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!

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[MLT2MT2DO]

Wow, I am truly sorry to hear that. I hope you end up getting something higher than that. Your COMSAE's are pretty good. Neuro is such a dense subject and I would anticipated something more reasonable until I saw your post. Was the OMT pretty standard? viscero and chapman stuff? Honestly, everyone at my school has been saying that the COMLEX is going to be more like the USMLE these days, I wish they would make questions that are well worded. Good luck on the USMLE.

OMT was fairly standard there were a couple difficult ones, which surprised me. It felt a little more USMLE like than the COMSAE as there was much more biochemistry than both A and B had together.
Though it was fairly obvious and easy and straight forward biochemistry if you know biochem. This is a weaker subject of mine and these were easy points for me.

Is it graded on how you perform with the people who took the same test as you throughout the country or based on how you actually did without a curve?

Pretty sure it's adjusted with your peers.

How would you suggest preparing for the neuro and obscure micro you saw (I read your post in the other thread)?

I'm getting the impression from you that First Aid is not enough for these topics? I have been using High Yield Neuroanatomy and the Lippincott Micro Cards in addition to first aid.

Honestly, I wish I would have gone through my HY Neuroanat book once through before going in. I used a few websites for brain lesion id and I think out of 35 or so questions one involved the brainstem.

Micro, I don't really know how to prepare for it. I tried looking up one of the questions when I got home and none of the answers correlate to the question so who knows.
Basically at the end of the day, I would have your basic Micro down cold. I missed a staph aureus question because I've never seen the presentation they presented but since I didn't know much about another available answer I chose that instead. The absurd questions most are going to miss, it's the ones that are in FA is where you're going to make up your points.

Lastly if you have some sort of medical law high yield book or class notes available I'd do a quick run through. You're going to have a few questions on this, I have no idea why since this is supposed to be a "basic science" test, but you will.

 

[Ary Lall]

OMT was fairly standard there were a couple difficult ones, which surprised me. It felt a little more USMLE like than the COMSAE as there was much more biochemistry than both A and B had together.
Though it was fairly obvious and easy and straight forward biochemistry if you know biochem. This is a weaker subject of mine and these were easy points for me.



Pretty sure it's adjusted with your peers.



Honestly, I wish I would have gone through my HY Neuroanat book once through before going in. I used a few websites for brain lesion id and I think out of 35 or so questions one involved the brainstem.

Micro, I don't really know how to prepare for it. I tried looking up one of the questions when I got home and none of the answers correlate to the question so who knows.
Basically at the end of the day, I would have your basic Micro down cold. I missed a staph aureus question because I've never seen the presentation they presented but since I didn't know much about another available answer I chose that instead. The absurd questions most are going to miss, it's the ones that are in FA is where you're going to make up your points.

Lastly if you have some sort of medical law high yield book or class notes available I'd do a quick run through. You're going to have a few questions on this, I have no idea why since this is supposed to be a "basic science" test, but you will.

Did you do COMUEST AND COMBANK? If so, how helpful do you think they were?
Would you recommend going through the both of the banks twice if time permits?

 

[josephmedman]

Wow thats pretty crazy since you were on top of your game based on your posts! I know you will do well. What Ive noticed is that a lot of the HIGH scorers tend to come out thinking it was rough for two fold reason:

1. You are able to eliminate distractors that counterparts arent and make educated guesses while others choose the distractor immediately thinking its an easy question, while it makes it difficult for you.

2. You are used to getting most questions correct and not just hitting the average so when experimental or wtf questions get thrown at you, you cant simply accept them, it feels like somethings wrong.

Good luck to you man. Do you think HY Neuroanat. will be helpful? Its always been one of my weak points. I feel strong in Patho./Pharm/Micro/Phys but neuro and gross are some of my deficiencies. Any advice?

Congrats and conquering the beast man..

 

[MLT2MT2DO]

Did you do COMUEST AND COMBANK? If so, how helpful do you think they were?
Would you recommend going through the both of the banks twice if time permits?

