Official 2017 COMLEX Level 1 Experiences and Scores Thread

[Roxas]

Alright friends, let's do this.

I'm planning on sitting sometime in late June (COMLEX only). FA 2017 is on the way, starting UWorld in January and Combank around April.

Feel free to share and help keep each other accountable until we slay the beast.

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[wallaby524]

Can you share any thoughts on the similarity of questions from COMSAEs or Combank/Comquest to the exam?

Only took COMSAE D, did not do Combank or Comquest. Real thing more closer to uworld than comsae, meaning that they are trying to make questions with longer stems with extra info you don't need. I'd say if you feel good with your uworld performance then you should be good to go.

 

[AlteredScale]

Only took COMSAE D, did not do Combank or Comquest. Real thing more closer to uworld than comsae, meaning that they are trying to make questions with longer stems with extra info you don't need. I'd say if you feel good with your uworld performance then you should be good to go.

Any prep from OMM? Viscersomatics champions and counterstain enough?

 

[wallaby524]

Any prep from OMM? Viscersomatics champions and counterstain enough?

Chapman's + viscerosomatics was 1/3 of all of the OMM on my test. These are the quickest to learn/review and the easiest points.
The other 2/3 was a good mix of counterstain and muscle energy treatments. I did OK with OMM at my school and did not prep for these topics but I was able to recall the answer because the questions for these were straightforward. Looking back I am so glad I did not prep the 3 whole days that I had planned because that would have been overkill. However if you have the time and energy to do so then it only helps.

 

[Roxas]

Chapman's + viscerosomatics was 1/3 of all of the OMM on my test. These are the quickest to learn/review and the easiest points.
The other 2/3 was a good mix of counterstain and muscle energy treatments. I did OK with OMM at my school and did not prep for these topics but I was able to recall the answer because the questions for these were straightforward. Looking back I am so glad I did not prep the 3 whole days that I had planned because that would have been overkill. However if you have the time and energy to do so then it only helps.

Were there many posterior Chapman's or just anterior?

 

[AlteredScale]

The COMBANK OMM is out of this world for some of it's questions I swear.

 

[TryingToBeADoctor]

So did anyone else notice that all of the 2 or 3 part questions were consistently at the end of the sections for the Comsae for A and E?
For anyone who took the COMLEX already- were all the grouped questions at the end of the sections?
Also, was there a lot of cranial OMM? That stuff still doesn't really make sense to me... and want to know if I should spend more time trying to understand it
Thanks!

 

[juliojones123]

If you were were to choose between combank, uworld, and old kaplan comlex questions what would you all prefer doing 1 week before exam? And would you specifically only study certain subjects such as HY neuro, msk, micro? Just trying to decide how into how much time i should be doing questions and over what specific question banks. I have 300 ?s left in uworld but can always reset it. thanks for sharing everything about your experiences on here guys, goodluck to everyone taking it in near future!

 

[fingerscrossedpremed]

Just recently switched over from studying for step 1 to level 1 and I was informed that there was an entire block of 50 questions on level 1 that was experimental. Is this true?

 

[ananasmed]

Just recently switched over from studying for step 1 to level 1 and I was informed that there was an entire block of 50 questions on level 1 that was experimental. Is this true?

That would be cool but pretty sure it is not true. No idea how many questions on the exam are experimental, but unlikely to be a full block.

 

[Structure_Funk]

Does anyone know what the "active range" means on the Comsae purchase page? I know that people say form C is more predictive than A, but I was wondering if they may have updated form A since it has an active range of 2017-2019 instead of the 2013-2018 range that's listed for form C. I don't give much hope for the NBOME staying current and helping us gauge where we're at, but a boy can dream that form A has been updated to be more accurate of what to expect on test day.

