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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[dfib slim]

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?

Always read the last sentence first. Such a time saver.

 

[mesmerazopam]

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?

I’ve never been a last-line reader, with some exceptions. I know students who that works for, which is great, but I’m a pretty meticulous reader of question bulk. I just don’t trust exams not to throw in distractors, etc. As @hallowmann said, I would be very careful skipping ahead. In general, I sometimes find it appropriate to skip over a bunch of lab values and go to the end to see what the question is actually asking and then go back to look for specific things that may confirm my theory.

My personal advice is to relax the next two days, which is easier said than done. Maybe passively review FA and some of the high yield concepts from the green book. I certainly was nervous walking into the thing. A lot of the exam is a crapshoot. I had blocks that were harder than others. I had questions that were bizarre. Remember that you can’t know everything. Some things may need to be left on the table so to speak. There are things I know I got wrong walking out of the exam. The most important thing is to remember that the exam is measured in its totality and take it one question at a time. As @hallowmann hinted above, the stem length gets old. I’m a pretty attentive tester and I had to contain my excitement as I got toward the end. The break structure is borderline ridiculous compared to USMLE. The biggest thing I would concentrate on at lunch is to get enough calories on board to remain attentive during the second half. By the time I logged out, got my lunch, sat down, and started eating I had about 30 minutes before I went back in (it’s difficult to keep track of time and also plan for delays reentering the room).

 

[redblue202]

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.

I also felt like the exam yesterday was extremely vague in entire sections. I would have a section where I felt like I knew everything being asked, and then another where it felt like "patient is sick - why?"

 

[lolumadbro]

Between COMBANK and UWORLD question banks, which should I focus on for the last 2 weeks before I take comlex?

 

[walleyealx]

I think I got the "non-neuro" version today and I thought it was pretty fair overall. There were like 10-15 sets of questions that were almost always back-to-back and were the same answers though, which I thought was very weird.

 

[MedicalMBA]

Took the COMLEX today as well. For me the questions were black and white: either it was riddled with buzzwords and super easy, or it was ridiculously vague. This holds true for OMM, where topics in Savarese are gimmes vs. other topics that really seem way out of the scope of a second year medical student.

They really know how to get creative with micro questions, and I would say if there is anything you should go above and beyond in studying it is that. You need to know all the little details for micro. If you don't know a small difference that distinguishes one bug from another you will most likely be screwed for the question. This was also true for basically every other subject. Half of the exam for me was pretty simple vignettes asking a random detail about a topic...either you know the factoid or you didn't.

I was marking 10-15 per block which is a little bit more than my COMSAEs, and I definitely had less time left at the end of each block to review my marked questions. The break system is annoying so prepare yourself to take a test two blocks at a time at least. I would say 50-60% of the questions were one-two step "did you read this fact about this disease". 20-30% were more difficult questions, mostly because they would give you zero information with vague presentations (or AWFUL picture) and assume you know what they want. The other 10-20% (I don't even know if this adds up to 100%) were just ridiculous questions out of left field about things I've never seen before. Surprisingly, I felt the COMLEX actually was a better test of my medical knowledge than the USMLE, which I thought had way more topics I had never heard of.

High Yield topics on my exam:
Zero videos or Audios/Heart sound. A few EKGs.
Most Represented: Micro (know it cold), OMM, Reproduction, MSK anatomy (DERMATOMES) and Neuro; No neuroanatomy like in the USMLE where they give you an image and you have to recognize structures and things, but a lot of stroke locations and spinal cord pathway locations.

At the end of the day I feel awful about both the COMLEX and USMLE and I can't see how I would possible hit the scores I had on my practice exams, but let's hope the curve works itself out I guess. =]

Sorry this was all over the place, exhausted after these last two weeks but I will definitely come back and write up a better post once I get my scores.

Goodluck and if you have any specific questions I'm glad to help!

