Prep materials for COMLEX/USMLE 1

[JimmyB123]

What prep materials are medical students using to study for COMLEX and USMLE 1, respectively? Is First Aid sufficient?

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[DopaDO]

What prep materials are medical students using to study for COMLEX and USMLE 1, respectively? Is First Aid sufficient?

It's not. I strongly advise you use FA, Pathoma, and Uworld.

Do not use anything besides these 3. It's a waste of your time. Do Uworld as many times as possible.

 

[JimmyB123]

It's not. I strongly advise you use FA, Pathoma, and Uworld.

Do not use anything besides these 3. It's a waste of your time. Do Uworld as many times as possible.

Is pathoma all pathology?

 

[primadonna22274]

Pathoma is mostly pathology but does a very good job of reinforcing key Biochem and Physio principles to hammer it home. Get it.

 

[lal4life]

As said, First Aid, UWorld, and Pathoma are great! Also, as it gets closer to the time to take it, do some NBME practice tests. Very helpful and a decent gauge on where you stand (I scored 3 points lower than my highest and 3 points higher than the one closest to my test).

I also found picomonic helpful for certain topics. If you don't know what it is, it is basically silly little picture mnemonics. Completely weird and a little out there, but helped me out with pharm and micro. But be careful, it is very easy to overwhelm yourself with so many study materials. Find what works and stick to it.

 

[fancypantsdance]

Uworld for COMLEX?? or are you planning on taking both exams?

 

[dfib slim]

.

 

[Petypet]

You consider RR Path a waste of time?

For boards yes, for learning the material prior to board studying no.

 

[hallowmann]

Pathoma is great. I'm using during second year just to solidify concepts I'm learning now.

For boards yes, for learning the material prior to board studying no.

This. Other resources may be valuable to learn the material, but for dedicated study I plan to stick with the big 3 (+ combank that we get for free & Saverese between the 2 exams).

 

[abolt18]

I use pathoma, planning on UWorld in addition to COMBANK and our Kaplan Qbank our school got us. I've also consistently been using Firecracker since this summer. Wish I'd started that one sooner so as to keep everything fresh through all two years.

 

[Petypet]

This. Other resources may be valuable to learn the material, but for dedicated study I plan to stick with the big 3 (+ combank that we get for free & Saverese between the 2 exams).

Fwiw I regret wasting any time on combank. Even the OMT questions, they were nothing like my comlex. n=1 though

 

[hallowmann]

Fwiw I regret wasting any time on combank. Even the OMT questions, they were nothing like my comlex. n=1 though

Really? Even if you get it for "free"?

 

[NeuroLAX]

Really? Even if you get it for "free"?

I didn't even use COMBANK, just the COMSAEs through the NBOME. OPP is relatively straight forward. Savarese plus a couple days of memorizing these two videos below and you'll be solid. Don't overthink it. Most of the OPP questions should take a simple glance down at your sheet you wrote at the beginning of the exam from memory, click the answer, and move on. Seriously, watch, memorize, and practice these videos:

 

[Petypet]

Really? Even if you get it for "free"?

Neurolax is right, just memorize that chart for chapmans points. My OMM questions were either gimmes or so far off the wall that you would need to do every qbank just to see that type of low yield question. I am sure not all tests are like this, but if I had to do it over I would've taken comlex 2 days after USMLE, instead of the full week that I wasted.

 

[JimmyB123]

Neurolax is right, just memorize that chart for chapmans points. My OMM questions were either gimmes or so far off the wall that you would need to do every qbank just to see that type of low yield question. I am sure not all tests are like this, but if I had to do it over I would've taken comlex 2 days after USMLE, instead of the full week that I wasted.

It sounds like USMLE and COMPLEX are basically the same besides the OMM content on complex. Are there any other noticeable differences, such as the style the questions are asked?

 

[costales]

Failing OMM on the COMLEX would be like failing PE in high school (assuming you've paid proper attention to Mr PE Teacher). If you hit the jackpot and get a few cranial questions, chuckle and take a guess - and do not make comments.

However, if you don't know your bugs and drugs, you're screwed.

