COMLEX Official 2018 Comlex 1 Experiences and Scores Thread

[ThrowAwayStepDO]

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[Black Coffee 24/7]

How was questions stems - long or short like comsae?

Comsae is straight up garbage. Don’t even bother with that bs

The real Comlex has really long stems for every question. Sketchy Micro and Pharm are super high yield. If you know everything on Sketchy on those subjects, you can spend about 30 secs on the real thing on those questions.

The key is to pick out key terms and straight up go with your feeling. I literally missed about 10-20 quests on the real thing by focusing on the finer details and change my right answers to wrong answers.

The best advice that someone gave me before this test is to keep a mental time limit of max 80-90 secs per question. Take your best guess and move on.

This test doesn’t require any critical thinking. You literally just scan for key phrases and move on. The most critical thinking done on this exam is probably OMM diagnosis.

 

[Black Coffee 24/7]

Would you say it was at all similar to COMBANK with respect to question style or was it much more difficult than that? Is it more comparable to UWorld?

Neither nothing can prepare your for Comlex quests, which makes it good bc the curve is going to be excellent

The closest thing is probably UW but Comlex quests are even longer than UW ones

My advice is to read the quest for long ass stems and then scan the details for answers when you come across those quests

 

[sicemxoxo]

Some questions were similar to COMBANK and the COMSAEs. At least they were on my exam. In fact, two questions were almost word for word exactly like two I saw on one of the COMSAEs if not the exact same. It’s a gamble at best because everyone gets something different. But most of the exam was not similar. Question stems are a WHOLE lot longer. And the exam as a whole wasn’t as high yield as COMBANK and COMSAEs make it seem. Honestly, just study hard, do your best and give it all you’ve got. That’s all you can do.


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[cassis_Cake]

Took the exam on 6/25 and all I can say is that it was a lot more difficult than I thought. First two blocks were easy and I thought it would be like that for the rest of them but it was not the case. Then again, my mind was definitely not performing that day as I made numerous silly mistakes.. passages were long and highlighting tool sucks. Definitely left the exam feeling like I could fail.. I took step 1 couple days before that and didn't feel too bad after that but after leaving Comlex, I felt just horrible.. I averaged 250 on all the NBME and higher on UWSA1&2 and the only comsae I took 2 months before dedicated was 570 so I was confident I was gonna get at least 500 but now I’m just hoping I passed lol.. I think it’s different for everyone but I was definitely caught off guard

 

[Ioannes Paulus]

Took the exam on 6/25 and all I can say is that it was a lot more difficult than I thought. First two blocks were easy and I thought it would be like that for the rest of them but it was not the case. Then again, my mind was definitely not performing that day as I made numerous silly mistakes.. passages were long and highlighting tool sucks. Definitely left the exam feeling like I could fail.. I took step 1 couple days before that and didn't feel too bad after that but after leaving Comlex, I felt just horrible.. I averaged 250 on all the NBME and higher on UWSA1&2 and the only comsae I took 2 months before dedicated was 570 so I was confident I was gonna get at least 500 but now I’m just hoping I passed lol.. I think it’s different for everyone but I was definitely caught off guard

Wow man. Sorry to hear that.
Was it the length of the questions that made the exam hard or was the exam more 2nd/3rd/4th order questions?

 

[cassis_Cake]

Wow man. Sorry to hear that.
Was it the length of the questions that made the exam hard or was the exam more 2nd/3rd/4th order questions?

A lot of vague questions.. lots of MSK and OMM that were difficult for me and also because I was not used to having so many long passages which took a lot of time to go through and just completely threw me off my game. On top of this they had some crazy obscure questions and the ethic was hard. I don’t think it was a matter of it being higher order level question or not but the amount of reading for each question and amount of question. Everything is a blur right now tbh. I was really press for time the second half of the test because of these long passages which made me panic even more and less able to think through some problems.