 

[diiaa36]

just a heads up.I got a remainder email from comlex and in it they gave me a link to 50 practice questions.
NBOME | COMLEX-USA Level 1, Level 2-Cognitive Evaluation and Level 3 Computer-based Cognitive Examinations

 

[CLG45]

How does the timing during the exam work? If you finish a section early, does that time accumulate for the next section? The pdf sent out only says the optional break times will not be added if skipped.

 

[diiaa36]

How does the timing during the exam work? If you finish a section early, does that time accumulate for the next section? The pdf sent out only says the optional break times will not be added if skipped.

From my understanding if you finish a section early you can go onto the next with your time adding up through out 4 blocks. the 10 min in between is optional and doesnt count against you.

 

[The Dayman]

How does the timing during the exam work? If you finish a section early, does that time accumulate for the next section? The pdf sent out only says the optional break times will not be added if skipped.

When you begin the exam you have a clock that starts out with 4 hours and runs down. You have those 4 hours to complete 200 questions. After the first 100 questions a screen pops up with an optional break and immediately counts down from 10 minutes; this is your first optional break and these 10 minutes don't count against your overall 4 hours. When the 10 minutes ends it begins your 4 hour countdown from where you left off, this is your remaining time for the next 100 questions. Then you have a 40 minute lunch and once you come back it's the same deal, another 4 hour countdown to complete 200 more questions with a 10 minute break in between.

 

[CLG45]

When you begin the exam you have a clock that starts out with 4 hours and runs down. You have those 4 hours to complete 200 questions. After the first 100 questions a screen pops up with an optional break and immediately counts down from 10 minutes; this is your first optional break and these 10 minutes don't count against your overall 4 hours. When the 10 minutes ends it begins your 4 hour countdown from where you left off, this is your remaining time for the next 100 questions. Then you have a 40 minute lunch and once you come back it's the same deal, another 4 hour countdown to complete 200 more questions with a 10 minute break in between.

Awesome! Thank you for the helpful response

 

[The Dayman]

Awesome! Thank you for the helpful response

No problem. I hope you can go into the exam with confidence and kill it!!

 

[MedNation907]

How does the timing during the exam work? If you finish a section early, does that time accumulate for the next section? The pdf sent out only says the optional break times will not be added if skipped.

No break time is added to the exam though, idk if that was clearly mentioned. So skipping the 10 minute break doesn't add 10 minutes to your time for the next 2 blocks. Just FYI.

 

[TheBoneDoctah]

I am going to have five days to study for COMLEX after my USMLE. I know I am already going to complete the DIT OMM videos and read through "The Green Book," but what is the best source for practice OMM questions? I have Kaplan COMLEX questions given by my school, but I am not sure that these are any good. Should I get a month subscription to a COMLEX question bank?

 

[diiaa36]

I am going to have five days to study for COMLEX after my USMLE. I know I am already going to complete the DIT OMM videos and read through "The Green Book," but what is the best source for practice OMM questions? I have Kaplan COMLEX questions given by my school, but I am not sure that these are any good. Should I get a month subscription to a COMLEX question bank?

I think the Combank questions are good

 

[CLG45]

I am going to have five days to study for COMLEX after my USMLE. I know I am already going to complete the DIT OMM videos and read through "The Green Book," but what is the best source for practice OMM questions? I have Kaplan COMLEX questions given by my school, but I am not sure that these are any good. Should I get a month subscription to a COMLEX question bank?

I'd go through COMBANK OMT questions + Savarese.

 

[trs88]

Same. I've been doing the opp combank questions and they're pretty decent. There isn't a question bank that's super awesome for comlex. But, from talking to students who have taken it, combank should be good enough.

 

[TheBoneDoctah]

Awesome. Thanks guys. Would it be worth my time to do some "other" questions besides OMM to get used to the sub-par writing of COMLEX lol


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[yankees527]

I am going to have five days to study for COMLEX after my USMLE. I know I am already going to complete the DIT OMM videos and read through "The Green Book," but what is the best source for practice OMM questions? I have Kaplan COMLEX questions given by my school, but I am not sure that these are any good. Should I get a month subscription to a COMLEX question bank?

