Official 2015 COMLEX Level 1 Experiences and Scores Thread

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I realized no one made a thread for 2015 so decided to make one. Anyone take the January 6 or 22 test? There's a Feb date coming up soon too. How was it? What did you use to study and would recommend to future test-takers? Anything particularly high-yield? Good luck everyone!
 
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EmergDoc2B said:
I got this response from NBOME when I asked about rescoring and if I chose to do so could it actually lower my score.
"In all likelihood, there will be no change whatsoever. While the NBOME does admit a possibility that a score can fluctuate upon verification, as of now, all score confirmations ever conducted have shown no change in results from the initial scoring."
Sounds like a waste of 50.00$.
I was one of those who underperformed compared to my comsae avg , <600 (see previous post with test scores if you care). I'm also in the camp of doing very well on the USMLE >240, so go figure. Im going for EM ACGME or AOA so Im positioned well but the COMLEX was a tough shot to the ego.
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You can ask the advisors at your school how most people did in comparisons to their comsaes to get an idea of whether the NBOME really is screwing people over this year. That's what I'm doing, anyways.
 
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COMLEX 609

Sorry to all those who felt cheated by COMLEX. I felt equally duped after the exam but somehow managed a pretty good score. I never took any COMSAEs, just NBMEs where I ranged from 225 to a 251 one week before USMLE. Also went through UWorld throroughly.

While I am relieved by my score, I am still angry about what I felt was a poorly written, cheap-shot ridden, ambiguous exam. I really hope the AOA gets their act together or even better, with the impending merger, that future DO students are able to take USMLE with a supplementary OMM exam tacked on or something.

My advice to those who still haven't taken COMLEX: study for USMLE, give Savarese a read to get down core concepts, and do COMBANK OMM Qs. The rest of COMBANK I found to grossly misrepresent the "difficulty" of the actual exam.
 
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I'm not complaining about my score, but I am mad about my score in comparison to the Comsaes.
I don't think they adjusted the scores for how much more difficult they made the exam.

Comsae D >670
Comsae C >700
Comsae B >660
Actual comlex- 630s

As a side note I thought my comlex was much harder than the usmle
Usmle- 250+
 
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Alright,

Took my USMLE and COMLEX about 8 days apart

50th or so percentile in my class.

I had about 8 weeks for dedicated. I mainly used Uworld and supplemented it with FA, Pathoma, Combank, and Saverese.

NBME 13: 226, 5 weeks out
COMSAE A: 543 5 weeks out
The above two were my baseline. I was really surprised by the scores because I felt like I knew zilch, and really I didn't. Took NBME first and then COMSAE a day later to make sure that my NBME score wasn't a fluke. I chalk these scores up to me being good at multiple choice tests because at this point I had done only 10% of uworld and barely went through FA. If you had asked me anything about any topic, I wouldn't know the answer.
NBME 15: 239, 2-3 weeks out
NBME 17: 230 5 days out from usmle ....this really crushed me as I was hoping for an upward trend and looking to break 240.
Free 138: around 84% I believe...1 day before usmle

Uworld: 66%
Combank (did half of it): 76%

How the exams went down:
I was really scared about the length of the question stems in the USMLE, but I found them to be okay and not too lengthy probably because this fear was hammered into my head. I managed my time well which is the opposite of how it went down with my NBMEs. I walked out feeling that the questions were doable, even the ones I knew on which I had no idea what the answer was. I chalked that up to my lack of knowledge. Even then, I felt like I did terrible on the exam.

First couple of days after usmle, I goofed around and did nothing. Then, I read Saverese and did all of the OMM questions from Combank which sat at a completed 20%. After which, I did the remaining 30% of combank questions the last 3 days before my Comlex. I def do not recommend taking this long b/n the exams. Max should about 5 days. I felt like I was forgetting information.

I felt the comlex questions were really short, questions fairly simple in the beginning with progressing difficulty. A LOT of Micro questions which sucked because that was my weakest subject going in but surprisingly my best subject according to my score report . Lots of OMM which I thought was average difficulty. I didn't manage my time well. I hate the break system they have set up, it is so counterintuitive. The exam was more of a blur than usmle.

USMLE: low 230s
COMLEX: low 600s

I felt relieved but disappointed by my scores because I felt like I sold my self short. I know I could've scored > 240 and >650 given my baseline scores. I think this happened because I slacked off a lot, didn't really have a schedule set up, and took way too many breaks throughout the days.

The reason I did above average is because I really focused on concepts and not on memorization. I made sure that I had the common concepts down and that I was able to apply them to many situations. This was key.

