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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[EllaLaGustaLaMedacina]

I just took COMLEX level 1 this past Wednesday (2 days ago)- I felt extremely prepared going into it with absolutely no doubts about passing- I passed COMSAE D a month before and got a 540 on an 8 hour practice Qbank test provided by our school- I got a 201 on a Uworld assessment 2 weeks before (not taking USMLE until June 22)- however, I felt like I failed after the test.

It seems like I had a similar experience to many people posting on here. My test was EXTREMELY neuro heavy (mostly blood supply), with the remainder being micro, repro, and GI, and a tiny bit of cardio sprinkled in. The pharm was psych/neuro heavy. The question stems were long with a lot of unnecessary distractors and I found myself running short on time which never happened even when I was using UWORLD. Even the OMM questions were worded very strange and unnecessarily tricky. Lots of cranial.

A couple of my classmates I have talked to who have already taken it have had similar experiences. One of my classmates actually talked to one of our D.O. professors, who said there are 15 tests used- so I'm not sure that the whole 2 test thing is true, it may be true there are 2 formats and within those formats there are multiple tests.

Hope that was helpful for anyone. Good luck to those who still need to take it and know your neuro.

Took mine the exact same day as you, and told my friends literally the exact same thing after I finished. I went into the test feeling confident, but left feeling confident I either failed it or scored in the 400s. I did about 90% of both UWorld and COMBANK before my test date, and I don't think either prepared me for the type of questions I was asked on my exam. I think that ~20% or more of mine was pharmacology, with about 15% of those consisting of psych/neuro drugs (I think I got asked one antimicrobial question). OMM was the expected ~30%, and I would say another 20% was neuro. The rest was split up between between other subjects, most of them very vague. I also ran short on time during my exam to the point where I had to guess on a few just to answer them, which never was a problem with me. Extremely difficult exam.

 

[dfib slim]

If you finish a Comlex block early is that time lost or is it added to break time/another block?

Blocks 1-4 are 2 hours long followed be the 40 min lunch break. Finishing early won't add any extra time.

 

[chaingangdx]

Took this today

Not going into too many details because I'm exhausted but if you haven't used Uworld to prep throughout the past few months or so, you're gonna be in for a rude awakening

 

[theheartguy526]

Took this biatch last week. Just a brief rundown of my thoughts here because overall my experience was identical to what you read in last year's level 1 thread. Lots o' micro, pharm, neuro/anatomy/omm and a surprising amount of the common CV and pulm stuff like asthma and CHF.

To sum it up I walked out of the testing center pretty pissed off because a) I felt like the exam in no way tested my understanding of the first two years of medical school and b) most of the wtf type questions were a straight forward vignette with answer options that were like word games...I felt like I was choosing the least incorrect answer rather than the most correct. It was really weird beyond the level that I saw on COMSAE's.

Now, let me back up a bit and say that I tend to dwell on the few questions I got wrong and forget about the easy ones. I spent the last 2 years thinking I failed every test because all I could think about were the 15 tough questions on the test. Then come to find out that I got the other 85 easy--moderately difficult questions right.

My thoughts by subject:
1. Micro: these were mostly first order name the bug based off most common or other ID characteristics we love like thayer-martin agar, lysed RBCs etc.. When it was dysentery, only one option would be a crampy, bloody diarrhea while the other 4 options were watery diarhea pathogens. If you know your basics and buzzwords, micro is easy points.

2.Neuro/anatomy/omm: I lump these together because sometimes I wasnt' sure what subject the question was. Neuro was tons what artery causing the stroke symptoms. Anatomy/neuro was your standard peripheral nerves innervation etc. OMM seemed straight forward. There were a few odd ball questions but the bulk were exactly what you probably saw on your school's exams.

3. Pharm: I studied the hell out of pharm because I'm a nerd so this is hard for me to judge the difficulty. Either first order class of drug for disease X or MOA for drug Y. The rest were side effx and toxicities. I thought they were easy when I would pick up on the classic side effect or toxicity. If you know these, the questions are as simple as spironolactone is a K-sparing is putting someone at risk for hyperK, for example. If you don't pick up what they're hinting at then it's just a guess and move on.

