Official 2019 COMLEX Level 2 CE Experiences and Scores Thread

[PathoTurnUp1865]

Not sure why this hasn’t been started yet, so I thought I’d start it.
Already took step 2 and got a 235, I take level 2 towards the end of July. Yeah I know wtf? But that’s how I live life. Plan is to complete Uworld a third time, complete combank and comquest as well as kaplan if time allows and who knows maybe I’ll just complete Amboss too if I’m feeling frisky. I’m keeping up with all of my anki decks in the mean time.
Anybody have any insight into what the new format is going to be like? Also, wtf happened to combank’s format? The seemed to try to clean it up but it still sucks compared to the others :/

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[PathoTurnUp1865]

Do people have a recommendation for studying biostats or ethics? Just used First aid to study for them for level 1. Idk if its worth using Uworlds individual biostats bank for 25 bux but thats what I was considering.

Probably worth it but all the biostats I’ve seen on the comsaes are way easier than what’s on Uworlds regular subscription. I’m hoping that’s how it is on the real thing

 

[bigjowls]

Probably worth it but all the biostats I’ve seen on the comsaes are way easier than what’s on Uworlds regular subscription. I’m hoping that’s how it is on the real thing

Any opinion in ethics questions? I just have a document of all the ethics questions I have run into from step/level 1 study to review and im just doing ethics questions on uworld and comquest that I can. Not sure if there is much more that you can do. I just feel like they should be easy questions but I still get em wrong.

 

[Sadalsuud]

Took the Level 2 beast today. The Step 1 FA biostats chapter + UWORLD + COMQUEST biostats questions prepared me for the biostats I saw. Never purchased the $25 UWORLD biostats review. I'm just as lost as the rest of you on ethics and medical jurisprudence. It'll be okay, fam.

 

[deleted407021]

It hasn’t been standardized completely yet. So don’t go off of it. I’d go off your other numbers. You’re probably in the 530-high 500s range tbh.
When do you take your comlex?

Do you think it's possible for someone to be more prepared for USMLE than for COMLEX, given the differences in question style?

 

[deleted407021]

Any opinion in ethics questions? I just have a document of all the ethics questions I have run into from step/level 1 study to review and im just doing ethics questions on uworld and comquest that I can. Not sure if there is much more that you can do. I just feel like they should be easy questions but I still get em wrong.

I googled up "COMLEX CE ethics" and found a quizlet or two that will hopefully help.

 

[PathoTurnUp1865]

Do you think it's possible for someone to be more prepared for USMLE than for COMLEX, given the differences in question style?

Not usually but I think comlex is more likely to catch someone off guard due to vagueness of questions. Step 2 was pretty straightforward and read like Uworld. Comlex does it’s own thing. But I think if you do a mixture of Uworld and comquest/combank. It’ll prep you for that.

 

[deleted407021]

Not usually but I think comlex is more likely to catch someone off guard due to vagueness of questions. Step 2 was pretty straightforward and read like Uworld. Comlex does it’s own thing. But I think if you do a mixture of Uworld and comquest/combank. It’ll prep you for that.

I done messed up by ONLY doing UWorld essentially the whole time, ugh.

 

[deleted407021]

Well, I prepared well for the wards but maybe not for my high stakes exam lmao

 

[littleR]

Okay so I flopped on Level 1; 518 after making a 601 on Comsae Phase 1 Form E. My school doesn't do shelf exam for rotations, they make their own exams so I feel very ill prepared for Level 2. We took Comsae Phase 2 104 end of May and I scored a 544. I took the COMQUEST full length exam this past Friday and scored a 706. My scored for COMQUEST q-bank is 76% correct, 82nd percentile and predicted score of 649, I have done 925 questions so far. I have completed COMBANK (truelearn) and my scores there are 79% correct and 87th percentile. I'm really nervous about this new blueprint and have no idea what to expect this Friday when I take my exam. I have done 2961 questions to this date. Does anyone have any advice on how to prepare the next few days. I'm still worried that I'm going to flop again. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[thiscan'tbe]