 

[MLT2MT2DO]

I think the best part of COMBANK is to prepare you for the lack of quality of questions you'll see on the COMLEX

 

[SLC]

I think the best part of COMBANK is to prepare you for the lack of quality of questions you'll see on the COMLEX

This post is so correct it hurts!

To the OP: I used first aid, u world, and Goljian audio. Seemed more than sufficient, about the only thing I think would have made a significant difference would have been more time studying. And even at that, I was getting pretty done studying so maybe not even that would have been that helpful. I was pleased with my score BTW.

 

[67552931811]

It sounds like USMLE and COMPLEX are basically the same besides the OMM content on complex. Are there any other noticeable differences, such as the style the questions are asked?

A third set of boards?!

 

[67552931811]

So, to piggyback off of my boy Jimmybeans: knowing what you guys know now (you know, taking level/step 1 'n' all) how long would you say is sufficient time to prep for the exam(s)? 10 weeks? 12 weeks? And, if you could go back in time what would you do differently during your board prep, and during your first 2 years for that matter, to maximize your preparation for level/step 1?

EDIT: @SLC; @MLT2MT2DO; @costales; @Petypet; @NeuroLAX; @DopaDO

 

[hallowmann]

So, to piggyback off of my boy Jimmybeans: knowing what you guys know now (you know, taking level/step 1 'n' all) how long would you say is sufficient time to prep for the exam(s)? 10 weeks? 12 weeks? And, if you could go back in time what would you do differently during your board prep, and during your first 2 years for that matter, to maximize your preparation for level/step 1?

12 wks, woah are you talking dedicated study time or while in school/part-time? We get like 10 days of dedicated board prep time, and if we ask, we can add 4 weeks at most, but we lose our 3rd year vacation.

 

[67552931811]

12 wks, woah are you talking dedicated study time or while in school/part-time? We get like 10 days of dedicated board prep time, and if we ask, we can add 4 weeks at most, but we lose our 3rd year vacation.

Either or. More than one school that I have interviewed at specifically said that they allocate 8+ weeks for boards. For example, VCOM's entire last block is board review to where you can just study for boards on your own if you don't want to show up for the review block.

EDIT: I suppose I mean total study time- however you interpret that.

 

[SLC]

I started studying casually in January or so, basically browsing FA and doing random groups of 5 Q's on UWorld.

Around April, I started getting more serious with UWorld, usually trying to do around 100/week, and I was listening to Goljian on my iPhone whenever I was doing something that permitted it; I listened in the car, took a lot of long walks with the headphones etc.
In may I started 4 weeks of pretty intense study, I finished Uworld and started working on missed q's and redoing subjects I did worst on. I also read FA cover to cover, highlighting and taking notes in the margin when I learned something from UWorld. I did this for 5 weeks. Still listening to Goljian when I wasn't actively studying something else.

I took the exams in June, COMLEX first because I was more concerned with USMLE score being high. I used COMLEX as a prep-test of sorts and gave myself 7 days between the tests to study the stuff I knew I missed on COMLEX day.

I think I finished USMLE by mid-June.

Result: High 220's, very near 230 was planning on IM at the time, and that was a good score for the types of ACGME places that will readily take DO's. I've since moved over to FM, and the score has given me a lot of mileage with respect to gaining interviews since it's well above the average for the field, I'm to the point where I'm turning interviews down because I won't be able to go to them all.

Oh, and I took both UWSA's and an NBME (can't remember which one) during the 4 weeks of intense studying.

 

[hallowmann]

Either or. More than one school that I have interviewed at specifically said that they allocate 8+ weeks for boards. For example, VCOM's entire last block is board review to where you can just study for boards on your own if you don't want to show up for the review block.

EDIT: I suppose I mean total study time- however you interpret that.

That has got to be above average. I mean I know my school basically doesn't give us time to review (they mainly care that we pass), but 8wks is more than any other school (DO or MD) whose schedule I know of. The norm is usually 4-6 wks of dedicated time. I plan on starting to review in December, then starting to do a decent amount of questions about 2 months before with the last 3-4 wks being 10 hr/day.

That said, I'm using Pathoma now as a second year and doing random Anki questions periodically.

