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]

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

Pretty much this...if you get lucky you take it and it is just a random test that tests a lot of stuff. If you get unlucky you get a test that is a steaming pile of horseshi

 

[MedicineMike]

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.

My close friend and I took in adjacent cubes today and I would say we had 90% of the same questions. There were prob some random tests for the others as well, but maybe we just got super unlucky with ours. I think about the other people who don't do well in school and know that they had to do worse on my exam than I did. This makes me think they may give us a good curve??? Do they even curve like usmle?

 

[Ary Lall]

My close friend and I took in adjacent cubes today and I would say we had 90% of the same questions. There were prob some random tests for the others as well, but maybe we just got super unlucky with ours. I think about the other people who don't do well in school and know that they had to do worse on my exam than I did. This makes me think they may give us a good curve??? Do they even curve like usmle?

No idea if the curve but I am sure you did fine and got above 650+. You may just be exhausted and pissed from yday but I am sure you did fine.

 

[Atom bum]

This thread is a confidence killer... I didn't have much to begin with.

 

[MedicineMike]

This thread is a confidence killer... I didn't have much to begin with.

Don't let it get you down. It's a complete toss up like I said, so just prepare as you normal would and you will be fine. Not everyone will have a test like I did

 

[SLC]

This thread is a confidence killer... I didn't have much to begin with.

You also gotta remember that everyone starts to remember questions that they weren't certain about, and when they look them up and see that they were wrong on some of them they start to feel crappy.

There's probably a lot of venting going on because of that effect right now. I know I've only been able to recall specific questions that I'm fairly certain I missed.

But you can miss 80 questions and still be at 80% on this test. There's a fair bit of room for error IMO.

 

[eimaise]

Anyone know anything about COMSAE D? I just took it today (through my school) and wanted to hear if anyone had any feedback on how predictive the score might be.

I personally thought D was harder than A (haven't taken B or C) but in a different kind of way. The hard stuff on A felt like random anatomy or things you either know or you don't whereas the hard stuff on D felt like more "thinking" questions that tested how carefully you read the questions and how good your knowledge base was regarding a particular topic. It felt fair. But based on what people are saying, it sounds like the real exam is going to more convoluted.

I take COMLEX in 15 days, so we'll see.

 

[OneTripAcross]

You also gotta remember that everyone starts to remember questions that they weren't certain about, and when they look them up and see that they were wrong on some of them they start to feel crappy.

There's probably a lot of venting going on because of that effect right now. I know I've only been able to recall specific questions that I'm fairly certain I missed.

But you can miss 80 questions and still be at 80% on this test. There's a fair bit of room for error IMO.

I agree. Can't wait for this whole process to be over with after tomorrow. Well except for the USMLE on Monday....FML.

 

[Postal]

A friend told me that you get more points for difficult questions on COMLEX . Anyone ever heard this before?

 

[Ary Lall]

A friend told me that you get more points for difficult questions on COMLEX . Anyone ever heard this before?

Im not sure.

 

[SLC]

Im not sure but I also havent heard that if you miss 80 questons, you can still get in the 80 precintile.

I didn't say you'll be in the 80th percentile, I said that if you miss 80 questions you'll still have 80% correct. (80/400 = 0.2)

Your percentile depends 100% on how you do in comparison to those who take the test with you.

I'm just saying that if you're adequately prepared, you shouldn't worry about passing this test. I'm not interested in Surgery, or anything particularly competitive so I didn't feel a lot of pressure for the COMLEX. The USMLE on the other hand, that's big stuff to me.

 

[NeuroLAX]

For those that are studying for or already took the COMLEX Level 1, do you recommend reading anything from the First Aid for COMLEX? I will be using Savarese a lot in the coming months, so I'm curious to know if there is anything useful in FA for COMLEX that isn't already covered in better detail by Savarese? Thanks.

 

[primadonna22274]

I did review First Aid for COMLEX the day before my exam. I think it was helpful for cranial.

 

[SLC]

For those that are studying for or already took the COMLEX Level 1, do you recommend reading anything from the First Aid for COMLEX? I will be using Savarese a lot in the coming months, so I'm curious to know if there is anything useful in FA for COMLEX that isn't already covered in better detail by Savarese? Thanks.