I also didn't memorize everything in FA, I just made sure I understood most of it so even if a question came up for something I didn't cover, I would be able to reason out the answer. There was a lot of stuff that I chose to ignore in FA simply because it was too boring which was probably not the right thing to do given I didn't meet my goals. So key is to the get the concepts down and then fill it in with memorization.

All in all I highly recommend doing Uworld even if you're only taking the comlex. Focus on concepts, don't just do rote memorization. You don't have to know everything, you have to know enough. And also, work on your test taking skills!

Hope this helps.
 
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COMSAE form C- 460 (2 weeks out)
COMSAE form E- 478 (1 week out)

COMLEX form OMGWTF- 387


:smack:Still scratching my head/ losing sleep on this one... It was definitely a hard test, much more difficult than any of the COMSAEs or COMBANK but a drop of 90 points just doesn't seem right. Obviously I wasn't going in there expecting a 600+ but I at least felt confident I would pass.

Went ahead and paid the $50 sucker fee for "confirmation". I'm not expecting it to change, but the drop is so drastic I still haven't fully accepted it.

Guess I'll just have to somehow get over this and try again.

PS- I've been lurking here for weeks and I joined SDN specifically to contribute to this thread. Ya'll seem like good folks (yes even the gunners)
 
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2cool4stool said:
COMSAE form C- 460 (2 weeks out)
COMSAE form E- 478 (1 week out)

COMLEX form OMGWTF- 387


:smack:Still scratching my head/ losing sleep on this one... It was definitely a hard test, much more difficult than any of the COMSAEs or COMBANK but a drop of 90 points just doesn't seem right. Obviously I wasn't going in there expecting a 600+ but I at least felt confident I would pass.

Went ahead and paid the $50 sucker fee for "confirmation". I'm not expecting it to change, but the drop is so drastic I still haven't fully accepted it.

Guess I'll just have to somehow get over this and try again.

PS- I've been lurking here for weeks and I joined SDN specifically to contribute to this thread. Ya'll seem like good folks (yes even the gunners)
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Ugh this is my fear. I'm sorry. This is why I am pushing people to complain to NBOME.
 
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What do I complain about and to whom do I complain? I wouldn't know what to say? "Yes sir, that's correct. I got spanked by your test and I'm not happy about it!"
 
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Has anyone heard when the next batch of scores will be released? I know that the NBOME says Aug 6-10, but since all results up to June 26th have already been released and was scheduled up until July 28th I was hoping there my might be a chance for the next batch to come out early.
 
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2cool4stool said:
COMSAE form C- 460 (2 weeks out)
COMSAE form E- 478 (1 week out)

COMLEX form OMGWTF- 387


:smack:Still scratching my head/ losing sleep on this one... It was definitely a hard test, much more difficult than any of the COMSAEs or COMBANK but a drop of 90 points just doesn't seem right. Obviously I wasn't going in there expecting a 600+ but I at least felt confident I would pass.

Went ahead and paid the $50 sucker fee for "confirmation". I'm not expecting it to change, but the drop is so drastic I still haven't fully accepted it.

Guess I'll just have to somehow get over this and try again.

PS- I've been lurking here for weeks and I joined SDN specifically to contribute to this thread. Ya'll seem like good folks (yes even the gunners)
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That sucks, dude. I'm sorry. That could just has easily have been me. I also had a huge drop from my COMSAE scores, but somehow stayed in the pass range.

At least you seem to have a good attitude about it - that's actually more impressive to me than a 700.

Good luck!
 
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11m3wib.jpg
 
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^ There is COMSAE E. But you have to pay to school and they will buy it for you. Its not on NBOME site.

May I ask, was COMSAE E different from any other COMSAEs? Is it worth doing it if you have done B, C, D?
 
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2cool4stool said:
What do I complain about and to whom do I complain? I wouldn't know what to say? "Yes sir, that's correct. I got spanked by your test and I'm not happy about it!"
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I would look at the comlex 2 thread linked on an earlier page. You can probably get ideas from the posts on there and possibly PM some of the users to ask what they did. Because whatever they did, it worked. They got, on average, fifty points added to their scores. If that doesn't worked I'd call and email NBOME client services (listed on their website) and tell them you saw it's a rescore year and that you've talked to many other students who have had huge drops in their scores since their comsaes and you're extremely upset and wondering if they're going to change our scores like what happened to people in the comlex 2 rescore. You should also ask your advisor if a lot of students dropped from their comsaes to their comlex and if it's a substantial number of students consider asking your student government to contact NBOME and demand a change.
 