 

[swansy14]

Took the COMLEX today as well. For me the questions were black and white: either it was riddled with buzzwords and super easy, or it was ridiculously vague. This holds true for OMM, where topics in Savarese are gimmes vs. other topics that really seem way out of the scope of a second year medical student.

They really know how to get creative with micro questions, and I would say if there is anything you should go above and beyond in studying it is that. You need to know all the little details for micro. If you don't know a small difference that distinguishes one bug from another you will most likely be screwed for the question. This was also true for basically every other subject. Half of the exam for me was pretty simple vignettes asking a random detail about a topic...either you know the factoid or you didn't.

I was marking 10-15 per block which is a little bit more than my COMSAEs, and I definitely had less time left at the end of each block to review my marked questions. The break system is annoying so prepare yourself to take a test two blocks at a time at least. I would say 50-60% of the questions were one-two step "did you read this fact about this disease". 20-30% were more difficult questions, mostly because they would give you zero information with vague presentations (or AWFUL picture) and assume you know what they want. The other 10-20% (I don't even know if this adds up to 100%) were just ridiculous questions out of left field about things I've never seen before. Surprisingly, I felt the COMLEX actually was a better test of my medical knowledge than the USMLE, which I thought had way more topics I had never heard of.

High Yield topics on my exam:
Zero videos or Audios/Heart sound. A few EKGs.
Most Represented: Micro (know it cold), OMM, Reproduction, MSK anatomy (DERMATOMES) and Neuro; No neuroanatomy like in the USMLE where they give you an image and you have to recognize structures and things, but a lot of stroke locations and spinal cord pathway locations.

At the end of the day I feel awful about both the COMLEX and USMLE and I can't see how I would possible hit the scores I had on my practice exams, but let's hope the curve works itself out I guess. =]

Sorry this was all over the place, exhausted after these last two weeks but I will definitely come back and write up a better post once I get my scores.

Goodluck and if you have any specific questions I'm glad to help!

I think we had the same test. Beyond a really nuanced understanding of micro, I would advise brushing up on OB/gyn and uro. I had so many questions on pregnancy and erectile dysfunction - it seemed ridiculous. I don't recall my comlex being super heavy on drugs, but definitely really heavy on bugs. Like previous people have mentioned, pretty heavy on the neuro localization. Here's a really great video that I used:

Something else that threw me off was that the comlex basically expects you to make a diagnosis off of a path slide with very little supporting information in the question stem. After doing so many UWORLD/COMBANK questions where there are at least 2 or 3 clues, this was super unexpected. Even the comsaes I took (A and D) didn't really require this (at least not in my memory of them). I had 4-5 questions that gave super vague presenting information, showed a path slide, and were like 'what's the diagnosis'? Not sure if that's helpful for anyone, and I admittedly suck at histo, so they were hard for me. I just kept hearing Sattar's voice in my head, 'nuclear atypia, high nuclear to cytoplasmic ratio...etc, etc' - but I had NOT prepared for that.

One last thing I noticed - there were many, many questions where the wording was really tricky so that if you didn't read it clearly, or didn't read the whole question stem, you would clearly choose the wrong answer. I wasn't surprised by this, but noticed it over and over. If you tend to choose an answer by first association, be careful, because these questions will get you. For me, it worked much better to do process of elimination for every question, even though that sucks and is tiring. As an example, I had several questions that were set up like - 'patient has short extremities and normal size head chest (ok achondroplasia)' and then the answer choices are a) inactivation of FGFR b) gene deletion c) constituitively active receptor. So if you're the type to see FGFR and choose it, be careful bc they're trying to mess you up. Maybe this is obvious good test taking skills, but it seemed more prevalent on the COMELX than on the USMLE in my opinion. Good luck everyone!

 

[FLKID]

Anybody know when the scores for the June tests will probably come out? NBOME says July 15, 2015 - July 28, 2015, but was wondering based on precedence, if the scores will come out the first day of the range or somewhere in the middle of that range.

 

[Pisiform]

How much biochem and genetics - Mendelian and stuff was on it?

