COMLEX Writeup
Started doing USMLERx questions in March (finished about half of that bank)
Completed about 300 Kaplan questions
Completed Boards and Beyond 2x
Sketchy micro/pharm (used this during the school year so I had watched each video 5+ times)
Pathoma (also used during the year. Completed 2x during dedicated.
Never really read First Aid
Finished UWorld 1x (77% average)
NBME 16: 236
NBME 17: 240
UWSA 1: 258
NBME 19: 244
UWSA 2: 249
NBME 18: 236
REAL COMLEX: 661
The week leading up to the COMLEX, I read through the green book and did about 3/4 of the OMM questions in COMBANK along with about 100 random questions in COMBANK to "get the feel." I was really nervous going into this exam because I felt like I had burnt out about 2 weeks prior to my test date and felt like my mind was a blank slate and I was forgetting everything I learned in the first month of studying. I know this is hard for some to understand (and I don't understand it either) but I felt like I forgot like 70% of the stuff I had worked so hard to learn over the last two months. Anyways, onto the exam:
Overall, the exam felt nothing like COMBANK or UWorld to me. With both UW and COMBANK, I would read the stem and the question would give you enough info to be confident in your diagnosis so that you can look below and answer the question. On my COMLEX exam, that wasn't the case for me at all. I would read the stem and nothing would come to me. It was really vague and then when I looked at the answers, I would spend 30 seconds trying to figure out how the answers were even linked somewhat to the stem because the answers felt so random. I don't really know how to explain it.
On UW and COMBANK when I did blocks I would usually finish with 10-15 minutes left so that I can go back and do the few that I skipped. On the real deal, I was so rushed that I wasn't able to go back and look at any of the marked questions I had. I was extremely rushed and felt like I missed a ton of questions because I wasn't able to think through the problems. I am usually a slower test taker, so this wasn't too surprising to me.
My first block was literally 70% OMM. Not only that...but like others have said on here, they would literally list ten findings and you would have to sift through all of them and try to get to the right answer in less than a minute. This is fine when there are a few OMM questions here and there with normal questions...but when you have literally ten OMM questions like this back to back to back, etc I was having a REALLY hard time keeping on track with time and was getting really flustered.
The second and third blocks were hard as well. Just felt super vague to me.
Fourth block went better. Got some short question stems and hardly any OMM and finished with 10 minutes left.
I was doing fine until after the 5th block or so when I started getting tired. I have a hard time sitting and focusing for that long and by the 5th block my brain was starting to say "screw off". Same crap 5-8 block. Super vague.
Some of my highest scoring sections on UW is pharm and I felt like the pharm today killed me.
I also loved being sat right next to the exit door with people coming in and out every two minutes and the lady next to me slamming her keyboard for the first half of my test. It was an awesome experience as you can tell, haha.
As we have all read time and time again, believe in your practice test scores. I have been telling that to people who had taken their exams before me and were waiting for their scores. However, after I took my test I couldn't even take my own advice. I was 100% sure I had failed, but scores came back and I did fine. So moral of the story like everyone has always said...you WILL feel like crap coming out... no matter what.
As far as content goes, my exam was super heavy on OMM, MSK, weird micro bugs, and vague pharm. The pharm part wasn't actually the vague part of the questions. It was the diagnosis that was vague. They would ask what the side effect was of the best drug to treat the patient...but I wouldn't even know what the patient had. OMM focused a lot on a subject I was super weak in and I feel I missed at least ten questions on that one topic in OMM. Know scoliosis cold.
If I could change anything (which I am for when I take USMLE nexy July), I would get through all of Kaplan, USMLERx, and UW 2x. I really think the key is doing as many questions as possible and from the people that I know that have done extremely well, they completed all of these banks. I know some people say UW1x is enough, which I think is true. However, if you are slow (it took me 2 months to go through UW), then by the time you get to the end of the bank, you may have forgotten a lot from the beginning of the bank (which is what happened in my case). I think going through once more would reinforce what you learned so that it's fresh right before your exam.