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xrealityx said:
I would look at the comlex 2 thread linked on an earlier page. You can probably get ideas from the posts on there and possibly PM some of the users to ask what they did. Because whatever they did, it worked. They got, on average, fifty points added to their scores. If that doesn't worked I'd call and email NBOME client services (listed on their website) and tell them you saw it's a rescore year and that you've talked to many other students who have had huge drops in their scores since their comsaes and you're extremely upset and wondering if they're going to change our scores like what happened to people in the comlex 2 rescore. You should also ask your advisor if a lot of students dropped from their comsaes to their comlex and if it's a substantial number of students consider asking your student government to contact NBOME and demand a change.
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Just thinking out loud here...if they are just going to give points back to EVERYONE, then it shouldn't matter that everyone's scores are lower across the board, right? I mean, percentile-wise, things shouldn't change if they brought everyone's scores down accordingly. The people you (we) will be competing with will have lower scores too, and a given score will carry just as much weight cause it's all relative to how everyone else scored. Does that make sense?

I have no idea if this is actually right, and I would be happy to get points back, just something I was thinking about today.
 
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Funky Bacillus said:
Just thinking out loud here...if they are just going to give points back to EVERYONE, then it shouldn't matter that everyone's scores are lower across the board, right? I mean, percentile-wise, things shouldn't change if they brought everyone's scores down accordingly. The people you (we) will be competing with will have lower scores too, and a given score will carry just as much weight cause it's all relative to how everyone else scored. Does that make sense?

I have no idea if this is actually right, and I would be happy to get points back, just something I was thinking about today.
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It would matter if you were 10 points away from failing and then you ended up passing
 
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xrealityx said:
I would look at the comlex 2 thread linked on an earlier page. You can probably get ideas from the posts on there and possibly PM some of the users to ask what they did. Because whatever they did, it worked. They got, on average, fifty points added to their scores. If that doesn't worked I'd call and email NBOME client services (listed on their website) and tell them you saw it's a rescore year and that you've talked to many other students who have had huge drops in their scores since their comsaes and you're extremely upset and wondering if they're going to change our scores like what happened to people in the comlex 2 rescore. You should also ask your advisor if a lot of students dropped from their comsaes to their comlex and if it's a substantial number of students consider asking your student government to contact NBOME and demand a change.
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Thank you for all this information its very helpful. I'll certainly look into it but I feel like I haven't seen enough people who scores were so much lower than their COMSAE
 
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2cool4stool said:
Thank you for all this information its very helpful. I'll certainly look into it but I feel like I haven't seen enough people who scores were so much lower than their COMSAE
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Doesn't matter too much, because statistically you are supposed to go up 26 points from your highest comsae. So if most people are going down at all that is an issue.
 
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Funky Bacillus said:
Just thinking out loud here...if they are just going to give points back to EVERYONE, then it shouldn't matter that everyone's scores are lower across the board, right? I mean, percentile-wise, things shouldn't change if they brought everyone's scores down accordingly. The people you (we) will be competing with will have lower scores too, and a given score will carry just as much weight cause it's all relative to how everyone else scored. Does that make sense?

I have no idea if this is actually right, and I would be happy to get points back, just something I was thinking about today.
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It matters if you were planning on applying to allopathic residencies and only took the Comlex.
 
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All valid points that I didn't really consider. For what it's worth, pretty much everyone I've talked to from my school so far (maybe 8 people or so) seems to have scored below their comsae average
 
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Funky Bacillus said:
All valid points that I didn't really consider. For what it's worth, pretty much everyone I've talked to from my school so far (maybe 8 people or so) seems to have scored below their comsae average
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Same boat. I've talked to 10 people from my class. All 10 of them scored between 20-90 points lower than their final COMSAE
 
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Pisiform said:
^ There is COMSAE E. But you have to pay to school and they will buy it for you. Its not on NBOME site.

May I ask, was COMSAE E different from any other COMSAEs? Is it worth doing it if you have done B, C, D?
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I took COMSAES E, B, D, A but only E and B were during my dedicated study. (The others were taken early in the year as required by my school)

I found COMSAE E to be the most difficult, and most similar to the exam. Mind you, I haven't taken C (yet). I also had the same feeling after finishing E as I did when I finished my COMLEX. (Felt like I failed)

To my knowledge, COMSAE E was just released this year so it should be the most honest predictor of your performance for this year's COMLEX. However, this was not the case for me. Still, I would recommend taking COMSAE E if you school pays for it like mine did.
 
