OMM COMAT

[fldoctorgirl]

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Hi friends! Our school makes us take the OPP COMAT around January of M3. In my post-Step joyous purge of all things Anki, I accidentally deleted TurnUp2OMT, which I had completed and planned on keeping up with for Level 2. I suck at OMM, so I figured it would probably be in my best interest to restart the deck (it's only like 1,000 cards so I could do 20 a day and finish quite quickly). Any thoughts on this plan and whether it would be sufficient for the COMAT? What else did you guys do to study if your school made you take it? We have to study for it on top of regular rotations and what not, so I'd like to have a game plan since I completely suck at anything OMM related.

 

[Prehealth1011]

I just did TurnUp2OMT anki deck and it’s the only shelf I honored just ignore the really Msk and anatomy kinda cards like what nerve innervates what muscle, brachial plexus etc.
The entire exam is basically What is the diagnosis. It’s not hard it’s just annoying. Expect a lot of “patient x gets better when translated left to right”. You’ll spend most of your time figuring out directions.

 

[Neopolymath]

TurnUp2OMT is all you need. You can watch the OME OMM vids if you want to be extra as well but either one will do it. I studied for 3 days for the COMAT and studying more wasn't going to raise my score above the good score I got. The exam is completely based on basic principles, lack of time, and intentionally very, very poorly worded directions.

Unsurprisingly, it is the dumbest comat you will take all year but it's not hard to honor and really hard to fail.

 

[Noisewater-TDX]

I did not study for the OPP comat. Probably a poor choice. My lowest COMAT score of 3rd year. But i refuse to study bone wizardry anymore.

 

[PorkChopsOG]

I studied a decent amount, used COMQUEST, and it was still the lowest COMAT I had. It's difficult. Think of it as a KCU OMM exam but with less spelling mistakes. I had multiple obscure pelvic counterstrain points on mine.

 

[Noisewater-TDX]

I studied a decent amount, used COMQUEST, and it was still the lowest COMAT I had. It's difficult. Think of it as a KCU OMM exam but with less spelling mistakes. I had multiple obscure pelvic counterstrain points on mine.

Same. Weird CS points.

 

[fldoctorgirl]

Thanks guys! Don't really care about doing well on it, just would like to pass. Looks like I'll restart TurnUp2OMT to play it safe.

 

[fldoctorgirl]

Any of you have tips for the FM COMAT? It's my first one and since there's no UWorld, I'm kind of unsure on how to approach it outside of doing Dorian and OME videos. Some people have recommended the AAFP questions, but then I've heard from others that it's too in depth since it's made for residents. Is it worth biting the bullet and dropping money on one of the FM shelf specific qbanks (like COMBANK)? My school literally gives us nothing for third year.

 

[Neopolymath]

Any of you have tips for the FM COMAT? It's my first one and since there's no UWorld, I'm kind of unsure on how to approach it outside of doing Dorian and OME videos. Some people have recommended the AAFP questions, but then I've heard from others that it's too in depth since it's made for residents. Is it worth biting the bullet and dropping money on one of the FM shelf specific qbanks (like COMBANK)? My school literally gives us nothing for third year.

The FM comat first is not ideal but everyone else taking it will be in the same shoes. Try to learn a bit of derm, a bit of basic msk, a bit of basic peds, and don't focus too much on OB/GYN IMO. Coming off step 1 will actually help you though.

Know all USPSTF guidelines cold! Amboss has an FM shelf qbank. Don't use any combank questions for anything ever during med school (truelearn can be used for residency/specialty board exams). Some people use comquest during third and it is considered good for most Comats. That said, I was strictly of the opinion that any time doing comquest is time taking away from doing UWorld to prepare you for Step 2. I didn't do any questions besides UW for third year.

Use divine intervention podcasts specifically for FM. Just trust me.

How does your school select honors for comat grades?

Edit: I want to add that you should approach COMATs like you did with comlex. The timing is more important than anything so address this if you are a slower test taker. Read the last line first then the question. Make your brain just subconsciously ignore OMM unless it is a strictly OMM question. If you have no idea what the **** is going on then choose an answer, flag, and come back. The questions aren't hard. They pretty much all just require knowing some random fact. You can use previous questions to help answer questions later in the exam. Don't be caught off guard by the same question being asked twice or having like 7 questions on essentially the same thing. Just roll with it and enjoy the rest of your day. You got this!