I think this depends 100% on how comfortable you are with OMM. I'm no fan, but I understand it. Plus, our OMM dept. has to be the best at writing vague questions so I'm used to having to really reason my way through things.

As a result, I didn't even study for OMM with the exception of making sure I had my viscerosomatic reflexes and chapman's points memorized. That payed off (except I got zero chapman's questions), and the rest of the OMM was very straightforward.

So if you feel very comfortable answering the questions that come up in your COMLEX question bank, you're probably good to go IMO.

I should qualify that by saying that we weren't taught cranial at my school (outside the vault hold and some CV4/Venous Sinus Drainage) so I didn't know that stuff. But I also didn't get any cranial questions that I hadn't already seen in COMBANK.

 

[NeuroLAX]

I did review First Aid for COMLEX the day before my exam. I think it was helpful for cranial.

I think this depends 100% on how comfortable you are with OMM. I'm no fan, but I understand it. Plus, our OMM dept. has to be the best at writing vague questions so I'm used to having to really reason my way through things.

As a result, I didn't even study for OMM with the exception of making sure I had my viscerosomatic reflexes and chapman's points memorized. That payed off (except I got zero chapman's questions), and the rest of the OMM was very straightforward.

So if you feel very comfortable answering the questions that come up in your COMLEX question bank, you're probably good to go IMO.

I should qualify that by saying that we weren't taught cranial at my school (outside the vault hold and some CV4/Venous Sinus Drainage) so I didn't know that stuff. But I also didn't get any cranial questions that I hadn't already seen in COMBANK.

Sounds good. Thank you for the replies. I guess I'll stick to Savarese and COMBANK. I do well on my OPP exams and love my OPP department. Where I screw up the most is waiting until the night before to review viscerosomatics and chapman's points. Stupid, I know. I'm working on committing them to memory.

Is it true that those two topics always cover a huge chunk of OMM on COMLEX?

 

[SLC]

Is it true that those two topics always cover a huge chunk of OMM on COMLEX?

Yes and no, I've heard of folks that get a lot of Chapman's point questions, and I've heard of people getting a lot of VSR questions. I'm sure there are people that get healthy amounts of both.

I took the test two days ago and I got zero Chapman's point questions (which is a shame because I finally took the time to memorize them a few days before the test and I had those suckers down )

I did get a ton of Viscerosomatic Reflex questions though, but not all of them were OMM questions per-se. I had some organ systems questions that incorporated VSR's into the physical findings, but the question was a basic or clinical science question. I liked those because it helped me know for sure what organ(s) they were talking about, which can sometimes be a problem on the COMLEX.

 

[JSMcTilty]

Sounds good. Thank you for the replies. I guess I'll stick to Savarese and COMBANK. I do well on my OPP exams and love my OPP department. Where I screw up the most is waiting until the night before to review viscerosomatics and chapman's points. Stupid, I know. I'm working on committing them to memory.

Is it true that those two topics always cover a huge chunk of OMM on COMLEX?

I've heard that as well. As annoying as it is, they're free points once you have them memorized, so that's the upside I guess.

 

[MedicineMike]

Yes and no, I've heard of folks that get a lot of Chapman's point questions, and I've heard of people getting a lot of VSR questions. I'm sure there are people that get healthy amounts of both.

I took the test two days ago and I got zero Chapman's point questions (which is a shame because I finally took the time to memorize them a few days before the test and I had those suckers down )

I did get a ton of Viscerosomatic Reflex questions though, but not all of them were OMM questions per-se. I had some organ systems questions that incorporated VSR's into the physical findings, but the question was a basic or clinical science question. I liked those because it helped me know for sure what organ(s) they were talking about, which can sometimes be a problem on the COMLEX.

This is what pissed me off. I don't like when they mix/incorporate omm into real science questions. It completely throws me off. If they think that giving me a clue to the answer by giving 'tissue texture changes' on a certain side helps, then they couldn't be more wrong.

 

[SLC]

This is what pissed me off. I don't like when they mix/incorporate omm into real science questions. It completely throws me off. If they think that giving me a clue to the answer by giving 'tissue texture changes' on a certain side helps, then they couldn't be more wrong.

It is true, and sometimes (at least on COMBANK) they'll even list an OMM diagnosis as a possible answer, when really they just want the disease process that's leading to the VSR. I did think that was sorta shady; at first I was of the impression that if there was an OMM finding in the answer choices, that odds were it was the "correct" answer. That's often not the case.

