Official 2013 COMLEX 1

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I guess it's never too early to start this thread. Anyone who took it feel free to share your experience!
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OneTripAcross said:
Got my score back. Took it 6/7 and got a 694. Super happy about this. Thought it was a fair test and scored 30+ points higher than my COMSAE a week before my test. My score report says I smoked Micro, Anatomy, and Pharmacology. Behavioral, Path and OMM were my lowest.

I liked to look at peoples stats before the test and how it turned out from last year or a few years ago to help me see were I stood and felt I would be OK from my previous searches. Don't get insane with the people on these boards. There is great info and experiences on here but don't let a few outliers freak you out.

Now the wait for my USMLE score. Best of luck to all of you.
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Thought Id put my USMLE results for the future DO's who take it along with COMLEX to compare with all my prep/stats like I liked to do.

UWorld Practice Test 1- 224 (took at begining of 25 days dedicated time, and this is the only practice test I took)

Real Deal -249, Behavioral was my weakest by far, but VERY happy with this score. And VERY happy to be done with Step 1's in general. Best of luck to all the future Step 1 takers!
 
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MLT2MT2DO said:
Ended up with a 617...really felt at the height of my studies when it was test time and thought I'd be pushing for a mid 600s but after the most vague test I've ever seen in my life, with some of the most wicked neuro questions I'd ever seen, I had decided I would be happy with >500.

As long as I end up in the 230s in the USMLE I'll consider Step 1 a win.

Congrats on everyone else who was pretty sure they were borderline passed and ended in the >600 range as well.
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As with the other guy I figured I'd throw my USMLE score for those interested as well.

I ended up with a 253 on my USMLE.

I think I'm a perfect example of how if you get a COMLEX exam that is the one system you're weak on (neuro in my case) that it can drag down your score. If my system would have been repro/endocrine/hemo I probably would have been playing with a 700.

The USMLE is a much better written exam and covers a much larger breadth of your medical school education, as opposed to half of your test being Micro/OMM/insert random organ system here.

If you're a strong student overall it makes no sense not to take the USMLE as I feel like you're rolling the dice with the COMLEX.
 
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Much lower than the two posters above LOL but still comfortably passing and I'm grateful to be done and never have to take that exam again!!
 
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A few questions:

1) I am trying to decide between getting COMQuest or COMBANK for my last two weeks of studying in order to get more familiar with how COMLEX tests (doing UWorld now), but keep seeing conflicting reports on which to get. So, what's the consensus?

2) Is there any particular aspect of Biochemistry to focus on for COMLEX?

3) What are the relative high-yield areas to focus on a few weeks before the exam besides Micro/Repro/Neuro/OPP?
 
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MLT2MT2DO said:
As with the other guy I figured I'd throw my USMLE score for those interested as well.

I ended up with a 253 on my USMLE.

I think I'm a perfect example of how if you get a COMLEX exam that is the one system you're weak on (neuro in my case) that it can drag down your score. If my system would have been repro/endocrine/hemo I probably would have been playing with a 700.

The USMLE is a much better written exam and covers a much larger breadth of your medical school education, as opposed to half of your test being Micro/OMM/insert random organ system here.

If you're a strong student overall it makes no sense not to take the USMLE as I feel like you're rolling the dice with the COMLEX.
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Awesome job man!
 
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I'll follow suit since I got my USMLE score back today

COMLEX: 640
USMLE: 240

I am more than happy and relieved it's all over. My advice is study for the USMLE and you will do fine on both. I'll do a write up if anyone cares to know.
 
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I just wanted to comment on OMM specific studying for the COMLEX. I wanted to spend as little time on the topic as possible and I was quite happy with my results. I used Comquest and did all of the OMM Q's (as well as ~80% of the rest of the bank) then memorized a Chapman point and VS sheet. I didn't touch Savarese or use anything else for OMM and looking back I wouldn't have spent an extra second on the subject. Use your time to do uworld and read FA!
 