Just took it today as well. I feel like ****, felt like i was taking a law exam.
Quick Summary:
They focused so much on minute details and kept asking the same questions 6 different ways instead of testing other knowledge.
Diagnostic questions and screening questions were all for diseases I haven't seen tested on uworld or combank.
There were many questions where two possible answers could have fit and I had to guess what the writer actually wanted.
The COMSAEs actually tested my knowledge of medicine better than this exam did. It was very poorly written.
Complete crap shoot, ill be happy if i pass but I honestly feel like I might fail.

Am I the only one that feels this way? I hope they take into consideration that this is the first time ppl have seen this new blueprint and give me some brownie points.

 

[deleted407021]

.......


Maybe the curve will be generous

 

[TheBoneDoctah]

Just took it today as well. I feel like ****, felt like i was taking a law exam.
Quick Summary:
They focused so much on minute details and kept asking the same questions 6 different ways instead of testing other knowledge.
Diagnostic questions and screening questions were all for diseases I haven't seen tested on uworld or combank.
There were many questions where two possible answers could have fit and I had to guess what the writer actually wanted.
The COMSAEs actually tested my knowledge of medicine better than this exam did. It was very poorly written.
Complete crap shoot, ill be happy if i pass but I honestly feel like I might fail.

Am I the only one that feels this way? I hope they take into consideration that this is the first time ppl have seen this new blueprint and give me some brownie points.

What’s the deal with the new blue print?

 

[thiscan'tbe]

What’s the deal with the new blue print?

Seems to me like its just a way for them to justify having less knowledge based questions and more OMM and Ethics.

Pretty sure they’re freaking out about the merger making the COMLEX obsolete since everyone is taking the USMLE now. They’re trying to differentiate the exams by making this one more “DO” specific; so you can do amazing on STEP but somehow bomb COMLEX.

This isn't the way to do it though. If anything they’re making the exam obsolete BY doing this.

 

[itsallgood123]

Is there any resource we can use to study the ethics other than qbanks?? I've heard it was literally ridiculous how many ethics questions they asked.

 

[thiscan'tbe]

Is there any resource we can use to study the ethics other than qbanks?? I've heard it was literally ridiculous how many ethics questions they asked.

Nope, they expect you to be able to answer questions that program directors wouldn’t be able to answer.
Just pray to whatever entity you believe in, choose an answer, and move on. Im sure some company will come out with a resource eventually, but as of rn unless you go to law school you won’t be ready.

 

[Philotic]

Seems to me like its just a way for them to justify having less knowledge based questions and more OMM and Ethics.

Pretty sure they’re freaking out about the merger making the COMLEX obsolete since everyone is taking the USMLE now. They’re trying to differentiate the exams by making this one more “DO” specific; so you can do amazing on STEP but somehow bomb COMLEX.

This isn't the way to do it though. If anything they’re making the exam obsolete BY doing this.

Was OMM reasonable or more random like the OMM comsae? Why does this test have to suck so much Congrats on being done with it!!

 

[deleted407021]

so you can do amazing on STEP but somehow bomb COMLEX.

W

T

F

Don't tell me this now

 

[sendoola]

In terms of ethics resources, I watched the ethics video by DirtyUSMLE on youtube, it goes through 30 ethics cases and was helpful

 

[thiscan'tbe]

W

T

F

Don't tell me this now

This is just me speculating so don’t worry about it too much.

 

[deleted407021]

Uuuuuuugh

That sucked @ss

 

[TheCruelOne]

Uuuuuuugh

That sucked @ss

Got mine tomorrow and I'm somewhat comforted by the fact that this is the common post-exam feeling. Tomorrow's gonna suck.

 

[InternistDO]

Just took it, confirming that it felt like ass. Nothing to do but wait for August I guess...

 

[sorbitol]

Uuuuuuugh

That sucked @ss

how was the ethics and biostats? any crazy micro?

