Official 2013 COMLEX 1

[Workingonit]

I guess it's never too early to start this thread. Anyone who took it feel free to share your experience!

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[Student DO c]

...

 

[BinderClip]

How does a 475 affect my chances at ER? ARe my chances gone?

If your heart is set on EM, then you will be able to find a spot. Step scores are important, but your 3rd year Clerkship grades matter just as much, if not more. DO residencies tend to have a bigger emphasis on audition rotations as well. What matters to many DO residencies is whether or not you are someone who would be a good fit with the rest of their program.

 

[jesscsanchez]

anyone know when july 8th scores will be up?I think they went up to the 1st today

I took it the same day as you. I just called and they told me scores will be released August 12th. Hopefully they come sooner!

 

[Urza]

Long time lurker, new member. Another stoked AZCOM member here. I got back my COMLEX score today and it was 746.

My plan:
1.) Learned as much as possible in the first 2 years
2.) Used FA as an adjunct to my studies in second year (also helped familiarize myself with the text, this was about 3 months or so)
3.) Used UWorld starting in January. I did around 1500qs before classes let out.
4.) I had about 4 weeks of dedicated study time before the USMLE which I used to sharpen up on the small details in FA and UWorld. Meaning I read FA 4 times and did UWorld 2 times through. I found UWorld to be particularly helpful, but I learn best from a Q and A format.
5.) After the USMLE I had 3 days before COMLEX, which I read Savarese. For my particular test I didn't find Savarese helpful because all but a couple of my OMM questions were VS.
6.) ???
7.) Profit

Congrats to my AZCOM colleague and good luck to everyone else awaiting to take the COMLEX or USMLE.

 

[eimaise]

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.

Doesn't read First Aid till 1 week prior. Scores 100% on COMLEX. Not sure what to say. Well done! I am very impressed.

 

[seiferx98]

did almost the exact same plan and scored almost exactly the same, good choices my man, Gunnertraining was the best decision i ever made

 

[KoopaTroopa25]

Doesn't read First Aid till 1 week prior. Scores 100% on COMLEX. Not sure what to say. Well done! I am very impressed.

I think First Aid is overrated. Some people talk it up like it is the bible of board studying. However, I think Gunner Training is a superior alternative for people like me that have a short attention span and learn better by doing questions.

 

[Atom bum]

800 on comlex. Thinks fa is overrated..


Lol

 

[DrLisa0824]

Still waiting on my score. Has anyone heard when the next round will be released? I think I saw Aug 12 some where but not sure... The suspense is killing me!

 

[DrLisa0824]

I am also curious as to how the avg students did, and their experiences with COMSAE.

I'm happy for all the smarty-pants out there with 600+, but how about those of us within 1SD of the mean (~420 - 580ish)?

I scored ~580 on COMSAE C 1 month out, then dropped to 527 on another COMSAE 1 week out... Just hope that I didn't drop even more points on the real thing!

 

[kedrin]

I am also curious as to how the avg students did, and their experiences with COMSAE.

I'm happy for all the smarty-pants out there with 600+, but how about those of us within 1SD of the mean (~420 - 580ish)?

I scored ~580 on COMSAE C 1 month out, then dropped to 527 on another COMSAE 1 week out... Just hope that I didn't drop even more points on the real thing!

My understanding is that the COMSAE exams are terrible estimators of score and your score could be as far off as 80+ pts + or -.

 

[doctorpurple]

the suspense is killing me. I took the test on july 8th and still haven't gotten my score. I'm guessing it will be released tomorrow. I'm so nervous

 

[gasdocDO]

Any idea what time of the day that they generally release the scores?

 

[gasman654]

looks like maybe wednesday

 

[seap3]

looks like maybe wednesday

Where did you hear that? I really hope they release scores soon. I'm getting nervous.

 

[Charlie Hustle]

So do we get an email from NBOME when our scores are available like we do for the USMLE?

 

[kedrin]

So do we get an email from NBOME when our scores are available like we do for the USMLE?

yes

 

[thegame11]

So do we get an email from NBOME when our scores are available like we do for the USMLE?

My score is posted. I took it on July 17th. I didn't receive any email.

 

[doctorpurple]

yay!!! the scores are up until july 22nd!

 

[seap3]

Just got my score too. No email. If it wasn't for facebook, I wouldn't have even known scores came out today. I was obsessively checking (while on rotation), but gave up by mid afternoon.

Happy with my score.

 

[doctorpurple]

Happy with my score. 1 standard dev. above the mean is good enough for me!! Congrats to everyone! I'm not going to tell everyone how I studied because
1. Almost everyone has already taken their comlex
2. I didn't score like super crazy high.

Anyway, to those who are curious. Comsae did not predict my score. Not even close. Scored way higher on the comlex

 

[Melkor]

As most of us have already taken the comlex this year, this is post is for those newly minted 2nd years who are starting to look for advice on the comlex/usmle. I just got my comlex score back a few days ago but got my usmle score back a few weeks ago so I’m going to repost what I had to say about that and then will add a little extra at the end for the comlex. I ended up with a 700 exactly on my comlex which I am happy with but I think I could have scored a little higher if I would have spent another day or so going over purely omm.

