the official COMAT shelf thread

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Deecee2DO said:
Yeah the comats are a ton easier than UWorld lol thats good to hear though! Take it next thurs
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Honestly having a good Step 1 knowledge base and then knowing the basic "next best steps" is all you need to get a respectable score imo. And UWorld was definitely harder than both COMATs I've taken so far. It was helpful for this one in particular because a lot of the question stems were pretty long and similar in length to UWorld.
 
So Im done with all of the comquest questions for IM and did about 250 UWorld IM shelf questions. Test is next thurs-do yall think I should do the combank questions (i think there are only like 150 questions or something) or should I spend my time elsewhere nailing down the OME vids again and finish off with that 2 hr Emma Holiday IM lecture?
 
Deecee2DO said:
So Im done with all of the comquest questions for IM and did about 250 UWorld IM shelf questions. Test is next thurs-do yall think I should do the combank questions (i think there are only like 150 questions or something) or should I spend my time elsewhere nailing down the OME vids again and finish off with that 2 hr Emma Holiday IM lecture?
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Tbh if you're gonna do more questions I would do UWorld > COMBANK, but that's just me.
 
Whelp just was told my attending is taking off WEds-Friday of my last week. Kinda sucks from a clinical standpoint but it will give me major grind time for the shelf I guess.

In other words I feel like I could be a quality case study of imposter syndrome at this point.
 
fldoctorgirl said:
Tbh if you're gonna do more questions I would do UWorld > COMBANK, but that's just me.
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Thats true Ill prolly just stop questions for now and focus on knowing OME cold and Emma holiday for next week. Uworld questions are too hard for me rn im gonna start hitting UW harder further into the fall and winter when I have a better base
 
ohmanwaddup said:
Whelp just was told my attending is taking off WEds-Friday of my last week. Kinda sucks from a clinical standpoint but it will give me major grind time for the shelf I guess.

In other words I feel like I could be a quality case study of imposter syndrome at this point.
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Thats sick lol more study time and u can sleep in!
 
Deecee2DO said:
Thats true Ill prolly just stop questions for now and focus on knowing OME cold and Emma holiday for next week. Uworld questions are too hard for me rn im gonna start hitting UW harder further into the fall and winter when I have a better base
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I feel you on this. I'm doing UWorld for surgery and it's really hard because it's pulling from a lot of different areas that I haven't covered yet lol. Just trying to do my best and learn from it.
 
fldoctorgirl said:
I feel you on this. I'm doing UWorld for surgery and it's really hard because it's pulling from a lot of different areas that I haven't covered yet lol. Just trying to do my best and learn from it.
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Ya Surg questions felt impossible lol i walked out of the surg comat feeling like **** didnt know a thing and ended up doing fine. Just keep ripping questions and learning like u said
 
May her memory be a blessing, I wonder if there will be any drastic changes to OBGYN and Women's Health in the upcoming years due to SC changes
 
For those doing UWorld, how are you evaluating your progress? Since I saved Step 1 UWorld for dedicated, I had most of my sh** together by then lol. So just not sure how to evaluate myself when doing it so early. Just aim to be higher than the average on each block?
 
fldoctorgirl said:
For those doing UWorld, how are you evaluating your progress? Since I saved Step 1 UWorld for dedicated, I had most of my sh** together by then lol. So just not sure how to evaluate myself when doing it so early. Just aim to be higher than the average on each block?
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Thats what I am doing. though it seems a little unfair since so much of dorian is uworld
 
fldoctorgirl said:
For those doing UWorld, how are you evaluating your progress? Since I saved Step 1 UWorld for dedicated, I had most of my sh** together by then lol. So just not sure how to evaluate myself when doing it so early. Just aim to be higher than the average on each block?
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That's what I'm doing since I'm primarily using it as a learning resource and not worrying so much about my percentages. 70% on a block was disappointing during Step 1 prep but that's a good day for me now lol. I'll probably reset it after I'm done with all my core rotations which will be my second to last block of this year and go through it again during dedicated.
 
GoCards05 said:
That's what I'm doing since I'm primarily using it as a learning resource and not worrying so much about my percentages. 70% on a block was disappointing during Step 1 prep but that's a good day for me now lol. I'll probably reset it after I'm done with all my core rotations which will be my second to last block of this year and go through it again during dedicated.
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Youre popping 70%? lol bro im getting 40s and 50s on UW blocks rn. Step 1 i was getting like double that before i took it its crazy how different this stuff is
 
Honestly I am struggling even getting all the UW Qs for a rotation finished. I'll probably still have 200 left in peds by the time I Take my test Friday. I Figure screw it and over winter break I can do a mashup of whatever questions are left.

Cannot wait for 12 weeks till my next shelf exam after I finish peds
 
GoCards05 said:
That's what I'm doing since I'm primarily using it as a learning resource and not worrying so much about my percentages. 70% on a block was disappointing during Step 1 prep but that's a good day for me now lol. I'll probably reset it after I'm done with all my core rotations which will be my second to last block of this year and go through it again during dedicated.
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Same plan. And yup, popped a couple of 72s and felt great compared to that being my low range for Step 1 lol. Glad to see we're all in the same boat (again lol).
 
