the official COMAT shelf thread

[TheBoneDoctah]

For the OME surgery...do you suggest I watch the subspecialty videos? Or should I just stick with general, trauma, GI?

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[PathoTurnUp1865]

For the OME surgery...do you suggest I watch the subspecialty videos? Or should I just stick with general, trauma, GI?

I watched the subspecialty ones. I think ortho was the only thing I got out of it. Other than that find an anesthesiology resource of some kind because for some reason or another got asked quite a few on it. Not the normal stuff either (depolarizing vs non).
Definitely stick to gi videos though. Wish I would’ve watched them twice.

 

[moyamoya6]

Anybody that has gotten a 115+ on FM comat, what did you do/use?

I had taken my IM COMAT before FM so I had already read Step Up to Medicine and watched most of the OME for IM. Definitely know your USPTF guidelines for the most common screenings.

While on my FM rotation, I read FM Case Files, which was okay, and the ambulatory chapter in SUTM. Then I did all the COMBANK level 2 CE qbank and FM COMAT qbank questions to prepare.

I didn’t have extra time to do the free questions on the AAFP site, but I hear some people liked using those questions to prepare.

The FM COMAT was so random. I had maybe around 10 questions about OBGYN and 10 about pediatrics. You’ll just have to hope for the best and hope you have more of a “fair” test.

 

[moyamoya6]

How hard is it to fail a COMAT?

The time limit on these things is killer. Took family med recently and I probably had to skim/guess the last 15. But throughout the whole test it seemed like it was hard to gauge how I was doing.
Anyone know if there’s a certain percentage even after it’s scaled, where you definitely fail? Like 40% raw score or so?

I still have no idea how these COMATs are scored. I know for our school, we have to score at least a 70%, which is I guess the raw score of 88, to pass. It’s not hard to fail a COMAT. I’ve had classmates fail them, but our school let’s you retake them.

 

[073116]

So if you fail COMAT - that's not like failing board exam right? I mean it's not going to cause ground-shaking consequences like if you fail step1/level1?

 

[moyamoya6]

So if you fail COMAT - that's not like failing board exam right? I mean it's not going to cause ground-shaking consequences like if you fail step1/level1?

Depends on your school’s consequences, but for our school, nah. The students retake it and the new score gets factored into their overall grade. Not sure what their MSPE says though.

 

[WolfDick]

So if you fail COMAT - that's not like failing board exam right? I mean it's not going to cause ground-shaking consequences like if you fail step1/level1?

Yea you just retake at my school too. Don’t know if that means you remediate the rotation technically or not though.

 

[PathoTurnUp1865]

Depends on your school’s consequences, but for our school, nah. The students retake it and the new score gets factored into their overall grade. Not sure what their MSPE says though.

I don’t think it says anything unless you completely failed the rotation (i.e. bad evaluation too). I don’t know that for sure though.

 

[073116]

Anyone have an idea what corresponds to honors on rotation - or more specifically how to get a "exceeds expectations" check-mark on evaluation? I heard anything from doing a good h&p and presenting it properly to attending and to the extremes of fully managing patient. Well, we are not even allowed to change anything in EMR, we can just read only, so I have no idea how we can do anything besides delivering h&p. I also don't understand how h&p and reporting it to your attending can be really judged if we are basically all doing same thing. The only thing what differs is attending style and how or in what order he likes to hear h&p reported/presented to him. It seems to me (on most rotations) that there's a lot of bias in evaluating a student. For example if attending personally likes you and you click with him/her than you might get good evals and vise versa.
Also, not sure how in the hell we are supposed to do OMM on patients (one of the thing we are evaluated lol). I mean in IM I'm right now I have hard time to even offer OMM.

 

[Black Coffee 24/7]

Anyone have an idea what corresponds to honors on rotation - or more specifically how to get a "exceeds expectations" check-mark on evaluation? I heard anything from doing a good h&p and presenting it properly to attending and to the extremes of fully managing patient. Well, we are not even allowed to change anything in EMR, we can just read only, so I have no idea how we can do anything besides delivering h&p. I also don't understand how h&p and reporting it to your attending can be really judged if we are basically all doing same thing. The only thing what differs is attending style and how or in what order he likes to hear h&p reported/presented to him. It seems to me (on most rotations) that there's a lot of bias in evaluating a student. For example if attending personally likes you and you click with him/her than you might get good evals and vise versa.
Also, not sure how in the hell we are supposed to do OMM on patients (one of the thing we are evaluated lol). I mean in IM I'm right now I have hard time to even offer OMM.

To honor IM, you need to independently manage 4-5 patients a day with solid presentations, solid notes with minimal changes, and solid management plans.