SDN has been invaluable to me for the past few years so I felt I should try to give back a little with my experience of step 1. I took it on July 3rd and got my results back today. First just want to say, like most of you I felt absolutely awful after walking out of it. I was marking on average 20-25 questions per block which was a few more than I was marking on uworld sets.

Timing overall was a huge factor for me. I thought the vignettes were on average longer than Uworlds and can only recall a handful that were less than 4 sentences. I normally finished Uworld with around 15-20 minutes but most of the blocks on step 1, I only had 10 minutes to go through my marked questions so I usually could only go over half of my marked questions. The only advice I can give for timing is to just do more and more questions. Recognizing question patterns is huge to let you quickly answer the easy questions so you can have more time for the harder ones.
As for the questions I had on my exam, look back at a post by the user George (I think its around page 65-75). I’m pretty sure I had a very similar test to him and he actually covered a lot of the same questions I had. I think I even got one right because of him so if he does ever read this, just want to say thanks!

Biggest piece of advice I can give to any 1st years is to just do well your first 2 years. There were a lot of questions I had that I never seen in any review book or even qbank. I felt like I had to go with my gut on at least 30-35% of the questions so nothing really beats working hard the 1st 2 years.

My study plan consisted of working hard in years 1 and 2. I started gunner training 1st year in December and continued with it until June banking questions in everything we did during class. During summer though I fell behind and reset the account and started fresh at the beginning of 2nd year. I just banked all the systems as we went through them and tried to randomly bank other categories when I had extra time. By mid April I had 80% banked and 60% mastery but decided to stop using GT at that point and start to focus more on FA and qbanks. From May until July I basically only used FA and Uworld and pathoma, but if I had a question on something I felt weak on I would look at it in GT and on wiki. Uworld sets typically took me around 5-6 hours per set even up until the end but I annotated a lot of what was in the explanations into first aid. I was only able to do 75% of uworld and if I could do it all over again I would try very hard to get through all of it at least once. I wasn’t ever a huge fan of Uworld (I just don’t like doing questions much I guess) but it is very important to build your understanding. I ended up going through all of first aid twice-Once in early May and once the week before my test. In between those times I just did Uworld and annotated it into FA so that probably would count as a 3rd pass. I had gone through almost all of Pathoma during 2nd year and during my dedicated study time I went through it all again. For anyone on the fence about pathoma ;get it, period. 100% worth it. The day before my test I watched the 1st 3 chapters and I know I got at least 2-3 questions right because of that.

I had 2 full months to study for step 1. I took a week and a half break in early June to go to a wedding and some graduations but other than that I tried to put in 9-12 hours per day every day. Every 6th or 7th day though I would be burned out so I usually stopped earlier in the day and just relaxed/watched tv for the rest of the day. I had a program on my computer that tracked my time with various activities and gave me summaries for each day/week/month-On average it showed me as having around 85-90 hours of step 1 related activities per week during my dedicated study time except for that week I took off.

Heres a list of my nbme progression and uworld stats

nbme 6 186- january
nbme 7 219- april
nbme 11 238- may 16th
nbme 12 235- june 2nd
UWSA-1 250 june 8th
nbme 13 252- june 15th
nbme 15 252- june 22nd
uworld-76% avg with last 10 or so blocks in the lower 80s- 70% complete

Step 1 257- July 3rd


Obviously I’m very happy with my score; As you can see I started off with very low scores, so don't be disappointed if your 1st nbme is super low. I was scared I peaked too early because 13 and 15 were the same score and felt like that last week of studying I was forgetting a lot of easy details. The day before my test I studied like usual trying to hit all of biochem/micro/pharm by noon and then I went on a 10 mile run while watching pathoma videos. I think that really helped me get a good night’s sleep which was super important for me. I'm not one to do nothing the day before tests because that just makes me more nervous but I did stop all studying by 6 pm that night. Like I said before, walking out of the exam I expected my score to be around 230 but I just kept telling myself to trust in my nbme scores .

If anyone has any questions about my specific exam or anything, please feel free to message me. Again, SDN has been such a great resource for me I just wanted to say thank you all so much for creating a wonderful forum that mixes competitiveness and comradery together in a perfect balance.

I took the usmle on July 3rd and the comlex on july 8th. The only thing I did after taking the usmle was to go over a little of savarese (about half a days worth of good studying) and and I also did around 20 omm questions from Kaplan. I didn’t ever buy comsae’s, or any omm qbanks and just mainly used uworld to prep for both. I know when I was studying I wondered how much time I should spend on omm specific questions and couldn’t really find many people on sdn giving their experiences of only using uworld as their qbank so I hope this can give future students a better idea of how much time they should spend on it. Like I said earlier, I think I would have been able to score higher if I had spent more time going over more of savarese and maybe even an omm qbank to get a better feel for the omm questions (omm was my lowest section on the feedback form) and since it was a good chunk of questions on my test I think that would have been the highest yield way to up my score.

Anyways, the most important thing I learned is that to get a good score you don’t need to spend much time on omm if your solid on everything else but if you really want a great score you probably should spend at least a few full days going over only omm questions. Hope it helps someone next year.