Official 2015 COMLEX Level 1 Experiences and Scores Thread

[FutureDO2016]

I realized no one made a thread for 2015 so decided to make one. Anyone take the January 6 or 22 test? There's a Feb date coming up soon too. How was it? What did you use to study and would recommend to future test-takers? Anything particularly high-yield? Good luck everyone!

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[SurgeDO]

https://www.nbome.org/cbt_score_conv/

note that this year hasn't been updated yet. enjoy.

 

[razor]

https://www.nbome.org/cbt_score_conv/

note that this year hasn't been updated yet. enjoy.

This is nice to look up an exact percentile for a 3 digit score. It also illustrates the trend for half of test takers score below ~500 (last year happened to be 525) and around 10% fail. So there are going to be thousands of students every year that are very disappointed in their score. I doubt this year is unique. If anything, I would say it was last year's median score of 525 was a fluke, not that this year was a backstab.

 

[Dr Dazzle]

It seems that many people had heavy neuro and repro sections. Do you guys have advice for how to adequately prepare for these and which resources are sufficient?

 

[Pezistential]

It seems that many people had heavy neuro and repro sections. Do you guys have advice for how to adequately prepare for these and which resources are sufficient?

KY jelly, maybe

 

[xrealityx]

Last comment of mine regarding this rescoring issue and I promise I will shut up and call a truce or whatever.

Another thing we have to keep in mind is that the nbome algorithm adjusts the scores to a mean of 500 (or 520?). That means 1/2 of test takers will score below 500 (assuming the median is also ~500, which is a good assumption with several thousand test takers). Which also means that 1/2 of test takers are going to be really upset when they see their score report and came dangerously close to failing or did in fact fail.

And 1/2 of those thousands of test takers is still thousands of unhappy people, hence the reason why we individually don't have the right perspective to judge the scoring. Only someone with true data can assess that.

They said the same **** about the comlex 2 last year and were obviously being dishonest.

 

[xrealityx]

This is nice to look up an exact percentile for a 3 digit score. It also illustrates the trend for half of test takers score below ~500 (last year happened to be 525) and around 10% fail. So there are going to be thousands of students every year that are very disappointed in their score. I doubt this year is unique. If anything, I would say it was last year's median score of 525 was a fluke, not that this year was a backstab.

Look at the other years. Most recent ones were all 526.

 

[Please_Stand_By]

How come on that percentile conversion scores above the means seem to lose percentile numbers from early to recent? By this trend what would be the point of having something like a 580 go from 84% in 2010-2011 to a 72% in 2014-2015???

 

[razor]

Look at the other years. Most recent ones were all 526.

2 and 3 years ago 50%'ile was 513 and 514. 5 years ago it was 491. That's all pretty damn close to 500 when you average it over years. So for the past 5 years literally thousands of students are scoring in the 400s and some of them are failing. That is normal. My only point is that there is nothing wrong with scoring right around or even below 500. That is still well within 1 standard deviation of the mean and is totally normal. The only way to know if this year was bogus is to have access to massive data which none of us have.

Plus, the mean is supposed to be adjusted to 500 and right now we are comparing median. So every year the 50th percentile is going to vary (as in the +/-10 as it has been) based on the distribution of test scores even if the mean remains 500.

 

[razor]

They said the same **** about the comlex 2 last year and were obviously being dishonest.

fair enough.

It's hard to say if it was dishonesty or them trying to improve the rigor of their test but ultimately gave into the blowback from schools and decided to adjust scores.

 

[razor]

How come on that percentile conversion scores above the means seem to lose percentile numbers from early to recent? By this trend what would be the point of having something like a 580 go from 84% in 2010-2011 to a 72% in 2014-2015???

That's the score inflation people were talking about, the reason nbome supposedly (I'm a little skeptical, myself) revamps their test/scoring system every few years. That was my point about last year being a fluke because scores were much higher last year compared to the past years.

 

[razor]

KY jelly, maybe

true statement

 

[663212]

When I got my Level 1 score back this week, I was shocked to see how low it was. With my performance on COMBANK and COMQUEST, I was expecting to be at least average. Is anyone here in the same situation? I have considered to pay the $50 to rescore my test, but I would hate to take the risk to get it rescored and get a lower score enough to fail.

The current question banks (content and peer scores) fooled me! The real exam was infinitely harder and the peer scores in the qbanks I think are probably deflated. Anyone feel this way?

I really hope I don't end up being fooled like this for Level 2.