 

[Endorphins98]

Took the exam on 6/25 and all I can say is that it was a lot more difficult than I thought. First two blocks were easy and I thought it would be like that for the rest of them but it was not the case. Then again, my mind was definitely not performing that day as I made numerous silly mistakes.. passages were long and highlighting tool sucks. Definitely left the exam feeling like I could fail.. I took step 1 couple days before that and didn't feel too bad after that but after leaving Comlex, I felt just horrible.. I averaged 250 on all the NBME and higher on UWSA1&2 and the only comsae I took 2 months before dedicated was 570 so I was confident I was gonna get at least 500 but now I’m just hoping I passed lol.. I think it’s different for everyone but I was definitely caught off guard

Dude, SAAAAAME


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[TheBoneDoctah]

A lot of vague questions.. lots of MSK and OMM that were difficult for me and also because I was not used to having so many long passages which took a lot of time to go through and just completely threw me off my game. On top of this they had some crazy obscure questions and the ethic was hard. I don’t think it was a matter of it being higher order level question or not but the amount of reading for each question and amount of question. Everything is a blur right now tbh. I was really press for time the second half of the test because of these long passages which made me panic even more and less able to think through some problems.

My exam last year was literally exactly like what you are saying. I thought I failed. Ended up with 661. You'll be ok. Trust your practice scores.

 

[Staphylococcus Aureus]

@SynapticDoctah what were your practice scores?

How are COMLEX scores decided? Is it curved based on those who took the same questions or what?

 

[TheBoneDoctah]

@SynapticDoctah what were your practice scores?

How are COMLEX scores decided? Is it curved based on those who took the same questions or what?

Never took any practice COMLEX exams.

NBMEs ranged from 236 in the beginning to 245 on #19

and then 250+ on the UWSAs

I am pretty sure everyone takes the same COMLEX on the same day.

 

[hpgryffn]

Just finished comlex today. walked outta there with a fried brain and feelings of wtf??? but also glad to be done. everyone mentioned an emphasis on micro but honestly i didnt get much micro [bummed cuz im strong in it ] every micro seemed to be about e coli lmao. had a heavy focus on repro, psych and endo and virtually NO renal -what the f?????? i hate how unbalanced this exam was. some questions were dumb easy, others with wtf. also had a lot of omm but not complaining bc they were v simple. for viscerosomatics the comquest mnemonic: SLPSKBL was EXCELLENT and answered all the q] im honestly really sad about how unbalanced this exam was in regards to organ systems. i literally had no renal/msk/gi qs and feel like comlex is really unfair bc it asks 5 different q on the same thing [yes literally i counted] but doesnt test u once on high yield diseases you are LIKELY to see in real life or equally on other organ systems. that's just rude. no wonder people get widely varying scores. watever at least im done. I feel like i couldve taken the exam 2 weeks ago and done the same and had more vacation time lesson learned -dont push back comlex! [originally had it scheduled for last week]

Advice: sketchy pharm/micro [even though I had a minimum amount of both on my exam every single drug/bug was covered by sketchy to the extent of what comlex asked]
comquest was golden for the micro part esp when it comes to people that have a risk factor for seemingly everything lol. [if you do comquest micro it will often give u a long stem with a person with risk factors that can be applied to multiple bugs, however the last sentecne of the question stem states the specific risk factor leading to the problem, and theres only one bug that will cause that problem that also matches the risk factor in the stem -comquest micro prepared reeeeally well for these types of questions on comlex -got at least 4 of them]
question stems were reeeally long as others have said, so be prepared for that! always read last sentence first! saved me when i had 23 min left to answer 35 q lol
know the SLPSKBL mnemonic for viscerosomatics, if you've already read through saverese once during ur school yr don't do it again, just do comquest omm q
if u have comquest, use it! it reflected all of the omm/micro/pharm q i had.
do dirtyusmle ethics video and the neuro stroke video [saved me on at least 3 q!]
i listened to goljan the last week before my exam and it helped bc it reminded me of high yield info for every organ system [also got me at least 4 q -if not more- today bc goljan is the man when it comes to what to expect in question stems]
DO NOT change ur gut answer!! i changed at least 3 of the q i had originally put the correct answer to bc i read too much into the stem. just look for the KEY phrase in the stem and answer by that! whatever jumps out at u in the answer choice WILL BE THE ANSWER!
biochem is dumb easy [one of the question stems actually gave away the answer lol] - don't focus on the "science" part but the clinical part if you're worried about biochem [i put in so much effort for biochem cuz of step but for comlex its not necessary]
i would look through the rapid review section of first aid bc i noticed comlex was mostly about recognizing clinical patterns.

 

[hpgryffn]

Never took any practice COMLEX exams.

