Step I Official 2017 COMLEX Level 1 Experiences and Scores Thread
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This was a wonderful momentary break from sitting here and freaking out about seeing that I failed tomorrow.
Do scores come out at 12 EST?
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I thought it was more 2:30-ish EST?
I'll kick things off I suppose. I should start by saying how happy I am to even have passed, I'm not a good student and have struggled to even make it this far, so I am so relieved to be done.
UWorld: 65% completed, 50% correct
Combank: ~700 q's completed, 60% correct
COMSAE C 6 weeks out - 431
COMSAE D 5 weeks out - 405
COMLEX - 470's
To summarize my prep:
Sketchy is the greatest thing since pants. I credit them entirely for passing, despite my score report saying my micro was borderline (that should just show you they test a lot of wtf bugs). Pharm was my strongest section however, all thanks to sketchy.
I watched all the DIT review videos from Feb-March and filled out the study guide. I found it moderately helpful, nothing more.
I used pathoma on and off through 2nd year, but when it came down to dedicated I felt like I learned more from UW so I skimped on pathoma. I'm sure that ended up hurting me as path was one of my weaker sections.
Savarese and Combank for OMM, but honestly neither one prepared me that well for the way OMM was tested on COMLEX. I had a TON of questions on viscerosomatics, so I'm glad I knew those cold. Everything else I felt like I was straight guessing.
UWorld: 65% completed, 50% correct
Combank: ~700 q's completed, 60% correct
COMSAE C 6 weeks out - 431
COMSAE D 5 weeks out - 405
COMLEX - 470's
To summarize my prep:
Sketchy is the greatest thing since pants. I credit them entirely for passing, despite my score report saying my micro was borderline (that should just show you they test a lot of wtf bugs). Pharm was my strongest section however, all thanks to sketchy.
I watched all the DIT review videos from Feb-March and filled out the study guide. I found it moderately helpful, nothing more.
I used pathoma on and off through 2nd year, but when it came down to dedicated I felt like I learned more from UW so I skimped on pathoma. I'm sure that ended up hurting me as path was one of my weaker sections.
Savarese and Combank for OMM, but honestly neither one prepared me that well for the way OMM was tested on COMLEX. I had a TON of questions on viscerosomatics, so I'm glad I knew those cold. Everything else I felt like I was straight guessing.
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Uworld 1 - 240
Uworld 2 - 238
Nbme 18 - 205
Nbme 19 - 230
Usmle - 233
Comlex - 690. Went home that evening and looked up 20+ questions I knew I answered incorrectly.
Uworld 2 - 238
Nbme 18 - 205
Nbme 19 - 230
Usmle - 233
Comlex - 690. Went home that evening and looked up 20+ questions I knew I answered incorrectly.
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So relieved this whole process is over! I was genuinely concerned I had failed.
COMSAE form A 1 week out- 581.
COMSAE form C 5 days out- 469.
COMBANK avg- 66% (I only did 3/4 of it)
UWorld avg- 54%
COMLEX- 486
Hoping this is good enough for Psych residencies.
To everyone studying for this exam, you can do it! While studying, I spent most of my time thinking I couldn't do it. While waiting for my score, I spent most of my time thinking I had failed. All you can do is your best. Good luck!
COMSAE form A 1 week out- 581.
COMSAE form C 5 days out- 469.
COMBANK avg- 66% (I only did 3/4 of it)
UWorld avg- 54%
COMLEX- 486
Hoping this is good enough for Psych residencies.
To everyone studying for this exam, you can do it! While studying, I spent most of my time thinking I couldn't do it. While waiting for my score, I spent most of my time thinking I had failed. All you can do is your best. Good luck!
UW average: 77% first and only pass
COMLEX: 661
COMLEX: 661
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How did step 1 go for you if you don't mind me asking?