 

[deleted407021]

how was the ethics and biostats? any crazy micro?

Wacky random ethics, tons of bio stats conceptual stuff with a few calculations and a lot of micro, especially about disease vectors that I was unfamiliar with

 

[thiscan'tbe]

how was the ethics and biostats? any crazy micro?

If peter is 6 and his dad is an alien, what is the correct way to approach telling his dog that he's actually a cat ?
A. Pet him
B. Marry him
C. Adopt a cat
D. Turn him into a dog

 

[InternistDO]

If peter is 6 and his dad is an alien, what is the correct way to approach telling his dog that he's actually a cat ?
A. Pet him
B. Marry him
C. Adopt a cat
D. Turn him into a dog

You forgot E. Perform a balanced ligamentous tension technique on the dog.

The questions where it asks you for the next best step in treatment for an obviously unstable patient with all the choices being OMT techniques were my personal favorites.

 

[thiscan'tbe]

You forgot E. Perform a balanced ligamentous tension technique on the dog.

The questions where it asks you for the next best step in treatment for an obviously unstable patient with all the choices being OMT techniques were my personal favorites.

What allows the use of OMM in unstable patients?
A. The Act of 2390
B. The hospital of unicorns association
C. The SDN
D. NBOME
E. It is not ethical to use OMM in unstable pts

 

[deleted407021]

If peter is 6 and his dad is an alien, what is the correct way to approach telling his dog that he's actually a cat ?
A. Pet him
B. Marry him
C. Adopt a cat
D. Turn him into a dog

The true answer is that you’d realistically do ALL of that but WhAt WoUlD u Do FiRsT??

 

[Philotic]

Got mine tomorrow and I'm somewhat comforted by the fact that this is the common post-exam feeling. Tomorrow's gonna suck.

Sameee. I think I've actually given up lol.

 

[dizzymizlizzy]

So I took mine Monday, the law questions were a bunch of crappola and had no frikin clue for a good majority of them; otherwise just try to see which answer seems the most logical and go with that.
Tons of OMM, just go over your basics for each section of the body and you'll be fine.
There were plenty of long stems. I truly felt like the questions were longer than the COMSAE I took, but I like to really read the questions thoroughly so thats what probably slowed me down.
I used the USMLE Step 2 Board Vitals for the majority of my practice questions since our school provides that to us for free, and I felt like it really helped me. That and the Emma Holliday Review Videos and PPT on Youtube, esp the IM one.
Best of luck guys!

 

[PathoTurnUp1865]

A lot of the comsaes have law qs. They can only make so many different qs. Those qs have answer choices with law topics. You have google and anki, what do you do?

This is an ethical q posed to you by EthicalTurnUp.

 

[TTPpentad]

Echoing everyone else with saying tons of biostats, law and OMM. Overall, I didn’t think the test was quite as bad as Level 1 (less WTF questions and less repetition of topics) but I may take that back when I get my score in two months! I didn’t think the COMSAE 103 my school made us take carried over well to the actual exam.

 

[St. Pauli Girl]

I took my COMLEX Level 2 CE on Monday as well and I agree with pretty much everything that people are putting on here about it. Lots of bio stats, ethics/law, OMM. So those are good things to review really well right before you take it. Noticed quite a bit of OBGYN, peds, neuro and yes some weird micro ones about vectors and prevention etc. A decent amount of videos with physical exam findings that might help with diagnosis, or listening to heart sounds, or OMM diagnosis.

Also, I don't know if anyone else had this, but the entire look of the exam was new; different colors and a few differences in buttons; looks a little more modern and fresh. So that threw me a bit at first but I guess it was fine.

Overall, the question stems seemed a lot shorter than Level 1 to me, I had way less time pressure on this one which seemed to help. Felt like there were less super vague questions but still saw some and still felt like I wasn't sure what they were talking about on a decent amount.