I didn't do any comlex specific q bank and felt fine on the test with just the 200 or so Kaplan omm questions

There's some great YouTube videos for tricks to remember viscerosomatics and Chapman points

 

[MedNation907]

I am going to have five days to study for COMLEX after my USMLE. I know I am already going to complete the DIT OMM videos and read through "The Green Book," but what is the best source for practice OMM questions? I have Kaplan COMLEX questions given by my school, but I am not sure that these are any good. Should I get a month subscription to a COMLEX question bank?

If you have the kaplan review books, their OMM review is pretty good. I personally cannot read Savarese. But that + COMBANK questions were perfect for me.

 

[trs88]

I personally cannot read Savarese. But that + COMBANK questions were perfect for me.

oh thank goodness. I thought I was the only who hated that book. I've tried to read it several times and it's just a "memorize this". I tried to explain that to some classmates but all I got was "You should read the green book" as an honest to goodness response -_-

 

[TheBoneDoctah]

If you have the kaplan review books, their OMM review is pretty good. I personally cannot read Savarese. But that + COMBANK questions were perfect for me.

I do have the Kaplan review books. I will have to take a look at those. Would you suggest doing questions other than OMM from COMBANK or just sticking with memorizing random nodules on the anterior surface...lol


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[The Dayman]

I am going to have five days to study for COMLEX after my USMLE. I know I am already going to complete the DIT OMM videos and read through "The Green Book," but what is the best source for practice OMM questions? I have Kaplan COMLEX questions given by my school, but I am not sure that these are any good. Should I get a month subscription to a COMLEX question bank?

This was basically my same situation. Since you already have Kaplan I wouldn't bother buying another Qbank, save yourself some money at this point. Just do the 200-300 OMM questions and annotate your weak points into Saverese. The questions go fast so you can probably run through them in a day or two. Hit up the Kaplan micro also, it's only about 90 questions and I had a couple on my COMLEX straight from that bank.

 

[TheBoneDoctah]

This was basically my same situation. Since you already have Kaplan I wouldn't bother buying another Qbank, save yourself some money at this point. Just do the 200-300 OMM questions and annotate your weak points into Saverese. The questions go fast so you can probably run through them in a day or two. Hit up the Kaplan micro also, it's only about 90 questions and I had a couple on my COMLEX straight from that bank.

Are you talking about the USMLE or COMLEX Kaplan micro?


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[The Dayman]

Are you talking about the USMLE or COMLEX Kaplan micro?


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Kaplan COMLEX micro. It has some of the obscure stuff that isn't in any of the review books that likes to make it's way to the exam.

 

[CLG45]

Any recommendations for last minute biochem review? I know COMLEX doesn't hit biochemistry nearly as hard as USMLE does.

 

[AlteredScale]

Any recommendations for last minute biochem review? I know COMLEX doesn't hit biochemistry nearly as hard as USMLE does.

USMLE MedBullets


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[MedNation907]

I do have the Kaplan review books. I will have to take a look at those. Would you suggest doing questions other than OMM from COMBANK or just sticking with memorizing random nodules on the anterior surface...lol


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Well if you have 5 days then I'd add micro and msk at the least. COMBANK actually did a decent job preparing me, I only had 2 or so days between my exams so I crammed omm questions but I definitely think their were some micro questions I only knew because of prior COMBANK questions.


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[kenjixshadow]

Took the exam today. I agreed with everyone about Micro. There are definitely wtf micros on mine and cr@p loads of OMM. I got bad draws and tons of lower extremities questions were on mine - both OMM/Anatomy, which I probably got most wrong so whatever. I'd say half questions of my exam were definitely were straight up from out from the green book or FA and the other half are in UWorld format/require of some thinking or some random things that you never heard of and just guess like everyone and move on. You guys can do it, hit bugs/drugs/OMM hard.

