the official COMAT shelf thread

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Dr. Rafiki said:
This is bad advice. Uworld is NOT the best resource for comats, almost everyone at my school agreed that it was great for step 2 and really awful for comats. Your ability to score at the 100th percentile speaks more to your test taking ability and less to the resources you used. Congrats on being a genius.
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What would you recommend for comats, specifically IM and Peds? Thank you
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Taxonomy said:
What would you recommend for comats, specifically IM and Peds? Thank you
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It depends on your goals. If you're just trying to pass, then finish a rotation-specific qbank of either comquest or combank (I chose quest because they have more questions, others choose bank and do just as well). If you want 100 nbome score then add in online med ed and sketchy review. If you want top scores then you really need to be doing anki throughout the year and specifically focus in on your rotation the last 2 weeks or so before the comat. There are many decks referenced on these forums that are great but I use Dorian.
 
Dr. Rafiki said:
It depends on your goals. If you're just trying to pass, then finish a rotation-specific qbank of either comquest or combank (I chose quest because they have more questions, others choose bank and do just as well). If you want 100 nbome score then add in online med ed and sketchy review. If you want top scores then you really need to be doing anki throughout the year and specifically focus in on your rotation the last 2 weeks or so before the comat. There are many decks referenced on these forums that are great but I use Dorian.
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I use Firecracker for COMAT’s, usually get through >70% of the cards and lowest score has been a 105
 
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So I went to Comquest website and I'm a bit confused. They have the usual Comquest qbank for Level 2 that I thought was the one everyone is talking about how good it is for COMAT. However, they also have separate COMAT specific shorter qbanks for each COMAT (like for IM, Peds, etc). It looks like they are different and they are promoted specifically for COMATs.
Do they have different questions or they just took all same IM questions from Comquest Level 2 qbank and decided to sell them separately for IM COMAT (and same for other COMATs too)? I'm just not sure which one should I do before shelf exams?
 
RamsFan&FutureDO said:
Omm comat=real dumb. Not sure why this surprised me, but ugh


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Other than OME and Comquest/Combank questions what else do you recommend to prepare? mines in a week and haven't even started studying lol
 
Dr.Bruh said:
Other than OME and Comquest/Combank questions what else do you recommend to prepare? mines in a week and haven't even started studying lol
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COMQUEST and OME would seem to be enough on face value, but I'd say you need another OMM question bank to be really prepared. I did the COMQUEST questions twice and it didn't cover nearly enough.
 
ASGD1983 said:
So I went to Comquest website and I'm a bit confused. They have the usual Comquest qbank for Level 2 that I thought was the one everyone is talking about how good it is for COMAT. However, they also have separate COMAT specific shorter qbanks for each COMAT (like for IM, Peds, etc). It looks like they are different and they are promoted specifically for COMATs.
Do they have different questions or they just took all same IM questions from Comquest Level 2 qbank and decided to sell them separately for IM COMAT (and same for other COMATs too)? I'm just not sure which one should I do before shelf exams?
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They are different. Do the shelf specific one for COMAT and the level 2 one for level 2.
 
Took OMM shelf. Wasn't bad. If you watch OME and do the Comquest questions you'll be fine. I had my notes from OMGOMT from COMLEX I looked at too and def got a couple of questions from that.
 
Tips on prepping for Peds shelf? Resources I'm using right now are BRS peds (using as reference, but using it a lot lol) and Emma Holliday Peds. Qbanks using is Uworld first, then Comquest for the last week and a half. You guys think that's enough for honoring?
 
Mr. D.O.five said:
Tips on prepping for Peds shelf? Resources I'm using right now are BRS peds (using as reference, but using it a lot lol) and Emma Holliday Peds. Qbanks using is Uworld first, then Comquest for the last week and a half. You guys think that's enough for honoring?
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Sounds like enough. I used first aid pediatrics clerkship for reference, Emma Holliday, and UWorld and COMBANK as my qbanks.
 
neurodjent said:
I'm not disputing how good COMBANK is because I have heard it is quite good for the COMATs

However, I did very well on the FM COMAT and only used COMQUEST and the Dorian FM deck. I did all of the COMQUEST questions within 3 days prior to the exam.
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how in the world do you guys have enough time to complete ~400 questions in 3 days and also have time to review?
 
cookiegrub said:
how in the world do you guys have enough time to complete ~400 questions in 3 days and also have time to review?
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Probably off time from rotations? I was able to rip through all of FM Comquest in 5 days (with the last 2 days being personal study days) leading up to my shelf. Also, doing Tzank/Dorian deck throughout helped make the connections and reviews more faster/efficient and stick better.
 