MCAT - 23
GPA (@ med school) - 3.6
UWorld - 55% (averaging in the 60-70% my last 20-30 blocks)
COMBANK - 62% (averaged 70-80% my last 20 blocks, only did 40% of the bank)
NBME E - 520
COMLEX - 601
I walked out not thinking that I failed it, but it happened SO fast I didn't really have time to think. When doing COMBANK I usually had anywhere from 10-20 minutes to spare during a 50 question block, however during the real deal I only had maybe 5 minutes, or I was actually running behind 5 minutes or so. I flagged anywhere from 8-16 questions per block on the real deal. Didn't utilize all of my break time like I read you were supposed to during lunch, but utilized the meak 10 minute breaks after every 100 questions.
GPA (@ med school) - 3.6
UWorld - 55% (averaging in the 60-70% my last 20-30 blocks)
COMBANK - 62% (averaged 70-80% my last 20 blocks, only did 40% of the bank)
NBME E - 520
COMLEX - 601
I walked out not thinking that I failed it, but it happened SO fast I didn't really have time to think. When doing COMBANK I usually had anywhere from 10-20 minutes to spare during a 50 question block, however during the real deal I only had maybe 5 minutes, or I was actually running behind 5 minutes or so. I flagged anywhere from 8-16 questions per block on the real deal. Didn't utilize all of my break time like I read you were supposed to during lunch, but utilized the meak 10 minute breaks after every 100 questions.
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Came out of the USMLE thinking that I would be lucky to be in the 220's. Came out of the COMLEX feeling like I was around 600. Happy with my scores. I normally don't share this info, but thought I would for those who are stressing. You almost always do better than you think you did.
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Got my score today: 742. Honestly, I walked out thinking I could have gotten anywhere from a 550 to 700, but wasn't expecting a score this high. As mentioned before, most people end up doing better than they expect, so keep the faith!!
Great score!! That's exactly how I felt leaving the exam as well but my gestimates for scores didn't hit 700 😉
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UWORLD 1st pass: 70%
I can't recall all of my NBME exams but i varied between 219 and 236(nbme 19)
I thought the USMLE was a very fair test, came out of comlex thinking it was a BS exam and more difficult than USMLE
USMLE: 229
COMLEX: 609
I can't recall all of my NBME exams but i varied between 219 and 236(nbme 19)
I thought the USMLE was a very fair test, came out of comlex thinking it was a BS exam and more difficult than USMLE
USMLE: 229
COMLEX: 609
I literally posted on here the day after mine saying I was 95% sure I failed. I was sure there was no way I was gonna pass that exam. COMLEX is such a crapshoot.
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we had the opposite reaction entirely.
I thought USMLE was impossible, COMLEX was reasonable and occasionally a walk in the park.
Yah. I felt that way when I left USMLE. I pretty much nearly broke down crying when I signed out after my last block.
In order:
School NBME: 200
UWSA1: 238
UWSA2: 245
NBME18: 217
NBME19: 217
COMSAE E: 649
USMLE: 226
COMLEX 684
Was somewhat disappointed with my USMLE performance but am very happy about my COMLEX score. Looking into ER or surgery. No matter how your performance may have been, as long as you passed you are one step closer to becoming a doctor! Good luck with upcoming shelfs, boards, and rotations everyone.
School NBME: 200
UWSA1: 238
UWSA2: 245
NBME18: 217
NBME19: 217
COMSAE E: 649
USMLE: 226
COMLEX 684
Was somewhat disappointed with my USMLE performance but am very happy about my COMLEX score. Looking into ER or surgery. No matter how your performance may have been, as long as you passed you are one step closer to becoming a doctor! Good luck with upcoming shelfs, boards, and rotations everyone.
COMLEX Writeup
Started doing USMLERx questions in March (finished about half of that bank)
Completed about 300 Kaplan questions
Completed Boards and Beyond 2x
Sketchy micro/pharm (used this during the school year so I had watched each video 5+ times)
Pathoma (also used during the year. Completed 2x during dedicated.