 

[MedicineMike]

It is true, and sometimes (at least on COMBANK) they'll even list an OMM diagnosis as a possible answer, when really they just want the disease process that's leading to the VSR. I did think that was sorta shady; at first I was of the impression that if there was an OMM finding in the answer choices, that odds were it was the "correct" answer. That's often not the case.

I know man. It really throws me off a lot. Omm and real science questions should be segregated. Period.

 

[as90]

Yikes, hope things turn out better for you guys and you will be pleasantly surprised when you get results. Have mine later this month.

I have yet to do COMSAE form A, can't do D, because that is only for schools. I have already done form B and C, would you guys suggest I go ahead and shell out $50 for it a week before the test, or do you think the question format/ambiguity was totally not on par with the real test?

 

[SLC]

Yikes, hope things turn out better for you guys and you will be pleasantly surprised when you get results. Have mine later this month.

I have yet to do COMSAE form A, can't do D, because that is only for schools. I have already done form B and C, would you guys suggest I go ahead and shell out $50 for it a week before the test, or do you think the question format/ambiguity was totally not on par with the real test?

I think the question style is OK for prepping, but I don't think you can ever expect to have one of the only 3 available COMSAE's give you an accurate representation of what you can expect on test day.

There's too much variability in content for me to recommend the COMSAE for much more than familiarizing oneself with the style of question asked. And honestly, I think COMBANK or COMQUEST is probably sufficient anyway.

 

[Kevin Baker]

Has anyone here done COMBANK and COMQUEST? I've been through COMQUEST and am wondering if it's missing any OMM or med ethics material that is covered in COMBANK. I scheduled my COMLEX 4 days after my USMLE and am wondering if it'd be worth it to buy a COMBANK subscription for that interim time. Thanks!

 

[thegame11]

how many questions do you need to get right to pass? I read on old threads that it's around 50%. But that sounds kinda low...

 

[Postal]

Has anyone here done COMBANK and COMQUEST? I've been through COMQUEST and am wondering if it's missing any OMM or med ethics material that is covered in COMBANK. I scheduled my COMLEX 4 days after my USMLE and am wondering if it'd be worth it to buy a COMBANK subscription for that interim time. Thanks!

I have both banks. Since I haven't taken the exam, I can't comment on which is better. I'd say Comquest and Combank OMM questions are comparable. I do think Combank had different types of med ethics questions and stuff on medicare/medicaid Parts A, B, C, D....

Don't know if that's worth paying $89 for a couple of days though...

how many questions do you need to get right to pass? I read on old threads that it's around 50%. But that sounds kinda low...

I don't think there's a set number. I think it depends on the test you're given.

 

[Atom bum]

I have both banks. Since I haven't taken the exam, I can't comment on which is better. I'd say Comquest and Combank OMM questions are comparable. I do think Combank had different types of med ethics questions and stuff on medicare/medicaid Parts A, B, C, D....

.

So both comquest and combank are fairly similar as far as question difficulty? I only have comquest and of course I worry sometimes that it will not be enough.

 

[Tizoc]

I have yet to do COMSAE form A, can't do D, because that is only for schools. I have already done form B and C, would you guys suggest I go ahead and shell out $50 for it a week before the test, or do you think the question format/ambiguity was totally not on par with the real test?

I had the option of doing C a few days my exam (I had done A and B already) and decided against it. I'd do questions in the areas you're deficient in. You probably would have had enough experience with the COMLEX question format at that point.

 

[as90]

Thanks guys. I wish there was an option of taking the exam in the afternoon. I had a change in schedule yesterday and ended up taking my daily question set later in the evening and my average rose significantly.

 

[premedmind]

So I skimmed through HY Neuroanatomy (read the whole thing in a few hours). Obviously there was a ton of pictures with the tracts and pathways and brain slices, etc...do you guys think it's helpful to go through that? Like all of the intricate inputs/outputs/relays etc...I skipped over that because it seemed a bit dense for the COMLEX? I just read over the important clinical stuff...like the effects of occlusions in MCA/PCA/PICA etc...

Also what's the best way to review up on lower extremity anatomy and anatomy/innervations in general? I saw Savarese had a pretty detailed anatomy appendix, you guys think thats good?