4. The rest seemed like it was mostly type of pathophysiology questions. In reality most of these were as straight forward regarding starling forces or Like, e.g., a 3 paragraph clinical presentation and history of a patient and then it would ask what is causing symptom X. Then, none of the answer choices would make sense and you would spend 45 seconds decoding them to choose which one in a round-about way would maybe indirectly lead to the symptom X.

One last tip I can think of right now: Most of the questions are very short 2-3 sentences, but when you get the occasional longer pt presentation, don't get lured in to sifting through every word trying to figure it out along the way. Jump to the bottom and look at the actual question. This is a made up example to preserve test confidentiality, but I had several that were of similar style. Example: a 500 word H&P on a burn victim with all of his lab values and comorbidities then the real question at the end was what is the most likely pathogen infecting his burn wounds.

And finally, the reason I say I didn't feel like it reflected my understanding of medicine was because I spent 2 years learning from sources like pathoma, first aid, comlex-style Q banks and NONE of these will prepare you for their crappily-worded answer choices. Now, the bulk of the test was textbook, board-review type of questions, but those wtf questions are so frustrating they'll make you want to build a time machine, go back in time, and burn your AACOMAS app and only apply MD.

/end rant.

We will all pass and be doctors. I just wanted to share my thoughts.

Thank you and godspeed for all those upcoming comlexes!

I completely agree with you. I just took it today. It was like "what did I honestly work my ass of for the last two years (besides the obvious reasons lol) to be given a crap test like this?? So frustrating.

 

[AtlasCarraway]

Sat COMLEX today. Not sure if I got the easy form or the hard one but I would say it was easily 50% neuro. Not even exaggerating. Can't think of too much to say other than that I trust my COMSAE scores and am doing my best to forget about the last 7 weeks of my life. Willing to answer any questions that y'all have!

 

[DrCuttlefish]

Jesus 50% neuro?! Any other systems heavily covered?

 

[AtlasCarraway]

I'd say the next most common systems were Female Repro > Cardio >Renal > Pulm > MSS. Maybe 3 or 4 heme questions (all anemias). Anatomy outside of neuro was very straightforward (which nerve is damaged, what motion will be lost).

 

[FLKID]

Sat COMLEX today. Not sure if I got the easy form or the hard one but I would say it was easily 50% neuro. Not even exaggerating. Can't think of too much to say other than that I trust my COMSAE scores and am doing my best to forget about the last 7 weeks of my life. Willing to answer any questions that y'all have!

Would you say combank, comquest or comsaes were representative at all of the material?

Sure you rocked it!

 

[AtlasCarraway]

Thank you! For the most part, I think Combank and COMSAEs were both very representative of the type of questions I saw. There was a 2 question set that was almost word-for-word out of Combank in one of my sections.

Having said that, I only did about 25% of Combank during my dedicated. I did UW 2x, half of USMLERx, and COMSAE A (543), B (617), and C (628). As well as NBME 13, 15, 16, 17.

 

[futuredrdo]

Any recent feedback, on how to cover OMM? Was thinking saversese and COMBANK q, just wanted to know it that is sufficient? Also how much of your test was OMM? thanks.

 

[abolt18]

Any recent feedback, on how to cover OMM? Was thinking saversese and COMBANK q, just wanted to know it that is sufficient? Also how much of your test was OMM? thanks.

What you're doing + memorize the YouTube viscerosomatics and chapman's points videos should be more than enough.

 

[JimBobDO]

Just finished my COMLEX a couple of hours ago. Feel like I've been run over by a bus. Assuming I had the "beast mode" version as people are calling it (or one of the beast mode versions) because it was nothing like Combank, U World, or the COMSAEs. I feel MUCH better about the USMLE I took on Monday than I do about this.