Never really read First Aid
Finished UWorld 1x (77% average)
NBME 16: 236
NBME 17: 240
UWSA 1: 258
NBME 19: 244
UWSA 2: 249
NBME 18: 236
REAL COMLEX: 661
The week leading up to the COMLEX, I read through the green book and did about 3/4 of the OMM questions in COMBANK along with about 100 random questions in COMBANK to "get the feel." I was really nervous going into this exam because I felt like I had burnt out about 2 weeks prior to my test date and felt like my mind was a blank slate and I was forgetting everything I learned in the first month of studying. I know this is hard for some to understand (and I don't understand it either) but I felt like I forgot like 70% of the stuff I had worked so hard to learn over the last two months. Anyways, onto the exam:
Overall, the exam felt nothing like COMBANK or UWorld to me. With both UW and COMBANK, I would read the stem and the question would give you enough info to be confident in your diagnosis so that you can look below and answer the question. On my COMLEX exam, that wasn't the case for me at all. I would read the stem and nothing would come to me. It was really vague and then when I looked at the answers, I would spend 30 seconds trying to figure out how the answers were even linked somewhat to the stem because the answers felt so random. I don't really know how to explain it.
On UW and COMBANK when I did blocks I would usually finish with 10-15 minutes left so that I can go back and do the few that I skipped. On the real deal, I was so rushed that I wasn't able to go back and look at any of the marked questions I had. I was extremely rushed and felt like I missed a ton of questions because I wasn't able to think through the problems. I am usually a slower test taker, so this wasn't too surprising to me.
My first block was literally 70% OMM. Not only that...but like others have said on here, they would literally list ten findings and you would have to sift through all of them and try to get to the right answer in less than a minute. This is fine when there are a few OMM questions here and there with normal questions...but when you have literally ten OMM questions like this back to back to back, etc I was having a REALLY hard time keeping on track with time and was getting really flustered.
The second and third blocks were hard as well. Just felt super vague to me.
Fourth block went better. Got some short question stems and hardly any OMM and finished with 10 minutes left.
I was doing fine until after the 5th block or so when I started getting tired. I have a hard time sitting and focusing for that long and by the 5th block my brain was starting to say "screw off". Same crap 5-8 block. Super vague.
Some of my highest scoring sections on UW is pharm and I felt like the pharm today killed me.
I also loved being sat right next to the exit door with people coming in and out every two minutes and the lady next to me slamming her keyboard for the first half of my test. It was an awesome experience as you can tell, haha.
As we have all read time and time again, believe in your practice test scores. I have been telling that to people who had taken their exams before me and were waiting for their scores. However, after I took my test I couldn't even take my own advice. I was 100% sure I had failed, but scores came back and I did fine. So moral of the story like everyone has always said...you WILL feel like crap coming out... no matter what.
As far as content goes, my exam was super heavy on OMM, MSK, weird micro bugs, and vague pharm. The pharm part wasn't actually the vague part of the questions. It was the diagnosis that was vague. They would ask what the side effect was of the best drug to treat the patient...but I wouldn't even know what the patient had. OMM focused a lot on a subject I was super weak in and I feel I missed at least ten questions on that one topic in OMM. Know scoliosis cold.
If I could change anything (which I am for when I take USMLE nexy July), I would get through all of Kaplan, USMLERx, and UW 2x. I really think the key is doing as many questions as possible and from the people that I know that have done extremely well, they completed all of these banks. I know some people say UW1x is enough, which I think is true. However, if you are slow (it took me 2 months to go through UW), then by the time you get to the end of the bank, you may have forgotten a lot from the beginning of the bank (which is what happened in my case). I think going through once more would reinforce what you learned so that it's fresh right before your exam.
Started doing USMLERx questions in March (finished about half of that bank)
Completed about 300 Kaplan questions
Completed Boards and Beyond 2x
Sketchy micro/pharm (used this during the school year so I had watched each video 5+ times)
Pathoma (also used during the year. Completed 2x during dedicated.
Never really read First Aid
Finished UWorld 1x (77% average)
NBME 16: 236
NBME 17: 240
UWSA 1: 258
NBME 19: 244
UWSA 2: 249
NBME 18: 236
REAL COMLEX: 661
The week leading up to the COMLEX, I read through the green book and did about 3/4 of the OMM questions in COMBANK along with about 100 random questions in COMBANK to "get the feel." I was really nervous going into this exam because I felt like I had burnt out about 2 weeks prior to my test date and felt like my mind was a blank slate and I was forgetting everything I learned in the first month of studying. I know this is hard for some to understand (and I don't understand it either) but I felt like I forgot like 70% of the stuff I had worked so hard to learn over the last two months. Anyways, onto the exam:
Overall, the exam felt nothing like COMBANK or UWorld to me. With both UW and COMBANK, I would read the stem and the question would give you enough info to be confident in your diagnosis so that you can look below and answer the question. On my COMLEX exam, that wasn't the case for me at all. I would read the stem and nothing would come to me. It was really vague and then when I looked at the answers, I would spend 30 seconds trying to figure out how the answers were even linked somewhat to the stem because the answers felt so random. I don't really know how to explain it.