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xrealityx said:
Doesn't matter too much, because statistically you are supposed to go up 26 points from your highest comsae. So if most people are going down at all that is an issue.
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The problem with this is we have NO idea how the entire population of test takers scored. Yeah we have friends here and there (and some SDNers) saying they scored lower, but how many scored above? We have no idea. You would have to have access to hundreds and hundreds of scores to really reliably look at it this way. The people that scored 100 above their comsae probably moved on and aren't posting on here. That's the nature of any forum. It tends to attract those that are upset, which in this case are those that undershot their comsae.

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for rescoring. But you can't talk statistics when your sample size is 6 people on a forum and 3 friends out of the thousands that took the test. It's no different than the average for the exam might be 520, but that doesn't mean everyone scores a 520. Some score 320 and some score 810. Statistics describe populations, not individuals.
 
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razor said:
The problem with this is we have NO idea how the entire population of test takers scored. Yeah we have friends here and there (and some SDNers) saying they scored lower, but how many scored above? We have no idea. You would have to have access to hundreds and hundreds of scores to really reliably look at it this way. The people that scored 100 above their comsae probably moved on and aren't posting on here. That's the nature of any forum. It tends to attract those that are upset, which in this case are those that undershot their comsae.

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for rescoring. But you can't talk statistics when your sample size is 6 people on a forum and 3 friends out of the thousands that took the test. It's no different than the average for the exam might be 520, but that doesn't mean everyone scores a 520. Some score 320 and some score 810. Statistics describe populations, not individuals.
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My answer to this is to go look at the thread of comlex 2 takers last year and think about what their fate would have been had they not taken a stand. Also I'm working with the student body president at my school to try to find out the stats for my entire class. I only know one person so far who scored higher than their comsaes... But I know plenty of people who scored lower.
 
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From nbome after I asked them About the scoring dilemma

"
There is no expectation that exams for COMLEX-USA Level 1 will be rescored. "
 
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The exam style for my COMLEX was different than the COMSAEs. The question stems on the real deal were longer, but less vague. That being said, I did feel like the COMSAEs were a good representation of testing my general knowledge of the subject categories. I think the difference for those who do worse on the COMLEX might be due to nerves ramping up when they sit in that cubicle (I think everyone does). Also, getting a lil thrown by the longer style of stems.

COMSAE A: 477 (3 months out)
COMSAE B: 520 (2 months out)
COMSAE C: 571 (2 weeks out)

COMLEX: 627
USMLE: 238 (I know, a bit low)

If someone does want my study plan, I have it on a PDF that I made for my schedule. There are already a lot of opinions here for how to study. So, I don't wanna cloudy the water unless someone wants a different plan.
 
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xrealityx said:
My answer to this is to go look at the thread of comlex 2 takers last year and think about what their fate would have been had they not taken a stand. Also I'm working with the student body president at my school to try to find out the stats for my entire class. I only know one person so far who scored higher than their comsaes... But I know plenty of people who scored lower.
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I averaged 620's on comsae and hit >670 on comlex and know about 10 people from school who did better than their comsae...they are the only ones who shared their score with me as well. They may have made the test harder for some people but that doesn't mean there is anything wrong with the test. I remember my test was heavy in neuro but the questions weren't too ridiculous.
 
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scoKraz4 said:
I averaged 620's on comsae and hit >670 on comlex and know about 10 people from school who did better than their comsae...they are the only ones who shared their score with me as well. They may have made the test harder for some people but that doesn't mean there is anything wrong with the test. I remember my test was heavy in neuro but the questions weren't too ridiculous.
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This is about my experience too. Most people I have talked to have scored around comsae and a few are nearly 100 points better. You can push for, and hope for, a rescore but I think you're setting yourself up for some major disappointment if that doesn't happen. Your time would be better spent moving on and studying for that first COMAT and rocking your rotations and Level 2.

Also, for those that failed, I hate to be blunt but I doubt a scoring error caused it. It sounds more like a performance issue or knowledge deficiency. I only say this because I easily missed over 100 questions on my test and still did well-above the mean. I feel like if you failed, you would be lucky to have gotten 1/4 of the questions correct. That is incorrectly answering 300 questions. 300 different concepts is a wide breadth of information and far surpasses the number of wtf questions.
 
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pathologyDO said:
Took the exam today... Good lord in heaven, what a random test?!?! So many questions where I just had no idea what they wanted me to be thinking. Swear I knew ribs and treatments, you treat top rib first if restricted to inhalation yes? So many questions where the answers just weren't even in the choices...