Now just ready to wait a year for the score

 

[dallasleo]

Echoing everyone else with saying tons of biostats, law and OMM. Overall, I didn’t think the test was quite as bad as Level 1 (less WTF questions and less repetition of topics) but I may take that back when I get my score in two months! I didn’t think the COMSAE 103 my school made us take carried over well to the actual exam.

long-time lurker here haha. how do you feel like 103 compared to the real thing?

 

[deleted407021]

Is anyone else having trouble shaking a distant sense of doom after taking that test?

 

[TTPpentad]

long-time lurker here haha. how do you feel like 103 compared to the real thing?

I don’t think it represented the test well at all. The COMSAE seemed like the COMATs, (lengthy stems, weird micro), while the actual test seemed like a whole new ballgame. I had my fair share of impossible questions, but I didn’t feel as quite confused as I did during Level 1. Yes they still did the “let’s repeat this weird question you don’t know 3 times,” but overall it seemed better. After hearing about the biostats and law emphases, I tried to study up on those; however, the questions they ask you aren’t exactly things you’d think to study for those topics...

Overall, don’t put too much stock in the COMSAE and the real thing is still a typical COMLEX crapshoot where studying past a certain point won’t help you. I felt super unprepared for this test and burnt out after Step 2 a few days earlier, yet realized when I was taking it that studying more would not have helped me.

 

[dallasleo]

I don’t think it represented the test well at all. The COMSAE seemed like the COMATs, (lengthy stems, weird micro), while the actual test seemed like a whole new ballgame. I had my fair share of impossible questions, but I didn’t feel as quite confused as I did during Level 1. Yes they still did the “let’s repeat this weird question you don’t know 3 times,” but overall it seemed better. After hearing about the biostats and law emphases, I tried to study up on those; however, the questions they ask you aren’t exactly things you’d think to study for those topics...

Overall, don’t put too much stock in the COMSAE and the real thing is still a typical COMLEX crapshoot where studying past a certain point won’t help you. I felt super unprepared for this test and burnt out after Step 2 a few days earlier, yet realized when I was taking it that studying more would not have helped me.

oh man that's not good at all i felt the same way during 103, super confused, no idea if i'd pass or fall. ended up getting in the 550s, so take that with a grain of salt...
thank you for explaining!

 

[Philotic]

Just finished the test. Died on block 2 which was so random I think I flagged half the questions and then gave up going back to check answers haha! By block 7 my brain had officially zoned out and I had to keep telling myself to refocus because why would my brain wanna do that in this crucial testing situation?! Haha.

Overall I felt there were about 10% of questions that were so specific I would not have remembered them even if I tried to study for them. I had to randomly guess on those

For the rest of the 90% of the test: Overall I thought the question length was fair, some longer ones, some short ones. Good mix of length. Had about 5min left after each section, but some blocks where I guessed more I had more time left over at the end lol. Felt about the same timewise for me as Level 1.

20% biostats and ethics. As someone mentioned above, it's more conceptual and I'm not sure how I would have studied for the ethics. Surprisingly I didn't get many law questions (had maybe 5-10 of them..some I had never heard of so I just guessed). I just tried to use my common sense to the best of my ability and just hoped that I'm an ethical enough person ha.

15% on screening guidelines. Pretty straightforward if you memorized them all, not so straightforward if you didn't (or couldn't) memorize them all like me. Sad day for small brains like mine.

I would say the rest of the questions was a decent mix of cardio & pulm, obgyn, and heavy on the peds (some Step 1 stuff that I had long forgotten) and heavy on the OMM. Luckily only 10-15 random OMM questions, the rest were pretty straightforward. Had maybe 15-20 videos which showed various things.

Don't know how I could have helped myself do better, as it's just impossible for me to remember all the random facts that they could test on. Which sucks...but hopefully they'll be nice with the curve? :/

Hope that helps!

 

[TTPpentad]

oh man that's not good at all i felt the same way during 103, super confused, no idea if i'd pass or fall. ended up getting in the 550s, so take that with a grain of salt...
thank you for explaining!