 

[razor]

When I got my Level 1 score back this week, I was shocked to see how low it was. With my performance on COMBANK and COMQUEST, I was expecting to be at least average. Is anyone here in the same situation? I have considered to pay the $50 to rescore my test, but I would hate to take the risk to get it rescored and get a lower score enough to fail.

The current question banks (content and peer scores) fooled me! The real exam was infinitely harder and the peer scores in the qbanks I think are probably deflated. Anyone feel this way?

I really hope I don't end up being fooled like this for Level 2.

Except for the purposes of OMM specific questions, combank, comquest, and comsaes are all a waste of money, in my opinion. None of them are representative of the real exam. Their answer options are usually too obvious, i.e. the right answer is a buzz word and the incorrect answers are absurdly wrong. They also don't prepare you for the question stem length.

The real exam is much more clever with the wording of the decoy answer options so as to tempt you to select an incorrect answer. It's better at discriminating understanding vs. word recognition/associations. Still a crappy test with vague questions and even more vague answer options.

 

[663212]

Since the COMLEX is crappy, I guess don't have much hope for Level 2? Any advice on how to prepare for it despite inaccurate resources?

I did mention in another thread (though no one replied...) that I want to see if I can do USMLE Step 2 in addition to Level 2. I need more opportunities to redeem my poor Level 1 score. I heard the USMLE is better written too, and I hope that there are accurate indicators to how I will be doing on the real thing opposed to COMLEX?

That's just too bad for COMLEX. I wrote a complaint at the end of my exam. It did not say it was anonymous though. Whoops.

 

[pathologyDO]

For the record, I think the answer to your question that I bolded is 'no' but it depends on the specific wording. Did it say inhalation motion was restricted or an inhalation dysfunction? Those are opposites even though they sound similar. You have to remember that most (maybe all?) dysfunctions are named for their position of ease. That's why you have to understand the concept of rib motion and not just memorize mnemonics, e.g. BITE mnemonic for ribs. Reminds me of a saying of one of my mentors, "You learn by rote memorization, you will fail by rote memorization."

It's all about big picture concepts and eliminating the 3 out of 5 answer options that are very tempting because they are laced with buzz words but they don't really have anything to do with the concept being tested. This is like the classmate that always chimes in with "Amyloidosis!" and "Sarcoidosis!" at the top of their differential because it's a memorable word and it makes them feel like Dr. House.

But, I totally agree with you on the rest of the feelings of the test. I walked out feeling like I guessed on so many questions and worried that I failed. Chances are you will be just fine and be pleasantly surprised on score release day. Hope that eases your anxiety.

Sorry, but I think you're assuming something that you shouldn't assume. I definitely know the difference between naming a dysfunction and where it is restricted and find it kind of rude that you would assume I would not... it is distasteful to lecture someone about something you have no idea of their knowledge base about, and based on an assumption that you have no idea is correct. You name dysfunctions for where they like to live, I say that to myself everytime I think about an osteopathic dysfunction - it has been ingrained deeply.

In my case it was clearly stated that the rib was specifically restricted on inhalation, which means the top rib was causing the log jam. Answers did not include the top rib, and for that matter did not even include the bottom rib in the group dysfunction had I misread the question, which REALLY had me thrown off because they obviously were not looking for that type of answer, I honestly had no idea what they were wanting from me.

Anyways, besides your condescending posts I'm glad we can at least share that we came out of the exam feeling like it sucked.

 

[Jwalker]

Sorry, but I think you're assuming something that you shouldn't assume. I definitely know the difference between naming a dysfunction and where it is restricted and find it kind of rude that you would assume I would not... it is distasteful to lecture someone about something you have no idea of their knowledge base about, and based on an assumption that you have no idea is correct. You name dysfunctions for where they like to live, I say that to myself everytime I think about an osteopathic dysfunction - it has been ingrained deeply.

In my case it was clearly stated that the rib was specifically restricted on inhalation, which means the top rib was causing the log jam. Answers did not include the top rib, and for that matter did not even include the bottom rib in the group dysfunction had I misread the question, which REALLY had me thrown off because they obviously were not looking for that type of answer, I honestly had no idea what they were wanting from me.

Anyways, besides your condescending posts I'm glad we can at least share that we came out of the exam feeling like it sucked.

It was probably thoracics. Always treat thoracics before ribs.

 

[razor]

Sorry, but I think you're assuming something that you shouldn't assume. I definitely know the difference between naming a dysfunction and where it is restricted and find it kind of rude that you would assume I would not... it is distasteful to lecture someone about something you have no idea of their knowledge base about, and based on an assumption that you have no idea is correct. You name dysfunctions for where they like to live, I say that to myself everytime I think about an osteopathic dysfunction - it has been ingrained deeply.