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MRSAful Fate said:
I just wanted to comment on OMM specific studying for the COMLEX. I wanted to spend as little time on the topic as possible and I was quite happy with my results. I used Comquest and did all of the OMM Q's (as well as ~80% of the rest of the bank) then memorized a Chapman point and VS sheet. I didn't touch Savarese or use anything else for OMM and looking back I wouldn't have spent an extra second on the subject. Use your time to do uworld and read FA!
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Agree 110%

Unless you struggled in OMM somehow, this is the best strategy.
 
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For anyone else who wants a comparison for USMLE and COMLEX scores and how a certain test form can play to your strengths...

USMLE: 246
COMLEX: 740

Certainly happy with both of my scores, but also feeling extremely lucky with regards to my COMLEX and getting a test that seemed heavy on microbiology, which is think is both a personal strength and a strong point in our school's curriculum.
 
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judasreznor said:
A few questions:

1) I am trying to decide between getting COMQuest or COMBANK for my last two weeks of studying in order to get more familiar with how COMLEX tests (doing UWorld now), but keep seeing conflicting reports on which to get. So, what's the consensus?

2) Is there any particular aspect of Biochemistry to focus on for COMLEX?

3) What are the relative high-yield areas to focus on a few weeks before the exam besides Micro/Repro/Neuro/OPP?
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Don't have my scores back, but I have taken a COMSAE and COMLEX on June 27. My personal opinions on the matter...

1) Do not waste your money on either! OMM on COMLEX was viscerosomatics (if you don't memorize these, you're a fool haha), sacrum, ribs, a couple cranial, a couple techniques and a couple Chapman's points. Cranial and the technique questions were the most difficult although they weren't that hard, but savarese covered all of it. Just read the first 110 pages of Savarese, VS and Chapman's the day before the test and you're covered.

If you want to get use to the OMM questions, just take a COMSAE, but I wouldn't even worry about it.

2) The few biochem questions I had were pretty straight forward. For example (NOT actually on my test), "A man with chronic irritation of his skin when exposed to sunlight is discovered to have an error in heme synthesis. What enzyme is most likely deficient?" Nothing too crazy, but just my experience.

3) You've pretty much got it covered. Micro is big, but UWorld micro questions are way harder than COMLEX micro I believe.
 
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As a counter point.... My exam had a ton of opp including techniques not in savarese and not covered during my med school curriculum. Stuff i had never even heard of.
 
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Atom bum said:
As a counter point.... My exam had a ton of opp including techniques not in savarese and not covered during my med school curriculum. Stuff i had never even heard of.
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Interesting. I had a lot of osteopathic stuff, probably 70 questions or so, but only a couple about specific techniques. The other technique stuff was "your patient is side bent right rotated right and you want to use a direct technique. What position would you put them in," type junk. I did have one technique that I had never heard of though, but I can't even think of what it was called.

What I was trying to get at is that if you just know that stuff I mentioned, you'll be fine. They will always find a way to sneak a few questions in that are just ridiculous about stuff you have never seen or heard about, but only a few.
 
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Congrats to the June folk who have received their scores! BUT... Has anyone on here taken COMLEX in July...and what did you see? Thoughts?
 
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Just took it today, and I didn't think it was too bad. I luckily got the form heavy on micro, OMM, & neuro. There wasn't a lot of pharm, biochem, or anatomy.

A lot of the questions were really easy 1st or 2nd order. I guess I don't even remember any 3rd order questions. The majority of q's were straightforward ones that I knew (or should have). There were some that were just vague enough to narrow down to 2 choices, and a few that I had no idea what they were even talking about. I did get the stem with no question though. And like the pp said, it was too bad, because if I had known the question I probably would have gotten it right.

I thought the real COMLEX was easier than Uworld (of course!), and even easier than the Kaplan comlex qbank. I also took the Kaplan full length simulated comlex, and I thought the real comlex was easier as well.

