New COMLEX 3

[noneofyourbusiness]

Does anyone know what the new format will be in September? How long, how many questions, etc? I wanted to get it done before it changed but I just switched studying from real medicine (acgme inservice) to COMBANK and am positive I'd fail the COMLEX if I took it as scheduled so now I'm unfortunately looking to postpone.

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[908377]

Examination Format — NBOME

Scroll down, the format is there

 

[IslandStyle808]

2 day exam! WTF

 

[BorntobeDO?]

2 day exam! WTF

So twice as much money?
Seriously they are just copying USMLE with making it 2 days.

 

[908377]

So excited to spend another day in that beautiful, clean, quiet testing center!

 

[noneofyourbusiness]

BUMP
Anyone take the test with the new format? What was it like? Any insight??

 

[noneofyourbusiness]

So my understanding of the new version is 140 questions in the morning and 140 in the afternoon the first day. 28 "cases" with multiple selections and free response questions in the morning and another 140 questions in the afternoon the second day.
Is that right?
Are the 140 question sessions the same type of questions as the old format?
I've been using COMBANK and really don't want to be surprised by this thing.
The cases I have no idea about. Are they OMT related stuff or regular medicine questions?
How much is OMT in the new version?

 

[Geraltofrivia]

I studied using Combank. I did not think it did a sufficient job preparing me at all and my reasoning is this:

The actual exam is 6 blocks of 70 questions, 3 hours for 2 blocks.

Day 1: Morning: 2 blocks (3 hours); 2 blocks (3 hours).
Day 2: Morning: CCS (28 cases); 2 blocks (3 hours).

Combank was 40 questions for 1 hour. The actual NBOME website was 50 questions for like 1hr 20 min or something. Both were totally different from th etest. I thought I was running out of time started to rush, turns out I only had another block. I had no idea that the format changed this much. I thought it was just the addition of CCM, not the actual blocks changing. Anyway I feel like I failed and I hope I passed. The combank cases are not representative at all of the cases on the real exam. I don't even know how I would study for the exam again if I could. Probably Uworld for everything. Just an all around horrible test. Never failed a test and I'm terrified I failed this one.

 

[DO123!]

I studied using Combank. I did not think it did a sufficient job preparing me at all and my reasoning is this:

The actual exam is 6 blocks of 70 questions, 3 hours for 2 blocks.

Day 1: Morning: 2 blocks (3 hours); 2 blocks (3 hours).
Day 2: Morning: CCS (28 cases); 2 blocks (3 hours).

Combank was 40 questions for 1 hour. The actual NBOME website was 50 questions for like 1hr 20 min or something. Both were totally different from th etest. I thought I was running out of time started to rush, turns out I only had another block. I had no idea that the format changed this much. I thought it was just the addition of CCM, not the actual blocks changing. Anyway I feel like I failed and I hope I passed. The combank cases are not representative at all of the cases on the real exam. I don't even know how I would study for the exam again if I could. Probably Uworld for everything. Just an all around horrible test. Never failed a test and I'm terrified I failed this one.

What about COMBANK cases make them not comparable to the actual exam? Were they shorter? Or too little OMM? I'm taking the new COMLEX Level 3 in December and appreciate any tips on how to prepare! Thanks!

 

[CajunMedic]

Just took it the last 2 days. Be ready for peds and OB. OMM was fairly straightforward. Those 70 question blocks were LOOOOONG. I did Combank and swear I got some word-for-word questions. Hope you went to law school as well, there are a bunch of medico-legal, ethics, and medical business type questions-honestly some was covered in the corporate BS of my hospital orientation.

Be super specific on CCS, stuff you take for granted, or automatically do in the real world has to be spelled out and selected/typed in. I thought some were tough because I'm used to they way we do things, order tests, etc. at my program and trying to act like a "generalist"

 

[Bbutterfly]

Just took it the last 2 days. Be ready for peds and OB. OMM was fairly straightforward. Those 70 question blocks were LOOOOONG. I did Combank and swear I got some word-for-word questions. Hope you went to law school as well, there are a bunch of medico-legal, ethics, and medical business type questions-honestly some was covered in the corporate BS of my hospital orientation.

Be super specific on CCS, stuff you take for granted, or automatically do in the real world has to be spelled out and selected/typed in. I thought some were tough because I'm used to they way we do things, order tests, etc. at my program and trying to act like a "generalist"

How about biostats? Was there an emphasis put on it?

 

[CajunMedic]

How about biostats? Was there an emphasis put on it?

Not on mine. I maybe had 2 total that wanted calculations and they were really obscure, WTF type, I guessed and moved on. There were also a couple on study design and bias

 

[deleted958798]

The format gives you 3.5 hours total per 2 blocks. That's 140q in 3.5 hours compared to 200q in 4 hours on Level 1 and 2. More time per question compared to Level 1 and 2. Practice exams seem to be bizarre. Scored a 702 on COMBANK assessment, then a 402 on the COMSAE that I took a week later. COMBANK automatically used NBOME conversion tool for score. Not sure how there can be that big of a discrepancy, especially since both scores are derived from the NBOME site directly.

 

[deleted545787]

COMBANK is a very poor representation of the real thing in terms of content, structure and timing. would recommend trying COMQUEST.

 

[King1111]

Could anyone elaborate on general concepts to review or specific high yield topics that appeared on the exam.
High yield concepts in Peds and OB would be great as well!
Any insight into the CCS cases and disease topics to review would be extremely helpful as well. I take the exam January 10/11. I definitely plan to give as much advice to future exam takers once I complete mine. Thanks a bunch in advance!

 

[deleted958798]

OMM was heavy on my exam. When it comes to the CDM cases, be as conservative as possible. You will get partial credit even if you don’t get everything right, as long as you don’t do anything to harm the patient. So when in doubt, just be conservative as possible. It guarantees partial credit.