Did anyone else feel like they totally guessed 50/50 on a ton of questions? Feel like I could have barely passed or did better, I have no idea... At least I hope I passed
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For the record, I think the answer to your question that I bolded is 'no' but it depends on the specific wording. Did it say inhalation motion was restricted or an inhalation dysfunction? Those are opposites even though they sound similar. You have to remember that most (maybe all?) dysfunctions are named for their position of ease. That's why you have to understand the concept of rib motion and not just memorize mnemonics, e.g. BITE mnemonic for ribs. Reminds me of a saying of one of my mentors, "You learn by rote memorization, you will fail by rote memorization."

It's all about big picture concepts and eliminating the 3 out of 5 answer options that are very tempting because they are laced with buzz words but they don't really have anything to do with the concept being tested. This is like the classmate that always chimes in with "Amyloidosis!" and "Sarcoidosis!" at the top of their differential because it's a memorable word and it makes them feel like Dr. House.

But, I totally agree with you on the rest of the feelings of the test. I walked out feeling like I guessed on so many questions and worried that I failed. Chances are you will be just fine and be pleasantly surprised on score release day. Hope that eases your anxiety.
 
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razor said:
For the record, I think the answer to your question that I bolded is 'no' but it depends on the specific wording. Did it say inhalation motion was restricted or an inhalation dysfunction? Those are opposites even though they sound similar. You have to remember that most (maybe all?) dysfunctions are named for their position of ease. That's why you have to understand the concept of rib motion and not just memorize mnemonics, e.g. BITE mnemonic for ribs. Reminds me of a saying of one of my mentors, "You learn by rote memorization, you will fail by rote memorization."

It's all about big picture concepts and eliminating the 3 out of 5 answer options that are very tempting because they are laced with buzz words but they don't really have anything to do with the concept being tested. This is like the classmate that always chimes in with "Amyloidosis!" and "Sarcoidosis!" at the top of their differential because it's a memorable word and it makes them feel like Dr. House.

But, I totally agree with you on the rest of the feelings of the test. I walked out feeling like I guessed on so many questions and worried that I failed. Chances are you will be just fine and be pleasantly surprised on score release day. Hope that eases your anxiety.
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I think he meant restricted in inhalation which means it's an exhalation dysfunction which would be correct to treat the top rib. You're right though, it does depend on the wording.
 
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razor said:
This is about my experience too. Most people I have talked to have scored around comsae and a few are nearly 100 points better. You can push for, and hope for, a rescore but I think you're setting yourself up for some major disappointment if that doesn't happen. Your time would be better spent moving on and studying for that first COMAT and rocking your rotations and Level 2.

Also, for those that failed, I hate to be blunt but I doubt a scoring error caused it. It sounds more like a performance issue or knowledge deficiency. I only say this because I easily missed over 100 questions on my test and still did well-above the mean. I feel like if you failed, you would be lucky to have gotten 1/4 of the questions correct. That is incorrectly answering 300 questions. 300 different concepts is a wide breadth of information and far surpasses the number of wtf questions.
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The test is curved so this isn't accurate. You could have gotten 300 questions correct and failed or 100 questions correct and passed depending on how other people did.
 
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2cool4stool said:
The test is curved so this isn't accurate. You could have gotten 300 questions correct and failed or 100 questions correct and passed depending on how other people did.
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I have heard that passing generally is 45-55% depending on how hard the form was/how others did in the test cycle, and that seems about accurate based on the practice tests and COMBANK assessments.
 
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2cool4stool said:
The test is curved so this isn't accurate. You could have gotten 300 questions correct and failed or 100 questions correct and passed depending on how other people did.
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Nobody except for NBOME will ever know, but I would bet my future annual salary that nobody has ever failed the comlex after getting 75% correct.

Unfortunately ever one of us is speculating on a matter in which we have zero data to back it up. And honestly, our school's have more at stake than we all do when it comes to massive amounts of students performing poorly. And they have a much better data set to look at. So any need for rescoring will come from our school's administration saying, "Hey, why did 20% of our school fail when 98% scored above 500 on the COMSAE." It's bad publicity for the school to perform poorly. This will happen regardless of any amount of individual student complaint. Sadly NBOME and schools don't care if a few individuals failed because that's going to happen anyway. Trust the system and if their was some injustice it will be settled.
 
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Last comment of mine regarding this rescoring issue and I promise I will shut up and call a truce or whatever.

Another thing we have to keep in mind is that the nbome algorithm adjusts the scores to a mean of 500 (or 520?). That means 1/2 of test takers will score below 500 (assuming the median is also ~500, which is a good assumption with several thousand test takers). Which also means that 1/2 of test takers are going to be really upset when they see their score report and came dangerously close to failing or did in fact fail.

And 1/2 of those thousands of test takers is still thousands of unhappy people, hence the reason why we individually don't have the right perspective to judge the scoring. Only someone with true data can assess that.
 
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