Official 2014 COMLEX 1 Experiences and Scores Thread

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YANKEES88

YANKEES88

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Haven't seen one posted yet so I figured I'd get one started.
Feel free to share your experiences, study plans, thoughts, etc.
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Rhinobarnacle said:
Thank you for your feedback. Can you say more about what you mean by "thinking it was worth months of my life to learn actually relevant medicine"?
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I would say that 30-50% of my test was on material that I have never seen before. I practically memorized FA, Savarese, and pathoma...but COMLEX will ask you the most random and trivial bull****
 
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I have finished about 60% of both uworld combank.. and I am using pathoma/savarese. my exam is the first week of July and I took the comsae D last week with my school. I scored a 496 I am nervous because my exam in a few weeks and I was hoping to break 500! Any advice on what I can do to improve this last month? I havent take any other practice tests yet --- Thanks!
 
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Honestly, I have no idea what the right track is. My COMLEX was out of this world ridiculous, to the point where I dont even know how I could have prepared for it. I
 
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ChrisGriffen said:
Honestly, I have no idea what the right track is. My COMLEX was out of this world ridiculous, to the point where I dont even know how I could have prepared for it. I
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Is it that you're faced with questions that are difficult and asking something about a subject you studied but the detail is ridiculous, or, did you find that the questions were just about diseases etc. that you didn't study at all?
 
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Rhinobarnacle said:
How did the Combank vs. Comquest vs Real Comlex question style compare? Was one more difficult, easier, the same?
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Sorry for the delayed reply, had to move the day after my exam!

I did not have COMQUEST, but I went through COMBANK 2x before my exam. I would say that COMBANK was easier, but not as a question-by-question basis. COMLEX just had a bunch of questions that I don't think you can prepare for from any one bank or book.

If you're using UWorld as well, I would say COMLEX falls somewhere between that bank and COMBANK in overall level of difficulty.
 
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Does anyone have any evidence of how Comquest scores correlate with the exam? I've looked up almost every thread...while avoiding another set of questions.
 
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Blowflu said:
Sorry for the delayed reply, had to move the day after my exam!

I did not have COMQUEST, but I went through COMBANK 2x before my exam. I would say that COMBANK was easier, but not as a question-by-question basis. COMLEX just had a bunch of questions that I don't think you can prepare for from any one bank or book.

If you're using UWorld as well, I would say COMLEX falls somewhere between that bank and COMBANK in overall level of difficulty.
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Sounds like: (for many questions) tested on things not covered in First Aid or Q-banks... obscure items only found in textbooks. yeah?
 
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took both last week. feel free to PM with any questions, but my full experience is here.
http://dostudent.tumblr.com/thejourney

COMLEX:
So random and so unpreparable. More straightforward questions but it’s either you know it or you don’t. In contrast to USMLE, if you know only 3/5 clues, you can still reason your way through things. I had a system for the USMLE blocks, that 30/46 you get from doing uworld/first aid, 10/46 you get from higher order thinking and reasoning, and 6/46 is the "phenom" questions. Comlex had some good questions, longer length than combank, and probably a similar structure. 30/50 you can get from doing questions and having an understanding, another 10-15 is did you read this 1 sentence in first aid, and the rest are just "why would you ask me that." But again thats just my experience, I've heard of a LOT of variability of experiences.

Good luck.
 
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cylondoctor said:
So random and so unpreparable. More straightforward questions but it’s either you know it or you don’t. In contrast to USMLE, if you know only 3/5 clues, you can still reason your way through things. I had a system for the USMLE blocks, that 30/46 you get from doing uworld/first aid, 10/46 you get from higher order thinking and reasoning, and 6/46 is the "phenom" questions. Comlex had some good questions, longer length than combank, and probably a similar structure. 30/50 you can get from doing questions and having an understanding, another 10-15 is did you read this 1 sentence in first aid, and the rest are just "why would you ask me that." But again thats just my experience, I've heard of a LOT of variability of experiences.
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Thought I'd add in my experience as well. In my opinion, everything cylondoctor says above is spot-on. I'll echo the part about the clues, and the COMLEX vs. USMLE comparison of "impossible" questions is an extremely accurate comparison. "Why would you ask me that" is exactly how I feel about the WTF questions, as opposed to the USMLE WTF questions which are more "How would you expect me to know that?". It's like:
USMLE WTF Q's = Asking an 8th grader what the integral of f(x) = sin(x) is
COMLEX WTF Q's = Asking an 8th grader how many grains of salt are in the Bermuda Triangle

And it's because of these silly questions that COMLEX is difficult to score high on. Make no mistake though: The exam is vastly easier than the USMLE. So you can at least take comfort in that.

