Finished Combank, but...

[Sthpawslugger]

Ok, so I'm all but 100 questions from finishing Combank. I've reviewed all of my questions to this point, made notation in 1st Aid, all while complimenting my studies with high-yield sources i.e. pathoma, sketchy, goljan RR, Anki. I'm sitting at ~51% correct (not percentile, which is 18%) at this point. Planning to take COMLEX late June. Is this common number for those who have finished the bank? I've read to not use the bank as a diagnostic tool, but to learn. However, I'm not going to feel comfortable in 2 or 3 months if I'm not seeing an improvement to at least 65 or 70 percent. As a side note, I quit worrying about percentile since so believe it's skewed based on whether people are looking up answers while doing questions or doing a second pass).

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[popopopop]

People often judge their readiness with NBMEs. Also, do you plan on doing Uworld now?

 

[deleted645092]

Ok, so I'm all but 100 questions from finishing Combank. I've reviewed all of my questions to this point, made notation in 1st Aid, all while complimenting my studies with high-yield sources i.e. pathoma, sketchy, goljan RR, Anki. I'm sitting at ~51% correct (not percentile, which is 18%) at this point. Planning to take COMLEX late June. Is this common number for those who have finished the bank? I've read to not use the bank as a diagnostic tool, but to learn. However, I'm not going to feel comfortable in 2 or 3 months if I'm not seeing an improvement to at least 65 or 70 percent. As a side note, I quit worrying about percentile since so believe it's skewed based on whether people are looking up answers while doing questions or doing a second pass).

If you haven't covered all systems in classes yet then 51% isn't bad. As for the percentiles, you'll be surprised at how fast it rises with just a few more percent correct. IIRC COMBANK's 50th percentile is like 60% correct. There is also a USMLE portion with another 1500 questions or so, it's one of the drop-down tabs on the main page.

Also I don't know if COMBANK works the same when monitoring progress as Uworld but it doesn't count repeats/ second passes into the percentile data, so you're only compared to other first timers. And it's a very small minority who would look up answers while doing questions, most are smart enough to realize the bank is useless if you're doing that.

 

[Sthpawslugger]

People often judge their readiness with NBMEs. Also, do you plan on doing Uworld now?

I thought about doing Rx x1 followed by UWorld x2 then COMBANK and/or some COMQUEST leading into our COMSAE and COMLEX. SInce UWorld is $500 for a year and I don't plan to take USMLE until December, I thought of waiting until summer to buy UWorld for 6mth. A lot of people at my school are getting a group discount for the 6mth deal and taking USMLE in the summer...I'm not taking it that early...no need to...So, my plan now is to do USMLE Rx x2(I think subscription is $200 for 6mth for bank only) next, then COMBANK again and COMQUEST to be prepared for their style of questions.

 

[popopopop]

I thought about doing Rx x1 followed by UWorld x2 then COMBANK and/or some COMQUEST leading into our COMSAE and COMLEX. SInce UWorld is $500 for a year and I don't plan to take USMLE until December, I thought of waiting until summer to buy UWorld for 6mth. A lot of people at my school are getting a group discount for the 6mth deal and taking USMLE in the summer...I'm not taking it that early...no need to...So, my plan now is to do USMLE Rx x2(I think subscription is $200 for 6mth for bank only) next, then COMBANK again and COMQUEST to be prepared for their style of questions.

You have a unique study/boards schedule. Wouldn't you want to take USMLE with your Comlex when your knowledge base peaks?

 

[Sthpawslugger]

You have a unique study/boards schedule. Wouldn't you want to take USMLE with your Comlex when your knowledge base peaks?

Eh, I thought about it but I'd rather just focus on doing well on COMLEX first and give myself plenty of time fine-tune my knowledge and understanding of the material I'm expected to know and see on USMLE. Plus, being on the floor for a few months with patients may help.

 

[Medic741]

Eh, I thought about it but I'd rather just focus on doing well on COMLEX first and give myself plenty of time fine-tune my knowledge and understanding of the material I'm expected to know and see on USMLE. Plus, being on the floor for a few months with patients may help.

But the material is the *exact same* plus some bone magic...

I’d give the USMLE side a go, is really refreshing to have well worded questions compared to COMLEX questions

 

[NecrotizingFasciitis]

Eh, I thought about it but I'd rather just focus on doing well on COMLEX first and give myself plenty of time fine-tune my knowledge and understanding of the material I'm expected to know and see on USMLE. Plus, being on the floor for a few months with patients may help.

Very interesting strategy indeed.

Seeing real patients might help a bit with the "what's the next step in management" questions ya but how are you planning to retain all the hardcore science stuff while you are simultaneously studying for shelf exams & spending all day in the hospital?

