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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brasilia said:
Took it yesterday, there was a ton of Neuro and extremities. It was pretty much all of the subjects you don't want plus some freaking rando micro questions.:(
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sorry to hear that :(

were there a lot of what innervates this muscle and stuff? and was FA neuro enough? im considering using another source also...
 
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brasilia said:
Took it yesterday, there was a ton of Neuro and extremities. It was pretty much all of the subjects you don't want plus some freaking rando micro questions.:(
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Was FA enough for repro and neuro? Thanks and dont worry, if you felt they were random micro qs so did everyone else that took it that day :)
 
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Atom bum said:
This sucks. Neuro sucks.
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Funny thing was I had a really good chunk of neuro on my USMLE as well, 95-100% of my USMLE neuro was in FA.

Pretty sure the Comlex writer's get their jollies off on picking stuff that isn't in FA, aka Low Yield junk
 
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traitorman said:
sorry to hear that :(

were there a lot of what innervates this muscle and stuff? and was FA neuro enough? im considering using another source also...
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Decent amount of innervations. A couple of random dude gets stabbed in the back and you need to know what muscles and what dermatones. I had a lot of path images. Most was in first aid but like everyone said some of the questions are pretty convoluted. I'm not one of the people getting 640's on comsaes so this is coming from an average student. As for micro, the question stems sucked and they were heavy on knowing stains. Prarie dogs and yersina, ya that happened. Images of gram stains were hossible, I mean who picks these. Videos and audio clips were gimme points. Umm repro was super fair, FA was def enough. Overall the second half was better, but the question stems were so long. I finished comsae c in 2 hours and I felt like I barely had enough time for the test. One of my psych question stems filled the entire screen! Hope everyone gets a little better draw than I did. Maybe Neuro wouldn't have been so bad if I didn't hate it so much in the first place lol.
 
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How has the OMM been on comlex?
Is the green book enough and if you are short on time, do you need to read the entire book or just focus on the high yield chapters? I'm dedicating 1 day solely to OMM before my test next week and not sure if thats enough.
 
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SLC said:
I have never encountered a question on herbal remedies of any kind in either Uworld, COMBANK, COMLEX, or USMLE.

That's not to say it isn't possible, but it's almost certainly exceedingly low yield.

I did however come across some 3rd and 4th line meds on COMLEX and was asked some fairly specific questions about them.
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Thanks. I am using the USMLE road map to anatomy to refresh things, but honestly, I don't think I will be able to know the details in anatomy that I knew a year ago. I'm hoping that there will be a generous curve.

Did any of you guys do DIT? I feel that they point out a lot of good principles especially when it comes to embryo (but they don't seem to emphasize a lot on it either)---this was my worst class last year, so I'm hoping I won't be missing to many questions. I plan to only review the cardiac defects and what is in first aid.

To those that have taken it, I understand that there can be slight variations on standardized exams (someone has a little more neuro than you or a little more anatomy). But for the most part, i was always under the impression (from upperclassman) that it was supposed to be a clinically oriented exam that is pathology and pharmacology. In other words, 2nd year material (path, pharm, micro) are the more high yield topics for step 1, and if one were looking to pass step 1 then these would be the absolute must knows.

What I'm trying to get at is, is the exam really that impossible? Like others have posted, I've been chipping away at COMQUEST and 2 COMSAE's (10% at most is absurd, IMO), but still it seems to be skewed more towards pathology and pharmacology (my strong spots).

After reading what has been posted here, I am having serious doubts that I will pass and am contemplating postponing my 3rd year clinical roatations.
 
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I didn't think my exam was that bad. Some weird questions definitely, but I thought it was fair. But now I wonder if my exam was an anomaly...
 
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I also took my exam on Tuesday. I had tons of micro, though most of the answers were in FA and things I hasn't seen were just distractors. Tons of OB and neuro some of which wasn't in FA. OMM was also odd, mostly lower extremity stuff. Overall, I thought it was a pretty fair exam. Of course there were the few questions from out of left field, and the exam did take longer than expected. COMSAE B took me 2 and a half hours, I used almost all of the time for the exam.
 
