Low COMLEX (456), Decent USMLE (231)

[chapelon5th]

Well Just got my COMLEX score back today and was pretty disappointed to see that I scored a 456. Despite scoring so low on the COMLEX, I scored decently on the USMLE (231). I've been interested in Anesthesia for a while, but now I'm worried that my abysmal COMLEX score will keep me from getting an Anesthesia residency. Should I just give up on the dream of getting an Anesthesia residency or will most PD's just see that i passed the COMLEX the first time and then move on to my USMLE score?

Thank you in advance to anyone that takes the time to comment.

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[UnoMas]

Well Just got my COMLEX score back today and was pretty disappointed to see that I scored a 456. Despite scoring so low on the COMLEX, I scored decently on the USMLE (231). I've been interested in Anesthesia for a while, but now I'm worried that my abysmal COMLEX score will keep me from getting an Anesthesia residency. Should I just give up on the dream of getting an Anesthesia residency or will most PD's just see that i passed the COMLEX the first time and then move on to my USMLE score?

Thank you in advance to anyone that takes the time to comment.

Nope. Congrats on the Step score! With that Step score, all you need is a 400. You are in a much much better position than someone with 600-700 without a Step score. Cheers and welcome to the dark side (of the drape)!

 

[Black Coffee 24/7]

Well Just got my COMLEX score back today and was pretty disappointed to see that I scored a 456. Despite scoring so low on the COMLEX, I scored decently on the USMLE (231). I've been interested in Anesthesia for a while, but now I'm worried that my abysmal COMLEX score will keep me from getting an Anesthesia residency. Should I just give up on the dream of getting an Anesthesia residency or will most PD's just see that i passed the COMLEX the first time and then move on to my USMLE score?

Thank you in advance to anyone that takes the time to comment.

Welcome to the real and dark side. Your chances of matching to a solid ACGME Gas program is 10x greater than DO students w/ 700-800 Comlex and no USMLE score.

The Comlex pisses me off. I scored slightly lower than you on the USMLE but slightly higher than you on the Comlex. There’s no reason for that except to confirm that the Comlex is a trash exam that doesn’t really actually measure the real caliber of applicants.

 

[chapelon5th]

Nope. Congrats on the Step score! With that Step score, all you need is a 400. You are in a much much better position than someone with 600-700 without a Step score. Cheers and welcome to the dark side (of the drape)!

Thank you very much for your reply! Makes me feel much better!

 

[chapelon5th]

Welcome to the real and dark side. Your chances of matching to a solid ACGME Gas program is 10x greater than DO students w/ 700-800 Comlex and no USMLE score.

The Comlex pisses me off. I scored slightly lower than you on the USMLE but slightly higher than you on the Comlex. There’s no reason for that except to confirm that the Comlex is a trash exam that doesn’t really actually measure the real caliber of applicants.

Ok, thank you for your reply! Maybe it's because I did so poorly on it, but i agree, the COMLEX is a poorly constructed exam. Never had so many "wtf" moments during an exam before lol.

 

[Peach Newport]

I disagree with you guys’ assessment of comlex. I found it a different type of test from the usmle, but I thought it was a valid assessment of the preclinical years. SDN would have everyone believe step 1 = hard and comlex = easy, but I found that untrue. I didn’t see any questions on comlex that I really thought were “wtf” or confusing.

To me it seemed like step 1 tested critical analysis of the material, while comlex preferred to test quick decision making.

I am not surprised that there are a handful of people who do substantially better on step 1 then on comlex.

 

[DocWinter]

Gas has really dropped in competitiveness. With a 230+ you have excellent odds matching ACGME

 

[shadowlightfox]

I disagree with you guys’ assessment of comlex. I found it a different type of test from the usmle, but I thought it was a valid assessment of the preclinical years. SDN would have everyone believe step 1 = hard and comlex = easy, but I found that untrue. I didn’t see any questions on comlex that I really thought were “wtf” or confusing.

To me it seemed like step 1 tested critical analysis of the material, while comlex preferred to test quick decision making.

I am not surprised that there are a handful of people who do substantially better on step 1 then on comlex.

I think people here on SDN hate on COMLEX as being inferior because it's poorly written, not because it's easier. It doesn't make sense to go on a whole clinical vignette that's 10 sentences long about a woman having primary amenorrhea with messed up FSH/LH levels, and elevated prolactin with an infarction of the pituitary gland caught on MRI, only to end the whole thing with what's the osteopathic diagnosis of L3-L5 on the poor woman....at least that's why I hated COMLEX. No one in real life would even talk about a patient like that to an attending before the physician enters the room... At least the way USMLE/UWorld was written, that's how a physician would want to be introduced to a patient after someone else already interview him/her.

COMLEX is such a trashy exam. I hated every moment of it. I thought it was much harder than USMLE, too...

 

[gergles]

I disagree with you guys’ assessment of comlex. I found it a different type of test from the usmle, but I thought it was a valid assessment of the preclinical years. SDN would have everyone believe step 1 = hard and comlex = easy, but I found that untrue. I didn’t see any questions on comlex that I really thought were “wtf” or confusing.

To me it seemed like step 1 tested critical analysis of the material, while comlex preferred to test quick decision making.

I am not surprised that there are a handful of people who do substantially better on step 1 then on comlex.

I personally found the comlex harder, in the sense that it was harder to get through the questions in an allotted amount of time, but that could be because I went into the exam having spent 95% of my time preparing according to USMLE's format. The exam is technically standardized, but it certainly did not have the refined feeling that a standardized exam has. It seemed like very little consideration was given to the fact that the average person may take >50 seconds to read some of the question stems or watch some of the videos incorporated into that exam.

To people taking USMLE though knowing the exam means so much less helps to ease any worry about performance on the exam. So as long as someone walks out of the exam confident that they passed they have very little concern for the overall difficulty of it. I can say for myself if I had walked out of comlex knowing that I passed I probably would have the same tendency to think that the exam was easier relatively speaking.

 

[deleted407021]

I think people here on SDN hate on COMLEX as being inferior because it's poorly written, not because it's easier. It doesn't make sense to go on a whole clinical vignette that's 10 sentences long about a woman having primary amenorrhea with messed up FSH/LH levels, and elevated prolactin with an infarction of the pituitary gland caught on MRI, only to end the whole thing with what's the osteopathic diagnosis of L3-L5 on the poor woman....at least that's why I hated COMLEX. No one in real life would even talk about a patient like that to an attending before the physician enters the room... At least the way USMLE/UWorld was written, that's how a physician would want to be introduced to a patient after someone else already interview him/her.

COMLEX is such a trashy exam. I hated every moment of it. I thought it was much harder than USMLE, too...

I thought it was harder than USMLE, as well. But I also thought it was more or less reasonable and tested my knowledge base more broadly than my Step 1 happened to

 

[shadowlightfox]

I thought it was harder than USMLE, as well. But I also thought it was more or less reasonable and tested my knowledge base more broadly than my Step 1 happened to

Lol I think my reasoning for why it's harder is different. I wouldn't mind broader topic, but it's the vast unknown that I was struck with. For some reason, everyone else found it easier. I didn't.

And this is to say nothing short of the god damn time limit. My god that timer...

 

[swollcat]

I thought it was harder than USMLE, as well. But I also thought it was more or less reasonable and tested my knowledge base more broadly than my Step 1 happened to

Did you end up performing better on comlex or step 1, relatively speaking

 

[deleted407021]

Did you end up performing better on comlex or step 1, relatively speaking

Better on COMLEX but not by a lot.