 

[D4C]

Just took it today. I can see why some have walked out of this test thinking it never tested medical reasoning - it fails pretty hard there. What it does do well is fact check you like no other. Pharm biochem micro, all very straightforward. OMM though just brutalized me, I felt like all the questions were way out there and despite giving the green book a weak once over, I still felt like I had little idea on 60% of the questions. Anatomy was another huge chunk on that test along with neuro and all things women. Question stems were often vague and left me wondering what the hell they really wanted every 5th question or so. Nothing rubs me the wrong way though like a histology pic zoomed super far out so that all you can tell apart is the stroma. Overall I find myself in the middle for this test - I don't think it was the worst thing ever but still feel embarrassed that this is a licensing test.

If I had to sum up my comlex experience :

 

[PeruDoc19]

Just took it today. I can see why some have walked out of this test thinking it never tested medical reasoning - it fails pretty hard there. What it does do well is fact check you like no other. Pharm biochem micro, all very straightforward. OMM though just brutalized me, I felt like all the questions were way out there and despite giving the green book a weak once over, I still felt like I had little idea on 60% of the questions. Anatomy was another huge chunk on that test along with neuro and all things women. Question stems were often vague and left me wondering what the hell they really wanted every 5th question or so. Nothing rubs me the wrong way though like a histology pic zoomed super far out so that all you can tell apart is the stroma. Overall I find myself in the middle for this test - I don't think it was the worst thing ever but still feel embarrassed that this is a licensing test.

Would you say the anatomy is straightforward? Thanks for posting your opinion!

 

[D4C]

Would you say the anatomy is straightforward? Thanks for posting your opinion!

Anatomy was probably my worst subject and I'm still hazy after the test so take it with a grain of salt, but no I don't think it was super straightforward on many of the questions.

 

[JED1990]

I took COMLEX today. Completed COMSAE C on Sunday (took A & B earlier in the semester). People I know who've already taken comlex said that it was easier than COMSAE C. I thought today's COMLEX was much more difficult than COMSAE C.
OMM was the most straightforward for me. The rest were a mix of confusing and fair.
Many were more complex than COMSAE/ COMBANK (COMLEX wording was different), and difficult to figure out what was really being asked. Felt less like a test of medical knowledge & more like a test on how proficient you are at reading Braille without hands.
OMM- straightforward. Match clinical vignettes with SNS & PSNS, cranial, scoliosis, counterstrain, UE & LE, contraindications.
Anatomy/OMM- special tests, innervations, muscle action, result of trauma.
Neuro- heavily tested. artery, dz, lesions. Neuro pharm. CNs. Some psych, common stuff.
Cardiopulm- heavily tested (mostly cardio). Valves, pretty much any abnormality. Graphs.
Micro-heavily tested and relatively straightforward. If you know your bug details, there's enough info to choose the right answer.
Pharm- some straightforward, MOA, SE, bad drug combos.
Path- weird pictures with weak clinical presentations. Confusing correlations. No questions on most common causes.
Peds- congenital dz & chromo stuff, enzymes, kids presenting at certain ages with specific sx. Minor emphasis on embryo.
Endo/Repro-generic dz, not too bad. Common pregnant presentations, some REALLY weird ones. Cancers.
Hemeonc- not too many. More immuno/rheum.
GI- common adult stuff. GB. Liver. Weirder kid/teen stuff. Interesting XRs.
Renal- CKD, DM, GN, dz a/w other organs. Pharm related.
GU- decent amount of common stuff.
Barely any developmental, biostats, ethics.

Hope my vague list will be helpful. I'm sure today's test was easy for some, so interpret my review as you wish! Don't get discouraged and good luck!

 

[KYdo]

Between COMBANK and UWORLD question banks, which should I focus on for the last 2 weeks before I take comlex?