 

[SLC]

So I skimmed through HY Neuroanatomy (read the whole thing in a few hours). Obviously there was a ton of pictures with the tracts and pathways and brain slices, etc...do you guys think it's helpful to go through that? Like all of the intricate inputs/outputs/relays etc...I skipped over that because it seemed a bit dense for the COMLEX? I just read over the important clinical stuff...like the effects of occlusions in MCA/PCA/PICA etc...

Also what's the best way to review up on lower extremity anatomy and anatomy/innervations in general? I saw Savarese had a pretty detailed anatomy appendix, you guys think thats good?

It would be helpful to know everything, so yeah if you can go through that it may be useful. Of course you could get a test consisting of very few neuro questions too. Luck of the draw I suppose.

And for lower limb anatomy, I think you need to think clinical, so maybe your physical diagnosis text would be a good place to start. Focus on myotomes and dermatomes and how they relate so you can get an idea of motor and sensory deficits associated with specific nerve lesions.

 

[Pinkleton]

Uhhh. My omm was like 75 percent lower extremity/foot. 1 sacral, 1 cranial, and 3 viscerosomatic questions. And I had more biochem than on my usmle, with less micro! Weird exam

 

[wvsom2015]

Any advice on ethics? The comquest ones are killing me! I'm not sure where to go to learn this material...also what kind of percentages should you be getting on comquest to feel good? Anyone know like what's a 75% correspond to etc. ?

 

[ab8000]

To anybody who's recently taken Level 1: how were the Biochem and Genetics questions on your exam version? Haven't focused on those 2 areas and was hoping to review their high-yields this last week of my prep. Thank you, and good luck to those of you taking it soon!

 

[Ary Lall]

Any advice on ethics? The comquest ones are killing me! I'm not sure where to go to learn this material...also what kind of percentages should you be getting on comquest to feel good? Anyone know like what's a 75% correspond to etc. ?

USE BBC. The school gave it to you

 

[wvsom2015]

I started BBC but i hated it, I think I'll check out the compendum for ethics sections or do you need to watch the videos? I dont have that much time to go through the program

 

[wvsom2015]

USE BBC. The school gave it to you

I hated BBC, do the books have the ethics sections? I can check that out...prob dont have time for the videos

 

[NeuroLAX]

What's BBC?

 

[Ary Lall]

I hated BBC, do the books have the ethics sections? I can check that out...prob dont have time for the videos

Someone posted on facebook that it does so check it.

By the way, I finished all of BBC and that was the worst choice of my life. Complete waste.

BBC= boardsbootcamp.com

 

[Postal]

So both comquest and combank are fairly similar as far as question difficulty? I only have comquest and of course I worry sometimes that it will not be enough.

I'd say difficulty is around the same, maybe combank is a tad more difficult? I'm just doing both I'm almost done with one bank and wanted to try both out.

I had the option of doing C a few days my exam (I had done A and B already) and decided against it. I'd do questions in the areas you're deficient in. You probably would have had enough experience with the COMLEX question format at that point.

You know, I was thinking about doing C but I also decided against it. Already have passing scores for Comsae B & D so what 's the point of doing another one? It doesn't tell me what I got wrong and I can't see any of the questions to review

 

[MLT2MT2DO]

Someone posted on facebook that it does so check it.

By the way, I finished all of BBC and that was the worst choice of my life. Complete waste.

BBC= boardsbootcamp.com

Sounds like DIT for dummies

 

[avatarftw]

...

 

[avatarftw]

a

 

[traitorman]

The test was a joke. I got comfortably above average on both Comquest and Combank but even though those test bank questions were nebulous, they were several times more sensible than the COMLEX I took. With the Comquest and Combank, you could at least reason out answers.

On my COMLEX, I think that 20% of the questions weren't in first aid or Savarese. A lot of guessing. But even worse, I think that it is a terrible test for determining if the second year med student has a basic knowledge of medicine. I had First Aid memorized pretty well but I swear it didn't help me at all. And thanks to Savarse, I know a lot about OMM but it didn't help me on the test.

Oh, and I also had Pathoma down pretty solid but that didn't help me. Such a waste of time studying. I probably would have gotten the same grade if I didn't do Comquest or Combank since the questions were so random. End rant.

I haven't taken the test yet but I feel the same way. I've gone through firstaid/pathoma several times but I find when I do questions, theres always new information I don't know.