 

[67552931811]

Thank you @SLC and @hallowmann for the responses.

 

[67552931811]

That has got to be above average. I mean I know my school basically doesn't give us time to review (they mainly care that we pass), but 8wks is more than any other school (DO or MD) whose schedule I know of. The norm is usually 4-6 wks of dedicated time. I plan on starting to review in December, then starting to do a decent amount of questions about 2 months before with the last 3-4 wks being 10 hr/day.

That said, I'm using Pathoma now as a second year and doing random Anki questions periodically.

Perhaps. But, at 2 other schools that I interviewed at they said that their students got 9 weeks and 10 weeks, respectively, for dedicated board studying. Also, 7-9 weeks is the average among family members, who have taken boards, and friends/ past co-workers at different medical schools (n = 6).

EDIT: @hallowmann I assume you're taking both sets of boards?

 

[Petypet]

Perhaps. But, at 2 other schools that I interviewed at they said that their students got 9 weeks and 10 weeks, respectively, for dedicated board studying. Also, 7-9 weeks is the average among family members, who have taken boards, and friends/ past co-workers at different medical schools (n = 6).

EDIT: @hallowmann I assume you're taking both sets of boards?

I personally was stressed about the lack of time my school gave for board prep as I kept complaining like the typical second year medical student does. However, I studied for 6 months during school December-June with my tests mid June. The last 4ish weeks of my prep were "dedicated" as we only got 4-5 weeks of dedicated. In retrospect that was PLENTY. 6 months prep + a few weeks of dedicated to round out the rough edges was perfect. Had my school give me 6-10 weeks of time, maybe I wouldn't have started 6 months prior, but seeing as though I did really well on the exams I can't say I regret the 6 month schedule. That said, the last 2-3 weeks of my prep I was draggggggggging. I think 6 months of prep (3-6 hours per day + class studying) plus a few weeks of dedicated is the way go to.

 

[67552931811]

I personally was stressed about the lack of time my school gave for board prep as I kept complaining like the typical second year medical student does. However, I studied for 6 months during school December-June with my tests mid June. The last 4ish weeks of my prep were "dedicated" as we only got 4-5 weeks of dedicated. In retrospect that was PLENTY. 6 months prep + a few weeks of dedicated to round out the rough edges was perfect. Had my school give me 6-10 weeks of time, maybe I wouldn't have started 6 months prior, but seeing as though I did really well on the exams I can't say I regret the 6 month schedule. That said, the last 2-3 weeks of my prep I was draggggggggging. I think 6 months of prep (3-6 hours per day + class studying) plus a few weeks of dedicated is the way go to.

Awesome, thank you good sir/ ma'am.

 

[GUH]

I think 6 months of prep (3-6 hours per day + class studying) plus a few weeks of dedicated is the way go to.

How is this possible? Most of my class studies for classes about 3-4 hours per day on weekdays. We have class from 8 AM to 5 PM on most days. That takes us to 8 or 9 without dinner or any break (which nobody is able to do). More realistically students are done around 10 or 11. Adding 3-6 hours a day would take us to at least 11 PM or more likely 1-2 AM every weekday, and then class again at 8 AM.

And no, we can't always skip class since we have a lot of mandatory small/large group, most afternoon classes are mandatory, plus you'd have to go back and watch the recording for the morning classes even for sessions that aren't "mandatory" anyways. We get about 7 weeks of dedicated board prep time, assuming you take no break before starting rotations.

 

[Petypet]

How is this possible? Most of my class studies for classes about 3-4 hours per day on weekdays. We have class from 8 AM to 5 PM on most days. That takes us to 8 or 9 without dinner or any break (which nobody is able to do). More realistically students are done around 10 or 11. Adding 3-6 hours a day would take us to at least 11 PM or more likely 1-2 AM every weekday, and then class again at 8 AM.

And no, we can't always skip class since we have a lot of mandatory small/large group, most afternoon classes are mandatory, plus you'd have to go back and watch the recording for the morning classes even for sessions that aren't "mandatory" anyways. We get about 7 weeks of dedicated board prep time, assuming you take no break before starting rotations.