Besides being one-step reasoning, straight-recall questions, the COMLEX Q's are easier because their answer choices are very poor. Another comparison:
USMLE question = "Hemolysis after using sulfa drug: Diagnosis?" Answer choices = G6PD deficiency, spherocytosis, B-thal, sickle cell
COMLEX question = "Hemolysis after using sulfa drug: Diagnosis?" Answer choices = G6PD deficiency, hypercalcemia, Pott's disease, subarachnoid hemorrhage

I mean, not quite that bad, but you get the point. One way in which I found the COMLEX to be very annoying was how vague or poorly phrased many of the questions were. On the USMLE, I always felt that I understood what was being asked, and it was just my fault for not knowing what I needed to know to get the right answer. I could always "get in the head" of the question, and say "Ah, this is a question about DNA polymerases" or something. On the COMLEX, your ability to do this is very much hindered.

I found the COMSAE to be pretty similar to the exam, but it was a waste of time and money. The fact that you can't learn from it whatsoever makes it merely a diagnostic tool. Coupled with notoriously poor diagnostic ability, you're better off spending money on an NBME.

Regarding the content of the test:
-Tons of Micro! What everyone says is true. In fact, I would say there was more Micro than pure OMM questions. They test it differently than the USMLE too -- far more helminth/arthropod parasite questions (though these questions were still a minority, they were tested far more than the USMLE). Tons of bioterrorism too (heard this from others taking the exam as well): Know your bioterrorism bugs cold!
-Repro and GI probably made the top 4 along with Micro and OMM in terms of most heavily tested.
-OMM may have been my weakest subject on the test. Unfortunately, I'm not sure what else I would have changed. There seemed to be a bit of a curve to it -- you can do slightly above average by knowing Savarese up to a certain point, but to kill OMM like a gunner, you would have to treat Savarese with the same respect as First Aid and annotate a bunch of stuff from class notes and other resources. Don't get me wrong -- the majority was in Savarese, but there were enough really odd or obscure questions to lower your average down to a point below the performance level of a lot of people's performance on the basic sciences.

For OMM prep, I went over Savarese 1-1.5x during classes, then a brief skim between the USMLE and COMLEX. I should have read it more -- a full thorough read would have been ideal. I also used the iPhone app called OMM Cards: Chapman Points for $1.99 -- worth it. And finally, I did all the OMM in COMBANK 1.8x.

I'd be happy to answer any questions via PM or on this thread (tag/quote me). Good luck guys.

acciddropping said:
Those who took the test, can you recommend a good approach to study "Ch 18 - Special Tests" from Sevarese? Thanks!
Click to expand...

These are very important to know. For each test, know all of the following:
-The name of the test (know the name upon it being described)
-The procedure of the test (know the procedure upon being given the name)
-What the test evaluates
 
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Took it today. I would say 50% of the test I knew the answer right away. I had a RIDICULOUS amount of neuro on my form. It felt like every other question was some sort of brain bleed that you needed to interpret.

OMM was cake. Absolutely no sacrum. A ton of questions asking the same exact things in cranial. No HVLA. No muscle energy. Pretty much all facilitation levels.

Micro was fairly easy. There were maybe 5 or 6 that I narrowed down to two, but probably got wrong.

Hardly any CV or resp, which sucks, because I'm best at those.

I think I had maybe 2 biochem questions and 2 behavioral health questions.
I dont know why it was so unbalanced in terms of subjects.

If anyone has any questions, please let me know. Off to study for USMLE on friday.
 
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clinke said:
Took it today. I would say 50% of the test I knew the answer right away. I had a RIDICULOUS amount of neuro on my form. It felt like every other question was some sort of brain bleed that you needed to interpret.

OMM was cake. Absolutely no sacrum. A ton of questions asking the same exact things in cranial. No HVLA. No muscle energy. Pretty much all facilitation levels.

Micro was fairly easy. There were maybe 5 or 6 that I narrowed down to two, but probably got wrong.

Hardly any CV or resp, which sucks, because I'm best at those.

I think I had maybe 2 biochem questions and 2 behavioral health questions.
I dont know why it was so unbalanced in terms of subjects.

If anyone has any questions, please let me know. Off to study for USMLE on friday.
Click to expand...
Sounds like you probably did well. How did you prepare?
 
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clinke said:
Took it today. I would say 50% of the test I knew the answer right away. I had a RIDICULOUS amount of neuro on my form. It felt like every other question was some sort of brain bleed that you needed to interpret.