I wouldn't see the benefit of going through them twice. At least not Combank, combank is like a giant list of 1 liners. Combank and Comquest were really good for how the questions are and if you do enough questions they help. I had tons of questions I knew the answer without using my brain because I've seen the direct questions before.

Wow thats pretty crazy since you were on top of your game based on your posts! I know you will do well. What Ive noticed is that a lot of the HIGH scorers tend to come out thinking it was rough for two fold reason:

1. You are able to eliminate distractors that counterparts arent and make educated guesses while others choose the distractor immediately thinking its an easy question, while it makes it difficult for you.

2. You are used to getting most questions correct and not just hitting the average so when experimental or wtf questions get thrown at you, you cant simply accept them, it feels like somethings wrong.

Good luck to you man. Do you think HY Neuroanat. will be helpful? Its always been one of my weak points. I feel strong in Patho./Pharm/Micro/Phys but neuro and gross are some of my deficiencies. Any advice?

Congrats and conquering the beast man..

Thanks man, I hope so, though I'm doing what med students do right now, I'm figuring out ones I've gotten wrong and kicking myself for the couple that I definitely should have got correct but for whatever reason my thinking wasn't clear at the time.

As far as HY neuro, it would be a lifesaver. Realize though, it really would have only been a lifesaver if it was the test I got. Talking to other students from my school, there was one form I think people reported all of 2 neuro questions on the whole test. This is the thing that annoys me, your score is just as much based on your draw of the test as it is your knowledge. Pharm was a strong suite of mine as well, I think I had 2 pharm questions that weren't anitbiotics.

All in all your combank scores are strong, you'll be fine

 

[pucciola]

The HY Neuro you guys are referring to, is it this one? http://www.amazon.com/High-Yield-Neuroanatomy-James-D-Fix/dp/0781779464

I need a supplemental book for Neuro from FA since it's my weakest subject, would you guys recommend that book?

 

[MLT2MT2DO]

The HY Neuro you guys are referring to, is it this one? http://www.amazon.com/High-Yield-Neuroanatomy-James-D-Fix/dp/0781779464

I need a supplemental book for Neuro from FA since it's my weakest subject, would you guys recommend that book?

Yeah that's the one, it's a quick read and covers some of the HY parts where FA doesn't even mention

 

[CHAGEO]

Would you recommend Kaplan neuro review ? Do you think it is good? Neuro is my weakest subject. I think I have to spend more time on it. Thanks

 

[josephmedman]

Thanks for the input man! Ill run through it. Ive been putting it off long enough. I have a little time to work on my deficiencies, I might as well. I havent heard of a neuro heavy exam since 2008 which is why I was quite surprised at the mix you got.

 

[MLT2MT2DO]

Thanks for the input man! Ill run through it. Ive been putting it off long enough. I have a little time to work on my deficiencies, I might as well. I havent heard of a neuro heavy exam since 2008 which is why I was quite surprised at the mix you got.

Well, the group on that took it last Saturday had a Lower limb anatomy heavy block. So I forwent going through HY Neuro to study up on that. I may have had a single question on lower limb anatomy.

It's hard to predict, they really need to balance out the subjects instead of the crap they do. You'll probably put all your energy into Neuro and end up with 50 questions on Immunology...it's how the COMLEX rolls

 

[OneTripAcross]

Well, the group on that took it last Saturday had a Lower limb anatomy heavy block. So I forwent going through HY Neuro to study up on that. I may have had a single question on lower limb anatomy.

It's hard to predict, they really need to balance out the subjects instead of the crap they do. You'll probably put all your energy into Neuro and end up with 50 questions on Immunology...it's how the COMLEX rolls

Was timing an issue at all? Like compared to the COMSAE's?

 

[primadonna22274]

Was timing an issue at all? Like compared to the COMSAE's?