With the USMLE 1) The questions were better written and more straight-forward, 2) The break system is better, 3) The pictures were actually good quality (I had one micro slide on COMLEX that was literally too blurry to make heads or tails of). My COMLEX had zero audio/video questions. Tons of micro, neuro, coagulopathies, some social questions that were laughable, and a bunch of cranial OMT that made me want to slam my head into the desk to induce a sphenobasilar compression dysfunction.

Honestly I think if my test was any reflection of the COMLEX as a whole, they need to scrap it and just focus on writing an OPP supplement to the USMLE. Just have us take that and add an extra block on the end.

TLDR; Test sucked.

Edit: FWIW I was around 523 on COMSAE D. Will be happy to have passed.

 

[abolt18]

Honestly I think if my test was any reflection of the COMLEX as a whole, they need to scrap it and just focus on writing an OPP supplement to the USMLE. Just have us take that and add an extra block on the end.

TLDR; Test sucked.

Edit: FWIW I was around 523 on COMSAE D. Will be happy to have passed.

This is EXACTLY how I feel about it. Or just make everyone take the omm comat to test omm competency.

 

[bobsanchez123c]

Hey guys,

My COMLEX is in a couple of days and I am freaking out a little bit. How representative where the COMSAEs in terms of the COMLEX. I have finished COMBANK and I did COMSAE D (650's) through my school.

Any recommendations for a final review of PHARM. Is first aid sufficient?

 

[EmergDoc2B]

First aid is sufficient. Your time would be better spent reviewing areas that are more represented on the exam. OMM, Neuro, Micro ect. Pharm is going to be the least of your worries. Oh and buckle up for the cumbersome OMM vignettes that suck the time out of each block. Worst exam ever. Oh and brush up on the ankle anatomy. Someone at AOA headquarters has an ankle fetish.

 

[JimBobDO]

Honestly, as far as whether COMSAE is representative, it depends who you talk to and most likely which version they got. Some people say it wasn't that bad and with a decent COMSAE score under your belt you won't be that surprised. Others (like me and the last poster) either got a radically different version or else perceive reality differently than those folks. Who knows!

If you're mid-600s on COMSAE, my inclination would be to say you've prepared about as much as possible, so go in with a smile and do your best! Of course, if your goal is a 750 then I can't help ya.

 

[MedicalMBA]

Hey guys just got done with my USMLE, trying to map out a decent way to spend my next 4 days before my COMLEX. How did you guys use this time? I'm going to be doing Savarese, COMBANK OMM questions, and another COMSAE. Did you guys find you were forgetting a lot of the details you knew for the USMLE by the time you took the COMLEX or was that not a big issue? Thanks!

 

[abolt18]

Hey guys just got done with my USMLE, trying to map out a decent way to spend my next 4 days before my COMLEX. How did you guys use this time? I'm going to be doing Savarese, COMBANK OMM questions, and another COMSAE. Did you guys find you were forgetting a lot of the details you knew for the USMLE by the time you took the COMLEX or was that not a big issue? Thanks!

I just would say doing OMM plus a thorough review of neuro (anatomy, pharm, path, etc.) Because apparently half the test was neuro. Mine was.

 

[BB8730]

Hey guys just got done with my USMLE, trying to map out a decent way to spend my next 4 days before my COMLEX. How did you guys use this time? I'm going to be doing Savarese, COMBANK OMM questions, and another COMSAE. Did you guys find you were forgetting a lot of the details you knew for the USMLE by the time you took the COMLEX or was that not a big issue? Thanks!

I also had 4 days in between my USMLE and COMLEX. I felt like I was forgetting a lot of details in between exams, but when I took the COMLEX I remembered pretty much everything that I knew for the USMLE, so don't worry about that. I would definitely recommend focusing on OMM. I memorized the viscerosomatics and Chapman's videos, cranial patterns, and then did about 200 OMM qbank questions - memorizing the stuff I got wrong. I felt like I was well-prepared for OMM questions during the COMLEX.

I also had the "neuro heavy" exam that everyone is talking about. You could try to do some extra neuro review but make sure you have your OMM down solid first. The difficult neuro questions were so off-the-wall that I don't know how it would be possible to study for them. If you know the neuro in UFAP pretty well, you'll be okay.