Basically, if you increase an attending efficiency instead of slowing him or her down, you’re on your way to killing your rotation. PG1-PG2 residents independently manage 4-6 pts.

While you’re not expected to be at that level, you need to show a willingness to take on more patients and do a good job on those. You will probably start with 1 or 2 and your workload will be increased to 5-6 depending on your progress.

However, I have seen classmates honoring IM with minimal responsibilities while being claimed as top 5% or top 10%.

 

[073116]

To honor IM, you need to independently manage 4-5 patients a day with solid presentations, solid notes with minimal changes, and solid management plans.

Basically, if you increase an attending efficiency instead of slowing him or her down, you’re on your way to killing your rotation. PG1-PG2 residents independently manage 4-6 pts.

While you’re not expected to be at that level, you need to show a willingness to take on more patients and do a good job on those. You will probably start with 1 or 2 and your workload will be increased to 5-6 depending on your progress.

However, I have seen classmates honoring IM with minimal responsibilities while being claimed as top 5% or top 10%.

Yes, but the thing is managing (at least where I'm at and I suspect for most others) is impossible without having full access to EMR (been able to do orders, notes etc). All we can do is do h&p and help attending with some errands. Besides, to be able to really manage patients we don't have enough knowledge. Looking it up in Uptodate won't help lol. I mean it's next to impossible to not slow down attending when he/she has to recheck everything anyway. The best I've done, I was sent to do h&p on a new case and I was able to correctly diagnose couple of cases after taking h&p in ED before attending saw patient. However, I doubt that even registered in his mind. For him it was casual thing, while for me I was so proud lol. I also was able to educate patients and their family couple times about next step and what to expect and also about diet choices (had to look it up lol). There's a surgeon ortho youtuber who said that education (RIME) is the highest level, above management lol. However, once again - I feel like managing is the hardest part because we don't really know how to treat, in what order, what consults to do exactly, what meds, etc. Heck, all of us on IM rotation were having hard time to even navigate through EMR hospital uses (Epic system). I can't imagine any 3rd or even 4th year to know all this, but maybe towards the end of 4th year. Not sure.

 

[Black Coffee 24/7]

Yes, but the thing is managing (at least where I'm at and I suspect for most others) is impossible without having full access to EMR (been able to do orders, notes etc). All we can do is do h&p and help attending with some errands. Besides, to be able to really manage patients we don't have enough knowledge. Looking it up in Uptodate won't help lol. I mean it's next to impossible to not slow down attending when he/she has to recheck everything anyway. The best I've done, I was sent to do h&p on a new case and I was able to correctly diagnose couple of cases after taking h&p in ED before attending saw patient. However, I doubt that even registered in his mind. For him it was casual thing, while for me I was so proud lol. I also was able to educate patients and their family couple times about next step and what to expect and also about diet choices (had to look it up lol). There's a surgeon ortho youtuber who said that education (RIME) is the highest level, above management lol. However, once again - I feel like managing is the hardest part because we don't really know how to treat, in what order, what consults to do exactly, what meds, etc. Heck, all of us on IM rotation were having hard time to even navigate through EMR hospital uses (Epic system). I can't imagine any 3rd or even 4th year to know all this, but maybe towards the end of 4th year. Not sure.

I’m on my third rotation right now. I personally don’t have any problem independently doing consults, seeing patients, and writing H&P/Progress/Discharge notes by myself 3-4 days into a rotation while using EPIC. I always present to my attending before he or she goes to see the patient. Good feedback so far. Minimal note changes by the attending for me. He or she always signs my notes and agrees with my assessment and plan.

So, I don’t know what to tell you.

 

[073116]

I’m on my third rotation right now. I personally don’t have any problem independently doing consults, seeing patients, and writing H&P/Progress/Discharge notes by myself 3-4 days into a rotation while using EPIC. I always present to my attending before he or she goes to see the patient. Good feedback so far. Minimal note changes by the attending for me. He or she always signs my notes and agrees with my assessment and plan.

So, I don’t know what to tell you.

So you have full access to EPIC and attendings are ok with a 3rd year student completely managing patients, treating and discharging them? I'm wondering why you even need a 3rd and 4th year or even residency lol? Seems like you already know how to treat patients and should be an attending already. Good job!

 

[IntheClouds4ever]

It’s not that bad. Most ER and direct admits already have initial work ups so you just tag on plans based on the assessment. Progress notes are even easier and you only need to make medication changes if problems arise. They *should* be giving you the classic presentation cases/bread and butter so it’s manageable.

 

[alprazoslam]

Nobody knows the raw score of comats lol quit with the raw score shenanagins.