 

[fldoctorgirl]

The FM comat first is not ideal but everyone else taking it will be in the same shoes. Try to learn a bit of derm, a bit of basic msk, a bit of basic peds, and don't focus too much on OB/GYN IMO. Coming off step 1 will actually help you though.

Know all USPSTF guidelines cold! Amboss has an FM shelf qbank. Don't use any combank questions for anything ever during med school (truelearn can be used for residency/specialty board exams). Some people use comquest during third and it is considered good for most Comats. That said, I was strictly of the opinion that any time doing comquest is time taking away from doing UWorld to prepare you for Step 2. I didn't do any questions besides UW for third year.

Use divine intervention podcasts specifically for FM. Just trust me.

How does your school select honors for comat grades?

Edit: I want to add that you should approach COMATs like you did with comlex. The timing is more important than anything so address this if you are a slower test taker. Read the last line first then the question. Make your brain just subconsciously ignore OMM unless it is a strictly OMM question. If you have no idea what the **** is going on then choose an answer, flag, and come back. The questions aren't hard. They pretty much all just require knowing some random fact. You can use previous questions to help answer questions later in the exam. Don't be caught off guard by the same question being asked twice or having like 7 questions on essentially the same thing. Just roll with it and enjoy the rest of your day. You got this!

I don't have my COMLEX score yet but got 250+ on Step 1. I'm just not sure how to approach the COMAT practice question wise; I feel the same as you and was going to only do UWorld for everything, but since there's no UWorld for FM I'm at a loss. Would you recommend doing the Amboss bank for FM, then?

Thanks for the podcast tip, I'll check it out. I believe honors is >112 for us this year.

 

[Neopolymath]

I don't have my COMLEX score yet but got 250+ on Step 1. I'm just not sure how to approach the COMAT practice question wise; I feel the same as you and was going to only do UWorld for everything, but since there's no UWorld for FM I'm at a loss. Would you recommend doing the Amboss bank for FM, then?

Thanks for the podcast tip, I'll check it out. I believe honors is >112 for us this year.

Congrats on the great score!

I did not have FM early so I can't comment with my personal experience. I just know some people did comquest FM, some did amboss FM, and some just did the IM UWorld questions for the exam. I think amboss is a good qbank but I cannot comment personally on the FM questions.

Another tactic would be to just hammer the Dorian MS3 deck's FM subdeck for the rotation. I would be shocked if you didn't honor the comat with that alone.

 

[fldoctorgirl]

Another tactic would be to just hammer the Dorian MS3 deck's FM subdeck for the rotation. I would be shocked if you didn't honor the comat with that alone.

This is what I've been doing.....I'm afraid to abandon ship on questions altogether, but this may be a good option for me. Thank you for taking the time to give me such detailed feedback!

 

[Neopolymath]

This is what I've been doing.....I'm afraid to abandon ship on questions altogether, but this may be a good option for me. Thank you for taking the time to give me such detailed feedback!

So being a very diverse question set and showing your test taking abilities with step 1 I wouldn't worry about using Anki and not as many questions. You need facts for this exam not thought process as much (at least this comat IMO). Be sure that you absolutely learn to read the question clearly. For example "next best step" "first initial step" "most likely diagnosis" "most important risk factor" "best initial step" etc can be easy to confuse.

Anytime! Don't hesitate to reach out. I'm sure you will excel this year.

 

[Oligodinero]

LECOM had us take that at the end of our 3rd semester, IIRC. Echo the advice given above. The thing that most disturbed my classmates and I the most about the test was how long it was taking to get through it. About halfway through the time allotted, everyone started freaking out and many of us just flew through the last couple dozen questions, barely reading the stem and choices and just clicking any answer that didn't seem ridiculous.

-so be aware that time is probably the most difficult part of the test.

 

[Ho0v-man]

Used turnUp to study for about 4 days for the omm comat. Didn’t kill it, but didn’t care to either.