Timing was no problem. I had lots of spare time. I went over the 1st few blocks a 2nd time, but then I started getting tired and quit doing that for the last ones.

To the pp - the neuro I had today could mostly be answered from FA. But it sounds like some people have gotten tougher questions on other forms.

Now the waiting begins...
 
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seap3 said:
Just took it today, and I didn't think it was too bad. I luckily got the form heavy on micro, OMM, & neuro. There wasn't a lot of pharm, biochem, or anatomy.

A lot of the questions were really easy 1st or 2nd order. I guess I don't even remember any 3rd order questions. The majority of q's were straightforward ones that I knew (or should have). There were some that were just vague enough to narrow down to 2 choices, and a few that I had no idea what they were even talking about. I did get the stem with no question though. And like the pp said, it was too bad, because if I had known the question I probably would have gotten it right.

I thought the real COMLEX was easier than Uworld (of course!), and even easier than the Kaplan comlex qbank. I also took the Kaplan full length simulated comlex, and I thought the real comlex was easier as well.

Timing was no problem. I had lots of spare time. I went over the 1st few blocks a 2nd time, but then I started getting tired and quit doing that for the last ones.

To the pp - the neuro I had today could mostly be answered from FA. But it sounds like some people have gotten tougher questions on other forms.

Now the waiting begins...
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tom10 said:
FA was sufficient. Lots of hematoma and brainstem lesions/circle of willis stuff on mine.
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Would HY Neuroscience cover it if I were go to another source?
 
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judasreznor said:
Would HY Neuroscience cover it if I were go to another source?
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Sorry, I don't know since I've never read HY Neuroscience. I think if you knew FA neuro cold and really understood it, you could probably figure out all the neuro on my form today. A lot of the lesions did take some reasoning. But if you understood the basics you could figure them out. I studied FA neuro pretty well, but didn't have it 100% down due to running out of time. I think I would just focus on the high yield material and know it really well.
 
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They said scores will be released 22-24 timeline... Anyone from past experience can tell what day of the week are they usually out by
 
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hypnosis3000 said:
Are the comquest/combank questions adequate for neuro preparation?

How was the GI on the exam? I have a few days left and I haven't spent too much time on GI.
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I did not do combank or comquest. I think if you know FA neuro well you will be good. GI was very minimal. micro micro micro lol

I've heard comquest/combank q's are too easy compared to the real comlex, but I don't know. The only qbanks I did were uworld and the kaplan banks (both comlex and usmle). I thought they were all harder than the real comlex.
 
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To the high scorers:

Would you guys mind writing up your strategy for people who are going to sit for the exam next year? Most schools begin in a few weeks and it would be really helpful for those of us waiting to purchase qbanks and other materials.
 
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^^Can't answer your question, but that reminded me...

Just wanted to put this out there for any test takers next year that are like me (i.e. lazy and just wanted to get through med school), consider DIT. FA was too simplified for me at first and I got bogged down by the copious amount of information on uworld and didn't improve at all through the first 1k questions. Uworld scores jumped up to around 60% immediately after finishing DIT which isn't amazing, but it is quite a step up from hopeless.

Seems like a lot of my peers who were in the upper half of the class thought DIT was either "pretty good" or a waste of money. However, for those of us that are nowhere near the top, DIT has been a life saver haha. Just my experience and opinions of friends at school.

/DITloving
 
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Just got my score back and after feeling like I failed walking out of there I am very happy to have passed. I feel very ignorant to what my actual score means though and hope someone can enlighten me. Is the average still a 515? What score range do you generally need to be in to be competitive for the really hard to get into residencies like ortho and derm? Don't want to give away exact score but I am in the mid to lower 600's. Congrats to everyone for being done with this part of our education
 
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Medtraveller43 said:
Just got my score back and after feeling like I failed walking out of there I am very happy to have passed. I feel very ignorant to what my actual score means though and hope someone can enlighten me. Is the average still a 515? What score range do you generally need to be in to be competitive for the really hard to get into residencies like ortho and derm? Don't want to give away exact score but I am in the mid to lower 600's. Congrats to everyone for being done with this part of our education
Click to expand...

