Two Rowan Students Sue Over COMLEX

[2021Doctor]

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We consider here whether to grant plaintiff xxxxxx’s request for final injunctive relief asking that we enjoin defendant National Board of Osteopathic Medical Examiner,Inc.(“NBOME”) from denying her request for additional time to complete the Comprehensive Osteopathic Medical Licensing Examination, Level1 (“COMLEXI”). xxxxxx asserts that NBOME violated the Americans with Disabilities Act(“ADA”),and the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination(“LAD”), when it rejected her application for accommodations on the COMLEX I.
http://www.paed.uscourts.gov/documents/opinions/16d0292p.pdf

Plaintiff, a 35-year-old permanent resident of New Jersey, is a former student at Rowan. Rowan is a medical college located in New Jersey. Its medical education culminates with a Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine degree for successful students. Plaintiff commenced his medical education at Rowan in the fall of 2011. After his first year of medical school, he requested and was granted a three month personal leave of absence following a loss in his personal life. Plaintiff successfully remediated his first year of courses and from that point onward achieved satisfactory grades.
Plaintiff attempted the COMLEX Level 1 exam ("COMLEX") for the first time on September 3, 2014. COMLEX is typically taken after completion of the second year of medical school, and a passing score is required to continue in Rowan's medical education program. A student may not fail three times—three failures constitute grounds for dismissal per Rowan's academic policies. Plaintiff failed on his first attempt. After completing a 6-week COMLEX review program, he attempted it for the second time on February 4, 2015. He failed again.
J.C. v. Rowan Univ. Sch. of Osteopathic Med. & Rowan Univ.| D.N.J. | Law | CaseMine

 

[Hippocrates II]

Takes COMLEX twice. Fails both times. Given accommodations by the school to retake. Gets a diagnosis of anxiety and uses that as a justification for further accommodations because he's now 'disabled'. Who *wouldn't* be anxious with two failures behind them and 2 years of medical school/debt riding on the remaining test? That should not provide you immunity to the rules IMO, and I feel like cases like this are a slap in the face to people who truly suffer a life of disability. Are we all allowed to just claim disability now?

 

[Rekt]

Takes COMLEX twice. Fails both times. Given accommodations by the school to retake. Gets a diagnosis of anxiety and uses that as a justification for further accommodations because he's now 'disabled'. Who *wouldn't* be anxious with two failures behind them and 2 years of medical school/debt riding on the remaining test? That should no provide you immunity to the rules IMO, and I feel like cases like this are a slap in the face to people who truly suffer a life of disability. Are we all allowed to just claim disability now?

I'm sure I'll rustle some jimmies, but this is extremely common. People asking for time extensions for exams "because they're bad test takers" or "due to anxiety" or whatever else that's barely passable for an excuse is absolutely ridiculous. The timing of an exam is part of the exam itself. If you can't take an exam under normal timed conditions as everyone else, then you're not cut out for medical school.

 

[Meekor]

As a former rowan student. I’m not surprised by this at all.

 

[sab3156]

Damn, I feel bad that they felt that they need to sue... desperate times call for desperate measures.

 

[Drrrrrr. Celty]

I'm sure I'll rustle some jimmies, but this is extremely common. People asking for time extensions for exams "because they're bad test takers" or "due to anxiety" or whatever else that's barely passable for an excuse is absolutely ridiculous. The timing of an exam is part of the exam itself. If you can't take an exam under normal timed conditions as everyone else, then you're not cut out for medical school.

I'm not sure how common it is tbh. But I honestly don't think you should be getting testing accommodations unless you have something legitimately impairing your experience with the test itself, ex dyslexia. I don't see anxiety as really qualifying, plenty if not most medical school students suffer from some mood or anxiety disorder.

 

[NVO]

I'm not sure how common it is tbh. But I honestly don't think you should be getting testing accommodations unless you have something legitimately impairing your experience with the test itself, ex dyslexia. I don't see anxiety as really qualifying, plenty if not most medical school students suffer from some mood or anxiety disorder.

There are gunners in my class (who shout the answer to a q 0.5s after its been asked, who have been studying for boards since day 1, who ask questions in the middle of class to something they already know) that get testing accommodations and extended time and kill the curve every test. I dont really get it, but its really not my place to judge.