COMBANK COMBANK COMBANK!!!
I did all of UWorld and was deciding should I go over Qs I missed or do combank for my last week, I decided to do combank, even though some people said it was nothing like it, but I felt like it was EXACTLY like combank. Also, this test was much easier than the COMSAE, COMSAE I felt like I had to guess my answers on 75% of that awful vague test and yesterday I would say only third was super vague and WTF Qs. Let process of elimination be your best friend, and when you're thinking wtf do they want from me, RE READ the last sentence!!!!! So many times it saved me from picking the wrong answer, but I'm sure it F ed me on some others I didn't catch on too...
I felt like the Qs were not actually that difficult, but I am not an English major and NO I cannot decipher what you are asking of me! They tried to make something easy seem difficult with the way they worded the Q so don't fall for that trap. You know the way things should be properly asked from UWorld and COMBANK so just go with what you know and don't dwell on those Qs
I had a straight up panic attack for the first 3 hrs, came upon a couples Qs in the very beginning I wasn't sure about and the AC wasn't working in my building, those first couple hrs were rough, had to take breaks and put my head down, leave to splash water on my face, and really just tried to get my heart rate under control. Another poster said above don't forget its about totality, so the second half I went in and could actually feel my face again and the last half wasn't too bad... So basically don't do what I did!! If you asked me two days ago what is the most awful experience you have ever had I wouldn't be able to answer you, I definitely can now..
When you come across Qs that are like wait, is this that easy? should I re read the vignette bc it cant be THAT easy, IT IS!!! pick the answer and move on bc trust me there will be plenty of Qs that are not. Thank the God of your choice, pick that gimmie answer and move on.
Timing was awful for me the first half, but I was still able to get through 50 Qs in 35 mins which is a record for me, so if I could do it sweating and heart jumping out of my chest feeling like I may have ischemic bowel, you can do it too
I agree with everyone above about the subjects tested. I listened to pathoma womans repro stuff two days prior and I was beyond ecstatic that I did. SO SO many repeats on multiple topics, including OMM, know your basics bc they repeated basic info, nothing to hard or complex was repeated so I guess that was nice of them.
By the end I would say I had a fourth of the test marked which was better than I expected. Test wasn't awful, but it wasn't my best grammy winning performance either. Just remember, it'll all be over soon ))

 

[KYdo]

How much biochem and genetics - Mendelian and stuff was on it?

Maybe 5-7 Qs.. not worth your time if you don't have it!

 

[manno]

415 COMSAE C, exam in 9 days. I am fine with any score between 450-550.

 

[Hakuna Matata]

415 COMSAE C, exam in 9 days. I am fine with any score between 450-550.

Have you heard any info on this year's COMSAEs and correlating with COMLEX score? (Sorry if it was anywhere earlier in the thread!) I take COMLEX in 9 days, too, and am getting worried.

 

[manno]

Have you heard any info on this year's COMSAEs and correlating with COMLEX score? (Sorry if it was anywhere earlier in the thread!) I take COMLEX in 9 days, too, and am getting worried.

I haven't heard any info, but most students say the COMSAEs under predicted their COMLEX score. However, it is better to take the test when you are at least passing the COMSAEs. I took a COMBANK assessment and my predicted COMLEX score is 480, so we'll see.

 

[manno]

I'm not happy with my COMSAE scores so far, therefore, i've push back my COMLEX to the next 5 weeks.

 

[dfib slim]

.

 

[razor]

Have you heard any info on this year's COMSAEs and correlating with COMLEX score? (Sorry if it was anywhere earlier in the thread!) I take COMLEX in 9 days, too, and am getting worried.

Unless you took your comlex in April, you haven't seen your score yet. So, nobody that has posted on here has any idea for this year's test. Unless there are some lurkers out there that took it earlier in the spring.

 

[renee093]

I'm not happy with my COMSAE scores so far, therefore, i've push back my COMLEX to the next 5 weeks.

How can you keep pushing back your test ? don't you have rotation to do?

 

[PeruDoc19]

I'm not happy with my COMSAE scores so far, therefore, i've push back my COMLEX to the next 5 weeks.

Which COMSAEs have you taken?