OMM was cake. Absolutely no sacrum. A ton of questions asking the same exact things in cranial. No HVLA. No muscle energy. Pretty much all facilitation levels.

Micro was fairly easy. There were maybe 5 or 6 that I narrowed down to two, but probably got wrong.

Hardly any CV or resp, which sucks, because I'm best at those.

I think I had maybe 2 biochem questions and 2 behavioral health questions.
I dont know why it was so unbalanced in terms of subjects.

If anyone has any questions, please let me know. Off to study for USMLE on friday.
Click to expand...


I took it yesterday and it sounds like we had the same form.

Good luck in the USMLE!
 
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Between Combank and Comquest, what is the general consensus on the best QBank for the COMLEX?
 
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What are the time constraints like, relative to COMBANK, COMQUEST, UWORLD? Do test takers find that they have less time than when they took timed tests during studying? Or, is it roughly the same. I know some people finish 50 questions on Combank with nearly 20 minutes to spare.
 
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Rhinobarnacle said:
What are the time constraints like, relative to COMBANK, COMQUEST, UWORLD? Do test takers find that they have less time than when they took timed tests during studying? Or, is it roughly the same. I know some people finish 50 questions on Combank with nearly 20 minutes to spare.
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You should not have any issue with time. Most of the people on my test day finished before me, and I had a ton of time to spare when i finished.
 
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Dharma said:
UWorld +OMM from the garbage COMLEX stuff out there.
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Thank you for your response. Unfortunately, my question remains unanswered. I would like to know from someone who has taken the COMLEX which of the two main QBanks best represent the style of the COMLEX.
 
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I haven't taken COMLEX yet, but I have both COMBANK and COMQUEST, and I found the questions in comquest to be pretty terrible. The explanations were awful, and a couple of the questions just didn't make sense. Multiple questions with answer choices such as "both a and b" or "A and C" or "none of the above" - so my opinion isn't the best since I haven't taken comlex yet, but since this thread has been pretty slow I figured I would throw in my two cents.
 
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michow87 said:
Thank you for your response. Unfortunately, my question remains unanswered. I would like to know from someone who has taken the COMLEX which of the two main QBanks best represent the style of the COMLEX.
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I've heard mix reviews on that. Friends of mine who just took it said COMBANK was pretty close. But we get that for "free" from school and I wouldn't spend an extra penny on anything COMLEX related. I'd rather pay for another NBME instead but then again my focus has been USMLE since the evil twin sounds like a crapshoot anyway.
 
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Dharma said:
I've heard mix reviews on that. Friends of mine who just took it said COMBANK was pretty close. But we get that for "free" from school and I wouldn't spend an extra penny on anything COMLEX related. I'd rather pay for another NBME instead but then again my focus has been USMLE since the evil twin sounds like a crapshoot anyway.
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Thanks, Dharma. Sounds like we're in the same boat. I plan on purchasing one of the COMLEX qbanks for one month to run through after my USMLE so I can get used to their style of questions.
 
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michow87 said:
Thanks, Dharma. Sounds like we're in the same boat. I plan on purchasing one of the COMLEX qbanks for one month to run through after my USMLE so I can get used to their style of questions.
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the question style of combank and comquest are the same as the style of comlex.


The content of the test is unpredictable and therefore the Q bank that you choose is irrelevant...You just need to learn the material.
 
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ChrisGriffen said:
the question style of combank and comquest are the same as the style of comlex.

The content of the test is unpredictable and therefore the Q bank that you choose is irrelevant...You just need to learn the material.
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I've heard that both qbanks share similarities, but are also different style-wise.
 
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michow87 said:
I've heard that both qbanks share similarities, but are also different style-wise.
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They are different in the way they explain their answer choices, but IMO you should not be learning boards material via qbank explanations


Edit: just to disclose, i just took the test and havent seen my score yet. qbank explanations may be more important than I think they are
 
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ChrisGriffen said:
They are different in the way they explain their answer choices, but IMO you should not be learning boards material via qbank explanations


Edit: just to disclose, i just took the test and havent seen my score yet. qbank explanations may be more important than I think they are
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I've actually learned quite a bit from the UWorld explanations. I finished that qbank some time ago and am working on completing my second pass prior to my USMLE. The reason why I'm asking about a COMLEX qbank is simply to familiarize myself with their question style. Hopefully that clears things up because your responses have me thinking that my intentions are being misunderstood.
 
