopopop said:
Our school(same as OP) pushes us to take it during our family med rotation(half the class would be in the fall), because our internal data shows more failures during spring and during 4th year. We have a pretty good program that trains us for the PE starting 1st year. I believe the mindset is that the further we get along , the more bad habits we pick up so it's best to get it out of the way while we're trained to talk to standardized patients in a certain way. I personally took it in October of 3rd year and I wasn't even one of the earlier ones.
Click to expand...

Every school has an OSCE course, that's not unique. They should at least be doing a PE review shortly before you take it if they're having you do it that early. My clinical site organized a PE prep for all students that wanted it every week in late 3rd year and early 4th, and that wasn't counting the program required for all students to attend before 4th year (granted that added little and was a pain to attend).

I wouldn't have felt comfortable taking it after FM, my first rotation and shelf after dedicated. There's a lot more clinical experience that makes taking the test easier after at least doing most of the cores.
 
hallowmann said:
Every school has an OSCE course, that's not unique. They should at least be doing a PE review shortly before you take it if they're having you do it that eatyrly. My clinical site organized a PE prep for all students that wanted it every week in late 3rd year and early 4th, and that wasn't counting the program required for all students to attend before 4th year (granted that added little and was a pain to attend).

I wouldn't have felt comfortable taking it after FM, my first rotation and shelf after dedicated. There's a lot more clinical experience that makes taking the test easier after at least doing most of the cores.
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Oh I totally agree with it being easier after having having more clinical experience, but you don't necessary need to get every diagnosis right on the real thing to pass. They did give us a short 3 patient mock PE late 2nd year, but it was so short that I didn't think it was helpful. They restructured the OSCE course after 2014 and our pass rate went from low 90s to high 90s, so I guess they're sticking to it.
 
I am sorry about your situation. I would schedule for the first June date. Even if it gets cancelled, I know they are giving priority to people who have already taken PE and need to take it again. My PE for May 11 was cancelled, but when I went to re-schedule there were no open slots. However, a class mate of mine who needs to re-take the PE and also had to re-schedule had a lot of open spots on his calendar.
 
popopopop said:
Our school(same as OP) pushes us to take it during our family med rotation(half the class would be in the fall), because our internal data shows more failures during spring and during 4th year. We have a pretty good program that trains us for the PE starting 1st year. I believe the mindset is that the further we get along , the more bad habits we pick up so it's best to get it out of the way while we're trained to talk to standardized patients in a certain way. I personally took it in October of 3rd year and I wasn't even one of the earlier ones.
Click to expand...

Our school does a pretty good job preparing us for the PE. I don't think my training was necessarily lacking, I believe it was more due to external circumstances happening during the day of the exam 🙁
 
crazynoodle512 said:
I took my COMLEX PE in December of 2019 in Chicago and found out that I failed my exam in February. I was having a serious family emergency at the time of the exam which served as big distraction while I was taking the test. I failed the humanism portion and have worked with numerous faculty members at my school to improve my performance and feel confident in my abilities to retake the exam and pass on a second attempt. I rescheduled the exam for May and found out this week that it is cancelled due to COVID-19. The earliest spot available to retake the exam is June 2nd in Pennsylvania but this exam will most likely be cancelled as well. I would like to have a passing score by 9/15 but it seems that this will be highly unlikely. I will probably have to report my failed attempt with no successful retake which seems like it would be an application killer. I would like advice as to how to approach this when it comes to ERAS and the residency trail. I am looking to apply to IM and to stay in Texas. I am so disheartened right now and would appreciate any advice.
Click to expand...
wouldn't worry at all about being able to register for a PE date.. I had trouble registering 3-4 times in the past and everything was filled up (Including NOW...) when I had to keep rescheduling because my PE date was pushed back due to COVID 19. Every single time I found a spot, however most people do cancel and reschedule since their not ready to take the exam, but they generally figure this out 2-3 weeks before the PE date.. Thus I'd wait 2-3 weeks prior to the date you want because people aren't canceling until they panic and realize they aren't ready for the exam.
 
I've been checking dates every day there is an open date for June 22nd. Do you think this has less of a likelihood of getting cancelled than June 2nd? Considering moving my exam date.
 
I'm sorry to hear this news. But I think Covid is ruining many other things. It was horrible and it also ruined some of my work. I just hope it quickly disappears, I am having financial problems in this Covid epidemic. And hopefully COMLEX PE comes back soon so you can finish it.
 
Hey OP,

I'm in the same situation as you and know of some other people as well. Had my august retake canceled and now stuck in October 7th. Wish they would just blind the results for this year as MDs will probably not have to report CS scores. Seems like they're creating a hugely unfair playing field for everyone. Hopefully ERAS will change their policy to not allow CS or PE scores to be on applications during this cycle.
 
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