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Tizoc said:
I didn't think my exam was that bad. Some weird questions definitely, but I thought it was fair. But now I wonder if my exam was an anomaly...
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I thought mine was fair overall. Yeah, a few curveballs, but most of the stuff I think I struggled with was from areas that I have longstanding difficulty/disinterest in.
 
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Tizoc said:
I didn't think my exam was that bad. Some weird questions definitely, but I thought it was fair. But now I wonder if my exam was an anomaly...
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SLC said:
I thought mine was fair overall. Yeah, a few curveballs, but most of the stuff I think I struggled with was from areas that I have longstanding difficulty/disinterest in.
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Yeah it seems like if you took it on Day x you got a halfway decent test with curveballs. If you took it on Day y your test was a pile of horsepoo.

Hopefully the curves reflect this
 
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Is FA MSK sufficient for the extremity questions?? If not what should I be going through? And is the Neuro really "tract" heavy? Thanks guys...
 
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brasilia said:
Decent amount of innervations. A couple of random dude gets stabbed in the back and you need to know what muscles and what dermatones. I had a lot of path images. Most was in first aid but like everyone said some of the questions are pretty convoluted. I'm not one of the people getting 640's on comsaes so this is coming from an average student. As for micro, the question stems sucked and they were heavy on knowing stains. Prarie dogs and yersina, ya that happened. Images of gram stains were hossible, I mean who picks these. Videos and audio clips were gimme points. Umm repro was super fair, FA was def enough. Overall the second half was better, but the question stems were so long. I finished comsae c in 2 hours and I felt like I barely had enough time for the test. One of my psych question stems filled the entire screen! Hope everyone gets a little better draw than I did. Maybe Neuro wouldn't have been so bad if I didn't hate it so much in the first place lol.
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Did you feel like the neuro was not from FA? Also same with the micro? I've spent tons of hours on Micro so I'm hoping it's enough. I've also done Savarese... and reviewed our class stuff hoping thats enough for OMM. I've been hearing OMM is tough. For anatomy, not sure what to do...I would NOT have known those muscles in the back or anything!
 
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brasilia said:
Decent amount of innervations. A couple of random dude gets stabbed in the back and you need to know what muscles and what dermatones. I had a lot of path images. Most was in first aid but like everyone said some of the questions are pretty convoluted. I'm not one of the people getting 640's on comsaes so this is coming from an average student. As for micro, the question stems sucked and they were heavy on knowing stains. Prarie dogs and yersina, ya that happened. Images of gram stains were hossible, I mean who picks these. Videos and audio clips were gimme points. Umm repro was super fair, FA was def enough. Overall the second half was better, but the question stems were so long. I finished comsae c in 2 hours and I felt like I barely had enough time for the test. One of my psych question stems filled the entire screen! Hope everyone gets a little better draw than I did. Maybe Neuro wouldn't have been so bad if I didn't hate it so much in the first place lol.
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I didnt know that there were videos and audio clips. I figured at most, audio clips of heart murmurs
 
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A very large portion of my exam was micro. At times I got 20 micro questions in a row. Crazy.

Many of the same concepts got repeated over and over. There was like 5 variations of essentially the same question on my exam.

Most of the questions are questions I've seen before on NBME's and UWorld. Not bad.
 
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HoboCommander said:
A very large portion of my exam was micro. At times I got 20 micro questions in a row. Crazy.

Many of the same concepts got repeated over and over. There was like 5 variations of essentially the same question on my exam.

Most of the questions are questions I've seen before on NBME's and UWorld. Not bad.
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Did u happen to do comquest/combank/comsae. Any similarities/differences/correlations? Thanks
 
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hopeinternist said:
Did u happen to do comquest/combank/comsae. Any similarities/differences/correlations? Thanks
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I did ComQuest and a lot of the questions on my exam were similar. Many Comquest questions I thought were low yield showed up on my exam. I guess they have the inside scoop so they know what they are doing. Not just the OMM questions but all the questions on Comquest are very high yield. UWorld is also high yield.
 
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as90 said:
Videos of like OMM techniques?
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No. More of physical exam techniques and interpretations of findings.
You might have a gait demo, a Murphy's sign demonstrated etc.
I did not have any questions on OMM techniques--purely diagnosis.
 