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NMDO said:
I haven't taken COMLEX yet, but I have both COMBANK and COMQUEST, and I found the questions in comquest to be pretty terrible. The explanations were awful, and a couple of the questions just didn't make sense. Multiple questions with answer choices such as "both a and b" or "A and C" or "none of the above" - so my opinion isn't the best since I haven't taken comlex yet, but since this thread has been pretty slow I figured I would throw in my two cents.
Click to expand...

I just finished Comquest and it is nothing like this. In my opinion, the questions in combank are more obscure and similar to what will be on comlex. However, I think the explanations in comquest are better than combank.
 
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YANKEES88 said:
I just finished Comquest and it is nothing like this. In my opinion, the questions in combank are more obscure and similar to what will be on comlex. However, I think the explanations in comquest are better than combank.
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This is exactly what I was looking for. Thank you for your post!
 
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YANKEES88 said:
I just finished Comquest and it is nothing like this. In my opinion, the questions in combank are more obscure and similar to what will be on comlex. However, I think the explanations in comquest are better than combank.
Click to expand...


Worth it to go through both qbanks?
 
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So I took COMLEX yesterday (Wed) after taking the USMLE on Friday. I'll give you guys a quick summary of my experience since you've all been helpful to me during my prep.

My exam felt like it was 70% micro/OMM/neuro. Every other question would be asking about an innervation or bug, then for fun, they would throw in a question about another organ system. All the questions started sounding the same after a while. Unlike the USMLE, I feel like I can recall very few specific questions from my exam (except for 5 questions on bioterrorism). The questions on COMLEX were more vague than they were on USMLE. That made it more difficult on some questions, but that's COMLEX for you.
I think the thing that surprised me the most was the lack of pathology on the exam. Having used Goljan and Sattar for my USMLE prep, I felt pretty confident in that area, but it was almost completely absent from my exam. If they did ask a question about renal/pulm/cardio etc., it was usually a physio/management/tx/dx type question. There were some path questions, but in comparison to what was on UWORLD/USMLE, it was ridiculous.

I think knowing your OMM and Micro is the key to doing well on COMLEX. If you have those 2 areas down well, I think that is a good foundation for doing well on COMLEX. Definitely do some COMBANK/COMQUEST to prepare you for the style of questions they ask, but I think you are better off using UWORLD as your primary question source.

If people have specific questions, let me know.
 
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lp430 said:
I think the thing that surprised me the most was the lack of pathology on the exam. Having used Goljan and Sattar for my USMLE prep, I felt pretty confident in that area, but it was almost completely absent from my exam. If they did ask a question about renal/pulm/cardio etc., it was usually a physio/management/tx/dx type question. There were some path questions, but in comparison to what was on UWORLD/USMLE, it was ridiculous.
Click to expand...

When I took COMSAE D I felt exactly the same way about the lack of pathology. You could have memorized all of Pathoma and it wouldn't have helped you at all.
 
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lp430 said:
So I took COMLEX yesterday (Wed) after taking the USMLE on Friday. I'll give you guys a quick summary of my experience since you've all been helpful to me during my prep.

My exam felt like it was 70% micro/OMM/neuro. Every other question would be asking about an innervation or bug, then for fun, they would throw in a question about another organ system. All the questions started sounding the same after a while. Unlike the USMLE, I feel like I can recall very few specific questions from my exam (except for 5 questions on bioterrorism). The questions on COMLEX were more vague than they were on USMLE. That made it more difficult on some questions, but that's COMLEX for you.
I think the thing that surprised me the most was the lack of pathology on the exam. Having used Goljan and Sattar for my USMLE prep, I felt pretty confident in that area, but it was almost completely absent from my exam. If they did ask a question about renal/pulm/cardio etc., it was usually a physio/management/tx/dx type question. There were some path questions, but in comparison to what was on UWORLD/USMLE, it was ridiculous.

I think knowing your OMM and Micro is the key to doing well on COMLEX. If you have those 2 areas down well, I think that is a good foundation for doing well on COMLEX. Definitely do some COMBANK/COMQUEST to prepare you for the style of questions they ask, but I think you are better off using UWORLD as your primary question source.

If people have specific questions, let me know.
Click to expand...

It sucks that usmle and comlex are testing different things. But besides OMM, you gotta know micro and neuro for usmle regardless.
 
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Dr Dazzle said:
It sucks that usmle and comlex are testing different things. But besides OMM, you gotta know micro and neuro for usmle regardless.
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I don't think it hurt me on COMLEX, preparing for USMLE, then throwing in some OMM from Savarese. I think the opposite is true. If you are prepared to take the USMLE, you will be fine for COMLEX. I was just surprised at the lack of diversity on COMLEX. For example, I had 5 E. coli UTI questions. The question stems were almost identical and they just wanted to know the bug causing it; no mechanisms, risk factors, treatment. JUST what bug it was. I mean, I'm not complaining about easy points, but is that really testing my medical knowledge, asking the same question 5 times?
 