NBMEs ranged from 236 in the beginning to 245 on #19

and then 250+ on the UWSAs

I am pretty sure everyone takes the same COMLEX on the same day.

i don't think everyone takes the same comlex on the same day. i bumped into one of my friends today who also took comlex at the same center and she had a very different emphasis on organ system topics than i did

 

[hpgryffn]

Thanks for the advice! How was the immuno on the exam?

big emphasis on cytokines [their functions on specific cells] and diseases resulting due to specific immunodeficiencies

 

[medschoolhopeful1]

Just finished comlex today. walked outta there with a fried brain and feelings of wtf??? but also glad to be done. everyone mentioned an emphasis on micro but honestly i didnt get much micro [bummed cuz im strong in it ] every micro seemed to be about e coli lmao. had a heavy focus on repro, psych and endo and virtually NO renal -what the f?????? i hate how unbalanced this exam was. some questions were dumb easy, others with wtf. also had a lot of omm but not complaining bc they were v simple. for viscerosomatics the comquest mnemonic: SLPSKBL was EXCELLENT and answered all the q] im honestly really sad about how unbalanced this exam was in regards to organ systems. i literally had no renal/msk/gi qs and feel like comlex is really unfair bc it asks 5 different q on the same thing [yes literally i counted] but doesnt test u once on high yield diseases you are LIKELY to see in real life or equally on other organ systems. that's just rude. no wonder people get widely varying scores. watever at least im done. I feel like i couldve taken the exam 2 weeks ago and done the same and had more vacation time lesson learned -dont push back comlex! [originally had it scheduled for last week]

Advice: sketchy pharm/micro [even though I had a minimum amount of both on my exam every single drug/bug was covered by sketchy to the extent of what comlex asked]
comquest was golden for the micro part esp when it comes to people that have a risk factor for seemingly everything lol. [if you do comquest micro it will often give u a long stem with a person with risk factors that can be applied to multiple bugs, however the last sentecne of the question stem states the specific risk factor leading to the problem, and theres only one bug that will cause that problem that also matches the risk factor in the stem -comquest micro prepared reeeeally well for these types of questions on comlex -got at least 4 of them]
question stems were reeeally long as others have said, so be prepared for that! always read last sentence first! saved me when i had 23 min left to answer 35 q lol
know the SLPSKBL mnemonic for viscerosomatics, if you've already read through saverese once during ur school yr don't do it again, just do comquest omm q
if u have comquest, use it! it reflected all of the omm/micro/pharm q i had.
do dirtyusmle ethics video and the neuro stroke video [saved me on at least 3 q!]
i listened to goljan the last week before my exam and it helped bc it reminded me of high yield info for every organ system [also got me at least 4 q -if not more- today bc goljan is the man when it comes to what to expect in question stems]
DO NOT change ur gut answer!! i changed at least 3 of the q i had originally put the correct answer to bc i read too much into the stem. just look for the KEY phrase in the stem and answer by that! whatever jumps out at u in the answer choice WILL BE THE ANSWER!
biochem is dumb easy [one of the question stems actually gave away the answer lol] - don't focus on the "science" part but the clinical part if you're worried about biochem [i put in so much effort for biochem cuz of step but for comlex its not necessary]
i would look through the rapid review section of first aid bc i noticed comlex was mostly about recognizing clinical patterns.

thanks for the advice!! were there a lot of first order/straight up factual questions?

 

[dabears405]

Just finished comlex today. walked outta there with a fried brain and feelings of wtf??? but also glad to be done. everyone mentioned an emphasis on micro but honestly i didnt get much micro [bummed cuz im strong in it ] every micro seemed to be about e coli lmao. had a heavy focus on repro, psych and endo and virtually NO renal -what the f?????? i hate how unbalanced this exam was. some questions were dumb easy, others with wtf. also had a lot of omm but not complaining bc they were v simple. for viscerosomatics the comquest mnemonic: SLPSKBL was EXCELLENT and answered all the q] im honestly really sad about how unbalanced this exam was in regards to organ systems. i literally had no renal/msk/gi qs and feel like comlex is really unfair bc it asks 5 different q on the same thing [yes literally i counted] but doesnt test u once on high yield diseases you are LIKELY to see in real life or equally on other organ systems. that's just rude. no wonder people get widely varying scores. watever at least im done. I feel like i couldve taken the exam 2 weeks ago and done the same and had more vacation time lesson learned -dont push back comlex! [originally had it scheduled for last week]