On UW and COMBANK when I did blocks I would usually finish with 10-15 minutes left so that I can go back and do the few that I skipped. On the real deal, I was so rushed that I wasn't able to go back and look at any of the marked questions I had. I was extremely rushed and felt like I missed a ton of questions because I wasn't able to think through the problems. I am usually a slower test taker, so this wasn't too surprising to me.
My first block was literally 70% OMM. Not only that...but like others have said on here, they would literally list ten findings and you would have to sift through all of them and try to get to the right answer in less than a minute. This is fine when there are a few OMM questions here and there with normal questions...but when you have literally ten OMM questions like this back to back to back, etc I was having a REALLY hard time keeping on track with time and was getting really flustered.
The second and third blocks were hard as well. Just felt super vague to me.
Fourth block went better. Got some short question stems and hardly any OMM and finished with 10 minutes left.
I was doing fine until after the 5th block or so when I started getting tired. I have a hard time sitting and focusing for that long and by the 5th block my brain was starting to say "screw off". Same crap 5-8 block. Super vague.
Some of my highest scoring sections on UW is pharm and I felt like the pharm today killed me.
I also loved being sat right next to the exit door with people coming in and out every two minutes and the lady next to me slamming her keyboard for the first half of my test. It was an awesome experience as you can tell, haha.
As we have all read time and time again, believe in your practice test scores. I have been telling that to people who had taken their exams before me and were waiting for their scores. However, after I took my test I couldn't even take my own advice. I was 100% sure I had failed, but scores came back and I did fine. So moral of the story like everyone has always said...you WILL feel like crap coming out... no matter what.
As far as content goes, my exam was super heavy on OMM, MSK, weird micro bugs, and vague pharm. The pharm part wasn't actually the vague part of the questions. It was the diagnosis that was vague. They would ask what the side effect was of the best drug to treat the patient...but I wouldn't even know what the patient had. OMM focused a lot on a subject I was super weak in and I feel I missed at least ten questions on that one topic in OMM. Know scoliosis cold.
If I could change anything (which I am for when I take USMLE nexy July), I would get through all of Kaplan, USMLERx, and UW 2x. I really think the key is doing as many questions as possible and from the people that I know that have done extremely well, they completed all of these banks. I know some people say UW1x is enough, which I think is true. However, if you are slow (it took me 2 months to go through UW), then by the time you get to the end of the bank, you may have forgotten a lot from the beginning of the bank (which is what happened in my case). I think going through once more would reinforce what you learned so that it's fresh right before your exam.
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so on this it's showing "lowest score" below 400 on almost All specialties. How is this possible when 400 is passing?
First attempt I'm guessing
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so on this it's showing "lowest score" below 400 on almost All specialties. How is this possible when 400 is passing?
wtf is up with that 805 that went to traditional rotating internship ? i feel like this list will change drastically after the 2018 when a majority of the aoa spots will be acgmes
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so on this it's showing "lowest score" below 400 on almost All specialties. How is this possible when 400 is passing?
Derm/Radiology requires a TRI. Maybe....805...was for that or PMR..you get the general idea.
Hopefully, the AACOM releases recent data soon.
but they have a derm and a radiology category separately or is it program specific ?
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Are all programs that require TRIs listed? Pathology? Are all programs listed?
This is an outdated version
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so on this it's showing "lowest score" below 400 on almost All specialties. How is this possible when 400 is passing?
I saw that it was a few years old, but has the passing score changed since then?