 

[traitorman]

i need some advice. I find comquest to be easier than combank mainly because comquest has buzzwords and combank seems to test more random non-firstaid/pathoma stuff. ive only taken one comsae but it felt more combank than comquest.

my biggest problem is recognizing whatever disease they're talking about. originally I was planning on doing comquest to learn the material and combank to practice taking the test. but with time running out, do you guys recommend I just do combank and learn how they present cases?

 

[avatarftw]

a

 

[Ary Lall]

The test was a joke. I got comfortably above average on both Comquest and Combank but even though those test bank questions were nebulous, they were several times more sensible than the COMLEX I took. With the Comquest and Combank, you could at least reason out answers.

On my COMLEX, I think that 20% of the questions weren't in first aid or Savarese. A lot of guessing. But even worse, I think that it is a terrible test for determining if the second year med student has a basic knowledge of medicine. I had First Aid memorized pretty well but I swear it didn't help me at all. And thanks to Savarse, I know a lot about OMM but it didn't help me on the test.

Oh, and I also had Pathoma down pretty solid but that didn't help me. Such a waste of time studying. I probably would have gotten the same grade if I didn't do Comquest or Combank since the questions were so random. End rant.

Since it was a joke to you, I am sure you did well with above 700+, according to your first sentence.

Regarding the rest of the rant, you are probably remembering the questions you got wrong. I am sure you did fine. And they obviously curve by looking at all the people who took the same set of questions as you.

 

[OneTripAcross]

Took the test yesterday.

I think about 50% of the non-omm questions could be answered with FA. I think 90% of the omm could be answered with the green book. I found the questions that could be found in FA were easy, very straight forward except for one matching set that had a list of ten gene mutations (only 3 that I recognized) and gave you really short patient descriptions. The other 50% of the non-omm questions were either really easy or really hard. Lots of guessing going on for me on these ones. For example I had one on which tx for a particular symptom of MS and the answer that was in FA was not an answer choice and had to guess, several of these type of q's.

Some other random impressions, LOTS of OMM, definitely more represented than on Comsae B. Fair amount of micro, not as much as I was expecting from reading these boards though and 90% straight forward, very few tx for for a particular bug type questions and there were a few q's about bugs I'd never seen before but just a couple. Lots of Neuro but again most was straight forward. Only had a few tricky lesion q's. There was a fair amount of repro as well but can't think of any that were really tricky.

Stats/Score Prediction

Comquest- 79% overall, random/tutor
UWorld- 68% overall, random/tutor
Comsae C- 483 on 4/2
Comsae B- 660 on 5/31
COMLEX prediction- Anything between 550-650 seems about right, outside of this range would be surprising.

 

[Ary Lall]

It is a good test if you haven't studied much because you could get lucky. But it sucks if you have worked a lot, have First Aid and Sevarese memorized, and have a relatively high chance of doing worse than slackers.

There were 0 statistics questions on my exam. Like 5 genetics/biochemistry questions.

I don't understand it. Why not dedicate the appropriate percentage of questions to each topic. A small number to biostatistics, relatively more on microbiology, few on embryology, 10% on OMM...and keep it constant for each exam? That seems to be the most fair and logical way to ask questions, IMHO.

And then ask most of the questions on high yield things like Crohns, UC, SLE, pneumonia, meningitis, Folate deficiency, Hepatitis viruses.

And to separate the "men from the boys", have the lower yield things like positive nikolysky's sign differentiating between pemphigus vulgaris and bullous pemphigoud. Or the lab results of the window period of HBV infection.

The goal of a test should be to determine if the person knows enough to advance to the third year of medical school and not some arbitrary, poorly written test.

That is the best thing I have heard. I totally agree with you. Having random/stupid questions proves that you suck as a question write, but it doesnt help students. Knowing stupid things will not help us be better physicians. If you really want to test what we know, then ask important stuff, not random stuff.

Also, regarding the equal distribuation, I agree with you on that as well. That will ensure everyone gets important topics tested. If your exam is filled with neuro stuff, that doesnt mean you dont know anything about the other systems. its just that you cant prove it cuz theres not enough questions on that subject.


All in all, I totally agree with you.

End of rant.

 

[NeuroLAX]

Does COMLEX test posterior Chapman's points?

 

[avatarftw]

a