In my case it was clearly stated that the rib was specifically restricted on inhalation, which means the top rib was causing the log jam. Answers did not include the top rib, and for that matter did not even include the bottom rib in the group dysfunction had I misread the question, which REALLY had me thrown off because they obviously were not looking for that type of answer, I honestly had no idea what they were wanting from me.

Anyways, besides your condescending posts I'm glad we can at least share that we came out of the exam feeling like it sucked.

I'm sorry that I made you feel like this was a "lecture" directed at you. That was not my intention. In fact only the first 3 sentences and the last paragraph were directed at you. The rest was just me ranting for future lurkers that are reading up on what to expect on the test. You said it pretty well in the part I bolded above. They are really good at asking questions in a way that makes it impossible to get by on word associations, like exhalation dysfunction = top rib. (which was the point of my ramblings earlier) Again I'm sorry and when I read it now I can see how you would feel like I was talking down to you. This was not my intent as I was treating this like my personal blogosphere.

PS why did you even ask the question "...treat top rib first, yes?" in your original post if that's not even what the question was asking?

 

[pathologyDO]

I'm sorry that I made you feel like this was a "lecture" directed at you. That was not my intention. In fact only the first 3 sentences and the last paragraph were directed at you. The rest was just me ranting for future lurkers that are reading up on what to expect on the test. You said it pretty well in the part I bolded above. They are really good at asking questions in a way that makes it impossible to get by on word associations, like exhalation dysfunction = top rib. (which was the point of my ramblings earlier) Again I'm sorry and when I read it now I can see how you would feel like I was talking down to you. This was not my intent as I was treating this like my personal blogosphere.

PS why did you even ask the question "...treat top rib first, yes?" in your original post if that's not even what the question was asking?

It was a rhetorical question, so that's why this isn't making sense to you. Sorry for the confusion, I thought my post seemed pretty explanatory as to my intention for posting (e.g. To rant). Definitely wasn't asking for advice on how to name a somatic dysfunction. It was to rant because that question clearly sucked in my opinion, but hey, there must have been a right answer.

 

[pathologyDO]

It was probably thoracics. Always treat thoracics before ribs.

Fair enough, you do treat thoracics before ribs that is true. Out of interest, if this was a question regarding an exhalation dysfunction and they asked which specific thoracic vertebrae to treat, would it be any different of an answer? Wouldn't you treat the upper vertebrae articulating with the top rib? I would have assumed treat the upper vertebrae since that articulates with the rib and that rib is the one causing the others to be restricted. Maybe this was more of an anatomy tie asking about whether you knew ribs do touch two vertebrae... I could see maybe going up one vertebrae as being the answer choice I guess.

 

[pathologyDO]

I'm sorry that I made you feel like this was a "lecture" directed at you. That was not my intention. In fact only the first 3 sentences and the last paragraph were directed at you. The rest was just me ranting for future lurkers that are reading up on what to expect on the test. You said it pretty well in the part I bolded above. They are really good at asking questions in a way that makes it impossible to get by on word associations, like exhalation dysfunction = top rib. (which was the point of my ramblings earlier) Again I'm sorry and when I read it now I can see how you would feel like I was talking down to you. This was not my intent as I was treating this like my personal blogosphere.

PS why did you even ask the question "...treat top rib first, yes?" in your original post if that's not even what the question was asking?

No hard feelings, I just interpreted all of your posts as coming into the thread and bashing students that scored low + lecturing me on my rhetorical question as being condescending.

 

[NurWollen]

Hey has anyone that has received both their COMLEX scores and USMLE scores noticed a trend of USMLE scores being lower than you would expect based on their COMLEX? I have my COMLEX score but not my USMLE score, but I have two buddies you got lower USMLE scores than you would expect based on their COMLEX scores. I realize this is somewhat normal but the different was much bigger than I would have predicted.

 

[dfib slim]

.

 

[dzldo]

How competitive is a score of 550 on this years COMLEX exam?
Does the "restandardization" affect the mean and how PDs will compare the scores?

 

[Cardio_4_Life]

Hey has anyone that has received both their COMLEX scores and USMLE scores noticed a trend of USMLE scores being lower than you would expect based on their COMLEX? I have my COMLEX score but not my USMLE score, but I have two buddies you got lower USMLE scores than you would expect based on their COMLEX scores. I realize this is somewhat normal but the different was much bigger than I would have predicted.

I did much better on USMLE.

 

[LUPUS!]