Don't want to freak you out, but I am usually one who uses half of my allotted test time. I used about a minute per question on COMLEX--on every test block of 50. I found that nerve-wracking but many of the questions were so convoluted, required multiple readings, and careful highlighting to figure out WTF they were asking...
If you are concerned about time, I would do a few actual simulations on TIMED mode. Good luck!

 

[MedicineMike]

Just took usmle and taking this exam next week. About to hit OMM hard, but want to know what else I need to focus on to get into the comlex mindset. Should I do all of combank?

 

[DrJonesss]

Just took this beast yesterday. Mine was really heavy on Neuro lesions and innervations of the head and neck that I hadn't seen since, well, head and neck. Needless to say I didn't really know any of the latter. It's an irksome test, it goes back and forth between being insanely easy (like clearly being given a fungus and having E. coli as an answer choice) and total WTF. People have been asking me how to prepare, but besides maybe brushing up on anatomy and innervations, sitting home and jerking off would probably be a better use of your study time than anything you're going to do in the next few days.

I really don't feel that I did well. Oh well, USMLE on Monday, I think I'll be happy to have a test that actually measures my medical knowledge.

 

[MedicineMike]

Just took this beast yesterday. Mine was really heavy on Neuro lesions and innervations of the head and neck that I hadn't seen since, well, head and neck. Needless to say I didn't really know any of the latter. It's an irksome test, it goes back and forth between being insanely easy (like clearly being given a fungus and having E. coli as an answer choice) and total WTF. People have been asking me how to prepare, but besides maybe brushing up on anatomy and innervations, sitting home and jerking off would probably be a better use of your study time than anything you're going to do in the next few days.

I really don't feel that I did well. Oh well, USMLE on Monday, I think I'll be happy to have a test that actually measures my medical knowledge.

haha I like this^

and don't get too excited...the USMLE sure did test a lot of my receptor pathway knowledge and bs cell bio knowledge, with a side of medical knowledge

 

[Tizoc]

Just took usmle and taking this exam next week. About to hit OMM hard, but want to know what else I need to focus on to get into the comlex mindset. Should I do all of combank?

I did COMBANK after I tried doing those practice questions on the NBOME site and struggled to understand them. It helped immensely. I don't know your situation, but doing just some of the COMBANK will help you get used to the format, so I don't necessarily think finishing all of COMBANK is needed.

 

[MLT2MT2DO]

Just took usmle and taking this exam next week. About to hit OMM hard, but want to know what else I need to focus on to get into the comlex mindset. Should I do all of combank?

Yeah combank will take you far. Also don't disregard the "well that's a horribly asked question and they would never ask something that outrageous or convuluted or bassackwards on the actually comlex" questions. Because they'll be 5x more ludicrous on the actual test.

 

[serimeri]

Yeah combank will take you far. Also don't disregard the "well that's a horribly asked question and they would never ask something that outrageous or convuluted or bassackwards on the actually comlex" questions. Because they'll be 5x more ludicrous on the actual test.

Wow thanks for the heads up. Just getting through COMQUEST now and was planning on doing uworld later. But I guess I will have to finish COMBANK before I look at Uworld.

For Neuro, did they throw a lot of spinal cord cross sections and test you on the Brachial plexus specifics? I loved Neuro, but it honestly takes a lot of effort to draw them pathways.

 

[MLT2MT2DO]

Wow thanks for the heads up. Just getting through COMQUEST now and was planning on doing uworld later. But I guess I will have to finish COMBANK before I look at Uworld.

For Neuro, did they throw a lot of spinal cord cross sections and test you on the Brachial plexus specifics? I loved Neuro, but it honestly takes a lot of effort to draw them pathways.

Nope, had two brain cts and one description of a brain ct, only pictures on neuro. Think I had one Brachial plexus question.

 

[Tizoc]

Nope, had two brain cts and one description of a brain ct, only pictures on neuro. Think I had one Brachial plexus question.

That sounds almost the same as the exam I took, except I had 2, not 1, Brachial plexus questions.