 

[nwmedapplicant]

I think the worse part about these reports is that the exam can be weighed so heavily towards any one system.. :- / thought the idea was to test the generality of the student's knowledge rather than a specialty type exam.

 

[MedicalMBA]

Did you guys see a lot of random counter-strain tender point locations on your exams?

 

[lakersfan24]

can someone post a link to the viscerosomatics and Chapman's videos?

 

[eagles1234]

can someone post a link to the viscerosomatics and Chapman's videos?

so good,
idk about the chapman points video, i would like to have that to

 

[dfib slim]

 

[razor]

so good,
idk about the chapman points video, i would like to have that to

The viscerosomatics on my exam didn't require this level of detail. If it was a midgut problem, 2 of the answers options were outside of the T1-L2 range, one would be T1-T4, and one would be L1-L2. This leaves only one option, probably something in the T10-T12 (+/- 2 levels).

Just to reemphasize a point, there were usually 1 to 2 answer options that weren't even levels of sympathetic origin.

 

[eagles1234]

Hello all, my exam is quickly approaching. I know that tests varry, but can someone please rate from highest yield to lowest (in terms of the 16 chapters in FA) on the exam. This will be my last run through and I might not able able to go through it all.

 

[abolt18]

Hello all, my exam is quickly approaching. I know that tests varry, but can someone please rate from highest yield to lowest (in terms of the 16 chapters in FA) on the exam. This will be my last run through and I might not able able to go through it all.

Highest, neuro. Lowest, everything else apparently.

 

[eagles1234]

Highest, neuro. Lowest, everything else apparently.

Loll thanks

 

[MedicalMBA]

Based on what people have said on this forum so far I'll probably be focusing on Neuro/neuroanatomy, Repro, OMM, Bugs and Drugs (especially psych and neuro). But it's definitely a crapshoot so I would probably just focus on what you feel are your weakest topics.

5 days is definitely too long for this lol this is miserable.

 

[eagles1234]

Based on what people have said on this forum so far I'll probably be focusing on Neuro/neuroanatomy, Repro, OMM, Bugs and Drugs (especially psych and neuro). But it's definitely a crapshoot so I would probably just focus on what you feel are your weakest topics.

5 days is definitely too long for this lol this is miserable.

thanks for the input, ill be doing that, good luck

 

[schwasted589]

Did you guys see a lot of random counter-strain tender point locations on your exams?

yep. and I had no idea what the answers were.

 

[hallowmann]

When people say Neuro heavy, do you guys mean like lesions and deficits, path mainly, or are we talking tracts, where they decussate, all of the above, etc. Micro, Pharm, and Neuro are basically my weakest areas in general, so I need some hard focusing on those subjects right now, and any help would be appreciated, since apparently 70-80% of the exam is all just those...

 

[abolt18]

When people say Neuro heavy, do you guys mean like lesions and deficits, path mainly, or are we talking tracts, where they decussate, all of the above, etc. Micro, Pharm, and Neuro are basically my weakest areas in general, so I need some hard focusing on those subjects right now, and any help would be appreciated, since apparently 70-80% of the exam is all just those...

I mean like everything neuro. Everything. Anatomy (blood supply, pathways, homunculus, lesions, etc.), path, pharm, physiology, infectious. Also psych drugs.

 

[ikazmi]

Hey guys,

My comlex is in two days. I was wondering how much does the COMLEX focus on treatment? The COMBANK OMM questions focused very little on the specifics of treatment especially chapters 14 (Counterstrain) chapters 15 (Muscle Energy) and chapter 16 (HVLA) of Saverese. For example, if you had Anterior Rib Tenderpoint, what treatment position would you put him in? These type of questions were pretty much nonexistent on combank, at least for countetrstrain.

 

[walleyealx]

Here's to hoping they used all of the neuro questions up on the COMLEX's last week...

