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Step I Official 2014 COMLEX 1 Experiences and Scores Thread
Started by YANKEES88
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Can someone give an example of the "ambiguous/WTF/hard-to-decipher" questions that everyone is mentioning? I'm doing uworld, and definitely notice a difference of question style when I throw in a combank set here and there but I haven't really seen any evidence of a crazy question yet.
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"Any word on how long it has been taking for the scores to be released?[/QUOTE said:
for comlex its not so much that there are a lot of ambiguous/wtf/hard to decipher questions, but there are a lot of "why the hell would you ask me that" ... they are so random and they are the sections in first aid where you're like "oh they're not gonna ask me that" and they are not considered high yield.
the usmle has more of those wtf questions
took it yday -- it was a LOT like combank..i had a few repeat questions. micro was straight forward.. oddly my first block was the only one with video questions and audio questions.. also that block seemed to be the hardest in terms of ambiguity/wtf.. i had on average 5-6 questions marked/section that i had no idea about. in addition i had a few i was questionable on.. i feel like that was a lot..ugh crossing my fingers i really hope i did okay. anyone else? 
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took it yday -- it was a LOT like combank..i had a few repeat questions. micro was straight forward.. oddly my first block was the only one with video questions and audio questions.. also that block seemed to be the hardest in terms of ambiguity/wtf.. i had on average 5-6 questions marked/section that i had no idea about. in addition i had a few i was questionable on.. i feel like that was a lot..ugh crossing my fingers i really hope i did okay. anyone else?
Had quite a few audio/video questions on my first block too. The first one took me a while not because it was hard, but I could've sworn I recognized the physician in the video as being one of my professors and the exam room looked exactly like our CSE rooms at my school. Although I could be mistaken because she's a cardiologist and the question had nothing to do with cardiology.
So this waiting is truly awful. I'm supposed to be studying for the USMLE and I feel so burned out. I'd be curious to know if the schools find out our status when we do.
While the exam is kind of a blur, I'll try to do my best to recall what was emphasized. The good news was that my exam was similar to the comsae exams and to combank. I felt like I had seen all the topics before even though I ended up guessing on a lot of questions. I left the exam feeling pretty upset (how most people feel) and right now I'm just hoping for a pass.
As everyone says, micro is a huge component of the exam. ID'ing slides of bugs, knowing how to differentiate presentations (bloody vs watery diarrhea, for example), meningitis, rashes, knowing gram strains, virulence factors, specific characteristics of important bugs. This is all right out of FA. Sometimes the question stems are short and they give you 1-2 details and you need to figure out the best answer. Micro was at least 20% of my exam, if not more.
Pharm was also decently represented across many systems and was similar to the comsae practice exams. They'll ask about antibiotics, cancer drugs, MOA or interactions. I think the big ones are cardio, psych, repro, immuno, illicit drugs and drug ODs.
Some of the OMM was straight forward (ie: viscerosomatics) and then other questions were just weird. Know basic anatomy, basic innervation for different body parts.
I don't really remember the rest. It felt like a smattering of different subjects. Make sure you get enough rest before the exam--and make sure you build up your stamina. The exam is long and very boring. By the last two blocks, I felt pretty dead and I'm sure I made stupid mistakes. If I could go back in time, I would have done more practice questions, memorized FA micro cold, and incorporated more passes of FA into my study schedule. In general, I think the exam emphasizes common patient presentations and basic pathophys. That's not to say there aren't tricky questions - but I think knowing the basics will get you pretty far.
While the exam is kind of a blur, I'll try to do my best to recall what was emphasized. The good news was that my exam was similar to the comsae exams and to combank. I felt like I had seen all the topics before even though I ended up guessing on a lot of questions. I left the exam feeling pretty upset (how most people feel) and right now I'm just hoping for a pass.
As everyone says, micro is a huge component of the exam. ID'ing slides of bugs, knowing how to differentiate presentations (bloody vs watery diarrhea, for example), meningitis, rashes, knowing gram strains, virulence factors, specific characteristics of important bugs. This is all right out of FA. Sometimes the question stems are short and they give you 1-2 details and you need to figure out the best answer. Micro was at least 20% of my exam, if not more.