Same here with 103 feelings and score! Very confusing! Haha

And no problem. Hopefully the curve is amazing on the real thing. I’m still more concerned about the PE than anything else...

 

[TheBoneDoctah]

Just finished the test. Died on block 2 which was so random I think I flagged half the questions and then gave up going back to check answers haha! By block 7 my brain had officially zoned out and I had to keep telling myself to refocus because why would my brain wanna do that in this crucial testing situation?! Haha.

Overall I felt there were about 10% of questions that were so specific I would not have remembered them even if I tried to study for them. I had to randomly guess on those

For the rest of the 90% of the test: Overall I thought the question length was fair, some longer ones, some short ones. Good mix of length. Had about 5min left after each section, but some blocks where I guessed more I had more time left over at the end lol. Felt about the same timewise for me as Level 1.

20% biostats and ethics. As someone mentioned above, it's more conceptual and I'm not sure how I would have studied for the ethics. Surprisingly I didn't get many law questions (had maybe 5-10 of them..some I had never heard of so I just guessed). I just tried to use my common sense to the best of my ability and just hoped that I'm an ethical enough person ha.

15% on screening guidelines. Pretty straightforward if you memorized them all, not so straightforward if you didn't (or couldn't) memorize them all like me. Sad day for small brains like mine.

I would say the rest of the questions was a decent mix of cardio & pulm, obgyn, and heavy on the peds (some Step 1 stuff that I had long forgotten) and heavy on the OMM. Luckily only 10-15 random OMM questions, the rest were pretty straightforward. Had maybe 15-20 videos which showed various things.

Don't know how I could have helped myself do better, as it's just impossible for me to remember all the random facts that they could test on. Which sucks...but hopefully they'll be nice with the curve? :/

Hope that helps!

Took today as well. Not sure how a medical licensing exam can be so shotty. My exam completely shut off during the exam. Plus, NBOME can’t figure out how to turn off the sound on the videos???? I forgot to turn off the sound on one of my questions that I went back to and couldn’t find which question is was so I heard heart sounds throughout the entire block. Awesome.

The test itself was....LONG and I found it very difficult. OMM was probably the most straightforward, but a lot of weird micro and vague cardio/pulm. So many weird “which kinda study is this?” Idk. Was doing really well on UW (80%) but feel I got completely rocked on COMLEX. So many specific details. I am also a slower test taker and the extra 10 questions makes me literally rush the entire time not allowing me to think through and answers.

Hope I do ok. But as of now, not feeling too hot.

 

[Philotic]

Took today as well. Not sure how a medical licensing exam can be so shotty. My exam completely shut off during the exam. Plus, NBOME can’t figure out how to turn off the sound on the videos???? I forgot to turn off the sound on one of my questions that I went back to and couldn’t find which question is was so I heard heart sounds throughout the entire block. Awesome.

The test itself was....LONG and I found it very difficult. OMM was probably the most straightforward, but a lot of weird micro and vague cardio/pulm. So many weird “which kinda study is this?” Idk. Was doing really well on UW (80%) but feel I got completely rocked on COMLEX. So many specific details. I am also a slower test taker and the extra 10 questions makes me literally rush the entire time not allowing me to think through and answers.

Hope I do ok. But as of now, not feeling too hot.

I'm so sorry that happened to you! That really sucks! Did they reboot your exam and have your answers saved? And yeah, I don't know why the videos don't stop playing automatically....what's the point of having a nice looking format when such basic things don't even work right? The exam is so different from uworld. It's more of a "do you remember facts" vs "can you reason out basic medicine." Yeah I was surprised we didn't have any multiple chained questions. I guess for the new blueprint they're phasing those out? They really saved time on the practice tests since the stem was the same. Nobody feels great after the exam blehhh. I'm going through the stages of grief. By Monday's new sub-I I will have hit "acceptance" I think. T_T

 

[TheBoneDoctah]