It’s graded on a bell curve with 100 being average and SD of ten

They Feel like mini comlexes but not quite worded as badly thus far nor as many wtf questions but still a few

 

[moyamoya6]

Nobody knows the raw score of comats lol quit with the raw score shenanagins.

It’s graded on a bell curve with 100 being average and SD of ten

They Feel like mini comlexes but not quite worded as badly thus far nor as many wtf questions but still a few

That’s how I felt the COMATs were like. I also felt COMLEX 2 CE was more like all the COMATs combined, but with more left field questions, blech.

 

[PathoTurnUp1865]

Any last minute advice on surgery shelf?
Watched all onlinemeded 1 x, read through quicktables, 75% UWORLD, 65% comquest, 66% Combank, done about half of the pestana questions and did anki. Worried about this one just because don't know what to expect and my comquest/combank avgs were lower than I wanted

Ended up making a 105. Which isn’t super high but leaving that test, I was sure I failed it. Such a s*** show of a test.

 

[alprazoslam]

Didn’t use comquest for IM but am using for a few other comats. Can’t wait for these to be done most bc using comquest reinforces the idea that all the DO specific q banks suck. So many inconsistencies with other questions/uworld/UpToDate and they don’t even source their stuff. Sadly combank sucks more though lol.

Wish every uworld section has enough questions on it for comats so we could throw these other banks in the trash where they belong

 

[PathoTurnUp1865]

I know this is probably the wrong place to ask this question but I'm considering taking step 2/level 2 in February. I would not have had Internal medicine yet, it is my last rotation (may and june). However, I would have had OMM in December and all the other rotations prior to taking it. I also have January and February completely free to study and focus on board material, not to mention we are out of OMM clinic every day at noon. So I'd also have some time to mess around with board studying during my OMM rotation. I just don't want to have to take my boards in late July/early August because I want to have them for auditions. Plus I would like to save July and August for audition months.
For my study materials, I would complete the rest of OME, read/make anki over Secrets, redo UWorld and Combank/Comquest, and do anki. I think I could definitely do this in 2.5 mo.
Thoughts?

 

[PathoTurnUp1865]

Internal medicine is far and away the most important topic for step/level 2. Almost 2/3 of uworld is IM. How do you have two straight months of no rotations in the middle of third year? That is crazy, and bizarre. Seems like a terrible idea, regardless. My two cents

That's just how my luck was when they matched our rotations. Those are my elective months for third year.

 

[PathoTurnUp1865]

Well, what are your two electives? You said "completely free to study" indicating you didn't have rotations. Those two electives *could* end up being time consuming.

No, I don't have anything there. It's my vacation months. If I could have a perfect schedule they would be when my IM rotation is, but they aren't. At our school IM is very time consuming and you don't have a lot of time to study. Usually runs from around 6 AM- ~ 7PM and have the weekends to work, usually one or two out of the two month schedule.
The reason I'm on board with taking my tests at the end of february is because I would have already had Psych, FM, Peds, OB, Surgery and OMM. After February I have rural, EM, and then IM. I know IM is a big part of the tests, but I am going to do a majority of the questions during FM. The rest I was going to complete during OMM.
I'm not 100% my school will actually let me do this, so it might not even matter in the end. I just think it's silly that I have two months completely off, when I could just go ahead and take my tests and have them ready for auditions/the application period.

 

[moyamoya6]

No, I don't have anything there. It's my vacation months. If I could have a perfect schedule they would be when my IM rotation is, but they aren't. At our school IM is very time consuming and you don't have a lot of time to study. Usually runs from around 6 AM- ~ 7PM and have the weekends to work, usually one or two out of the two month schedule.
The reason I'm on board with taking my tests at the end of february is because I would have already had Psych, FM, Peds, OB, Surgery and OMM. After February I have rural, EM, and then IM. I know IM is a big part of the tests, but I am going to do a majority of the questions during FM. The rest I was going to complete during OMM.
I'm not 100% my school will actually let me do this, so it might not even matter in the end. I just think it's silly that I have two months completely off, when I could just go ahead and take my tests and have them ready for auditions/the application period.

You guys get two months of vacation??? Must be nice!!! I didn’t learn a lot at clinic during my two IM rotations. I did most of my learning reading Step Up to Medicine and doing questions. If you’re doing well on the IM sections of UWorld and on your practice tests, and if you feel comfortable taking it in February, props to you. If I were me, I’d wait until July to take it.