Advice: sketchy pharm/micro [even though I had a minimum amount of both on my exam every single drug/bug was covered by sketchy to the extent of what comlex asked]
comquest was golden for the micro part esp when it comes to people that have a risk factor for seemingly everything lol. [if you do comquest micro it will often give u a long stem with a person with risk factors that can be applied to multiple bugs, however the last sentecne of the question stem states the specific risk factor leading to the problem, and theres only one bug that will cause that problem that also matches the risk factor in the stem -comquest micro prepared reeeeally well for these types of questions on comlex -got at least 4 of them]
question stems were reeeally long as others have said, so be prepared for that! always read last sentence first! saved me when i had 23 min left to answer 35 q lol
know the SLPSKBL mnemonic for viscerosomatics, if you've already read through saverese once during ur school yr don't do it again, just do comquest omm q
if u have comquest, use it! it reflected all of the omm/micro/pharm q i had.
do dirtyusmle ethics video and the neuro stroke video [saved me on at least 3 q!]
i listened to goljan the last week before my exam and it helped bc it reminded me of high yield info for every organ system [also got me at least 4 q -if not more- today bc goljan is the man when it comes to what to expect in question stems]
DO NOT change ur gut answer!! i changed at least 3 of the q i had originally put the correct answer to bc i read too much into the stem. just look for the KEY phrase in the stem and answer by that! whatever jumps out at u in the answer choice WILL BE THE ANSWER!
biochem is dumb easy [one of the question stems actually gave away the answer lol] - don't focus on the "science" part but the clinical part if you're worried about biochem [i put in so much effort for biochem cuz of step but for comlex its not necessary]
i would look through the rapid review section of first aid bc i noticed comlex was mostly about recognizing clinical patterns.

What about Uworld or COMBANK on top of sketchy instead of Comquest for micro/pharm?

 

[Jakeman3597]

I took my comlex today. I thought combank was a solid resource (didn't use comquest but seems similar to what I heard from others). I personally thought the test was pretty balanced overall the subjects but most people feel like it was weighted towards a few subjects. Honestly, if I could tell myself something from my future self to my past self a week ago I don't know what I would say. I studied my pharm and my micro and repro and neuro and omm extra good but on the exam questions are vague AF and targeted studying didn't rly make a difference. I'm a dang doofus and was scoring 460-490 on comsaes and I'm fine with those scores cuz that's my best effort. However, discussing the exam with my friends who took it with me, we all had the same complaints and questions and confusion and they were rocking like 600+ on comsaes. TLDR trust yourself and if you have questions on the exam that are like WTF, probably all the ortho/derm gunners are thinking the same thing. If a question is dumb, ur not the only one who is gonna think its dumb.

 

[Jakeman3597]

What about Uworld or COMBANK on top of sketchy instead of Comquest for micro/pharm?

Really doesn't matter. Any are fine. Its impossible to optimize. Each one will give you something good.

 

[Jakeman3597]

Would you say it was at all similar to COMBANK with respect to question style or was it much more difficult than that? Is it more comparable to UWorld?

I personally would recommend to people just taking the COMLEX and not the USMLE to use just COMBANK/COMQUEST as I think the vagueness that they bring is helpful to practice. I used COMBANK and found it pretty similar to comlex. That is my opinion though.

 

[nyomed]

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[Diabeetuss]

Took it yesterday as well. I had heard from a lot of classmates that they had a ton of micro but honestly I think there were 40-50 micro questions max on the exam. Also, I had heard that the OMM was very straightforward, mostly being VS, but my exam had a lot of treatment, setups, and a few other weird things that would have been tough to study for. I made some stupid mistakes but that's going to happen over 400 questions, especially with the fatigue that sets in on the last 100 questions or so. Lots of vague presentations and things that you just have no idea what they're going for/how we're supposed to know this at our level. In terms of subjects, I felt like there was a pretty good spread with not too much focus on one particular area.
Anyone else think it was much harder than they expected? I was banking on lots of micro for some gimme points/making up time.