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cookiegrub said:
how in the world do you guys have enough time to complete ~400 questions in 3 days and also have time to review?
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Since I primarily do Anki for my studying, I don’t review questions in qbanks. For the most part I either get a question wrong by not properly applying info I learned in anki or I didn’t know some small detail that’s easy to memorize once I get a question wrong. I never read through the explanations.
 
Have IM shelf COMAt one in 4 days. Is Ambulatory chapter (last one) in SUTM high yield on shelf or not really? I'll have time for 2-3 chapters to go through, so I'm trying to choose which ones to cover before shelf? I already did Cardio and Pulmonary.
 
With all the craziness going on, how's everyone doing? How is your school working around the COMATs and the virus?

Mine is letting me take mine at a library in 2 weeks
 
We had to go to the hospital to take it the other day.
 
Meanwhile, I'm over here thinking whether I should study for the OMM COMAT or just Board review and chill...
 
Is OMM/Ethics/Biostat a substantial portion of IM COMAT? I mean like 5-7% so I can just swing it or it's more like 15-20%? Thank you
 
What do you guys use to study for COMATs? Any DO specific resources, or just UWorld + Anki? School's offering a deal on COMQUEST and I'm not sure if it's worth it or not.
 
fldoctorgirl said:
What do you guys use to study for COMATs? Any DO specific resources, or just UWorld + Anki? School's offering a deal on COMQUEST and I'm not sure if it's worth it or not.
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I've only used comquest this year and score an avg of about the 72nd percentile or so. If not for my first comat where I didnt really use it until the last week my avg would've been even higher so I suggest comquest and OME personally.
 
fldoctorgirl said:
What do you guys use to study for COMATs? Any DO specific resources, or just UWorld + Anki? School's offering a deal on COMQUEST and I'm not sure if it's worth it or not.
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I did only Anki + COMBANK (school provides). I did fine on all the COMATs.
 
ASGD1983 said:
Is OMM/Ethics/Biostat a substantial portion of IM COMAT? I mean like 5-7% so I can just swing it or it's more like 15-20%? Thank you
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All three were insignificant/nonexistent on mine.


fldoctorgirl said:
What do you guys use to study for COMATs? Any DO specific resources, or just UWorld + Anki? School's offering a deal on COMQUEST and I'm not sure if it's worth it or not.
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That’s all I did. My lowest has been psych (109). The rest have been high 11X’s or low 120’s.

I’ve never used a DO resource but I’ve not heard anything that makes me want to.
 
ASGD1983 said:
Is OMM/Ethics/Biostat a substantial portion of IM COMAT? I mean like 5-7% so I can just swing it or it's more like 15-20%? Thank you
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Minimal.
Some questions will have OMM findings at the end. I didn't read them because reading OMM makes me barf. Not necessary to get the question right.
 
All you need is UWorld and MAYBE some anki, OME, Emma audio, or divine intervention audio depending on your style, time, and time you could use audio only resources to be more efficient.

I'm sure Comquest is fine for COMATs and I know a number of people use it but I don't see the point as it just means you have to do more UWorld later because Comquest absolutely isn't going to be the right thing to do for Step 2.

Also, same rules apply to COMAT as they do to Comlex. Read last sentence first. Ignore and completely train your brain to not even read the OMM lines that are littered throughout some questions (particularly the FM COMAT is filled with this garbage) and only look at them if you are stumped but have lots of time left.
 
Thanks everyone for your input and advise. I very much appreciate. I passed IM COMAT. As it was said there were very little omm/biostat/ethics on my test. Now next is IM shelf (MD one). Is it harder than COMAT or more or less same difficulty wise? Also, are NBME (especially new ones NBME 5 and 6 with answers) representative in terms of difficulty, question length and style?
 