Off the top of my head, osteopathic orthopedic surgery is around 580 and neurosurgery is around 600 average.
 
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Medtraveller43 said:
Just got my score back and after feeling like I failed walking out of there I am very happy to have passed. I feel very ignorant to what my actual score means though and hope someone can enlighten me. Is the average still a 515? What score range do you generally need to be in to be competitive for the really hard to get into residencies like ortho and derm? Don't want to give away exact score but I am in the mid to lower 600's. Congrats to everyone for being done with this part of our education
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When did u take the exam and when did u get your score back? Still waiting on my score. Took it 3rd week of june.
 
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Medtraveller43 said:
Just got my score back and after feeling like I failed walking out of there I am very happy to have passed. I feel very ignorant to what my actual score means though and hope someone can enlighten me. Is the average still a 515? What score range do you generally need to be in to be competitive for the really hard to get into residencies like ortho and derm? Don't want to give away exact score but I am in the mid to lower 600's. Congrats to everyone for being done with this part of our education
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When did you take your test? I thought the next release was around the 24th..


To help your actual question, a mid 600s should put you above the average for those (maybe not Derm) BUT Derm is weird in DO land---a lot of the spots are matched after a FM/IM residency and or a transitional year, I am sure there are many more people more knowledgable about that process then me.
 
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Medtraveller43 said:
Just got my score back and after feeling like I failed walking out of there I am very happy to have passed. I feel very ignorant to what my actual score means though and hope someone can enlighten me. Is the average still a 515? What score range do you generally need to be in to be competitive for the really hard to get into residencies like ortho and derm? Don't want to give away exact score but I am in the mid to lower 600's. Congrats to everyone for being done with this part of our education
Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure the mean is always adjusted to 500.
 
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001100010010011 said:
To the high scorers: Would you guys mind writing up your strategy for people who are going to sit for the exam next year? Most schools begin in a few weeks and it would be really helpful for those of us waiting to purchase qbanks and other materials.
Click to expand...

Hopefully this will help someone out there.

Prep Material:
USMLE First Aid 2012 - read it 4x
Pathoma - watched all videos 1x, read the book (with my annotations) 3x
UWorld Qbank - went through all questions 1x, started in late February
Savarese OTM review - Read it between taking USMLE and COMLEX for 3 days

Practice Tests:
COMSAE 1 (3 months before exam) = 453
(I didn't take COMSAE 2)
COMSAE 3 (3 days before COMLEX) = 600
UWorld Qbank Average = 64%

Actual COMLEX = 610+ (don't want to give my exact score away)

Here's some pointers:
*Keep studying as simple as possible: minimize the amount of study resources and focus on one Q bank.
*If you're planning to take the USMLE, studying for the USMLE will prepare you well for the COMLEX. All you need to do is add Savarese OTM review and you're good.
*Start early. I started studying (part-time) in late January, and I found that studying for boards along side classes actually helped my class grades go up. It's like killing two birds with one stone.
*First Aid is golden. I think annotating first aid alongside school as early as possible - even starting 1st year - would have helped a lot. I didn't start doing that until late January. Start reading First Aid early. You won't pick up much on your first run-through, but that's ok. As long as you familiarize yourself with the book, then it's ok. Then read it over again, and again, and again.
*Pathoma was pretty solid. If you don't have it, get it! I heard that Goljian is good too, but I can't comment on it since I didn't use it.
*Do a lot of practice questions! I used USMLE World (since I took the USMLE too), and I felt like that was a very good Q bank. For the first 1000 question, I only took practices block for the subject I was studying in First Aid. For the last 1000Qs, all practice questions were random. I wish I had a chance to go through UWorld one more time. Start this early too.
*Take practice exams. The COMSAEs were pretty helpful for testing my exam endurance.
*Savarese is key for OTM. It's a pretty short read. OTM was pretty strong at my school, so I felt like I didn't need a practice Q bank for OTM questions.