No but the average COMLEX per specialty has changed significantly
Hopefully this match year they will show us something . Unfortunately I feel like the AC GME numbers were more accurate for matching into even aoas
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Anyone taken comlex recently that can provide a write up of their exam? Mostly just looking to see if any topics are still high yield or what pit falls to watch out for. I have to take it again in 4 weeks and am having brain issues about failing it again. thanks.
I did a detailed write up on my 7/11 exam that is a few posts back. Take a look and let me know if you have any questions.
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M
MrWonderful
I am reporting on behalf of 2 students who used www.OMGOMT.com for their OMT review. For anonymity sake other information is being withheld.
Student A
COMLEX I: 722
Study Plan: 4 Months total time. First 3 months spent doing UWorld daily 40Q random tutor mode + Sketchy + First Aid. Last month restarted UWorld and did OMGOMT for Osteopathic Medicine review. No other QBanks used.
Student B
COMLEX I: 766
Study Plan: 3 months total time. Did Pathoma + Sketchy + UWorld 40Q timed mode once through. Wrote out UWorld explanations and reviewed them daily. Did OMGOMT throughout the 3 months twice through. Did OMGOMT practice questions + COMQUEST QBank for OMT questions.
Impressions: UWorld was the "money maker" as they put it. Reviewing the explanations was highly recommended. They say SketchyMicro is pure gold, SketchyPharm may be overkill depending on your learning style. One disliked Pathoma, the other enjoyed it. Both students estimate OMT comprised 25% of their exams. Described as integrated, difficult questions nothing like whats out there now. They recommend OMG OMT for the OMT component. One student switched to OMG OMT after hating Savarese, finding it overkill and cumbersome. This is Student A, who says that the only reason he did well was because OMT was such a high % of his exam and he mastered it to drive up his score. He says second to OMT, the next topic with the most questions was Micro. Both students recommend knowing OMT, micro & pharm cold. Of the systems, they suggest Cardio & Pulm is the most HY.
Student A
COMLEX I: 722
Study Plan: 4 Months total time. First 3 months spent doing UWorld daily 40Q random tutor mode + Sketchy + First Aid. Last month restarted UWorld and did OMGOMT for Osteopathic Medicine review. No other QBanks used.
Student B
COMLEX I: 766
Study Plan: 3 months total time. Did Pathoma + Sketchy + UWorld 40Q timed mode once through. Wrote out UWorld explanations and reviewed them daily. Did OMGOMT throughout the 3 months twice through. Did OMGOMT practice questions + COMQUEST QBank for OMT questions.
Impressions: UWorld was the "money maker" as they put it. Reviewing the explanations was highly recommended. They say SketchyMicro is pure gold, SketchyPharm may be overkill depending on your learning style. One disliked Pathoma, the other enjoyed it. Both students estimate OMT comprised 25% of their exams. Described as integrated, difficult questions nothing like whats out there now. They recommend OMG OMT for the OMT component. One student switched to OMG OMT after hating Savarese, finding it overkill and cumbersome. This is Student A, who says that the only reason he did well was because OMT was such a high % of his exam and he mastered it to drive up his score. He says second to OMT, the next topic with the most questions was Micro. Both students recommend knowing OMT, micro & pharm cold. Of the systems, they suggest Cardio & Pulm is the most HY.
I'm starting to see OMGOMT advertised a good amount. Heck, every DirtyUsmle is even pushing it on their facebook. But, it's only 86 questions for $60. That's more than a $1 a question and without sample questions on their website to determine if I should spend $60. I dunno if it's worth it. If they had a 1 month, I'd probably do it.
Long time lurker here. Thought I'd chime in because this forum was instrumental in helping me do well on my COMLEX.
I ended up with a 745. Got 238 on Step 1. My UWorld % was 66 and I didn't do any full length practice tests :/
I started reviewing about 5 months in advance. Started very slow with Pathoma & Sketchy. I didn't even need to go through the micro section of First Aid because Sketchy was so wonderful. Pathoma was solid as well although I only did sections I felt weaker in. Did not do the whole thing. Sattar is really great at explaining concepts that were difficult for me to originally grasp. As you'll see in this post, I love video sources that explain things really well.