Damn y'all are scaring me for when I start non peds questions lol. Uworld Peds has seemed pretty straightforward so far, but I have also only done about 100 Qs so who knows
 
ohmanwaddup said:
Yeah I'm typically getting 74% on them after finishing Dorian, minus the AMBOSS, Uworld, and NBME sections. nothing under a 70% so far
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Nice! 70s is really good man. Yall seem like youre busting your butts already I feel like I should probably study more lol I usually do like 2 hrs a day weekdays and 3-4 hrs per day weekends. Its so hard to study after a 12-13 hr day
 
ohmanwaddup said:
Honestly I am struggling even getting all the UW Qs for a rotation finished. I'll probably still have 200 left in peds by the time I Take my test Friday. I Figure screw it and over winter break I can do a mashup of whatever questions are left.

Cannot wait for 12 weeks till my next shelf exam after I finish peds
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There are people getting winter breaks?

Even before COVID my school just did rotations back to back. Finish a COMAT Friday, start the next rotation Monday... repeat until June. Who tf is getting winter breaks??? 😱
 
calivianya said:
There are people getting winter breaks?

Even before COVID my school just did rotations back to back. Finish a COMAT Friday, start the next rotation Monday... repeat until June. Who tf is getting winter breaks??? 😱
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Most of our school's sites get winter breaks as far as I'm aware. I think they vary by length, though. My site always got no breaks, and then this year they decided to give us 1 week lol. I think some of the sites have 2+ weeks.
 
fldoctorgirl said:
Most of our school's sites get winter breaks as far as I'm aware. I think they vary by length, though. My site always got no breaks, and then this year they decided to give us 1 week lol. I think some of the sites have 2+ weeks.
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That would be so nice. None of my school’s sites have ever gotten winter breaks as far as I’m aware. If you happen to be on an outpatient rotation and your doctor closes his/her office for Christmas Eve/Day, you get those off, but otherwise I don’t think anyone misses days for holidays.
 
mm5869 said:
yeah i feel like the averages might just depend on the topic. for ob just now, i was 75-80...for surgery ill cross my fingers for 50.
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IM shelf for UW is a ****show lol. Its crazy how much harder UW is than comquest. Was popping 50s on UW IM and then switched to comquest and was 97th percentile lmao
 
I hope, they really arent sure what is going to happen yet, and I was supposed to start it on the 28th its just a mess.
 
ohmanwaddup said:
LOL just got an email that my inpatient IM is cancelled because all the docs tested positive for COVID, Imma cry this is the rotation I was really looking forward too
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I'm sorry, that really sucks. I hope they let you move it and do something else online in its place since you're interested in IM. I feel like they should take those sorts of things into consideration, like missing a month of inpatient surgery if you're not interested in it won't hurt you as much. I would try and argue that, but I feel like they don't care lol
 
fldoctorgirl said:
I'm sorry, that really sucks. I hope they let you move it and do something else online in its place since you're interested in IM. I feel like they should take those sorts of things into consideration, like missing a month of inpatient surgery if you're not interested in it won't hurt you as much. I would try and argue that, but I feel like they don't care lol
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Yeah im hoping I can make it a "research" elective as a last ditch effort if things comes to it. I kinda have a BS HPV/MengB vaccine study/survey I got "approval" ( I walked into the office and was like hey imma do this project that cool? and got a yes) So I would not mind doing that for a month and also just getting a butt ton of hiking in as well.

But then I lose an elective. I just don't want an online rotation though. I don't really want to be a surgeon, but I kinda want the right of passage and feel like It'll make me a bit more well rounded IDK
 
ohmanwaddup said:
Yeah im hoping I can make it a "research" elective as a last ditch effort if things comes to it. I kinda have a BS HPV/MengB vaccine study/survey I got "approval" ( I walked into the office and was like hey imma do this project that cool? and got a yes) So I would not mind doing that for a month and also just getting a butt ton of hiking in as well.

But then I lose an elective. I just don't want an online rotation though. I don't really want to be a surgeon, but I kinda want the right of passage and feel like It'll make me a bit more well rounded IDK
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That project sounds cool! I hope things work out somehow.
 
Well the verdict is in, I will now be doing back to back surgery months. Pretty nervous now about taking the Surg shelf without having an IM rotation as was originally planned, I have heard Surg has a lot of that material. Looks like the next two months will be way more intense than I thought they would be. Ugh just glad I found out today so I could order that case surg book everyone recommend (devirgillo?)
 
ohmanwaddup said:
Well the verdict is in, I will now be doing back to back surgery months. Pretty nervous now about taking the Surg shelf without having an IM rotation as was originally planned, I have heard Surg has a lot of that material. Looks like the next two months will be way more intense than I thought they would be. Ugh just glad I found out today so I could order that case surg book everyone recommend (devirgillo?)
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For pimping before cases read surgical recall. DeVirgilio is great for general shelf knowledge.
 