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ASGD1983 said:
Thanks everyone for your input and advise. I very much appreciate. I passed IM COMAT. As it was said there were very little omm/biostat/ethics on my test. Now next is IM shelf (MD one). Is it harder than COMAT or more or less same difficulty wise? Also, are NBME (especially new ones NBME 5 and 6 with answers) representative in terms of difficulty, question length and style?
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Why are you taking both?
 
OverlyRomantic said:
Why are you taking both?
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I'm slightly off schedule (due to delayed step 1), I started rotations later than my class. So I had 2 IM rotations back to back. We take IM COMAT for first one and then IM shelf for second one. I took step 1 during my first IM rotation and delayed shelf towards end of second IM rotation. So I'm basically taking 2 IM shelf exams within a week now. COMAT is done and I'm sure I passed (fingers crossed). IM shelf (MD one) in 2 days. I'm not sure how it compares to IM COMAT one. Just wanted to know what to expect. Trying to take NBME tests today and tomorrow. Not sure if that's wasted time or should I do more UW instead?
 
ASGD1983 said:
I'm slightly off schedule (due to delayed step 1), I started rotations later than my class. So I had 2 IM rotations back to back. We take IM COMAT for first one and then IM shelf for second one. I took step 1 during my first IM rotation and delayed shelf towards end of second IM rotation. So I'm basically taking 2 IM shelf exams within a week now. COMAT is done and I'm sure I passed (fingers crossed). IM shelf (MD one) in 2 days. I'm not sure how it compares to IM COMAT one. Just wanted to know what to expect. Trying to take NBME tests today and tomorrow. Not sure if that's wasted time or should I do more UW instead?
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Whoa weird, I have never heard of DO schools making students take the NBME shelf exams.
 
How does one study for an EM shelf? One of my last shelves of the year....
 
Spectreman said:
Whoa weird, I have never heard of DO schools making students take the NBME shelf exams.
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Yeah, we only take MD shelf exams for IM and FM (in addition to their COMAT equivalents).
So just took IM shelf (MD one) and it felt a bit harder, but on the same time less vague. Much less vague compared to IM COMAT. Hopefully I passed, fingers crossed. Now to next one - FM. Not looking forward to FM shelf due to its broadness and again vague COMAT questions. On the positive side I find COMAT shelfs much less vague than COMLEX level 1 - that one was king of vague questions. Lol.
 
Does anyone know if National Board reviews (videos on youtube, they are made for each board: eg Peds, IM, FM etc) are a good source to prepare for shelf exams? I would normally stick to UW/Comquest/Case_Files, but today discovered an interesting thing. Some questions that I previously got on IM COMAT shelf that are out of left field questions - sort of you either know it or not - were actually present on Board review video. Subtle things and details that UW or Case Files doesn't really cover and usually you will only know them when you start residency and encounter real world which is often a bit different in approach, treatment etc. It turns out some of them were mentioned in Board review. So I'm just thinking maybe that is where those out of left field questions come from - could it be that simple? Aren't questions written by attendings/residents that might very well include some of their recent level 3 or board exam material? Just wondering.


For example this Board review for EM:

 
ASGD1983 said:
Yeah, we only take MD shelf exams for IM and FM (in addition to their COMAT equivalents).
So just took IM shelf (MD one) and it felt a bit harder, but on the same time less vague. Much less vague compared to IM COMAT. Hopefully I passed, fingers crossed. Now to next one - FM. Not looking forward to FM shelf due to its broadness and again vague COMAT questions. On the positive side I find COMAT shelfs much less vague than COMLEX level 1 - that one was king of vague questions. Lol.
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For the MD shelf exams, make sure you do all of the Clinical Mastery Series NBME exams. They are definitely helpful.
 
How accurate are comquest score predictions? i keep trying to ask this question on reddit and the automod takes it down. My buddy was predicted at 111 for psych and scored a 96 which is way below average. Im kind of nervous because my surgery comat is in 5 days and I am predicted at a 111 on comquest as well. I dont want to crack UWorld and use up all of my questions or I would use UWorld. I saved UWorld for dedicated for Step 1 and did very well so i am going to do the same for Step 2.
 