 

[mrporter11]

Took it yesterday as well. I had heard from a lot of classmates that they had a ton of micro but honestly I think there were 40-50 micro questions max on the exam. Also, I had heard that the OMM was very straightforward, mostly being VS, but my exam had a lot of treatment, setups, and a few other weird things that would have been tough to study for. I made some stupid mistakes but that's going to happen over 400 questions, especially with the fatigue that sets in on the last 100 questions or so. Lots of vague presentations and things that you just have no idea what they're going for/how we're supposed to know this at our level. In terms of subjects, I felt like there was a pretty good spread with not too much focus on one particular area.
Anyone else think it was much harder than they expected? I was banking on lots of micro for some gimme points/making up time.

I took it last week and felt the same way. I felt like nothing people/resources said was high yield wasn't represented on my exam. just hoping i passed to be honest

 

[dizzymizlizzy]

Hey All, just wanted to tell you NOT to change your answers! Unless they are plain wrong, keep your original gut answer to your questions. I’m typically a great exam taker but psyched myself out on test day and probably changed about 20 answers from right to wrong! Gaaahh! So don’t be like me, just go with your first instinct! That’ll probably get you farther than you think. Best of luck. Praying for us all
Oh Deja review is a great resource for the neuro portions—straight up questions and answers from there

 

[PathoTurnUp1865]

I had a thought the other day and want to know what others think. So if you miss 100 that’s 300/400 that you get right that = 75%. A 78% on combanks and comsaes = ~600. Has anyone heard if this is pretty true to the real thing? I know there’s going to be experimental questions that get thrown out but I’m wondering if this would be a close approximation lol

 

[PathoTurnUp1865]

Ya.. a 78% on a comsae is definitely not a 600. Not sure where you got that from.

What would you say it is

 

[lonewolf42]

So I took it today. Two thoughts: why were the majority of the video questions at the end of my exam, and secondly, the acting in those videos were so cheesy, but at least the kids were super adorable. I definitely recommend moving the video windows so that you can read the question while watching the video to save some time, if that makes sense.

 

[dr_axolotl]

Just took my exam. I highly recommend drawing out this viscerosomatics table when you get to your exam station, and yes, the DirtyUSMLE "Strokes" video was helpful. SketchyMicro is a must—know the bugs and the drugs to treat them. I used all of the available time for my exam.

So I took it today. Two thoughts: why were the majority of the video questions at the end of my exam, and secondly, the acting in those videos were so cheesy, but at least the kids were super adorable. I definitely recommend moving the video windows so that youy can read the question while watching the video to save some time, it that makes sense.

This is true—you can move the videos to the side while you read through the answer choices.

 

[medschoolhopeful1]

does anyone know if in the past if the composition in the test changes drastically from one score release period to another? i.e.- within the past month or two its been pretty consistent that i've been hearing similar sentiments from a lot of people regarding the test ; mainly that its been heavy in heme or neuro. was curious in the past if there was a pattern similar to this but then it changed once a new score release testing period opened. Thanks!

 

[Oreo#1]

does anyone know if in the past if the composition in the test changes drastically from one score release period to another? i.e.- within the past month or two its been pretty consistent that i've been hearing similar sentiments from a lot of people regarding the test ; mainly that its been heavy in heme or neuro. was curious in the past if there was a pattern similar to this but then it changed once a new score release testing period opened. Thanks!

Few buddies took the exam two days before me and said it was a freaking cake walk. We are all the same stemgth wise / scoring in class and practice exams. I was the first group for a new score release date and I thought I got hit with a ducking train. Asked them about questions I had and none of them had my questions or heavy cranial OMM etc. overall the test sways heavily from score period to score period and you either luck out or get f’d like I did. I’m just hoping everyone in my group felt the same way

 

[MusicDOc124]

Few buddies took the exam two days before me and said it was a freaking cake walk. We are all the same stemgth wise / scoring in class and practice exams. I was the first group for a new score release date and I thought I got hit with a ducking train. Asked them about questions I had and none of them had my questions or heavy cranial OMM etc. overall the test sways heavily from score period to score period and you either luck out or get f’d like I did. I’m just hoping everyone in my group felt the same way

When did you take it?

 

[Oreo#1]

When did you take it?

June 19

 

[MusicDOc124]

June 19

I was on the 20th and felt similar

 

[Furan]

Took it yesterday, honestly thought it was too easy for a medical licensing exam. There’s basically zero thinking on the test, it’s just all buzz words and whether you can pick out the most basic presentation of each disorder. The only “tough” questions were bull**** OMM nobody has heard of or ethics questions with 4 right answers.