 

[person011]

any who has taken the comlex, did you do any of the COMSAEs? Like D or C and if so would you consider the questions in those comparable to what you see on test day?

 

[serimeri]

any who has taken the comlex, did you do any of the COMSAEs? Like D or C and if so would you consider the questions in those comparable to what you see on test day?

I'm curious about this too. I took form C and I honestly felt that the OMM portion was way too simple. Not a single question about techniques. Obviously, I would expect the real one to have a lot of treatment questions.

Is there a set rubric or requirement for the amount of treatment questions? I would love to have close to none as treatment (given my poor knowledge of anatomy) can be quite tricky and in the past that is where I have gotten lower points on exams (in school).

 

[MedicineMike]

I took comsae c about 3 months ago and scored a 500. This was before I started my last term. I thought it was easy as hell. Someone please tell me otherwise so I am forced to study this next week

 

[as90]

based on everything, i have read here, it seems like it is going to be impossible to prepare for this test.

not comsae, not uworld, not combank/comquest. this feels like the mcat verbal

 

[primadonna22274]

I'm curious about this too. I took form C and I honestly felt that the OMM portion was way too simple. Not a single question about techniques. Obviously, I would expect the real one to have a lot of treatment questions.

Is there a set rubric or requirement for the amount of treatment questions? I would love to have close to none as treatment (given my poor knowledge of anatomy) can be quite tricky and in the past that is where I have gotten lower points on exams (in school).

Nope. Not a single question about actual techniques on my COMLEX--just diagnosis.

 

[Postal]

based on everything, i have read here, it seems like it is going to be impossible to prepare for this test.

not comsae, not uworld, not combank/comquest. this feels like the mcat verbal

I am having a hard time finding a solid (you'll get 550+ ) plan for the Comlex. Apparently the Comsae's aren't truly diagnostic....I mean, what's a D.O. student supposed to do?

Nope. Not a single question about actual techniques on my COMLEX--just diagnosis.

I have always heard from my school that COMLEX focuses on diagnosis and not techniques.

 

[MLT2MT2DO]

Nope. Not a single question about actual techniques on my COMLEX--just diagnosis.

Same...outside of "Here is a diagnosis how do you treat with direct/indirect" I didn't have any treatments either.

 

[primadonna22274]

Oh I did have one question on finger placement for cranial (vault hold)...the things they think are important.....

 

[OneTripAcross]

I took COMSAE B today and did well. What has been everyone's thoughts on that particular version?

 

[serimeri]

Oh I did have one question on finger placement for cranial (vault hold)...the things they think are important.....

lol, at least its one question, I remember having something about the venous sinus drainage and about one of the posterior counterstrains.

Ugh, back to studying.

 

[pucciola]

Anyone have any suggestions for studying lower limb? Need to brush up on that if questions shows up on my test. Thanks.

 

[hopeinternist]

Anyone have any tips/resources on how to review for the ob./gyn part of it. I ve done searches on SDN but cant seem to find any concise resources for Comlex prep. thanks

 

[MedicineMike]

I took COMSAE B today and did well. What has been everyone's thoughts on that particular version?

took it today and got a 574...Royally pissed. I took C about 5 months ago and scored just under 500. I studied for 5 months and just took usmle and now can't even break 600??? No clue wtf is going on

 

[OneTripAcross]

took it today and got a 574...Royally pissed. I took C about 5 months ago and scored just under 500. I studied for 5 months and just took usmle and now can't even break 600??? No clue wtf is going on

A few of the questions I wasn't sure about I tried to look up and couldn't find a definite right answer. Chalk it up to COMLEX style questions I guess.

Nevertheless, I'm taking the real deal on Friday and hope its similar to COMSAE B.

 

[MLT2MT2DO]

took it today and got a 574...Royally pissed. I took C about 5 months ago and scored just under 500. I studied for 5 months and just took usmle and now can't even break 600??? No clue wtf is going on

FWIW, I got a 634 on Comsae B and found the real thing WAY more convoluted and ******ed.