Different curriculum I suppose. Its all about the scheduling, at least for me. For my last 5 months of school I had 10-15 mandatory hours worth of stuff, maybe a little more per week. Further, at my school the last 5 blocks were Endo, OB, peds, geriatrics, pain & palliative. Studying for endo & OB was 100% geared to only learning what I needed for boards. Block exams are notoriously geared toward the lecturers' agendas and not toward helping students do well on boards. So instead of getting top 10-20% on block exams, I was average. And instead of learning 10000 useless details, I learned what I would need and used the rest of my time reviewing for boards. Then for the last 3 blocks, I ONLY studied on the weekends for block material. That meant I had 5 days of board review plus mandatory stuff (which I attended but did questions or notecards and faked interest in topics). Even in OMM I sat in the corner and studied on my own. It took a long time to get used to this, but its about priorities. Mine was hammering the usmle & comlex.

For us we had some mandatory stuff in the PM, so I would study from 6:30am till whenever I had mandatory stuff, attend that crap, and maybe listen to a few lectures @ night while watching tv (listening for the phrase "this will be on the test"). For my curriculum lectures were useless and we would get spoon-fed 10 minutes worth of information in a 60 minute lecture. The biggest thing I did was cut out lectures. Never did I study past 8pm in all of medical school, which I attributed to my work ethic and sticking to a schedule.

Schools won't tell you this, but most don't care how you do on boards so long as you pass first time. They have an agenda, and that agenda is usually not synonymous with hammering boards. That agenda is getting your tuition money, making sure you pass, and making sure they meet their quotas. Your agenda should be hammer boards and just skate by for the last few months of block stuff.

Sounds like for you, why do you go back and listen to stuff? When you say mandatory, I can't imagine everyone is engaged. Sit in the room and put in headphones with white noise and study. Do 15-20 uworld per hour of lecture instead of listen. Take 10 pages of FA with you to OMM lab and read while the quack talks about cranial. Hope that helps

 

[dododr]

How is this possible? Most of my class studies for classes about 3-4 hours per day on weekdays. We have class from 8 AM to 5 PM on most days. That takes us to 8 or 9 without dinner or any break (which nobody is able to do). More realistically students are done around 10 or 11. Adding 3-6 hours a day would take us to at least 11 PM or more likely 1-2 AM every weekday, and then class again at 8 AM.

And no, we can't always skip class since we have a lot of mandatory small/large group, most afternoon classes are mandatory, plus you'd have to go back and watch the recording for the morning classes even for sessions that aren't "mandatory" anyways. We get about 7 weeks of dedicated board prep time, assuming you take no break before starting rotations.

Every school's different, who know's what's best. We get about 5 weeks pure study, and they try to ease the class load at the end of the year also. We don't have required classes, but I doubt I'll be able to spend anywhere 6 hours a day on board prep. Maybe 2? I guess I'll find out soon enough...
My plans are Pathoma, UWorld, FirstAid, and we have a free Kaplan qbank

 

[SLC]

How is this possible? Most of my class studies for classes about 3-4 hours per day on weekdays. We have class from 8 AM to 5 PM on most days. That takes us to 8 or 9 without dinner or any break (which nobody is able to do). More realistically students are done around 10 or 11. Adding 3-6 hours a day would take us to at least 11 PM or more likely 1-2 AM every weekday, and then class again at 8 AM.

And no, we can't always skip class since we have a lot of mandatory small/large group, most afternoon classes are mandatory, plus you'd have to go back and watch the recording for the morning classes even for sessions that aren't "mandatory" anyways. We get about 7 weeks of dedicated board prep time, assuming you take no break before starting rotations.

Ideally by the end of 2nd year your knowledge base will be enough that you won't have to study like you do right now. Then you work in a few hours here and there for boards as much as you can until your dedicated few weeks of study. That's how I, and everyone I know, did it.

 

[dudeliness]

Any thoughts on the usefulness of DIT?

 

[NeuroLAX]

Any thoughts on the usefulness of DIT?

Not a bad way to do a quick read of First Aid. Takes about two weeks or so to get through. They throw in some extra mnemonics to help remember drugs which I thought were pretty good. I probably would not have paid for it but I got it through school.