Overall I’d say about 370/400 questions were pure freebies if you studied at all. No idea how people fail this thing.

 

[Staphylococcus Aureus]

Took it yesterday, honestly thought it was too easy for a medical licensing exam. There’s basically zero thinking on the test, it’s just all buzz words and whether you can pick out the most basic presentation of each disorder. The only “tough” questions were bull**** OMM nobody has heard of or ethics questions with 4 right answers.

Overall I’d say about 370/400 questions were pure freebies if you studied at all. No idea how people fail this thing.

I thought it was suspiciously easy as well, what does that mean for scoring? Still confused on if this thing is curved by others who took the same questions or what.

 

[mrporter11]

"The passing standard for COMLEX-USA Level 1 will be reviewed and a new passing standard may be implemented for the 2018-2019 COMLEX-USA Level 1 testing cycle effective May 21, 2018. The score release dates for candidates taking COMLEX-USA Level 1 from May 21 to June 15, 2018 are anticipated to be longer than the usual time to release scores to allow sufficient time for the standard setting process to set a minimum passing score and statistically validate candidate performance for the new Level 1 testing cycle. Thereafter, we anticipate a normal reporting time for Level 1 score release, subject to other delays contingent upon candidate scheduling, standard setting, or other variables."

So what i'm gathering from this, if we took the exam from May 21-June 15, we are the test dummies for the new comlex? Any other way to interpret that?

 

[medschoolhopeful1]

Took it yesterday, honestly thought it was too easy for a medical licensing exam. There’s basically zero thinking on the test, it’s just all buzz words and whether you can pick out the most basic presentation of each disorder. The only “tough” questions were bull**** OMM nobody has heard of or ethics questions with 4 right answers.

Overall I’d say about 370/400 questions were pure freebies if you studied at all. No idea how people fail this thing.

was your test heavy in certain systems/topics?

 

[BundleofWiz]

I got few questions to the recent test takers-
1) are you allowed to check phone/study materials during breaks? If so, is it ridiculous to carry your FA and Savarese to test center to browse during breaks? (I was planning to carry these to put in the locker?)
2) anyone took the 10 min breaks and felt ok with regards to timing?

 

[MagicDuck]

I got few questions to the recent test takers-
1) are you allowed to check phone/study materials during breaks? If so, is it ridiculous to carry your FA and Savarese to test center to browse during breaks? (I was planning to carry these to put in the locker?)
2) anyone took the 10 min breaks and felt ok with regards to timing?

1) You are allowed to check study materials during the lunch break, but not during the 10 minute breaks between sections.
2) I thought the 10 minute break was plenty of time to use the restroom and eat some wheat thins/drink some gatorade, etc.

 

[sancasm]

Wow, questions were harder than I thought. Not too many buzzwords on mine and very long question stems. Didn't have time to review much because there weren't many gimmies. They were harder than the NBMEs(haven't done 18/19), Free 120, and uworld questions imo. I only did some trulearn questions(no OMGOMT/COMQUEST). Just took the school COMSAE which was also way easier than the real test. My school does a good job with OMM so didn't really need a heavy OMM review. Maybe the long question stems threw me off but idk it wasn't as easy as people make it out to be.

 

[Philotic]

Wow, questions were harder than I thought. Not too many buzzwords on mine and very long question stems. Didn't have time to review much because there weren't many gimmies. They were harder than the NBMEs(haven't done 18/19), Free 120, and uworld questions imo. I only did some trulearn questions(no OMGOMT/COMQUEST). Just took the school COMSAE which was also way easier than the real test. My school does a good job with OMM so didn't really need a heavy OMM review. Maybe the long question stems threw me off but idk it wasn't as easy as people make it out to be.

If you could go back and do the process over again, what do you think you would change (if anything) to prepare for the COMLEX?

Also harder than uworld questions? T___T;; my uworld averages are absolute crap, but thanks for being real about how difficult the exam was!

 

[sancasm]

I could have focused more on repro and parasites/fungi(FA is pretty good tho), but these were my weak subjects going in(Reviewed breast pathology before test day and still got me smh).

The way they ask questions is different than uworld/NBME. Maybe try COMQUEST which has similar styled questions?

Also, uworld is a learning tool so don't really worry about the percentages if you are getting your **** down. You got this!!