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lp430 said:
I mean, I'm not complaining about easy points, but is that really testing my medical knowledge, asking the same question 5 times?
Click to expand...

One of the many rights of passage in becoming a DO, unfortunately. Hopefully in due time the COMLEX will quietly sink into the depths of Davy Jones' Locker. Burying it in the sand will do no good. I mean, Jumanji found its way back...
 
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Playing Jumanji would be a more appropriate assessment of our medical knowledge.
 
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Took COMLEX yesterday. I took USMLE the week before so ill mostly be comparing the two exams.

Difficulty: USMLE>>COMLEX, no surprise here

Timing: I literally finished both 4 block sections with 45 min to spare both times so timing isnt an issue compared to the USMLE where youre lucky if you have 10 min to review marked questions. IMO this is the biggest difference between the two exams.

There was easily 30% micro on my exam. Most of it was right out of first aid, a good amount was on stuff that isnt covered but a quick medscape readthrough helps. ex) know your bioterrism agents and how they are used and also know all the different dermatophytes and how to treat them. I only took form D for prep since our school made us,but I was shocked in how little the COMLEX went into detail on Pathophys & physiology in general. Prep for the USMLE made this very easy on test day. Also I felt that all the systems were disproportionately covered. I had alot of Neuro & cardio but literally no renal, some respiratory.

Anatomy: its there but I felt the USMLE anatomy was harder. A couple WTF specific ones but not too bad.
Biochem/Pharm- I think I had a total of 5 biochem questions on the whole exam. Pharm was str8 forward also.
OMM- I dont even know why I crammed a week for this. 80% was viscerosomatic & chapmann.

If anyones is stressing this exam, please focus on Micro then. It will help get you some easy points. The other stuff is covered very superficially.
 
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I have a few questions about test-taking -

What would you recommend doing in the last 5 days before the COMLEX?
a) Should I do FA? + OMM
b) Should I do ComQuest? + OMM
c) Should I do Pathoma? + OMM

On the test day, how did you use the WhiteBoard?
a) Were you able to write down mnemonics, chapman points, cord levels before you forget them (lol!) (Can you write them down BEFORE you start the time for the test?)
b) How did you spend your break time?

And anything you wold recommend about doing, please let me know! Thanks!
 
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acciddropping said:
I have a few questions about test-taking -

What would you recommend doing in the last 5 days before the COMLEX?
a) Should I do FA? + OMM
b) Should I do ComQuest? + OMM
c) Should I do Pathoma? + OMM

On the test day, how did you use the WhiteBoard?
a) Were you able to write down mnemonics, chapman points, cord levels before you forget them (lol!) (Can you write them down BEFORE you start the time for the test?)
b) How did you spend your break time?

And anything you wold recommend about doing, please let me know! Thanks!
Click to expand...
A

I didn't really use the whiteboard at all.

They told me not to write anything done until I see the first Q.

I spent my 3 breaks taking in some water and just trying to close my eyes for a few minutes.
 
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reverieinvictus said:
Little bit of an update. I finished combank with 85%, did NBME 16 and got 245 and took the USMLE last week. Thought it was ridiculously hard. I'm taking the COMLEX on Wednesday. I did COMSAE B a couple of weeks ago and got 730. I also did COMSAE C earlier today and got 725. I'm ecstatic with the COMSAE scores and I hope they aren't overpredicting my grade.
Click to expand...

How'd you think Comsae C was?? I'm taking it next week. Didn't do so hot on Comsae D... any advice?
 
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Apparently that's a trend with Comsaes. D had a lot of Neuro and Psych pharm as well! :p Thanks!
 
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Took it today. Wasn't what I was expecting at all. I've heard horror stories about grammar and spelling errors, vague questions, wtf questions etc but I didn't have any of that. Overall it was much much easier than step 1. Answer choices were so unrelated that even if you had just the slightest idea what the answer was you could eliminate all the other choices. OMM was straightforward, lots of facilitation and sacral but nothing hard. Tons of micro, felt like half the test was micro but again it was very easy to eliminate the wrong answers. I finished with tons of time left while still taking every break available. Maybe I got lucky on my form but from my experience if you can pass step 1 you can ace comlex. Good luck everyone.
 
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Anyone be kind to give list of potential bioterrorism agents? I have a list but wanted to make sure I wasn't missing any
 
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