 

[PathoTurnUp1865]

You guys get two months of vacation??? Must be nice!!! I didn’t learn a lot at clinic during my two IM rotations. I did most of my learning reading Step Up to Medicine and doing questions. If you’re doing well on the IM sections of UWorld and on your practice tests, and if you feel comfortable taking it in February, props to you. If I were me, I’d wait until July to take it.

That’s probably what I’ll do. Have you/anyone else used the doczay deck? It’s suppose to be all of su2m. Don’t know if it’s good or not. I’ve been using zanki 2 and an OME deck but might incorporate doczays if it’s good

 

[moyamoya6]

That’s probably what I’ll do. Have you/anyone else used the doczay deck? It’s suppose to be all of su2m. Don’t know if it’s good or not. I’ve been using zanki 2 and an OME deck but might incorporate doczays if it’s good

I haven’t heard of that deck before, so can’t say. I’m not a flash card person, but using two decks sounds sufficient.

 

[IntheClouds4ever]

Took the Family Medicine COMAT on Friday. COMBANK and AAFP questions were pretty good. I didn't finish the entire bank of AAFP(only did 400-500 or so) but I felt like it was a good representation of the broad spectrum plus had more USPSTF guideline questions to help nail those down.

105 - Disappointed since all my COMATs have been >110, so far.

 

[PathoTurnUp1865]

Peds: 112
Resources: combank ~75%, Uworld ~66%, omed (peds section + derm), zanki step 2 (only got through about half of it).
Feelings: felt like it was a pretty fair test. Very evenly spread out. No real big wtfs. Probably would’ve scored higher if I would’ve completed zanki just because it definitely covers everything and repetition is key.

 

[alprazoslam]

140 on IM- most everything is in either FA for step 1 and uworld IM. Nothing else really needed other than uworld if you feel like you remember step 1 stuff.

132 psych- FA for psych + comquest. FA for psych most helpful it’s probably all in their. Comquest helped some but it’s so error ridden it annoying having to cross reference everything to UTD just to make sure whoever wrote the question wasnt smoking weed that day.

Won’t be using comquest or combank once done w peds this month they both suck

Comats aren’t too bad. Less wtf than comlex so far and not sure how people fail these

Only benefit of comquest is you get frustrated by their questions not lining up w uworld or UTD and it tends to help you remember what you need to know from uworld of UTD


Verdict- text specific review source for each rotation and uworld.

Skip comquest. You may get a couple points more for doing 400 questions but it’s not worth the time or frustration and will probably get you questions wrong on STEP later on in the year

 

[TheBoneDoctah]

Saw on some threads people were using UWise for OBGYN? It looks like this is a subscription? Is that correct?

 

[PathoTurnUp1865]

Saw on some threads people were using UWise for OBGYN? It looks like this is a subscription? Is that correct?

As far as I can tell yeah. I don’t think I’m going to use it. Zanki has them all in his step 2 deck so I’ll probably just do that

 

[moyamoya6]

Saw on some threads people were using UWise for OBGYN? It looks like this is a subscription? Is that correct?

I never used it and did fine. I mainly did questions from COMBANK, watched OME, and read First Aid OBGYN since I had a free copy. Some of my classmates liked the Case Files OBGYN.

 

[TTPpentad]

110 on OBGyn with using Combank the day before, plus 150 Uworld questions and 200 Uwise questions earlier in the month. Worst COMAT score-wise thus far, but the test wasn’t crazy other than having some weird Step 1 type stuff that I definitely didn’t revisit prior to the COMAT.

ETA: My school provides and requires Uwise. It’s nothing special and I wouldn’t recommend going out of your way to purchase it.

 

[alprazoslam]

For peds

Either uworld or comquest plus
OME
combank
Pediatric shelf anki deck

All of the above is enough to do well. Can probably do well with just anki deck and uworld



OB- uworld OME and step 2 CK OBGYN sections are enough for most

Surprised at how spot on step 2 ck was for OBGYN comat

 

[TheBoneDoctah]

110 on OBGyn with using Combank the day before, plus 150 Uworld questions and 200 Uwise questions earlier in the month. Worst COMAT score-wise thus far, but the test wasn’t crazy other than having some weird Step 1 type stuff that I definitely didn’t revisit prior to the COMAT.

ETA: My school provides and requires Uwise. It’s nothing special and I wouldn’t recommend going out of your way to purchase it.

Just took this exam. I still don't understand the point of going out of their way to remove info (that is pertinent and easily attainable in real life) to make questions more vague than needed. Or...taking antibiotic regimens that are in UW, comquest, all review sources, and my rotations, and deciding THAT isnt going to be an answer choice.