So the nbome scoring (curve) is already set for each exam. It doesn't matter how good or bad the ppl do on that test day. The grade is already adjusted. I'm retaking in September btw

 

[Please_Stand_By]

I did much better on USMLE.

Do you mind saying your scores? I have a feeling now the USMLE is going to be disappointing on Wed :/

 

[DJ2207]

Did anyone take COMLEX July 14th? What were your thoughts ? I did UWORLD 2x with a 77% avg , Comquest :84% , Combank 82% avg .

Every question on the exam was extremely long, I kept thinking the next question will be different . I was wrong . There were tons of videos it felt like, I did saverese twice , did the DIT OMM add on , and non of that felt like it could have helped . Seemed like I guessed on at least 50-60% of the exam . I'm still scratching my head thinking where did this come from . For neuro I did well in the block , read first aid several times and did High Yield neuro and still wondered what I could have studied differently because non of it helped for the most part .

Anyone else take it and feel the same ? Someone in admin at my school thinks it must be one of the "tougher" exams

 

[DrEnderW]

Hey has anyone that has received both their COMLEX scores and USMLE scores noticed a trend of USMLE scores being lower than you would expect based on their COMLEX? I have my COMLEX score but not my USMLE score, but I have two buddies you got lower USMLE scores than you would expect based on their COMLEX scores. I realize this is somewhat normal but the different was much bigger than I would have predicted.

I got ~250 and ~670 which I think it's about a 10 percentile difference.

I thought comlex was harder but with a more forgiving scale.

 

[xrealityx]

Did anyone take COMLEX July 14th? What were your thoughts ? I did UWORLD 2x with a 77% avg , Comquest :84% , Combank 82% avg .

Every question on the exam was extremely long, I kept thinking the next question will be different . I was wrong . There were tons of videos it felt like, I did saverese twice , did the DIT OMM add on , and non of that felt like it could have helped . Seemed like I guessed on at least 50-60% of the exam . I'm still scratching my head thinking where did this come from . For neuro I did well in the block , read first aid several times and did High Yield neuro and still wondered what I could have studied differently because non of it helped for the most part .

Anyone else take it and feel the same ? Someone in admin at my school thinks it must be one of the "tougher" exams

Yea a lot of us who took it July 14th wrote about our experiences (we all thought it was horrible). Actually, there have never been so many posts about an exam date.. So maybe it was literally the worst ever lolol.

 

[Please_Stand_By]

I got ~250 and ~670 which I think it's about a 10 percentile difference.

I thought comlex was harder but with a more forgiving scale.

Those are fantastic scores. My comlex was lower than yours but hopefully same USMLE

 

[DJ2207]

Yea a lot of us who took it July 14th wrote about our experiences (we all thought it was horrible). Actually, there have never been so many posts about an exam date.. So maybe it was literally the worst ever lolol.

Okay that somewhat makes me feel better, not that I want anyone to not do well, it's just reassuring knowing I wasn't alone lol .

For what it's worth someone in admin at my school with connections with NBOME said that historically hard exams tend to equal "decent" (just because it takes few correct answers to boost your scores) . Granted that is some serious speculation with no data to back it up. I'm sure there was a little "Sugar coating" to not make me feel like S*^! also . She did say that there's only been one other cycle this year that she's aware of that has had the experience I described to her . Time will tell.


Basically it seemed like NBOME said "Tis Tis" to only reading the green book, and knowing visceral and chapmans. Perhaps we should have done a +1 OMM fellowship before .... HA. My mistake .

 

[663212]

Reading the responses of this thread makes me feel better. For the past few weeks, I've been wondering if I'd have done any better if I took the exam another day. I felt like I was struck by bad luck. I hope that COMBANK and COMQUEST are up to speed with updated Level 2 questions by the time I study hard for it...

 

[abolt18]

I think most people score in a lower percentile on the USMLE compared to the Comlex. I haven't heard of a normal range but maybe 10 percentile point drop on the USMLE would be expected?

My USMLE was 5 percentile points lower.

Mine's 15-20 different. Mid 70's and low 90's on the USMLE and COMLEX respectively. (Talking percentiles in case that isn't clear)

 

[DrEnderW]

Mine's 15-20 different. Mid 70's and low 90's on the USMLE and COMLEX respectively.

Congrats on the great scores!

 

[dfib slim]

.