As I approached the 1 month mark, I started doing a UWorld set everyday. I finished a 1-through of UW and wrote out explanations in a journal. I would really scrutinize my UWorld explanations because I felt like it was teaching me more than First Aid. Honestly, and maybe I'm a strange example, but I didn't like First Aid. I felt UWorld was better in every way.
With about 3 weeks to go, I started Savarese and hated it. I was pretty shocked because a lot of people recommend this book. I felt like I wasn't learning the OMT because I was doing pretty poorly on the COMQUEST Qbank and felt like Savarese was overwhelming. I started to panic with 3 weeks left and a huge gap in my understanding of OMM. So I tried OMG OMT on a whim and loved it. Saw a coupon code that was posted in the M2 class Facebook so I figured what the hell. It's a great review because it is extremely focused and the explanations are so common sense and lay-person-esque that I was understanding the concepts finally. I saw somebody post above me about their quiz questions, but the reason I loved OMG OMT was the videos. Incredible explanations and the narrator points out whats important. The questions are kind of added fluff so to speak. And per the homepage they are working on a practice test right now so I imagine that would be good when it comes out.
In summary, if I had to pass on advice to any current M2s I would say:
4 months study time
UWorld + OMG OMT + Sketchy + Pathoma
Scrutinize your UWorld explanations
Do COMQUEST QBank for OMM until OMG OMT practice test comes out
I ended up with a 745. Got 238 on Step 1. My UWorld % was 66 and I didn't do any full length practice tests :/
I started reviewing about 5 months in advance. Started very slow with Pathoma & Sketchy. I didn't even need to go through the micro section of First Aid because Sketchy was so wonderful. Pathoma was solid as well although I only did sections I felt weaker in. Did not do the whole thing. Sattar is really great at explaining concepts that were difficult for me to originally grasp. As you'll see in this post, I love video sources that explain things really well.
As I approached the 1 month mark, I started doing a UWorld set everyday. I finished a 1-through of UW and wrote out explanations in a journal. I would really scrutinize my UWorld explanations because I felt like it was teaching me more than First Aid. Honestly, and maybe I'm a strange example, but I didn't like First Aid. I felt UWorld was better in every way.
With about 3 weeks to go, I started Savarese and hated it. I was pretty shocked because a lot of people recommend this book. I felt like I wasn't learning the OMT because I was doing pretty poorly on the COMQUEST Qbank and felt like Savarese was overwhelming. I started to panic with 3 weeks left and a huge gap in my understanding of OMM. So I tried OMG OMT on a whim and loved it. Saw a coupon code that was posted in the M2 class Facebook so I figured what the hell. It's a great review because it is extremely focused and the explanations are so common sense and lay-person-esque that I was understanding the concepts finally. I saw somebody post above me about their quiz questions, but the reason I loved OMG OMT was the videos. Incredible explanations and the narrator points out whats important. The questions are kind of added fluff so to speak. And per the homepage they are working on a practice test right now so I imagine that would be good when it comes out.
In summary, if I had to pass on advice to any current M2s I would say:
4 months study time
UWorld + OMG OMT + Sketchy + Pathoma
Scrutinize your UWorld explanations
Do COMQUEST QBank for OMM until OMG OMT practice test comes out
I see a lot of advertisement for this new omt source . The green book has been tried for many years and it works. So blame for being skeptical, but pics of the score report, or your just another person doing false ads. Reminds me of memorang.
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Any chance that there aren't a lot of people take it in late July and early August, and they would probably release the scores earlier in the 8/29-8/31 window?
Am I delusional? 😛
Am I delusional? 😛
when was your exam? mine was 8/1 & waiting anxiously
😕7/26....not fair compared to those took it on 8/10 
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I'm just ignoring the date range and assume the release will be 8/31, sometime in the afternoon. I took Took it 8/1 also. Hopefully it's a passing score, I'm more worried about that than a high score.
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For sure! Passing is my priority right now as well.
what did you think of the test? I am on the same boat. just wanna pass..
I don't know, I felt like for me it could be a 350 or a 550. Like most people, I tend to linger on the questions which I had no clue what was going on, but then, I know there were points on the test where I felt like I was breezing through a bunch of questions without difficulty.
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I passed my COMLEX! yay!
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