 

[moyamoya6]

Just took this exam. I still don't understand the point of going out of their way to remove info (that is pertinent and easily attainable in real life) to make questions more vague than needed. Or...taking antibiotic regimens that are in UW, comquest, all review sources, and my rotations, and deciding THAT isnt going to be an answer choice.

Because NBOME. They don’t care and do what they want.

 

[alprazoslam]

Just took this exam. I still don't understand the point of going out of their way to remove info (that is pertinent and easily attainable in real life) to make questions more vague than needed. Or...taking antibiotic regimens that are in UW, comquest, all review sources, and my rotations, and deciding THAT isnt going to be an answer choice.

Yeah I felt most prepared for this one but got 110 also. Too much off the wall stuff. Step ck covered most of it but still a lot of lol wat.

Honestly though comats probably don’t correlate well with anything. Had ob down well did good on all the banks got 110. Was getting wrecked on peds stuff and got 138. Their standardization is probably not very accurate. NBOME has no quality or consistency to their exams. Would go out on a limb and say we could take each comat 5 times and probably have a range from 90-140 between them all

Just study each section as you would for boards and we can at least pass them all then take step 2 aka the test that actually matters

 

[PathoTurnUp1865]

Just took this exam. I still don't understand the point of going out of their way to remove info (that is pertinent and easily attainable in real life) to make questions more vague than needed. Or...taking antibiotic regimens that are in UW, comquest, all review sources, and my rotations, and deciding THAT isnt going to be an answer choice.

OBGYN has been my lowest lol was the one I’m most interested in too. That test asked a bunch of dumb questions that didn’t make any sense.

 

[alprazoslam]

OBGYN has been my lowest lol was the one I’m most interested in too. That test asked a bunch of dumb questions that didn’t make any sense.

I think it’s a lot of people’s lowest which is strange bc it is standardized. I know very strong students who have failed it so meh

 

[TheBoneDoctah]

I think it’s a lot of people’s lowest which is strange bc it is standardized. I know very strong students who have failed it so meh

Can you send me a PM please?

 

[QueenJames]

OB comat is next week.

Was planning on running through OME and redoing all of the COMBANK questions and reviewing UW questions.

Anything else y'all recommend?

 

[moyamoya6]

OB comat is next week.

Was planning on running through OME and redoing all of the COMBANK questions and reviewing UW questions.

Anything else y'all recommend?

Sounds like a good plan

 

[TheBoneDoctah]

OB/GYN COMAT: 121

Used:

UW
COMQUEST
Case Files

 

[TheBoneDoctah]

Surgery COMAT: 111

OME (general, trauma, subspecialty, GI)
UW
COMQUEST
Pestrana

Did really well on my question banks (93%tile) and thought I would have no issues honoring (our school says 112 is honors). Sucks.

 

[TheBoneDoctah]

Anyone have any advice on how to honor pediatrics shelf?

 

[deleted645092]

Anyone have any advice on how to honor pediatrics shelf?

Zanki peds cards 100% plus COMBANK questions. I did 10-15/ day.

Edit: Not thank COMBANK is a good q-bank, but I've noticed that the COMATs seem to have a different focus than UWorld.

 

[moyamoya6]

Anyone have any advice on how to honor pediatrics shelf?

I scored ~120

Read First Aid Pediatric Clerkship and Emma Holliday’s pediatric pdf. Did COMBANK and UWorld pediatric questions.

Definitely know the vaccination schedule and developmental milestones.

 

[TheBoneDoctah]

I scored ~120

Read First Aid Pediatric Clerkship and Emma Holliday’s pediatric pdf. Did COMBANK and UWorld pediatric questions.

Definitely know the vaccination schedule and developmental milestones.

Is there a reason people are doing COMBANK over COMQUEST when BANK only has 125q and Quest has 400? Are COMBANK better quality?

 

[moyamoya6]

Is there a reason people are doing COMBANK over COMQUEST when BANK only has 125q and Quest has 400? Are COMBANK better quality?

I did COMBANK because my school purchased it for us and I didn’t want to spend money on another qbank. I completed all the peds questions in the COMBANK level 2 CE and COMAT qbanks so it was more than 125 questions. Can’t say the COMBANK questions are better quality than COMQUEST because I’ve never bought or looked at COMQUEST.

 

[PathoTurnUp1865]

Is there a reason people are doing COMBANK over COMQUEST when BANK only has 125q and Quest has 400? Are COMBANK better quality?

I have both. I’m using combank during the rotation and doing comquest during dedicated

 

[TheBoneDoctah]

I have both. I’m using combank during the rotation and doing comquest during dedicated

dedicated meaning for boards?

 

[PathoTurnUp1865]

dedicated meaning for boards?

Yeah