 

[traitorman]

are the comlex lower limb/upper limb/etc anatomy questions that everyone talks about more clinical or more "what's the origin/insertion/innervation?"

not sure if I should go through USMLE roadmap or try and learn the origins/insertions/innervation

 

[Ary Lall]

are the comlex lower limb/upper limb/etc anatomy questions that everyone talks about more clinical or more "what's the origin/insertion/innervation?"

not sure if I should go through USMLE roadmap or try and learn the origins/insertions/innervation

I would say atleast know the innvervation and maybe function for the major muscles.

 

[as90]

Yikes! How many questions can we expect on that kind of anatomy? Of course I will review it, but in true honesty, I did a lot better 2nd year due to the lack of Anatomy. It was such a pain to go through netter.

Is USMLE road map for anatomy a must? I honestly didn't even remember the origin and insertion for anatomy when I took it in school and did fine. I just memorized actions. In our OMM class, it was tested maybe 2 or 3 times the whole 2 years.

 

[josephmedman]

Apparantly there is one form out there that has about 35 lower limb questions very specific..Others dont have a single question on lower limb..it REALLY is luck of the draw thats why you need to be pretty strong in everything to guarantee success..I have a friend that had over 15 biochem questions recently even!! The people who say just wing biochem are obviousely not aiming top 10 percent..just my two cents on this nonsense

 

[MLT2MT2DO]

Apparantly there is one form out there that has about 35 lower limb questions very specific..Others dont have a single question on lower limb..it REALLY is luck of the draw thats why you need to be pretty strong in everything to guarantee success..I have a friend that had over 15 biochem questions recently even!! The people who say just wing biochem are obviousely not aiming top 10 percent..just my two cents on this nonsense

I had at least 15 biochem questions on my form. I found all the biochem to be extremely straightforward (outside of some of the OMM the most straightforward part of my test) and mostly you just had to know your enzymes/deficiencies of.

As I said, I felt all these were very straightforward (nothing like UW biochem) but I'm also studying for the USMLE. So straightforward may be a relative term.

 

[SLC]

I had at least 15 biochem questions on my form. I found all the biochem to be extremely straightforward (outside of some of the OMM the most straightforward part of my test) and mostly you just had to know your enzymes/deficiencies of.

As I said, I felt all these were very straightforward (nothing like UW biochem) but I'm also studying for the USMLE. So straightforward may be a relative term.

I only had a handful of Biochem, and I don't feel like I had too many lower limb anatomy questions either.

But I did have a ton of Pharmacology, and one of the questions I remember dealt with a side effect of a drug that I hadn't ever heard of. I ruled out the other options based on what I thought I knew and decided to go with the unknown drug, luckily when I looked it up later it seems as though that was the correct answer. The drug was not listed in FA at all, and when I checked my lecture notes it was mentioned off hand on one slide, and it was also mentioned that it's not commonly used anymore.

The Microbiology was tough though, I felt like they intentionally used vague buzz-word like terms designed to make you think one thing, even though the rest of the stem absolutely did not fit with that one thing that instantly jumped to mind.

 

[hopeinternist]

I have about 15 days left before my exam and i have about 1500 qs left in comquest. is it worth buying combank? or doing comquest twice is a better use of my time? also what websites would you recommend for going over brain lesions. And as for HY neuroanatomy, is there a specific section you were referring to ex. the slices or just the whole thing in general. Also for micro i ve heard people recommending CMMS, anyone have any experience with how HY that is? Thanks

I wouldn't see the benefit of going through them twice. At least not Combank, combank is like a giant list of 1 liners. Combank and Comquest were really good for how the questions are and if you do enough questions they help. I had tons of questions I knew the answer without using my brain because I've seen the direct questions before.



Thanks man, I hope so, though I'm doing what med students do right now, I'm figuring out ones I've gotten wrong and kicking myself for the couple that I definitely should have got correct but for whatever reason my thinking wasn't clear at the time.