 

[FutureDoctaHolla]

I have been following this thread for awhile and decided to finally make an account / post my scores which were released with the last batch

Comsae C (2 months out): 480
Comsae B (3 weeks out): 595

Comlex: 520

 

[EmergDoc2B]

Hey has anyone that has received both their COMLEX scores and USMLE scores noticed a trend of USMLE scores being lower than you would expect based on their COMLEX? I have my COMLEX score but not my USMLE score, but I have two buddies you got lower USMLE scores than you would expect based on their COMLEX scores. I realize this is somewhat normal but the different was much bigger than I would have predicted.

Im in the opposite boat. I crapped the bed (if using comsaes as a predictor) and scored > 240 on my usmle.

 

[Please_Stand_By]

Anyone know how many people have failed at their school so far? Ours is ~25 currently.

Holy cow. I know one person at least, surely there's probably a few more. What % of your class is that!?

 

[Pisiform]

Anyone know how many people have failed at their school so far? Ours is ~25 currently.

thats a lot. In my class, so far 1 have failed, 5 scores are still pending. But then again my entire class was full of smart people. I hope I pass because I am in the pending group.

 

[NurWollen]

>20%

Wow. That's really too bad. I Hope it turns out OK for you all.

 

[xrealityx]

Anyone know how many people have failed at their school so far? Ours is ~25 currently.

Is this out of the ordinary for your school? My school usually has 3 or less fail out of a class of 160, granted they require a comsae score of above 450 before we are allowed to sit for our boards.

 

[Please_Stand_By]

Wow. That's really too bad. I Hope it turns out OK for you all.

Edit (oops): Surely their school administration has some influence on the NBOME. You think they'd be concerned about the number right?

Is this out of the ordinary for your school? My school usually has 3 or less fail out of a class of 160, granted they require a comsae score of above 450 before we are allowed to sit for our boards.

The person who failed @ my school had over a 450 on D and so did many others who were having trouble. Not looking good then for those who may be hovering around a 420-480 on comsaes :/

 

[xrealityx]

Surely their school administration has


The person who failed @ my school had over a 450 on D and so did many others who were having trouble. Not looking good then for those who may be hovering around a 420-480 on comsaes :/

Yea but still, if 25 failed and that's not normal for your school, I want to know. If it's normal I don't care

 

[LUPUS!]

^
Last year only 10 ppl failed. This year the number has doubled.

 

[Chiefer]

That may light a fire under our school's asses to talk to NBOME to figure it out - more so than us individually sending emails and discussing it on a forum. Our schools also rely on how good their students do, so having a bunch of people fail or do poorly does not look good for them either.

As much as a few people on here still don't believe it, I basically refuse to believe that this year's tests and scoring is the exact same as previous years. Something (or many things) changed, and we're getting screwed by new testing methods and score adjustments.

 

[663212]

I agree that this year's tests and scoring seems to be exceptional. Something should be done about it (What can we do?). I am not taking my score seriously now. How, if anything, are residency programs going to be informed about this?

 

[DJ2207]

I personally don't think anything will be done . Our school is sitting at 100% pass rate with 110 confirmed scores . There are still 30 scores out there including mine , which my exam made me think it will take a miracle for me to pass when I was doing well on comsae and high 90s on Combank assessments . Point being , I'm sure there are plenty of schools and people with high scores

Guess time will tell but I've heard some super high scores from my school so I'm doubtful anything will change (several 7o0+) I think the school average is 557 right now . But everyone's exam was NOTHInG like the one I took on the 14th so it will be interesting to see what that group of scores look like .

Is there any data that shows averages of each day of scores ? I'm guessing not

 

[scoKraz4]

Edit (oops): Surely their school administration has some influence on the NBOME. You think they'd be concerned about the number right?


The person who failed @ my school had over a 450 on D and so did many others who were having trouble. Not looking good then for those who may be hovering around a 420-480 on comsaes :/

The problem is that the comsais don't simulate the real experience by not locking you from the internet so sometimes people cheat on them to pass, get approved by their school, and then schedule the comlex. My school administered it so that cheating was definitely possible if you wanted to do that. It doesn't do anything for you though obviously.

 

[abolt18]

The problem is that the comsais don't simulate the real experience by not locking you from the internet so sometimes people cheat on them to pass, get approved by their school, and then schedule the comlex. My school administered it so that cheating was definitely possible if you wanted to do that. It doesn't do anything for you though obviously.

I figure if someone wants to cheat on a practice test, go right ahead! It's silly. The only person being cheated is the cheater.

 

[razor]

The problem is that the comsais don't simulate the real experience by not locking you from the internet so sometimes people cheat on them to pass, get approved by their school, and then schedule the comlex. My school administered it so that cheating was definitely possible if you wanted to do that. It doesn't do anything for you though obviously.

That's what I did