 

[abolt18]

Hey guys,

My comlex is in two days. I was wondering how much does the COMLEX focus on treatment? The COMBANK OMM questions focused very little on the specifics of treatment especially chapters 14 (Counterstrain) chapters 15 (Muscle Energy) and chapter 16 (HVLA) of Saverese. For example, if you had Anterior Rib Tenderpoint, what treatment position would you put him in? These type of questions were pretty much nonexistent on combank, at least for countetrstrain.

I had a few treatment questions. Not difficult ones I thought. Definitely rib treatments (inhaled vs exhaled, which rib to treat. Which muscles act on which ribs including 11-12). Had at list one rib counterstrain q. Several vertebral treatment set-up questions (diagnosis given. How would you set up for treatment using ME or balanced ligamentous tension etc)

 

[manno]

Just finished with COMLEX yesterday. My 2 cents.
The 2 test theory doesnt seem to hold water I think its more mixing and matching of questions to create similar but obviously different exams.
So:
UW random timed (I only did random timed) first time % 67
UW second pass random timed 90%
UW 1 assessment 230
UW 2 assessment 232
Comsae D 540
Comsae C 628
Comsae B 650
Comsae A 587
School provided 8 hour 400 question Commbank exam 670
Commbank OMM side 71% (89% completed) I used this as my subject specific questions during 2nd year so Im not sure the percent means anything significant. I just added it to be complete.
Commbank form A 88th percentile (no 3 digit equivalent waste of time and money)
NBME 13 207
NBME 11 228
NBME 12 228
NBME 15 234
My exam:
Was heavy on OMM. May seems like a no brainer but I wasnt expecting > 30% and thats what it felt like. As reported above the stems were daunting and time consuming and there was no skip to the end and get what the question was asking. You had to be engaged understand multiple diagnoses with the patient and then answer convoluted questions based on that stem. I did have several straight forward sacral and thoracic DX but even those were worded in sux a way that if you doubted yourself you were hosed.

Cardio: straight forward EKG's one weird one but nothing horrendous.

Neuro: Very heavy but it was vascular business as mention above and thats my jam so I felt like they were know it or dont style questions based on a classic presentation of symptoms. Where is the patient numb, tingling and where are the sensory defects and motor defects ect. There were a couple of spinal presentations that were mind benders due to the awkward presentation of a classic disease process.

Path/immuno: these were combined a lot on my test. It was subtle and until mentioned to me I wasnt even aware thats how the stems were written.
It was CD markers, histo of sections asking whether it was cancer or infection.

Micro: I had 2 out of your ass type bugs but one had a clue in the name of the bug that I feel tipped you off to the answer so I would read carefully and if all else fails go with the latin meaning. I also had some very crappy, blurry micro pics of bugs that made the DX more difficult and stressful that need be.

Biochem: on my exam was a joke. there was a TCA cycle question and Urea cycle question and it was just asking did you memorize the cycles, period.

Pharm: Again it was straight forward. I did have an pic that asked about physiology of psych drugs. No group of drugs was more represented than others, I felt. I struggle with with psych drugs so I feel like I remembered those questions more so keep that in mind.

All in all I felt like **** when I left. I was shooting for a 600+ and will be happy to pass. I felt like commbank OMM questions were childs play in comparison to the real thing and savarese is an antiquated POS. Not a single thing we have to prepare ourselves is at the level of the real exam. Its unfortunate because we pay a lot of money to get close but in regard to omm nothing out there compares. Uworld is the bees knees for the hard sciences and if you do well on Uworld then the concepts for comlex are free points. The rub is the questions are purposely vague and leave you picking between two decent answers 50% of the time and then its a question of whether you have balls that clank or are you wishy washy and if you're the latter your hosed. Last thing I would advise would be if youre a coffee drinker get youre buzz on early and use red bull and skip the coffee. I went in and my first two blocks were tough and I felt mentally sluggish. I was also in shock possibly LOL. At lunch I slammed a red bull and went back in and felt the rest of the test was much less of a grind. I wish all of you still prepping for comlex the very best. Build your confidence, trust yourself and dont change an answer unless you have an epiphany with angels singing with shiny lights ect.

Im reloading and taking the USMLE this thursday.