As far as HY neuro, it would be a lifesaver. Realize though, it really would have only been a lifesaver if it was the test I got. Talking to other students from my school, there was one form I think people reported all of 2 neuro questions on the whole test. This is the thing that annoys me, your score is just as much based on your draw of the test as it is your knowledge. Pharm was a strong suite of mine as well, I think I had 2 pharm questions that weren't anitbiotics.

All in all your combank scores are strong, you'll be fine

 

[MedicineMike]

Took it today and the test was an absolute joke. I agree with one of the previous posts-- might as well jerk off to prepare bc you literally can't prepare for some of the dogsh** they ask.

I thought it was easily twice as hard as usmle...not bc it is more difficult content, just that it is so vague/ambiguous that you just stare at some of the questions and just say 'wtf?.' They even manage to make simple questions convoluted. So mad

 

[Workingonit]

oh great. every time I check this thread I become more nervous for this stupid exam. Is this test even passable. The way everyone makes it sounds tells me otherwise?

 

[OneTripAcross]

Took it today and the test was an absolute joke. I agree with one of the previous posts-- might as well jerk off to prepare bc you literally can't prepare for some of the dogsh** they ask.

I thought it was easily twice as hard as usmle...not bc it is more difficult content, just that it is so vague/ambiguous that you just stare at some of the questions and just say 'wtf?.' They even manage to make simple questions convoluted. So mad

Not counting the stuff you can't prepare for, was it even close to ComQuest or Comsae?

 

[Postal]

oh great. every time I check this thread I become more nervous for this stupid exam. Is this test even passable. The way everyone makes it sounds tells me otherwise?

You know everytime someone comes in here stomping mad after an exam they end up getting 600+. I'd be worried if someone said it was easy and completely doable

 

[MedicineMike]

Not counting the stuff you can't prepare for, was it even close to ComQuest or Comsae?

Umm not really?? It's just very unpredictable and you can't prepare for it. I tried to prepare for the omm and ethics best I could but they were just so freakin random. You can't prepare for some of the scenarios they ask you...it's just not possible. It also depends on your exam. Some people get joke exams and some get ridiculously hard ones (myself and those who took it with me today).

This is my advice:
-know sympathetic viscerosomatics. This will get you 50% of omm questions right. Seriously
-know sacral everything. This will get you another 10-20% of omm
-know cranial. This will get you an extra 5%
-the rest of the omm is up in the air
-know micro and know it well. They like to ask suuuuuper vague questions like "give a huuuuge hx an d say it is a gram negative anaerobe". Then they will list 5 gram negs. I know micro well and always had it down to 2 answers and honestly couldn't for the life of me know why I should pick one over the other. This happened on numerous occasions. They also test on stupid bugs--eg bartonella and francisella etc

Hope this helps...

 

[primadonna22274]

^^everything MedicineMike says is true....

 

[SLC]

You know everytime someone comes in here stomping mad after an exam they end up getting 600+. I'd be worried if someone said it was easy and completely doable

I took it yesterday and it didn't seem too terrible to me. 💀

Random? absolutely! Terrible? I didn't think so.

 

[MedicineMike]

I took it yesterday and it didn't seem too terrible to me.

Random? absolutely! Terrible? I didn't think so.

My friend took it yesterday and said the same thing. The one today was the exact opposite

 

[Ary Lall]

Took it today and the test was an absolute joke. I agree with one of the previous posts-- might as well jerk off to prepare bc you literally can't prepare for some of the dogsh** they ask.

I thought it was easily twice as hard as usmle...not bc it is more difficult content, just that it is so vague/ambiguous that you just stare at some of the questions and just say 'wtf?.' They even manage to make simple questions convoluted. So mad

Do they only have a few forms and just repeat them?

I was under the impression that they have over 100 different exams and everyone gets one on random. 2 people from the same exam center will have different exams is what I heard.