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HoboCommander said:
I did ComQuest and a lot of the questions on my exam were similar. Many Comquest questions I thought were low yield showed up on my exam. I guess they have the inside scoop so they know what they are doing. Not just the OMM questions but all the questions on Comquest are very high yield. UWorld is also high yield.
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I finished comquest once 2 weeks ago. Do you recommend renewing my subscription and doing it once more or just focus on doing combank and first aid. my exam is monday
 
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HoboCommander said:
I did ComQuest and a lot of the questions on my exam were similar. Many Comquest questions I thought were low yield showed up on my exam. I guess they have the inside scoop so they know what they are doing. Not just the OMM questions but all the questions on Comquest are very high yield. UWorld is also high yield.
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thanks for replying. when you said all the questions on comquest are high yield do u mean in regards to the answers for the questions or even the options within a set of answer choices that highlights concepts not in FA? bc several of the questions have especially drugs and bugs nowhere to be found in FA. and i m also wondering like Arylall if its worth doing combank or doing comquest again. thanks
 
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hopeinternist said:
thanks for replying. when you said all the questions on comquest are high yield do u mean in regards to the answers for the questions or even the options within a set of answer choices that highlights concepts not in FA? bc several of the questions have especially drugs and bugs nowhere to be found in FA. and i m also wondering like Arylall if its worth doing combank or doing comquest again. thanks
Click to expand...

the micro questions were easy for me because i watched the kaplan videos on it. doing comquest again is a personal decision.
 
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primadonna22274 said:
No. More of physical exam techniques and interpretations of findings.
You might have a gait demo, a Murphy's sign demonstrated etc.
I did not have any questions on OMM techniques--purely diagnosis.
Click to expand...

Oh, thanks. I'm guessing it is quite likely that one could have several ACLS/EKG type questions too.

I'm still not good with EKG interpretation other than what is in first aid, cardiac is my lowest system.
 
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Hi guys...

Is there anything we need to bring to the COMLEX other than 2 forms of ID and our NBOME number? Do we need to print out some sheet or anything like that? Thanks so much :)
 
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The exam seems to vary in difficulty from year to year however people I know last year with tough crazy exams, ended up doing better than some who had the "easy" exams. There is method to all the madness in the end I think
 
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TO AS90:

You will pass if you are passing in your combanks however TWO people who took the exam yesterday told me that there was very little pathology on their exams and both are super sharp students with >600 comsaes. They told me the exam came down like this. There was 60 percent of the exam that was super easy, straight recall, that they would be far pressed to find anyone who has even just skimmed FA not to get right..

Then they said 20 percent was IMPOSSIBLE, like medical laws they have never heard of or seen in any type of bank and that they feel noone will get correct. Then around 20 percent are tough, challenging questions, UWORLD level and way harder than the combank or quest. These questions seem to be the ones that separate the high scorers from the average scorers.

Both of them told me one more month of studying would have done nothing for their score and that they didnt feel it accurately assessed their knowledge but they could see how the exam could separate those who are stronger from those who are weaker.

In the end, from what I see in previous years, scores are pretty much where they should be. I think COMSAE is a good idea. I too was scared, and although people on the FORUMS claim there is no correlation, I think they official statistical correlation is like .64-.79 which is not too bad. For form C, students who took it timed scored an average of 26 points higher on the real deal, and those who took it untimed scored an average of 10 points higher on the real deal. I think thats a decent ball park figure to see at LEAST if you are in a certain range. I mean if you get a 350 on the comsae, you should pretty much not take the exam, and if you score 600ish, Im pretty sure youll at least be in the 540-650 range. Not the greatest, but its WAY better than the combank or comquest I think.

I think if the questions in comsae are any representation of the real deal, you shouldnt be too worried as far as level of difficulty goes. Sure, they are going to throw curve balls at us, but at the end of the day, I think those curve balls will catch 95% of us for a loop. Only the guy who went to law school before med school will get that question correct.
 
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How many images did you guys get that you needed to know the image to get the question correct? Trying to decide if it is worth my time to study them
 
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medschool100 said:
Hi guys...

Is there anything we need to bring to the COMLEX other than 2 forms of ID and our NBOME number? Do we need to print out some sheet or anything like that? Thanks so much :)
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As long as the ID you present has a signature (driver's license, passport), you'll be fine. I brought my student ID with me, but they didn't ask for it after I gave them my driver's license.
 