Deecee2DO said:
How accurate are comquest score predictions? i keep trying to ask this question on reddit and the automod takes it down. My buddy was predicted at 111 for psych and scored a 96 which is way below average. Im kind of nervous because my surgery comat is in 5 days and I am predicted at a 111 on comquest as well. I dont want to crack UWorld and use up all of my questions or I would use UWorld. I saved UWorld for dedicated for Step 1 and did very well so i am going to do the same for Step 2.
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Worthless IMO. Do NOT save UWorld for dedicated. I waited to do it this spring and it's the one thing I regret (took Step 2 yesterday). Do it now through rotations by subject and then reset it during your dedicated because there is simply too much information to wait. Step 2 is a very different test and should be approached differently. IMO the only resources anyone needs for Step 2 is knowing UWorld cold, and the Divine Intervention podcasts, but you need to know them cold.

The people I know that only did COMQUEST always under performed their prediction by a decent amount. I did the COMBANK comat questions over and over until I had gotten all of them right at least once, and then did all the other questions in the main Q bank for that topic.

For reference my average COMAT was a 116.
 
AnatomyGrey12 said:
Worthless IMO. Do NOT save UWorld for dedicated. I waited to do it this spring and it's the one thing I regret (took Step 2 yesterday). Do it now through rotations by subject and then reset it during your dedicated because there is simply too much information to wait. Step 2 is a very different test and should be approached differently. IMO the only resources anyone needs for Step 2 is knowing UWorld cold, and the Divine Intervention podcasts, but you need to know them cold.

The people I know that only did COMQUEST always under performed their prediction by a decent amount. I did the COMBANK comat questions over and over until I had gotten all of them right at least once, and then did all the other questions in the main Q bank for that topic.

For reference my average COMAT was a 116.
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I guess im screwed then because all ive done for surgery so far is comquest and if i undershoot my avg (111) by a lot we got a big problem. I have my exam in 5 days and still have 40 questions per day to do to finish the bank. Havent touched UWorld but listened to all of the OME vids in the car to and from rotations but felt like I got nothing out of them. I guess thats my fault because I waited till a week or 2 before to start studying for it because I was so damn burnt out from step 1 which I literally took 3 weeks ago and had like a 5 month dedicated from hell. I also just took COMLEX last week so im fried beyond belief
 
Deecee2DO said:
I guess im screwed then because all ive done for surgery so far is comquest and if i undershoot my avg (111) by a lot we got a big problem. I have my exam in 5 days and still have 40 questions per day to do to finish the bank. Havent touched UWorld but listened to all of the OME vids in the car to and from rotations but felt like I got nothing out of them. I guess thats my fault because I waited till a week or 2 before to start studying for it because I was so damn burnt out from step 1 which I literally took 3 weeks ago and had like a 5 month dedicated from hell. I also just took COMLEX last week so im fried beyond belief
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You'll most likely be just fine. Your Step knowledge will help you. a lot. The surgery COMAT is heavy on GI medicine. Nice thing is the COMAT's aren't very difficult to pass honestly. Or even to do moderately well on.
 
AnatomyGrey12 said:
You'll most likely be just fine. Your Step knowledge will help you. a lot. The surgery COMAT is heavy on GI medicine. Nice thing is the COMAT's aren't very difficult to pass honestly. Or even to do moderately well on.
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Ok lol just trying to get that HP! Glad they arent difficult to pass but thats good to hear. thanks!
 
Deecee2DO said:
How accurate are comquest score predictions? i keep trying to ask this question on reddit and the automod takes it down. My buddy was predicted at 111 for psych and scored a 96 which is way below average. Im kind of nervous because my surgery comat is in 5 days and I am predicted at a 111 on comquest as well. I dont want to crack UWorld and use up all of my questions or I would use UWorld. I saved UWorld for dedicated for Step 1 and did very well so i am going to do the same for Step 2.
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My n=1, I performed at or above my COMQUEST predictions for all but the Psych COMAT, and I scored 9 points under on that one. Pestana's notes was very helpful for surgery. Know everything about the gallbladder.
 
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