FWIW, I did nothing for the FM comat but the Dorian deck. No questions. Got a 117 on it. Which I think is pretty good considering it had a ton of obgyn on it and I hadn’t had that rotation. It was also the absolute worst comat. I’d be surprised if I got half those questions right. It was insane. Good luck!

 

[fldoctorgirl]

FWIW, I did nothing for the FM comat but the Dorian deck. No questions. Got a 117 on it. Which I think is pretty good considering it had a ton of obgyn on it and I hadn’t had that rotation. It was also the absolute worst comat. I’d be surprised if I got half those questions right. It was insane. Good luck!

Well, I'm sold lol. Looks like Dorian's all I'm gonna do.

 

[fldoctorgirl]

@Neopolymath @Ho0v-man COMAT at the end of this week, basically done with all of Dorian FM. Should I be concerned it seems like there wasn't much peds and ob/gyn in there? It covered some stuff but not in much depth, so I'm concerned if this makes up a significant portion of my exam I'll be screwed since I haven't had those rotations yet..

 

[Neopolymath]

@Neopolymath @Ho0v-man COMAT at the end of this week, basically done with all of Dorian FM. Should I be concerned it seems like there wasn't much peds and ob/gyn in there? It covered some stuff but not in much depth, so I'm concerned if this makes up a significant portion of my exam I'll be screwed since I haven't had those rotations yet..

Hey! Personally, my FM exam had just a couple very basic peds questions on it and no OB. It wasn't like asking peds immuno or hard questions. More like about bed wetting and nursemaid elbow stuff. Easy stuff. The few Gyn questions were more routine outpatient questions relating to USPSTF guidelines. I think the peds questions were answerable with Step 1 knowledge. It sounds silly but a LOT of the subject matter on comats isn't hard with strong step 1 foundation. It's mostly learning thinking style and treatment algorithms from here on out and doing well on boards will surprisingly carry you far.

If you are worried, you could probably watch a bit of OME to give you some basic understanding. Maybe listen to some Divine or the Emma holiday peds audio (it's short and to the point).

Others may have had a different ratio of questions. I felt the extra subjects on the FM comat were very superficially tested.

 

[AnatomyGrey12]

@Neopolymath @Ho0v-man COMAT at the end of this week, basically done with all of Dorian FM. Should I be concerned it seems like there wasn't much peds and ob/gyn in there? It covered some stuff but not in much depth, so I'm concerned if this makes up a significant portion of my exam I'll be screwed since I haven't had those rotations yet..

If your school gives you access to the TrueLearn COMAT questions I would suggest doing those before your test. I had some questions pretty much word for word out of those.

Just be prepared for this COMAT to suck. FM is essentially a COMSAE without OMM and ethics in it. Very broad and you won't have exposure to a lot of it. Remember though these things are basically scaled against all the people who took it during that month (from my understanding), so everyone else is going to get rocked too. You'll most likely do much better than you feel.

 

[fldoctorgirl]

Hey! Personally, my FM exam had just a couple very basic peds questions on it and no OB. It wasn't like asking peds immuno or hard questions. More like about bed wetting and nursemaid elbow stuff. Easy stuff. The few Gyn questions were more routine outpatient questions relating to USPSTF guidelines. I think the peds questions were answerable with Step 1 knowledge. It sounds silly but a LOT of the subject matter on comats isn't hard with strong step 1 foundation. It's mostly learning thinking style and treatment algorithms from here on out and doing well on boards will surprisingly carry you far.

If you are worried, you could probably watch a bit of OME to give you some basic understanding. Maybe listen to some Divine or the Emma holiday peds audio (it's short and to the point).

Others may have had a different ratio of questions. I felt the extra subjects on the FM comat were very superficially tested.

Okay, thank you! If it's not that much I will try not to be too concerned and just rely on Step 1 knowledge. I was worried it would get specific and I would have no idea.

If your school gives you access to the TrueLearn COMAT questions I would suggest doing those before your test. I had some questions pretty much word for word out of those.

Just be prepared for this COMAT to suck. FM is essentially a COMSAE without OMM and ethics in it. Very broad and you won't have exposure to a lot of it. Remember though these things are basically scaled against all the people who took it during that month (from my understanding), so everyone else is going to get rocked too. You'll most likely do much better than you feel.