Pharm was also decently represented across many systems and was similar to the comsae practice exams. They'll ask about antibiotics, cancer drugs, MOA or interactions. I think the big ones are cardio, psych, repro, immuno, illicit drugs and drug ODs.
Some of the OMM was straight forward (ie: viscerosomatics) and then other questions were just weird. Know basic anatomy, basic innervation for different body parts.
I don't really remember the rest. It felt like a smattering of different subjects. Make sure you get enough rest before the exam--and make sure you build up your stamina. The exam is long and very boring. By the last two blocks, I felt pretty dead and I'm sure I made stupid mistakes. If I could go back in time, I would have done more practice questions, memorized FA micro cold, and incorporated more passes of FA into my study schedule. In general, I think the exam emphasizes common patient presentations and basic pathophys. That's not to say there aren't tricky questions - but I think knowing the basics will get you pretty far.
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The previous block's scores were released on the date stated--scores were available a few hours before the email was sent.
I think this is the first year they published a score release calendar: http://www.nbome.org/score-release.asp?m=can My classmates who took the exam before June 12 received them on the stated release day, not before.
I am a 3rd year student but have not taken the step 1 yet. My COMSAE scores were decent but I wanted to take more time so that I will do better on the step 1. Do you think COMLEX usually repeats questions? I have been told what were high yield topics/ questions and I have been studying those topics every day. I also wanted to know if it is doable to study for Step 1 while doing family rotation during 3rd year? Any advise? Thanks.
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I honestly think it would be miserable to study for any of these exams heavily while on rotation unless it's an elective month.
I agree. I wouldn't base your decision to wait on a Comsae score. I think I scored 100 pts higher than the comsae I took.
The COMSAE is a terrible predictor when compared to the NBME exams.
Anyone want to take a guess at when the next round of scores are going to be released next week? The last round of scores were released two-weeks after the last day of that testing period, but for this round that would fall on this Saturday. I'm hoping it's Monday.
I believe they came out a 3:30 pm, the last round.
Do they send an email confirmation, or do you constantly refresh the page hoping the scores will be up?
Yep. I'm honestly expecting the last day of the window they posted just because they can...
Sadistic...
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high 500s.. what does it mean? I came out thinking I failed and have been begging to get 401... I did exceedingly well on subjects I did not study and not on the subjects I studied my butt off.. I don't even know how this happened. Can you list the specialities with 500s board scores? thanks.
660+: FA/Rx, UWorld, Pathoma, and I barely looked at Savarese… in fact I barely studied OMM at all during board prep, although I did do pretty ok during my first two years in OPP. Gave up on Combank early on bc I thought the questions were kind of whack compared to UWorld. Took my chances on the whole "you need to get used to the style of questions" thing and bagged Combank and it looks like I was ok.
COMSAE's were HORRIBLE predictors, for me at least. I outscored both C and D by a good 110-120 points.
Take home: stick with the Big Three and learn well from them. Anything else is add-on if you have the time but I wouldn't let them get in the way. That, and learn your stuff well the first time around during systems.
Agreed about the COMSAE not being a good predictor.
COMSAE D, 5 weeks out- 607
COMSAE C, 2 days out- 680
COMSAE B, 1 day out- 660
Real deal- 810+
I honestly am not sure how I got that score, I didn't even know it went above 800. I felt good about the test, but marked anywhere from 5-13 questions per block. I do mark every question I am not 100% sure on, but still I must have had a really lucky day.
COMSAE D, 5 weeks out- 607
COMSAE C, 2 days out- 680
COMSAE B, 1 day out- 660
Real deal- 810+
I honestly am not sure how I got that score, I didn't even know it went above 800. I felt good about the test, but marked anywhere from 5-13 questions per block. I do mark every question I am not 100% sure on, but still I must have had a really lucky day.
http://www.aacom.org/data/Pages/default.aspx
Go to this page and download the GME Match Report for 2012, its the most updated and hopefully hasn't changed too much since then. The average scores per specialty for AOA residencies is on a chart on page 20. Took my COMLEX July 15 hope everyone is getting the scores they want!