 

[ehbc]

Has anyone taken the May 20 COMLEX (or thereabouts) and still not gotten test results? It's going to be 6 weeks to the day tomorrow, and I thought I'd have it back a little sooner than this. I had a friend take it late April (to help execute a transfer) and she got her results in about 3 weeks.

 

[walleyealx]

Has anyone taken the May 20 COMLEX (or thereabouts) and still not gotten test results? It's going to be 6 weeks to the day tomorrow, and I thought I'd have it back a little sooner than this. I had a friend take it late April (to help execute a transfer) and she got her results in about 3 weeks.

All of the May-June COMLEX's get reported between July 15th-July 28th so I wouldn't get too excited for another couple of weeks. This is one of the reasons why I scheduled my COMLEX a bit later.

http://www.nbome.org/score-release.asp

 

[manno]

How can you keep pushing back your test ? don't you have rotation to do?

I do have rotation that starts August 3, and my COMLEX is August 18. Hopefully, i'll be fully prepared before i begin my rotations, since during rotations i won't have much time to study except the weekends.

 

[manno]

Which COMSAEs have you taken?

i have taken COMSAE A, B, C, & D

 

[razor]

Has anyone taken the May 20 COMLEX (or thereabouts) and still not gotten test results? It's going to be 6 weeks to the day tomorrow, and I thought I'd have it back a little sooner than this. I had a friend take it late April (to help execute a transfer) and she got her results in about 3 weeks.

The score release schedule is on the NBOME website. They list July 15 as the earliest date for the release of the test period starting June 20. I took it 22 JUN and don't have my score.

 

[futuredrdo]

Any thoughts on which COMSAE is most representative of the real deal (A,B,C) already did D through my school. Also, wondering if its even worth doing another COMSAE with the poorly documented R-value correlation to the real score received? Thoughts anybody?

 

[KYdo]

Any thoughts on which COMSAE is most representative of the real deal (A,B,C) already did D through my school. Also, wondering if its even worth doing another COMSAE with the poorly documented R-value correlation to the real score received? Thoughts anybody?

Honestly, I wouldn't. I know some people who have taken multiple COMSAEs with inconsistent scores and also said that the off the wall Qs were hard to find even with the help of google. If your test is coming up soon, I don't think its worth freaking yourself out for a test you are about to take when the chances of getting 100 points better from the COMSAE score is very plausible. I have not heard one person say they think taking a COMSAE helped them out on the COMLEX. As I said previously, do combank Qs! COMLEX is just as ridiculously easy and ridiculously vague as combank Qs can be

 

[AnonymousD.O.]

This sounds like good advice. I got a really really good score in Form D two weeks ago and got 100 points less today on form C. All it did was give me a mild freak out. After taking it, I can say there were multiple poorly written questions on C. It's not just me spouting off either, I'm confident in saying this after comparing it to D. It was more than just the test hitting at weak spots, some questions were garbage. If you take it with the mindset if getting timing and endurance, it's OK I think but probably doing a full combank set is just as good if not better

 

[PeruDoc19]

This sounds like good advice. I got a really really good score in Form D two weeks ago and got 100 points less today on form C. All it did was give me a mild freak out. After taking it, I can say there were multiple poorly written questions on C. It's not just me spouting off either, I'm confident in saying this after comparing it to D. It was more than just the test hitting at weak spots, some questions were garbage. If you take it with the mindset if getting timing and endurance, it's OK I think but probably doing a full combank set is just as good if not better

Same here! I got 70 points lower :/ It was definitely a confidence killer

 

[aDOdoctor]

This sounds like good advice. I got a really really good score in Form D two weeks ago and got 100 points less today on form C. All it did was give me a mild freak out. After taking it, I can say there were multiple poorly written questions on C. It's not just me spouting off either, I'm confident in saying this after comparing it to D. It was more than just the test hitting at weak spots, some questions were garbage. If you take it with the mindset if getting timing and endurance, it's OK I think but probably doing a full combank set is just as good if not better

This is exactly what happened to me. I took D first, and after a month of studying took C, and dropped about 70 points. Needless to say it killed my confidence levels. I took B a week later and jumped up 120 points from my C score. Not quite the consistent correlations I see with people's NBME scores. I took COMLEX last week and thought there were many challenging, horribly-written questions (which we should all expect), but also plenty of easy questions too. It's definitely a very doable exam.

