OMT Written Exam Grades?

[Osteosaur]

For the most part I think I've been doing pretty good as a medical student. In the fall I was slightly above average, and now have mostly been getting low- to mid-90's while my class gets low- to mid-80's.

Except in OMT. Class averages aren't shown for that but I've mostly been getting 75's on the written exams. I honestly just cram for it the week before, and usually the exams are at such awful times or in the midst of rough blocks. The faculty are wonderful when it comes to teaching the techniques, they truly are, but I feel so frustrated trying to learn it all for written tests I just give up. We also haven't had musculo-skeletal anatomy yet but are expected to know muscles...

I'm honestly fine with just passing. I do love my school and I'm happy to be here, and don't want to come off as some self-hating DO student...

but its frustrating and I don't know if I should be worried about this.

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[Deecee2DO]

Worried? Not at all. Its just OMM. Pre-clinical grades don't matter much intrinsically, and OMM grades matter even less. Obviously the better you do in your courses the more prepared you will be for boards, but getting Cs in OMM doesn't mean squat. Seriously, just pass the class and move on unless you want to do an OMM fellowship. OMM is very inconvenient I get it, but it is what we signed up for. I was a chiro so OMM comes easier for me but I still have to study a little-its a different language, especially for someone without a background in it, so the fact that you are cramming and popping mid 70s is pretty good honestly

 

[NotYou20]

Your goal in omm should be to barely pass. Anything better means you spent too much time studying it. Only like one quarter joking.

 

[Deecee2DO]

Your goal in omm should be to barely pass. Anything better means you spent too much time studying it. Only like one quarter joking.

lmao!

 

[Osteosaur]

so long as everyone else is barely passing too, and does fine on comlex, i feel better!

 

[DNC127]

I was the worst at omm class, but great at OMM boards questions. I was in the 99th percentile on omm on comlex and it def gave me a nice score boost others who didn't do good on OMM didn't have

 

[Sardonix]

so long as everyone else is barely passing too, and does fine on comlex, i feel better!

Let me give you the general plan for OMM:

Fall M1: Start out excited and invested (maybe)
Spring M1: Mandatory classes and dogma are kinda annoying, but hey, it's got some cool ideas right?
Fall M2: Man I really don't care.
Spring M2: Cranial is pure pseudoscience. I'm done with this.

Dedicated: don't touch OMM until after Step 1 --> cram OMM until COMLEX after Step 1. Forget it all until necessary for M3 as needed.

 

[Dr.Bruh]

Most people (at least at my school) don’t even touch omm until 1-2 days before the exam. So it makes sense they have lower averages. Bc the average student is spending much less time preparing that a typical systems course. Don’t sweat it. Most people literally cram omm for boards in 3-4 days.

 

[Ho0v-man]

I know people who literally failed every written exam and the final in OMM. As long as you rock the practicals its no big deal.

 

[ortnakas]

I know people who literally failed every written exam and the final in OMM. As long as you rock the practicals its no big deal.

Careful- this is school-specific. At mine you had to pass both parts.

 

[Deecee2DO]

Careful- this is school-specific. At mine you had to pass both parts.

lol thats annoying. what a buncha hardos

 

[samac]

Had to pass both parts independetly at my school too.
And I struggled on those written exams. I was scared for the comlex. Turns out my faculty likes making questions as hard as they can and I did fanstastic on omm parts of comlex on both exams with a couple days of prep. Really frustrating.

 

[fldoctorgirl]

Careful- this is school-specific. At mine you had to pass both parts.

Same at ours.

For our last OMM exam, I studied 3 hours the day before for our 45 question test and got an 80. Was satisfied with that. Any more effort is quite pointless IMO.

 

[Neopolymath]

As stated, OMM is super school specific, but I think an overarching principle is that at no point should you do more than 1 real pass through the material. Give it an honest effort and respect it for its ability to **** up your medical school progress!!! Once you know that your one pass will give you somewhere between a 70-90 depending on the difficulty of that particular block (usually by a test or two in) then just do that work and let the chips fall as they may grade wise as it doesn't matter. Do not study more if you know you have done the work to for sure pass. I see my classmates studying the **** out of OMM days before the exam instead of studying the real curriculum just because they still have that "test coming must get any extra points I can and put other stuff on hold" premed mindset. My response to that is,"Congrats you just boosted your useless COMLEX grade by 10 points over someone who crammed OMM for 2 days before the exam and you probably lowered your USMLE score." Ironically, you will likely make the same grades as these people because OMM written exams have nothing to do with memorizing powerpoints. Do not study extra for things like your clinical skills courses, OMM, or whatever. All that time adds up and it can either get you ahead in basic sciences, allow you to master the material, give you time to do more questions, or take more personal time.

The same goes for OSCEs. You either know that **** or you don't. If you already know it, do not look at it again for 3 hours before you go. Study something useful.

 

[NecrotizingFasciitis]

Kinda echoing above but as long as you understand the underlying concept (movements, general procedures for the modalities (MET/HVLA/etc.), & how to Dx each body area) there is very little learning you have to do after that. Do it right the 1st time & you'll almost never have to study it again.

e.g.) I spent maybe 2 hours 1st year studying sacrum movements/Dx & haven't studied it since. Cranial took me a few hours though because it's hard to study fake magical things that don't exist. But same still applies. Doesn't take more than a 10 minute review to remember the wonder that is "cranial."

Beyond this, all you have to do is read your lecture slides & OSCEs once or twice a day or two before to pic up on trigger words for Tx setups & dumb facts you'll never have to regurgitate again & you'll make OS written exams your b****.

 

[BorntobeDO?]

OMM can be a real time sink depending on the faculty. I always have the thought that if your average is 80, you have nothing to worry about. Hopefully you don't have a school full of faculty trying to prove how 'difficult' OMM is by making a bunch of esoteric nonsense on the test.

 

[Angus Avagadro]

Very school specific. Maybe not worth getting an A, unless you are gunning for class rank. But some schools take it quite seriously and the last thing you need is a Board failure or a remediation on your transcript. PDs will consider these failures as a red flag. Just make sure you pass each component.