Neopolymath said:
For pimping before cases read surgical recall. DeVirgilio is great for general shelf knowledge.
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Ugh I have to buy it instead of rent. I have to move 1.5 hours away for this rotation and I won't have a reliable mailing address.
 
117 on the IM COMAT. I've honored both of my shelves so far but because of my school's ridiculous grading system and their ridiculously high threshold for honors on the preceptor eval, I get a pass for both rotations. I'm annoyed.
 
GoCards05 said:
117 on the IM COMAT. I've honored both of my shelves so far but because of my school's ridiculous grading system and their ridiculously high threshold for honors on the preceptor eval, I get a pass for both rotations. I'm annoyed.
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Im so sorry man. That really sucks. You wrecked both your comats so far you are killing it! This is why i dont understand the importance of clerkship grades. There is zero standardization. I took IM comat today and it felt a lot more straightforward than Surgery. Stil a good amount of WTF NBOME type questions but def more fair.
 
and like clockwork I start to do terrible on comquest questions as I am about to finish studying the night before my exam

Went from a 81% to a 74 over the span of 6 hours.

predicted 120-111

I'm tired of this
 
ohmanwaddup said:
and like clockwork I start to do terrible on comquest questions as I am about to finish studying the night before my exam

Went from a 81% to a 74 over the span of 6 hours.

predicted 120-111

I'm tired of this
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happened to me for surg. Ended up getting 5 points higher than where i was predicted most of the time, not the drop. i wouldnt get too hung up on it. Regardless i think a 111+ is honors at most schools lol but maybe im wrong
 
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Deecee2DO said:
Im so sorry man. That really sucks. You wrecked both your comats so far you are killing it! This is why i dont understand the importance of clerkship grades. There is zero standardization. I took IM comat today and it felt a lot more straightforward than Surgery. Stil a good amount of WTF NBOME type questions but def more fair.
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Yeah it’s really annoying how much it varies from school to school and how some schools make things unnecessarily difficult for their students. I definitely agree about the IM COMAT being pretty fair, it was probably the fairest NBOME-written exam I’ve taken so far and that’s not saying much lol.
 
GoCards05 said:
Yeah it’s really annoying how much it varies from school to school and how some schools make things unnecessarily difficult for their students. I definitely agree about the IM COMAT being pretty fair, it was probably the fairest NBOME-written exam I’ve taken so far and that’s not saying much lol.
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Im glad I took it now at the beginning of the year vs the end when my classmates know more. I need to honor the rotation since I want to do GI and I feel like the curve is a little more forgiving rn since none of us know much lol
 
GoCards05 said:
117 on the IM COMAT. I've honored both of my shelves so far but because of my school's ridiculous grading system and their ridiculously high threshold for honors on the preceptor eval, I get a pass for both rotations. I'm annoyed.
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This is super annoying. No high pass for your school either?

What do you do study wise, just Dorian + UWorld? You've been killing it!

I don't really get how anyone can assign any weight to M3 grades when there's such variation...I mean, it's literally meaningless when a "pass" at one school is way beyond the "honors" threshold at another.
 
fldoctorgirl said:
This is super annoying. No high pass for your school either?

What do you do study wise, just Dorian + UWorld? You've been killing it!

I don't really get how anyone can assign any weight to M3 grades when there's such variation...I mean, it's literally meaningless when a "pass" at one school is way beyond the "honors" threshold at another.
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Unfortunately the qualification for “high pass” is an honors rating on the eval and you only have to pass the COMAT. So if you honor the shelf, get great feedback from your preceptor but fall just short of that arbitrary honors cutoff on the eval (4.5+ average out of 5), you get a P. I have no idea how my school thinks that is fair since quite a few students at my school have been in the same position as me.

Yep just Dorian and UWorld! UWorld is my primary learning resource and I really don’t feel like I need anything else and it’s much more difficult than the COMATs. I also read the Emma Holliday lectures for peds and IM the night before and a couple of things from her lectures were nearly verbatim on the COMAT so I highly recommend those for high yield review leading up to the exam. But UWorld truly is all you need.
 
GoCards05 said:
Unfortunately the qualification for “high pass” is an honors rating on the eval and you only have to pass the COMAT. So if you honor the shelf, get great feedback from your preceptor but fall just short of that arbitrary honors cutoff on the eval (4.5+ average out of 5), you get a P. I have no idea how my school thinks that is fair since quite a few students at my school have been in the same position as me.

Yep just Dorian and UWorld! UWorld is my primary learning resource and I really don’t feel like I need anything else and it’s much more difficult than the COMATs. I also read the Emma Holliday lectures for peds and IM the night before and a couple of things from her lectures were nearly verbatim on the COMAT so I highly recommend those for high yield review leading up to the exam. But UWorld truly is all you need.
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That's insane lol. It should be either/or for high pass: honor one thing, pass the other and get it.

How do you do UWorld since you're using it to learn? Untimed+tutor? Sorry for all the questions I just feel like the formula for shelf/Step 2 is so much less clear than for Step 1.
 
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