Go to this page and download the GME Match Report for 2012, its the most updated and hopefully hasn't changed too much since then. The average scores per specialty for AOA residencies is on a chart on page 20. Took my COMLEX July 15 hope everyone is getting the scores they want!
For real! That 810 up there is infrikkinsanely awesome and made me feel pretty darn average!
I was label "at risk" for failing for several reasons. My grade in micro/biochemistry was low, I took a year off between first and second year, and I scored a 349 on COMSAE D. I had to meet with advisors who told me not to watch all of the DIT videos and instead do 50 questions from one subject in the morning, study what I got wrong and watch the corresponding video if I didn't understand what I was reading in First Aid/Savarese, then do another 50 questions that afternoon. At 100 questions/day I went through COMBANK pretty quickly and also had to buy COMQUEST. I felt that COMQUEST questions were easier than COMBANK, but that could be because I only used COMQUEST near the end of my studying.
COMSAE D: 8 weeks out: 349
COMSAE A: 2.5 weeks out: 398
COMSAE B: 8 days out: 405
COMLEX: 453
The biggest difference from the question banks and the real exam is how short the question stems are. On the real deal I had a ton of questions, mostly micro, where you get basically a sentence about the patient, age, gender, race, and then one fact about the presenting disease, like a buzz word or a specific growth media, just like Fay8 said. Not surprisingly, Micro was my worst subject.If you really want to do well, and I mean really well, I would suggest that you memorize those Micro pages and every little detail about each bug.
Each subject breakdown was as I expected except Pharm which I scored surprisingly high in. Guess it was my lucky day. I ended up doing 68% of the DIT videos and pretty much all of them were on-par with what was high-yield on the exam. I suspect that the video questions are test questions for now as I hear that those are new this year. I only had one.
Given that I was considered at risk for failing, I'm pleased with my score.
COMSAE D: 8 weeks out: 349
COMSAE A: 2.5 weeks out: 398
COMSAE B: 8 days out: 405
COMLEX: 453
The biggest difference from the question banks and the real exam is how short the question stems are. On the real deal I had a ton of questions, mostly micro, where you get basically a sentence about the patient, age, gender, race, and then one fact about the presenting disease, like a buzz word or a specific growth media, just like Fay8 said. Not surprisingly, Micro was my worst subject.If you really want to do well, and I mean really well, I would suggest that you memorize those Micro pages and every little detail about each bug.
Each subject breakdown was as I expected except Pharm which I scored surprisingly high in. Guess it was my lucky day. I ended up doing 68% of the DIT videos and pretty much all of them were on-par with what was high-yield on the exam. I suspect that the video questions are test questions for now as I hear that those are new this year. I only had one.
Given that I was considered at risk for failing, I'm pleased with my score.
Congrats 🙂
I was feeling pretty good about myself with my 650s, until the dude say he got a 810+. Now i'm just feeling average
Leave it to SDN to make a 240+ Usmle and 630 comlex seem inadequate 
So I just found out the break system is a little different for comlex vs usmle...an optional 10 min break that counts toward testing time?! NBOME must be out of their mind to call that a break. Does this mean y'all took the first 4 hrs of the exam without water, bathroom, etc?
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100? pee break 100? lunch (20 min break) 100? pee break 100?
I was never hurting for time, as most of the questions do not require much thinking.
Yep. Me as well.
I liked seeing everyone's USMLE/COMLEX correlation and hearing about prep, so I'll give an update. Finished UWORLD right at 70%, didn't do a second pass. Finished COMBANK at 82%. Used FA/Rx throughout the year, Pathoma, Goljan audio, UWORLD, Combank. Savarese for a couple days. I highly recommend reading Goljan's RR Path as you go through 2nd year, I wish I would have spent more time in that book. It's gold.
UWSA2 (5/26): 248
NBME 15 (6/6): 234
USMLE (6/11): 244
COMSAE C (6/13): 603
COMLEX (6/17): 645
I am very happy with this score, but more happy to be done with Step 1. Congrats to all who have finished
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