DFS

How did you convert your score on the 400 COMBANK exam to 670. Thanks

 

[EmergDoc2B]

go to nbome and use the score calculator. Enter three digit score that matches the percent you got from the commbank assessments.

 

[manno]

go to nbome and use the score calculator. Enter three digit score that matches the percent you got from the commbank assessments.

Is this the calculator? it didn't give a score, it gave the percentile and the 2-digit score.

 

[Mabus3]

I also had 4 days in between my USMLE and COMLEX. I felt like I was forgetting a lot of details in between exams, but when I took the COMLEX I remembered pretty much everything that I knew for the USMLE, so don't worry about that. I would definitely recommend focusing on OMM. I memorized the viscerosomatics and Chapman's videos, cranial patterns, and then did about 200 OMM qbank questions - memorizing the stuff I got wrong. I felt like I was well-prepared for OMM questions during the COMLEX.

I also had the "neuro heavy" exam that everyone is talking about. You could try to do some extra neuro review but make sure you have your OMM down solid first. The difficult neuro questions were so off-the-wall that I don't know how it would be possible to study for them. If you know the neuro in UFAP pretty well, you'll be okay.

This is almost identical to my experience; however I had 3 days in between. The OMM are easy points if you know what you're doing and some of the neuro stuff is just....well...it's pretty much what you expect from the COMLEX writers. DRUGS AND BUGS.

 

[hallowmann]

I mean like everything neuro. Everything. Anatomy (blood supply, pathways, homunculus, lesions, etc.), path, pharm, physiology, infectious. Also psych drugs.

Yeah... that's what I was expecting, I was just hoping that it wasn't like that... Wish me luck guys.

Is this the calculator? it didn't give a score, it gave the percentile and the 2-digit score.
View attachment 193296

You have to put in scores (trial and error) until you get whatever percentile your combank score was. Personally I don't know how predictive Combank is though.

 

[dfib slim]

Yeah... that's what I was expecting, I was just hoping that it wasn't like that... Wish me luck guys.

FWIW my COMLEX wasn't that heavy on neuro/pharm. It was more repro, micro, and omm.

 

[hallowmann]

FWIW my COMLEX wasn't that heavy on neuro/pharm. It was more repro, micro, and omm.

Hopefully I'll get the "easy" one, but I'll prepare fore my weaknesses (neuro, pharm, and micro) and hope for the best.

 

[bobsanchez123c]

For those who have taken the Comlex, how was bio stats? Was it heavily tested?

 

[abolt18]

For those who have taken the Comlex, how was bio stats? Was it heavily tested?

Super light for me. Maybe 1 question.

 

[hallowmann]

Have a feeling I got the "easy" one. It was still terrible. Obscure micro, whole test felt like micro. I feel like I was tested on 3-4 subjects and that's about it, like Micro, Psych drugs, OMM, Repro, and that's it. I don't feel like that tested my knowledge base at all. Poorly worded questions and answers, lengthy useless stems, I finally understand what people meant about the COMLEX. It wasn't even like the COMSAE.

For those who have taken the Comlex, how was bio stats? Was it heavily tested?

Barely tested at all. 1 maybe 2 questions out of 400.

 

[KYdo]

Have a feeling I got the "easy" one. It was still terrible. Obscure micro, whole test felt like micro. I feel like I was tested on 3-4 subjects and that's about it, like Micro, Psych drugs, OMM, Repro, and that's it. I don't feel like that tested my knowledge base at all. Poorly worded questions and answers, lengthy useless stems, I finally understand what people meant about the COMLEX. It wasn't even like the COMSAE.



Barely tested at all. 1 maybe 2 questions out of 400.

@hallowmann how did you feel about time? I had 7 mins left when I took the COMSAE and felt absolutely awful afterwards

 

[mesmerazopam]

Will have to agree with above. This may be (probably is) an exaggeration, but I felt like 40% of my exam was OPP. Realistically it was probably 25%. The questions ranged from straightforward to bizarre set-ups that really stretched the imagination.