Edit: I had a neuro heavy exam

 

[AnonymousD.O.]

Same here! I got 70 points lower :/ It was definitely a confidence killer

This is exactly what happened to me. I took D first, and after a month of studying took C, and dropped about 70 points. Needless to say it killed my confidence levels. I took B a week later and jumped up 120 points from my C score. Not quite the consistent correlations I see with people's NBME scores. I took COMLEX last week and thought there were many challenging, horribly-written questions (which we should all expect), but also plenty of easy questions too. It's definitely a very doable exam.

Edit: I had a neuro heavy exam

Ok ya that is good to hear, I guess. I hate to see others getting tripped up on stupid questions but it makes me feel better to know that my score probably dropped for that reason and people can probably relax a bit if theirs dropped too. Anyway, for those who haven't taken C yet, an example of a poor question (NO spoilers) were a few questions with a very easy stem, and two of the answers were simply a similarly worded molecule (i.e. one or two letters changed). I mean come on. Sure you should know certain things cold, but that is annoying. Other questions let you begging for more information.

I'm sure the real deal has similar questions like this, but I think the key is going to be really really reading those "poorly written" questions very carefully. If you think the questions are poorly written, odds are others did too so see if you can re -read them and find out what the test writters are hinting at. I've taken the USMLE already, and to be honest, I thought that was more of a tricky test than COMSAE D by far. If my COMLEX is a slightly harder version of COMSAE D I'll be very happy.

 

[DOFOSHO]

.

 

[ladybug1552]

Alrighty friends, I'm taking it on Tuesday. Just got done with the USMLE (did Kaplan qbank, Uworld 1.6 times, Pathoma, read FA like it was my religion's sacred text). What is the highest yield thing I can do in the next 4 days? Read the green book? Roll through Combank? From what you guys have said, the Comlex sounds like a rough test to prep for and that deciphering the questions is half the battle. Any words of wisdom would be appreciated!

I feel like such a noob....

 

[AnonymousD.O.]

what a garbage test this was. i feel like i missed half the questions. thought USMLE was much much easier. comlex 2015 was the hardest test i've ever taken in my entire life.

scored >500 on COMSAE D in March, 80th percentile on COMBANK assessment. does anyone else who felt as ****ty as I do about the real comlex actually passed? i really think i got about 40% of the comlex questions correct? is this passing?

half the questions were sarcastic and were way too long/complicated to test medical knowledge. what a trash test.

I absolutely destroyed comsae D and did very well on comsae C. I feel very similar to you. It was substantially leas straight forward. So many more questions based off clinical symptoms instead of physiological or pathological facts. I think that is the nature of the exam and I'd bet we aren't the only ones that feel this way. It'll average out. But damn haha

 

[AnonymousD.O.]

Alrighty friends, I'm taking it on Tuesday. Just got done with the USMLE (did Kaplan qbank, Uworld 1.6 times, Pathoma, read FA like it was my religion's sacred text). What is the highest yield thing I can do in the next 4 days? Read the green book? Roll through Combank? From what you guys have said, the Comlex sounds like a rough test to prep for and that deciphering the questions is half the battle. Any words of wisdom would be appreciated!

I feel like such a noob....

Combank. The comlex questions are way more similar to the comlex. Hit combank neuro, repro and msk at least

 

[AnonymousD.O.]

Combank. The comlex questions are way more similar to the combank. Hit combank neuro, repro and msk at least[/QUOTE]

 

[AnonymousD.O.]