I'm so sorry that happened to you! That really sucks! Did they reboot your exam and have your answers saved? And yeah, I don't know why the videos don't stop playing automatically....what's the point of having a nice looking format when such basic things don't even work right? The exam is so different from uworld. It's more of a "do you remember facts" vs "can you reason out basic medicine." Yeah I was surprised we didn't have any multiple chained questions. I guess for the new blueprint they're phasing those out? They really saved time on the practice tests since the stem was the same. Nobody feels great after the exam blehhh. I'm going through the stages of grief. By Monday's new sub-I I will have hit "acceptance" I think. T_T

Yeah it saved but I flipped out. I ran over to the admin people and was knocking on the window. I thought my time was running and I was on question 370/400 with 30 min left.

 

[tunicaexterna]

I took the comlex level 2 the other day.

I felt like 80% of the questions were fair and straightforward.

There was more legal stuff/insurance/ethics stuff than I would have preferred. I did the legal jurisprudence section on comquest twice and I still had to guess on quite a bit of it. LOTS of biostats. Other than an overload of legal/insurance/ethics stuff, I thought the subject matter was evenly distributed across the test.

Now to wait like 1.5 months for our scores

@SynapticDoctah
Wow, I’m so sorry that happened. That’s garbage.

 

[bigjowls]

I took the comlex level 2 the other day.

I felt like 80% of the questions were fair and straightforward.

There was more legal stuff/insurance/ethics stuff than I would have preferred. I did the legal jurisprudence section on comquest twice and I still had to guess on quite a bit of it. LOTS of biostats. Other than an overload of legal/insurance/ethics stuff, I thought the subject matter was evenly distributed across the test.

Now to wait like 1.5 months for our scores

@SynapticDoctah
Wow, I’m so sorry that happened. That’s garbage.

So do you think there is anyway to study for these legal questions? Im reading first aid and doing the legal/ethics questions in comquest and Uworld but It seems like thats not enough. Tho idk if there is anyway to really prepare for them.

 

[PathoTurnUp1865]

So do you think there is anyway to study for these legal questions? Im reading first aid and doing the legal/ethics questions in comquest and Uworld but It seems like thats not enough. Tho idk if there is anyway to really prepare for them.

If you did the JD/MBA/MPH/DO path you’re set!

 

[tunicaexterna]

So do you think there is anyway to study for these legal questions? Im reading first aid and doing the legal/ethics questions in comquest and Uworld but It seems like thats not enough. Tho idk if there is anyway to really prepare for them.

Honestly, I don’t think there’s a way to prepare for some of it. I still don’t know the answers to the questions that were asked because I don’t have the slightest idea of how to google the answers. Obviously take a second look at the jurisprudence questions in Comquest/combank and look over different types of insurance/physician group plans in FA, but beyond that, there’s not a ton you can do.

That being said, I don’t think most people know the answers to the questions I’m talking about, and most people probably guessed on them.

And I would also add: MOST questions on the form I took were very reasonable. There’s a certain about of WTF on comlex that will always be there, and there’s not a ton you can do to prepare for that part.

 

[TheBoneDoctah]

I just felt like there were a ton of presentations that weren’t presented like they were in UW or study resources.

 

[tunicaexterna]

I just felt like there were a ton of presentations that weren’t presented like they were in UW or study resources.

I would agree with that. It was more similar to Comquest than Uworld, but no resource quite represented the test.

 

[TheBoneDoctah]

I would agree with that. It was more similar to Comquest than Uworld, but no resource quite represented the test.

Which is a problem for people who only prepare with UW haha. The way they describe certain symptoms and test findings are weird

 

[deleted407021]

Which is a problem for people who only prepare with UW haha. The way they describe certain symptoms and test findings are weird

YES, this 100%. I used UW exclusively and somehow feel more prepared for a technically harder test than Level 2 simply because of how they present the cases. And hey, sorry about the heart beat ear torture thing. That sucks. That’s such a weird feature(?).




It’s honestly a relief to see so many SDNers feeling weird about this test. Gives me hope we’ll be treated mercifully by the NBOME.