 

[Taxonomy]

But the material is the *exact same* plus some bone magic...

I’d give the USMLE side a go, is really refreshing to have well worded questions compared to COMLEX questions

Not really. Comlex has it's main focus on clinical vignette presentation of patients, you really need to look for trends, constellation of symptoms, buzzwords, you need to be familiar with MOST LIKELY type of questions - that sets off many students who only did UW, just because UW won't ask/teach you that. You have to know 1st most common and often 2nd most common bug/drug etc. A lot more neuro, ob/gun, micro (with bugs that you won't see in UW or FA) and nitty gritty anatomy heavy msk that UW won't test you on. Comlex neuro is often more convoluted. MSK is often full of specific primary care details and so on. And only then, yes, you have on top of this OMM (which is often very lengthy questions), law stuff that you might get about 10-15 questions on comlex and none on USMLE. Add to that some 10-20 questions that you might encounter asking straight level 2 stuff - like next best step/treatment etc. In short it's a must to do comquest and UW. Doing just UW you are just lowering your comlex score. For some it might not matter if you have good step 1 score, but not everyone has a good step 1 score, so.....

P.S. BTW comquest explanations are on same UW level and even better explaining exactly why one answer is most likely as opposed to another answer. I did half of comquest and it teaches you very well to understand what you are asked. It turns out questions are not vague or poorly written like many on sdn like to repeat old mantra, but in fact they are specifically asking you for a knowledge on top of just knowing what drug can treat this disease, they are asking you to know several drugs and chose the one that is most appropriate in this specific situation. You'll need to know a bit of clinical real life situation and a bit of statistics to chose correct most likely or most correct answer. Doing only UW you will be tripping on questions like this and then come to sdn to bitch about it, when in fact you lacked knowledge or understanding to properly answer the question asked. It's kinda like reading comprehension too lol, it's not only pure 1 straight fact to know like in UW. Nope.

 

[samac]

I just have to say your December plan sounds like an awful idea.
Step is super heavy in biochem. You’re going to spend 5/6 months in the hospital, studying clinical medicine and taking COMATs over those topics and then you’re going to take a test overstuff you haven’t had to use since first year? Sounds like a recipe for disaster.

 

[NecrotizingFasciitis]

Not really. Comlex has it's main focus on clinical vignette presentation of patients, you really need to look for trends, constellation of symptoms, buzzwords, you need to be familiar with MOST LIKELY type of questions - that sets off many students who only did UW, just because UW won't ask/teach you that. You have to know 1st most common and often 2nd most common bug/drug etc. A lot more neuro, ob/gun, micro (with bugs that you won't see in UW or FA) and nitty gritty anatomy heavy msk that UW won't test you on. Comlex neuro is often more convoluted. MSK is often full of specific primary care details and so on. And only then, yes, you have on top of this OMM (which is often very lengthy questions), law stuff that you might get about 10-15 questions on comlex and none on USMLE. Add to that some 10-20 questions that you might encounter asking straight level 2 stuff - like next best step/treatment etc. In short it's a must to do comquest and UW. Doing just UW you are just lowering your comlex score. For some it might not matter if you have good step 1 score, but not everyone has a good step 1 score, so.....

P.S. BTW comquest explanations are on same UW level and even better explaining exactly why one answer is most likely as opposed to another answer. I did half of comquest and it teaches you very well to understand what you are asked. It turns out questions are not vague or poorly written like many on sdn like to repeat old mantra, but in fact they are specifically asking you for a knowledge on top of just knowing what drug can treat this disease, they are asking you to know several drugs and chose the one that is most appropriate in this specific situation. You'll need to know a bit of clinical real life situation and a bit of statistics to chose correct most likely or most correct answer. Doing only UW you will be tripping on questions like this and then come to sdn to bitch about it, when in fact you lacked knowledge or understanding to properly answer the question asked. It's kinda like reading comprehension too lol, it's not only pure 1 straight fact to know like in UW. Nope.

You’re making a lot of claims about UWorld despite not having done any questions.

But even without telling us you haven’t done UW questions yet, I can tell from your misleading compare/contrast list through your explanation & your P.S. The only things I would say are true are “UW doesn’t have OMM” and “the question stems in COMLEX are longer.” Can’t speak as to whether or not the neuro is more convoluted, but the rest of your description is false. I’m only 1/3 through UW and almost everything you said UW doesn’t test you on I have been tested on several times.

I’m glad you’re enjoying comquest or combank or whatever but c’mon. UW is - and always has been - the gold standard for a reason. Even for DO students.