Just took it today. I can see why some have walked out of this test thinking it never tested medical reasoning - it fails pretty hard there. What it does do well is fact check you like no other. Pharm biochem micro, all very straightforward. OMM though just brutalized me, I felt like all the questions were way out there and despite giving the green book a weak once over, I still felt like I had little idea on 60% of the questions. Anatomy was another huge chunk on that test along with neuro and all things women. Question stems were often vague and left me wondering what the hell they really wanted every 5th question or so. Nothing rubs me the wrong way though like a histology pic zoomed super far out so that all you can tell apart is the stroma. Overall I find myself in the middle for this test - I don't think it was the worst thing ever but still feel embarrassed that this is a licensing test.

If I had to sum up my comlex experience :

Ditto this a million

 

[AnonymousD.O.]

.edit

 

[pathologyDO]

Just curious guys, can anyone tell me how many allopathic residencies take COMLEX scores? I heard 50% thrown around by an administrator at our school but not sure. Also, does anyone know if allopathic rads will take COMLEX only?

 

[ladybug1552]

Took it this week. I've heard the exam can be super variable but I felt as though I got a fair draw. Just to preface, I took the USMLE a week beforehand, didn't study at all between the tests except for cramming OMM stuff the day before my comlex (did the osteopathic principles in COMBANK and read the gray boxes in the green book), so my OMM prep was minimal at best and I have zero retention of that stuff from the last 2 years of school. Not my strong suit.
Anywho, I felt good on my basic sciences during the test. Especially if you've prepped for the USMLE, you'll be ready. Lots of female repro phys/path, cardio path/pharm, lots of cranial nerve questions and arm anatomy. I had barely any biochem (lol), biostats and ethics. No audio grams, thank God, as I had friends who got those on their comlex's and I still never figured out what they are...There were definitely wayyy less figures than the USMLE. I'm not sure if I had even a single graph... There was weird micro I'd never heard of but I think I was able to get out of process of elimination. There was also very obvious micro. Pharm was straightforward.
As far as the OMM, this is where I lost points. Obviously viscerosomatic reflexes are high yield so know those cold. Apparently knowing the starting positions for various treatments is also high yield (got every single one wrong I'm pretty sure-whatever ). Know what rib to treat in rib dysfunctions. Obviously they're obsessed with sacral stuff so know how to diagnose those dysfunctions. I only had high yield cranial stuff like which skull bone to treat with a given disease/infection. 1 trigger point question.
Overall I was fairly pleased with today's test. My friends who took it one day last week said it was absolutely horrible and that they had an awful version, so I was preparing myself for the worst. It's sucky that this is a supposed to be a universalized, standard examination and the test versions are all so different. It really is unfair but maybe everything will even out with a curve.
FYI I took a comsae (D, maybe?) about 6 weeks before the Comlex and got a 510 so hoping to only go up from there though I'd be fine with anything around that score. Not trying to mow anyone down for a residency spot.

The test is LONG though. I got done with it an hour earlier than my USMLE but the COMLEX felt like it lasted an eternity. I was SUPER over it by the 7th block .

Hope this helps. Feel free to PM me. We can do this!!

 

[IllDefined]

Wrote COMLEX this week and figured I'd sign up and write a reply since this forum has been helpful!
COMSAE B: high 500s, couple months ago
D: low 600s, a month ago
NBME avg for the newest 3 was low 250s
UW 2x, 1000 COMBANK qs (mostly OMM, neuro, MSK), and 1000 Rx qs
FA more times than I can keep track, and some pathoma, not much really.
Savarese 2x but never did the questions in the back

After reading this forum I was hoping and praying I wouldn't get the OMMneuroMSK heavy one because those have never my fav. The first two sets were really straight forward (endocrine, neuro, repro), I think I marked 8-10 and even felt pretty confident about those. I thought I had escaped the form of doom, but I was wrong. The final 6 sections had to have been about 75% OMMneuroMSK. Of those I felt confident with just over half.

