What is considered a good comlex score?

[Whisker Barrel Cortex]

What is considered a good comlex score. What would a score of 510 be for example in percentile on Comlex I. How about 540 on Comlex III? Thanks in advance for your responses.

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[Boomer]

What is considered a good comlex score. What would a score of 510 be for example in percentile on Comlex I. How about 540 on Comlex III? Thanks in advance for your responses.

Mean is 500. SD 65-75.

540 is possibly approaching 60th%le. 510 probably 51-ish.

Curious, why as a PGY-3 rads resident are you looking for this info?

 

[irsol33t]

Hi

 

[group_theory]

What is considered a good comlex score. What would a score of 510 be for example in percentile on Comlex I. How about 540 on Comlex III? Thanks in advance for your responses.

According to the NBOME,

A 510 on COMLEX 1 taken between May 2009-April 2010 will place you in the 54th percentile.

An exact percentile for COMLEX 3 isn't easily available, but all COMLEX are reported to have a mean COMLEX score of 500 with a standard deviation of 100.

A COMLEX 3 Score of 540 will be above the 50th percentile but below the first standard deviation.

 

[DocEspana]

According to the NBOME,

A 510 on COMLEX 1 taken between May 2009-April 2010 will place you in the 54th percentile.

An exact percentile for COMLEX 3 isn't easily available, but all COMLEX are reported to have a mean COMLEX score of 500 with a standard deviation of 100.

A COMLEX 3 Score of 540 will be above the 50th percentile but below the first standard deviation.

See this is confusing now to me cause i looked into this recently (prob the end of april/start of may) on official websites only (If I need a stat I dont trust student/unknown websites) and found standard deviation to be 45 for the Part I in 2010 and 49 in 2009. Mean, obviously, was still 500. Thats way way way off from 100.

EDIT: I am unsure if I got this off of the NBOME website proper, or a "trusted" site such as one of the big osteopathic schools explaining the test breakdown. I am 70% sure it was a NBOME website, but I do find a lot of info out thanks to schools like MSU which publish their own information on the COMLEX.

 

[Rollo]

Anyone have an idea of average comlex scores by specialty? Or at least, which specialty doors are closed with certain comlex scores?

 

[BobBarker]

The standard deviation is lower than 100. If that were true, way too many people would fail the test every year.

 

[BobBarker]

For DO programs only, above 500 for the surgical subspecialties. Personality matters much more than comlex scores for everyone else. I know people with step 2 failures in DO gas and ob programs.

 

[Rollo]

For DO programs only, above 500 for the surgical subspecialties. Personality matters much more than comlex scores for everyone else. I know people with step 2 failures in DO gas and ob programs.

Do you think away rotations are vital in the DO world? I guess it must depend on specialties but what's the general rule?

 

[group_theory]

See this is confusing now to me cause i looked into this recently (prob the end of april/start of may) on official websites only (If I need a stat I dont trust student/unknown websites) and found standard deviation to be 45 for the Part I in 2010 and 49 in 2009. Mean, obviously, was still 500. Thats way way way off from 100.

EDIT: I am unsure if I got this off of the NBOME website proper, or a "trusted" site such as one of the big osteopathic schools explaining the test breakdown. I am 70% sure it was a NBOME website, but I do find a lot of info out thanks to schools like MSU which publish their own information on the COMLEX.

We're both right (and NBOME is inconsistent)


Standard Scores (3-digit). The standard scores for all three Part examinations are reported on a scale with a mean of 500 and a standard deviation of 100. The minimal passing score for Part I and Part II is 400. The minimal passing score for Part III is 350.

http://www.nbome.org/score-interpretation.asp (under Part 1, Part 2, Part 3)


BUT if you go here

http://www.nbome.org/score-interpretation.asp (under "COMLEX Level 1, Level 2 Cognitive Evaluation & Level 3")

it has a table which shows the standard deviation for each level of COMLEX (Level 1 ranges from 71-81, Level 3 ranges from 111-123)


If you parse the wording, I guess a scaled scoring system is different than the actual statistics, but I'm not a statistician nor a psychomemetrics experts.


Either way, a COMLEX 3 of 540 will be above 50th percentile but less than 1 standard deviation above

 

[Aub43]

I have seen some charts for the USMLE but are there any charts out there which show correlation between COMLEX scores with the amount of questions correct or the correct percentage?? Thanks

 

[deleted245139]

SD for step I for May 2010 to present is 81... NBOME and my recent score report as reference

 

[kissmyasthma99]

Above 600 is legit.

 

[DocEspana]

Above 600 is legit.

you aint s**t unless you score above a 799

 

[dozitgetchahi]

Mean is 500. SD 65-75.

540 is possibly approaching 60th%le. 510 probably 51-ish.

Curious, why as a PGY-3 rads resident are you looking for this info?

Here's the NBOME's own COMLEX percentile converter: http://www.nbome.org/score-conversion.asp?m=can

Between May 2009 and April 2010 (the last period for which a score conversion is available) a 540 = 68th percentile and a 510 = 54th percentile.

I'm actually sort of amazed at how the percentiles climb throughout the 500s; a 500 is 50th percentile, a 599 87th.

For the current administration, standard deviation is indeed 81 (as mentioned above).

 

[williamjacob]

Unfortunately there is no "Charting Outcomes" equivalent for DO residencies. What I have heard from word of mouth is that a COMLEX score of 600 or more (Top 15% of test takers) should be enough to land you a residency as long as you perform well on the audition rotation, along with having good letters and decent grades.

I do not think any of the DO ortho programs are pyramidal... I could be wrong though.

 

[the alchemist]

Do you think away rotations are vital in the DO world? I guess it must depend on specialties but what's the general rule?

yes, i have a friend who got into do rads < 500 comlex but they loved him during his audition rotation. some schools have cutoffs (like >600) but might interview ppl below that if they liked them during an audition rotation (happens at my school).