 

[Giovanotto]

I'm sure I'll rustle some jimmies, but this is extremely common. People asking for time extensions for exams "because they're bad test takers" or "due to anxiety" or whatever else that's barely passable for an excuse is absolutely ridiculous. The timing of an exam is part of the exam itself. If you can't take an exam under normal timed conditions as everyone else, then you're not cut out for medical school.

I'm a fairly slow test-takers, and for our in-class exams we got so much time it was never an issue. However, I'm struggling a bit with the timing of board exams. I think to myself if it would really be a big deal if we had an extra 30 seconds per question and less questions overall. Not sure what's so relevant about being able to answer a question in 1.5 minutes versus 2 minutes, but I'm sure some smart-ass here can answer that for me.

It's also a psychological thing for me, since I know I'm a slow test taker, I get paranoid and constantly check the time every minute to make sure I'm on tract.

 

[Oh_Gee]

oh. i was hoping it was going to be for a different reason...

 

[ThreeCheers]

Med students need to be exceptional standardized test takers in order to become successful physicians, as they will be taking boards for the rest of their careers. I'm sympathetic to people with anxiety, learning disabilities, etc, but it's possible to overcome those misfortunes without significant accommodations. Even if it were acceptable for med schools to graduate poor test takers, I don't see how these cases have any legs to stand on.

In that first case, I would think there would be a problem with the fact that she never received accommodations before. There's no precedent to prove that accommodations would even help her score higher on standardized tests. While she didn't knock any of her standardized tests out of the park, she still scored high enough on the MCAT to get into med school. She also scored above a 450 on the COMSAE. I don't see how she can suddenly start arguing that she's a poor test taker if she earned those scores with no accommodations. Someone with a stronger legal background can correct me if I'm wrong, though.

And then the person in the second case didn't even have a diagnosis until after his tests. I'm confused with this report, though, because I thought that a) voiding COMLEX/USMLE scores wasn't allowed and b) med schools capped the graduation timeframe at six years, not five.

That said, I wouldn't mind if the NBOME adjusted the timing of the exams for all students. Up until one year ago, students weren't even allowed to take breaks without losing exam time. There are ten extra questions per hour compared to the USMLE in order to accommodate OMM content. Apparently the COMLEX question stems used to be shorter, but that certainly wasn't the case with my exams. And I swear some of the questions had accompanying videos that lasted, like, 90 seconds even though we were supposed to answer each question within 70 seconds. I was definitely more physically exhausted after the COMLEX than the USMLE, even though the USMLE was clearly the more challenging exam.

 

[Goro]

We consider here whether to grant plaintiff xxxxxx’s request for final injunctive relief asking that we enjoin defendant National Board of Osteopathic Medical Examiner,Inc.(“NBOME”) from denying her request for additional time to complete the Comprehensive Osteopathic Medical Licensing Examination, Level1 (“COMLEXI”). xxxxxx asserts that NBOME violated the Americans with Disabilities Act(“ADA”),and the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination(“LAD”), when it rejected her application for accommodations on the COMLEX I.
http://www.paed.uscourts.gov/documents/opinions/16d0292p.pdf

Plaintiff, a 35-year-old permanent resident of New Jersey, is a former student at Rowan. Rowan is a medical college located in New Jersey. Its medical education culminates with a Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine degree for successful students. Plaintiff commenced his medical education at Rowan in the fall of 2011. After his first year of medical school, he requested and was granted a three month personal leave of absence following a loss in his personal life. Plaintiff successfully remediated his first year of courses and from that point onward achieved satisfactory grades.
Plaintiff attempted the COMLEX Level 1 exam ("COMLEX") for the first time on September 3, 2014. COMLEX is typically taken after completion of the second year of medical school, and a passing score is required to continue in Rowan's medical education program. A student may not fail three times—three failures constitute grounds for dismissal per Rowan's academic policies. Plaintiff failed on his first attempt. After completing a 6-week COMLEX review program, he attempted it for the second time on February 4, 2015. He failed again.
J.C. v. Rowan Univ. Sch. of Osteopathic Med. & Rowan Univ.| D.N.J. | Law | CaseMine

Is this a Jersey thing? FYI, jk posted a similar story in the MD forum about an ex-student who failed USMLE and sued Rutgers!