Neuro/MSK was either straight forward (FA) or classic presentations, but asking the oddest things about mechanisms. I really don't know how I would have studied differently other than to know a little better exactly where every cranial nerve goes in relation to EVERY freaking brain structure... and which cranial nerve would be "most affected" given a location of pathology. Know dermatomes, spinal tracts, sensory and motor of extremities was straight forward and high yield for mine. Had 10ish videos.

OMM was either straight out of Savarese or... not. Had like 10ish viscerosomatic questions which were easy points, I think i may have mixed up parasymp and sympathetics a couple times (idiot!). A couple of random special tests that I lucked out having looked over the day before, I had about 7-9 treatment position questions which weren't bad, a couple were random but if you stayed awake for half of OMM lab you should be ok. Handful of cranial questions- easy. The hard ones for me were super long ridiculous patient histories after which they would give you like 6 bullet points of different OMM findings and then ask WHY is something happening. Then I would have to tease through answers A-E which all had OMMish answers that sounded legit, but there's just no way to be confident about an answer. My advice would be to just stick to green book and then hope for the best haha. I always performed well on OMM exams in school and some of these board questions just take it to a whole new level of sucky.

Repro was another huge chunk of mine and seemed unnecessarily vague and annoying. Stick to FA... pathoma helped on a couple as well.

GI was, again, classic cases but asking weird, vague mechanisms... what is the main reason for nausea, diarrhea, etc. And you have to pick the answer that sounds the least dumb.

Micro: i had 5 gram stains and presentation gave you little help... not too bad. Several weird bugs I've never heard of before. 1 antibiotic question on my whole exam which I was pissed about... what a waste. Know your bug vectors! Virology was super low yield on mine while zoonotics, parasites, and fungi were equal in representation to classic bacteria. Some classic bacteria but you had to recognize classifications that aren't in FA, but were in UW.

Endocrine: a good portion of mine, if you know FA you'll get them all
Renal: maybe 3 questions... waste
Biochem: 2 questions... waste
Behavioral: a handful, 2 simple calculations
Cardio: just basic physiology, a couple EKGs that were straightforward
Heme: just a couple, basic
Resp: a couple tricky mechanism questions but FA will get you where you need to be... COPD/restrictive.. and then the FA table with lung sounds, percussion findings is obviously important
Psych: know FA, easy points.
Pharm: of all the freaking drugs I know I was asked side effects of two of the most random drugs in the world and just took a shot in the dark, missed them both... sigh. Pharm was really low yield on mine.

The most difficult part of this exam is that the questions for the OMMneuroMSK take forever long to read and I just lost too much time reading/re-reading patient presentations. Didn't have time to take breaks other than my lunch so I was feeling pretty burnt out on sections 4 and 8 especially when after you answer 3 vague neuroOMM hybrid questions in a row and you are hoping your next question is going to be on medicine and lo and behold its another ridiculously long neuroOMM question. I was smiling through the second half of the exam at the ridiculousness of it all. I walked in hoping for 600+, walked out hoping for 500+... felt like they switched out my medical boards exam for chiropractics boards.

Sorry for longest post in SDN hx, but it will probably be 1 of very few from me haha, hope it helps at least one person. Post my score in a few weeks!

 

[tdot4life]

Hey guys,
Just wanted to let you know that my level 1 score was posted on the NBOME website. I took my exam on June 5th and like everyone else, I was expecting my score to be posted after July 15th. But when I logged in, it was mentioned on the opening screen that I passed the exam. Then I went to view scores to see the actual score. I did close to 100 points better than the last COMSAE that I took (D). Good luck to those waiting for scores and to others who still have to take the beast.

 

[Postbac123]

432 comlex, 470 comsea

 

[dok_martin]

569 comsae d
543 comlex

Took it june 13

 

[docdionne]

When did you guys take it? I took it June 17th and don't have a score just yet.

 

[Chiefer]

535 comsae d, 510 comlex.

so about them re-adjusting our scores this year....

 

[ladybug1552]

535 comsae d, 510 comlex.

so about them re-adjusting our scores this year....

I haven't heard about that...What does that mean?