I also feel like DIT or some other expensive program won't be beneficial. Personally, I prefer to be proactive in my studying rather than have someone lecture me about the material.

I hope this helps.
 
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judasreznor said:
What are the most high-yield things to hit in Biochemistry for COMLEX?
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I wouldn't waste much time on it. I didn't even look at biochem when I crammed starting a week out from the test and I was fine. I probably had less than 5 biochem questions and they were more straight forward than uworld. Biochem is also one of my weaker subjects on uworld if that means anything.
 
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Just got mine, 590-pretty disappointed with scoring a 249 on usmle I was honestly expecting a higher score. Scored a standard deviation above both comlex and usmle so I won't complain, hope everyone else is getting the scores they wanted and worked hard for.

Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk
 
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Pretty stoked AZCOM student here. Got a 765! My resources were few; UWorld, about half kaplan Qbank, savarese, some but not all of first aid. No combank or comquest. Tried to learn as much as possible the first two years of med school. For what it's worth, my advice is to pick a few resources and be thorough with them. Best of luck to all. It's all about getting the specialty you want so I hope everybody scored high enough to accomplish that!

COMSAE A 3 months out: 600
COMSAE C 1 month out: 715
COMSAE B 1 week out: 751
 
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Got COMLEX 1 score today. Thought I'd share my plan.

Gunner Training (Finished 1.5 months before test): 100% Added
USMLEWORLD 1st Time through Random Q's (Finished 1.5 months before test): 68%
Went through USMLEWORLD a 2nd time as well
COMSAE A (3 months before test): 580 (84th Percentile) - Waste of time IMO
USMLE WORLD SELF ASSESSMENT 1 (1 month before test): 800/265* (Max Score)
USMLE.org Free Test (3-4 weeks before test): 89% Correct
NBME 11 (3-4 weeks before test): 92.5% Correct
NBME 7 Blocks 1-3 (3-weeks before test): 87.3333% Correct (Didn't take Block 4)
USMLE WORLD SELF ASSESSMENT 2 (10 days before test): 800/265* (Max Score)
Week before the USMLE flew through First Aid for first time.
Also used Pathoma, Goljan Audio, and Kaplan Pharm videos w/in 6 weeks of the USMLE.

Actual USMLE Step 1: 262
After USMLE did COMBANK for 10 days=1100 Questions
COMLEX Level 1: 800

Things I would recommend: Gunner Training (now Firecracker), USMLE WORLD, and Pathoma. Gunner Training and USMLE WORLD are the reason I scored as high as I did. I started Gunner Training and used it to go along with my classwork 6 months before boards. I also started USMLE WORLD around the same time and just did a little bit most days.

Things I wouldn't recommend: I would not even bother attempting a COMSAE. I took COMSAE A which was nothing like the real test. Moreover, they don't give you the answers to the COMSAE Q's or even tell you what you got right/wrong. Although Goljan audio wasn't that time consuming on double speed, I really don't think his points were high yield. So if you are short on time I wouldn't recommend listening.
 
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Student DO c said:
How does a 475 affect my chances at ER? ARe my chances gone?
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On paper, it decreases them, not looking at your whole app, but if you set up audition rotations early, work hard, do your reading on common stuff, and you don't have some awful personality/attitude, then you should land a spot with that. Also step 2 is becoming more important for ER, some say. Are you going to get interview invites at Mass General? No, but you're still in the game in the osteopathic world and some MD programs. I know someone who scored about that, failed a step 2 exam and matched ER despite doing like 2 rotations. That person is a very hard worker and doesn't take standardized tests well.

Set up auditions early, do better on step 2(recommended but apparently not mandatory), work hard, get good letters, pass your clerkship. Enjoy yourself-- you passed a complicated and questionably fair exam.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using SDN Mobile
 
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