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josephmedman said:
TWO people who took the exam yesterday told me that there was very little pathology on their exams and both are super sharp students with >600 comsaes. They told me the exam came down like this. There was 60 percent of the exam that was super easy, straight recall, that they would be far pressed to find anyone who has even just skimmed FA not to get right..

Then they said 20 percent was IMPOSSIBLE, like medical laws they have never heard of or seen in any type of bank and that they feel noone will get correct. Then around 20 percent are tough, challenging questions, UWORLD level and way harder than the combank or quest. These questions seem to be the ones that separate the high scorers from the average scorers.
Click to expand...

Took it yesterday, agree with all of this. What totally threw me was how different the test was from USMLE: shorter stems, many many "sets" of up to four related questions (I had zero of these on Step 1) and lots of multimedia. The sets were generally easy, but if you get the first question wrong, you'll be led down a path to getting all three or four questions wrong...so think hard about that first one. Areas I would have brushed up on if I had known / paid attention to this forum:

jurisprudence
bioterrorism
neuro neuro neuro

I only took two days between Step 1 and COMLEX, which ideally should have been three or four, but I was pretty burned out at that point so maybe it's for the best. Our school gave us a COMSAE which I got ~600 on, however I felt terrible about my performance on this exam and will probably be one of those people who did better on the USMLE and really badly on the COMLEX. I think the free questions on the NBOME website are absolutely worth doing, may have gotten one or two almost identical (same with COMSAE). Kaplan OMM questions are also good prep for that component. Good luck to those about to take it!
 
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Thanks for the input to those who have taken it. I'm just surprised there is very little pathology...
 
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premedmind said:
Thanks for the input to those who have taken it. I'm just surprised there is very little pathology...
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It's true, not much pathology. But if you know your pathology, it's a +10 question swing in your favor. That's a big deal if you are already doing well and every question counts.
 
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Koan said:
I think the free questions on the NBOME website are absolutely worth doing, may have gotten one or two almost identical (same with COMSAE). Kaplan OMM questions are also good prep for that component. Good luck to those about to take it!
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Can you link these? I can never find anything on their website...
 
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josephmedman said:
TO AS90:

You will pass if you are passing in your combanks however TWO people who took the exam yesterday told me that there was very little pathology on their exams and both are super sharp students with >600 comsaes. They told me the exam came down like this. There was 60 percent of the exam that was super easy, straight recall, that they would be far pressed to find anyone who has even just skimmed FA not to get right..

.
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Ill probably be the one that misses skimming of FA even thought Ive went through it multiple times
 
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Ary All, I literally have not touched first aid and my exam is in a few days. Trust me, I know its a bad move and its against the advice of what everyone here has said, but I just cannot learn from that type of outline, it drove me crazy. Im hoping it wont be the end all, be all of me. ntent.
 
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Koan said:
Took it yesterday, agree with all of this. What totally threw me was how different the test was from USMLE: shorter stems, many many "sets" of up to four related questions (I had zero of these on Step 1) and lots of multimedia. The sets were generally easy, but if you get the first question wrong, you'll be led down a path to getting all three or four questions wrong...so think hard about that first one. Areas I would have brushed up on if I had known / paid attention to this forum:

jurisprudence
bioterrorism
neuro neuro neuro

I only took two days between Step 1 and COMLEX, which ideally should have been three or four, but I was pretty burned out at that point so maybe it's for the best. Our school gave us a COMSAE which I got ~600 on, however I felt terrible about my performance on this exam and will probably be one of those people who did better on the USMLE and really badly on the COMLEX. I think the free questions on the NBOME website are absolutely worth doing, may have gotten one or two almost identical (same with COMSAE). Kaplan OMM questions are also good prep for that component. Good luck to those about to take it!
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I'm in the same boat as you. I felt absolutely terrible coming out of COMLEX. I had a ton of Chapman's points which really cost me. However, I feel pretty good after USMLE today and am expecting a good score.

My advice is to study micro hard, know Chapman's points, VSRs and to do tons of questions and really understand what you're missing even if you felt like it was the stupidest question you have ever had.
 
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