 

[TheCruelOne]

I could have focused more on repro and parasites/fungi(FA is pretty good tho), but these were my weak subjects going in(Reviewed breast pathology before test day and still got me smh).

The way they ask questions is different than uworld/NBME. Maybe try COMQUEST which has similar styled questions?

Also, uworld is a learning tool so don't really worry about the percentages if you are getting your **** down. You got this!!

Looking back, do you think it's better to focus on UWorld questions or incorporate COMBANK questions in as well? Like did you feel that COMBANK served any benefit for preparing for the exam in any way? Not sure if I should be focusing on UWorld or COMBANK right now.

 

[itsallgood123]

I had a thought the other day and want to know what others think. So if you miss 100 that’s 300/400 that you get right that = 75%. A 78% on combanks and comsaes = ~600. Has anyone heard if this is pretty true to the real thing? I know there’s going to be experimental questions that get thrown out but I’m wondering if this would be a close approximation lol

What would you say it is

on my combank assessment 1 i got a 71.5% and it was around 558 per its score converter
on my combank assessment 2 i got an 85% and it was around 652-656 per its score converter

If you do the math, Pathos doesn't seem far off with his guess. Sadly on the real thing i do feel like I was averaging at most 70 correct on every 100 questions so i'm hoping the curve + experimental questions works more in our favor to break the 600. If anyone knows anything different on score conversions I would be happy to hear it.

 

[sancasm]

Looking back, do you think it's better to focus on UWorld questions or incorporate COMBANK questions in as well? Like did you feel that COMBANK served any benefit for preparing for the exam in any way? Not sure if I should be focusing on UWorld or COMBANK right now.

I think it depends. I had already done a first pass of uWorld and still need to take Step1 so I just kept chuggin at uWorld. A good approach would be to do atleast 1-2 days of COMBANK qs just to see how they ask questions(specifically OMM questions). More days depending on how good your OMM is.

In the last 3-4 days before the test, I did 200qs of OMM trulearn, Saverese and reviewed the heavy hitting topics of Repro(some reason I always have difficulty with repro), Neuro, Micro/Pharm, GI and MSK. I got little neuro, GI and pharm lol. Anatomy is hard to prepare for because there's just so much they could ask. Know the usual viscerosomatics, chapman points and nerve-reflex combos. I got little of MSK path as well.

 

[PathoTurnUp1865]

on my combank assessment 1 i got a 71.5% and it was around 558 per its score converter
on my combank assessment 2 i got an 85% and it was around 652-656 per its score converter

If you do the math, Pathos doesn't seem far off with his guess. Sadly on the real thing i do feel like I was averaging at most 70 correct on every 100 questions so i'm hoping the curve + experimental questions works more in our favor to break the 600. If anyone knows anything different on score conversions I would be happy to hear it.

I was scoring similar scores on my comsaes and I don’t think I missed any more/less on them. So I’m really curious on this

 

[hpgryffn]

When do scores get released? My center told me two months but I’ve heard a month from other students?

 

[MusicDOc124]

if you google search "comlex 1 score release" it will bring your to the page. Just note you're looking at level 1. Sometimes level 2 PE or something pops up first, so it might be the 2nd or 3rd on the list.

 

[PathoTurnUp1865]

It’s crazy that I start rotations tomorrow. Came so fast. It’s going to suck knowing that my scores are coming out during it too lol going to make it so hard to focus. Luckily I have psych first so if my scores go poorly and I go crazy, I’ll already be in the psych ward haha

 

[Oreo#1]

Took it yesterday, honestly thought it was too easy for a medical licensing exam. There’s basically zero thinking on the test, it’s just all buzz words and whether you can pick out the most basic presentation of each disorder. The only “tough” questions were bull**** OMM nobody has heard of or ethics questions with 4 right answers.

Overall I’d say about 370/400 questions were pure freebies if you studied at all. No idea how people fail this thing.

Thats nice. Do you give yourself reach arounds in the morning as you stare at yourself in the mirror as well?

 

[ASGD1983]

I have Comsae E upcoming in 2 days. Can anyone who took it please point me to what should I focus on last 2 days - I've heard repro was heavy no?

 

[futuredoctor66]

^Micro and Heme Onc were HY.

Has anyone got any biostats on their exam yet? In regards to the formulas in FA.