My exam was fairly neuro heavy, although I wouldn't go so far as to say that the exam was entirely focused on the subject as others have (luck of the draw). The exam did have a fairly decent amount of anatomy, repro, and micro. I had fairly specific (read low yield) head and reproductive anatomy. There were only a few of these, but I highly doubt you could actually prepare for them. Your anatomy grade would probably be most predictive and even then it may come down to luck of the draw. I had 5 or so biostatistics questions, although none required calculations. No pharm calculations. Biochem was generally reasonable, with the exception of maybe one question. First Aid is certainly more than sufficient for biochem. Pharm ranged from straight recall to more complex integration. There were certainly entire classes of drugs that were never mentioned.

Interesting tidbits: I had MULTIPLE subjects repeat, sometimes to the point of the question being only mildly different. I had a single bacterial species repeat itself numerous times. I actually started to think the test was finding errors in judgment and giving me a second chance…or something. I had to remind myself that the exam isn’t like that, so far as we’re told. The exam also had a few questions that were incredibly similar to questions I had on USMLE. Same subject, same context, etc.

Length: Not at all like COMSAEs. The vignettes were much more similar in length to UWorld, although I would say that it was still shorter than the recent USMLE. But, as a word of caution, I found the exam much more similar to the USMLE than I would have ever guessed by historical precedent, SDN, or COMSAEs. BUT…it’s still not the same thing. I had a lot of questions with mind-boggling levels of unnecessary detail, especially when they’d eventually get around to asking a strictly OPP question. The reading really became tiresome and the exam started to drag in the 7th and 8th sections. Ideally, they should have decreased the amount of questions as the USMLE did this year to accommodate the increased length of question stem. I used up anywhere from 50-55 minutes per section.

OPP: Heavy, heavy on visceral innervations/Chapman’s, followed by classic dysfunctions, and then a few straight diagnosis questions. Be careful how you read things.

Lastly, I had several questions that relied on knowing very specific terminology for things that would otherwise be described differently by any other sane person. Basically, the old adage of COMLEX loving buzzwords holds true. They’d also find convoluted ways to describe pathology that would make you pause and really have to think things through. In one case, the name of a specific anatomic part was given an alternative name that we certainly didn’t use regularly in class, if at all. This was my biggest gripe about the exam: the difficulty sometimes came from the presentation or wording of a question and not the underlying concept. You wouldn’t even know what the question writer was asking, let alone how best to answer it. You could often narrow things to 1-2 choices. Certain subjects seem to lend themselves to this type of question writing, which is why I think they traditionally show up year after year. I had a few microphotographs where the presentation was less than ideal. Basically straight up ID with some mild context provided in a sentence or two. No heart sounds. No videos. Several ECGs, all of which were 12-Lead ECGs. Only 2-3 were straight rhythm interpretation. Several required nuanced knowledge of structural pathology causing a particular issue. One was pretty tricky, I think. This very much surprised me, as I’ve found ECG interpretation to be pretty obvious on most medical school exams, COMSAE, and NBMEs.

 

[hallowmann]

@hallowmann how did you feel about time? I had 7 mins left when I took the COMSAE and felt absolutely awful afterwards

Finished the comsae C with 1.5 hrs left (i.e. did it in 2.5 hrs), did it straight through, didn't review any questions though. I took COMSAE D earlier and finished it with I think 40 min left. For the COMLEX I ran out of time at the end for the last 2 or so questions. Be sure to pace yourself. I did fine on the first 4 blocks, had time to review (5-10 min per block, reviewed my marked ones and everything). By the last couple I was getting tired and couldn't focus. Ran out of time at the end.

Its annoying that the breaks between blocks 2 & 3 and 6 & 7 eat into your test time. Really you only get the 40 min break in the middle and then just 4 hrs to do 200 questions on each side of it. I felt the COMSAEs were not representative. Much shorter questions, easier questions, even better written, and way more multiple questions from a single vignette. My exam had 4-6 questions per block like that, and they were all just in pairs (i.e. 2-3 pairs per block), maybe 1 set was 3 questions.