Unfortunately, my school gives absolutely zero resources for 3rd year. I'm using a free trial for AMBOSS to do some questions just so I have some exposure. But yeah, totally prepared to feel like crap haha

 

[Ho0v-man]

@Neopolymath @Ho0v-man COMAT at the end of this week, basically done with all of Dorian FM. Should I be concerned it seems like there wasn't much peds and ob/gyn in there? It covered some stuff but not in much depth, so I'm concerned if this makes up a significant portion of my exam I'll be screwed since I haven't had those rotations yet..

I got pwnd by obgyn on mine. Like intepret accels/decels and should you induce, csection, or reassure questions. I hadn’t had obgyn yet either and 100% guessed on those questions. It doesn’t matter though. Literally everyone is probably getting crushed by that comat. I’d be surprised if the bar for passing this thing was above 45% correct. It’s August so essentially no one will be prepared for this beast.

I think this comat is the best example of third year. You just go for it and hope it works out.

 

[Jack Package]

If your school gives you access to the TrueLearn COMAT questions I would suggest doing those before your test. I had some questions pretty much word for word out of those.

Just be prepared for this COMAT to suck. FM is essentially a COMSAE without OMM and ethics in it. Very broad and you won't have exposure to a lot of it. Remember though these things are basically scaled against all the people who took it during that month (from my understanding), so everyone else is going to get rocked too. You'll most likely do much better than you feel.

Echo this. FM was one of my earlier comats, and it felt like another comlex. I was expecting more things like vaccine schedule and outpatient concerns but alas, not at all.

Although i do remember OMM on nearly every comat. Is this not the case anymore?

 

[AnatomyGrey12]

Although i do remember OMM on nearly every comat. Is this not the case anymore?

They always throw it in the stems but it was never needed to answer the question. I think I only had like 0-2 pure OMM questions on any given non-OMM comat.

 

[fldoctorgirl]

Thanks everyone for the feedback. I'm nervous and wish FM wasn't my first one, but I think I need like a 3rd percentile score to pass and I'm not gunning to honor every rotation so I think I'll be okay hopefully lol. I appreciate everyone taking the time to respond 🙂

 

[Scrubb]

Anyone have any thoughts on if OME can sub for Pestana for the surgery COMAT, or would Pestana be preferable? I plan on doing UWorld surgery (which is ~ 600 questions now) and Emma Holiday as well.

Only rotation I will have had before is OMM. I’m a slow studier and my surgery is only 4 weeks so I’m trying to limit the number of resources I use. I appreciate any advice!

 

[AnatomyGrey12]

Anyone have any thoughts on if OME can sub for Pestana for the surgery COMAT, or would Pestana be preferable? I plan on doing UWorld surgery (which is ~ 600 questions now) and Emma Holiday as well.

Only rotation I will have had before is OMM. I’m a slow studier and my surgery is only 4 weeks so I’m trying to limit the number of resources I use. I appreciate any advice!

Make sure you know your GI medicine stuff too. The surgery COMAT is a lot of medicine mixed with the usual trauma, breast, hernia, gallbladder stuff. Think like SBO management, diverticulitis, etc.

 

[Neopolymath]

Make sure you know your GI medicine stuff too. The surgery COMAT is a lot of medicine mixed with the usual trauma, breast, hernia, gallbladder stuff. Think like SBO management, diverticulitis, etc.

And anesthesia questions. Thankfully I was ready for those.

 

[Scrubb]

Make sure you know your GI medicine stuff too. The surgery COMAT is a lot of medicine mixed with the usual trauma, breast, hernia, gallbladder stuff. Think like SBO management, diverticulitis, etc.

Thanks! I'll make sure I go over that.

Do you have any thoughts on OME vs Pestana, or essentially a primary framework study source (don't think I'll have time for Divirgilio)?

 

[AnatomyGrey12]

Thanks! I'll make sure I go over that.

Do you have any thoughts on OME vs Pestana, or essentially a primary framework study source (don't think I'll have time for Divirgilio)?

I honestly just used a little bit of UWorld, the TrueLearn COMAT question bank 3x, and Surgical Recall. I did have IM the rotation right before it so I had the medicine stuff fresh in my mind.