FindLaw's United States Third Circuit case and opinions.

This is a case that Rowan will win.

 

[TattedMed]

He took the exam 2x after the Feb. 4th date and literally s*!t his pants both times. That is SEVERE test anxiety.

Actually, maybe it's advanced tactic to get out of doing this type of stuff. Like when inmates in prison s*!t on themselves to avoid being targeted by other inmates. He's just trying to play the system. Kudos.

 

[Oh_Gee]

He took the exam 2x after the Feb. 4th date and literally s*!t his pants both times. That is SEVERE test anxiety.

Actually, maybe it's advanced tactic to get out of doing this type of stuff. Like when inmates in prison s*!t on themselves to avoid being targeted by other inmates. He's just trying to play the system. Kudos.

literally?

 

[TattedMed]

literally?

"Plaintiff sat for the COMLEX on July 14, 2015, and experienced severe diarrhea and abdominal cramping. He withdrew from the exam after the second test block.

On July 15, 2015, the Chairman of SAPC informed Plaintiff that Plaintiff's deadline to take the COMLEX was July 30, 2015. This was different than the August 31, 2015 deadline later calculated by the medical school's registrar office. On July 29, 2015, Plaintiff experienced anxiety and stress, and his nocturnal treatment for his sleep apnea was disrupted. He could not sleep restfully. He nevertheless sat for the COMLEX on July 30, 2015. Plaintiff experienced a panic attack and severe gastrointestinal upset during the exam. He voided the exam score."

I'm not sure how else you'd interpret that. I guess it doesn't technically say he shat himself, but then again these are official court documents that may not include that type of saucy information. (pun intended)

 

[Hippocrates II]

"Plaintiff sat for the COMLEX on July 14, 2015, and experienced severe diarrhea and abdominal cramping. He withdrew from the exam after the second test block.

On July 15, 2015, the Chairman of SAPC informed Plaintiff that Plaintiff's deadline to take the COMLEX was July 30, 2015. This was different than the August 31, 2015 deadline later calculated by the medical school's registrar office. On July 29, 2015, Plaintiff experienced anxiety and stress, and his nocturnal treatment for his sleep apnea was disrupted. He could not sleep restfully. He nevertheless sat for the COMLEX on July 30, 2015. Plaintiff experienced a panic attack and severe gastrointestinal upset during the exam. He voided the exam score."

I'm not sure how else you'd interpret that. I guess it doesn't technically say he shat himself, but then again these are official court documents that may not include that type of saucy information. (pun intended)

I would have nervous diarrhea as well if I had failed the COMLEX twice and was facing possible dismissal. Pretty sure that's fairly standard for the average human being.

 

[shadowlightfox]

How do you even win a lawsuit like this? I feel like this is gonna get overthrown pretty quickly by the judge unless I'm overlooking something. Is there even a precedent for this?

 

[TattedMed]

How do you even win a lawsuit like this? I feel like this is gonna get overthrown pretty quickly by the judge unless I'm overlooking something. Is there even a precedent for this?

Well, there's two and at least one of them has a compelling argument.

 

[863168]

@Goro New Jersey is the most densely populated state with a significant portion of that density being lawyers. Although New Jersey ranks 10th in terms of lawyers per 10,000 there is also New York which for all intents and purposes is the Law Warehouse.

 

[Meekor]

How do you even win a lawsuit like this? I feel like this is gonna get overthrown pretty quickly by the judge unless I'm overlooking something. Is there even a precedent for this?

The second case is continuing on because there is sufficient precedent in regards to whether or not the school have them proper accommodations. I’m just surprised that they dismissed him because there have been other students that our administration was much more lenient towards.

For example... one person in my class was some how allowed to rotate into March without having even passed level 1. They were still studying for it in March and was no where ready for it still. But they somehow managed to keep getting extensions granted.

The way the administration treats people in the class is in no way fair. Their is always something weird about how the school approaches these students. Some get ludicrous leniency others get none.

 

[Meekor]

Also the person in the first case did match into a residency and did graduate if anyone cares.

 

[shadowlightfox]

Huh. I didn't read closely enough to get all that. I guess I stand corrected.