The stems were long, like USMLE or longer long. Only a few of my questions had short stems (2-3 lines). Half the info in them was useless, but everytime I tried to skip something, the question would refer to it, do I just started skimming at the end.

I agree for the most part with mesmerazopam's assessment. Lots of low-yield head/neck anatomy in mine as well.

First aid is enough for the most part. There's no way to study for the obscure questions. There was stuff in there that wasn't even in my school's micro textbook.

 

[KYdo]

Will have to agree with above. This may be (probably is) an exaggeration, but I felt like 40% of my exam was OPP. Realistically it was probably 25%. The questions ranged from straightforward to bizarre set-ups that really stretched the imagination.

My exam was fairly neuro heavy, although I wouldn't go so far as to say that the exam was entirely focused on the subject as others have (luck of the draw). The exam did have a fairly decent amount of anatomy, repro, and micro. I had fairly specific (read low yield) head and reproductive anatomy. There were only a few of these, but I highly doubt you could actually prepare for them. Your anatomy grade would probably be most predictive and even then it may come down to luck of the draw. I had 5 or so biostatistics questions, although none required calculations. No pharm calculations. Biochem was generally reasonable, with the exception of maybe one question. First Aid is certainly more than sufficient for biochem. Pharm ranged from straight recall to more complex integration. There were certainly entire classes of drugs that were never mentioned.

Interesting tidbits: I had MULTIPLE subjects repeat, sometimes to the point of the question being only mildly different. I had a single bacterial species repeat itself numerous times. I actually started to think the test was finding errors in judgment and giving me a second chance…or something. I had to remind myself that the exam isn’t like that, so far as we’re told. The exam also had a few questions that were incredibly similar to questions I had on USMLE. Same subject, same context, etc.

Length: Not at all like COMSAEs. The vignettes were much more similar in length to UWorld, although I would say that it was still shorter than the recent USMLE. But, as a word of caution, I found the exam much more similar to the USMLE than I would have ever guessed by historical precedent, SDN, or COMSAEs. BUT…it’s still not the same thing. I had a lot of questions with mind-boggling levels of unnecessary detail, especially when they’d eventually get around to asking a strictly OPP question. The reading really became tiresome and the exam started to drag in the 7th and 8th sections. Ideally, they should have decreased the amount of questions as the USMLE did this year to accommodate the increased length of question stem. I used up anywhere from 50-55 minutes per section.

OPP: Heavy, heavy on visceral innervations/Chapman’s, followed by classic dysfunctions, and then a few straight diagnosis questions. Be careful how you read things.

Lastly, I had several questions that relied on knowing very specific terminology for things that would otherwise be described differently by any other sane person. Basically, the old adage of COMLEX loving buzzwords holds true. They’d also find convoluted ways to describe pathology that would make you pause and really have to think things through. In one case, the name of a specific anatomic part was given an alternative name that we certainly didn’t use regularly in class, if at all. This was my biggest gripe about the exam: the difficulty sometimes came from the presentation or wording of a question and not the underlying concept. You wouldn’t even know what the question writer was asking, let alone how best to answer it. You could often narrow things to 1-2 choices. Certain subjects seem to lend themselves to this type of question writing, which is why I think they traditionally show up year after year. I had a few microphotographs where the presentation was less than ideal. Basically straight up ID with some mild context provided in a sentence or two. No heart sounds. No videos. Several ECGs, all of which were 12-Lead ECGs. Only 2-3 were straight rhythm interpretation. Several required nuanced knowledge of structural pathology causing a particular issue. One was pretty tricky, I think. This very much surprised me, as I’ve found ECG interpretation to be pretty obvious on most medical school exams, COMSAE, and NBMEs.

thanks @mesmerazopam for all your input. I heard the same thing about bugs with similar vignettes being presented multiple times which seems beyond silly to me.. I take the test in two days and at this point I just feel like I know what I know and I am just trying to calm my tits as panic and fear got the best of me during my COMSAE D at school. As I said before, I had little to no time to spare with one 5 min break in btw blocks so I am reasonably worried about this. Would you say that reading the last sentence first helped with time?