 

[juliojones123]

Took the exam today. I agreed with everyone about Micro. There are definitely wtf micros on mine and cr@p loads of OMM. I got bad draws and tons of lower extremities questions were on mine - both OMM/Anatomy, which I probably got most wrong so whatever. I'd say half questions of my exam were definitely were straight up from out from the green book or FA and the other half are in UWorld format/require of some thinking or some random things that you never heard of and just guess like everyone and move on. I never walked out of an exam and say that I pass and I'm 99.99% sure that I passed COMLEX. You can do it too. Hit bugs/drugs/OMM hard.

Are there any other subjects youd pay more attention to besides micro and OMM? I have my test on monday and gonna try and make a run through sketchy and pathoma again. not sure what else to focus on beyond opp and those subjects

 

[trs88]

For cranial stuff, do I need to memorize if something is on a transverse, AP or vertical axis? Cause, I can handle "Sphenoid does this, Occiput does this. What is it?" But I can't wrap my head around axes. thanks

 

[TryingToBeADoctor]

Were the 2 and 3 part questions all at the end of each section like they were for the COMSAEs?

 

[Photonic]

Well I took my exam yesterday and overall had a similar impression as everyone else. For me, most of the OMM was straight forward. Most of my OMM was viscerosomatics, counterstrain points/positions (including maverick points), sacral diagnosis, general muscle energy positions, and cranial. Then maybe 10% of my OMM were more random topics like scoliosis, short leg syndrome, tight psoas, and general knowledge about still's/soft tissue/trigger points/myofacial release. The three things I wish I studied harder were atypical drugs, atypical bugs, and pathology images. The drugs were very random and they wanted you to know their side effects. The hard bug questions mostly focused on worms and protozoa. You really need to know beyond what's covered in first aid on these organisms. This includes recognizing specific eggs and insects from a picture. The pathological images were pretty blurry and would ask you to differentiate similar looking conditions. These images usually would not show pathognomonic structures (eg. granulomas, orphan annie eyes, giant cells) and instead would have conditions with more vague changes like hyperplasia, nuclear atypia, neutrophilic infiltration, lipid deposits, etc. Also my exam seemed to have several questions on stroke locations and medical laws/organizations/payment plans. Compared to what most people have said my exam did not have very many OBGYN questions and the ones it did have felt pretty straight forward. Well that was my experience (n=1), good luck to everyone who is getting ready to take the exam.

 

[Photonic]

Were the 2 and 3 part questions all at the end of each section like they were for the COMSAEs?

My exam had maybe 5 multi-part questions. In general they seemed to be towards the end of the section but I can't remember if they were all directly at the end.

 

[Photonic]

For cranial stuff, do I need to memorize if something is on a transverse, AP or vertical axis? Cause, I can handle "Sphenoid does this, Occiput does this. What is it?" But I can't wrap my head around axes. thanks

None of my cranial questions asked about the axes. Most of my cranial involved vault hold positions. That being said, I feel like testing on the axes is more than fair game for this exam. I think I have a pretty decent grasp on cranial if you have any questions about the different axes.

 

[CLG45]

For cranial stuff, do I need to memorize if something is on a transverse, AP or vertical axis? Cause, I can handle "Sphenoid does this, Occiput does this. What is it?" But I can't wrap my head around axes. thanks

Yes, you need to know the axes

 

[juliojones123]

Well I took my exam yesterday and overall had a similar impression as everyone else. For me, most of the OMM was straight forward. Most of my OMM was viscerosomatics, counterstrain points/positions (including maverick points), sacral diagnosis, general muscle energy positions, and cranial. Then maybe 10% of my OMM were more random topics like scoliosis, short leg syndrome, tight psoas, and general knowledge about still's/soft tissue/trigger points/myofacial release. The three things I wish I studied harder were atypical drugs, atypical bugs, and pathology images. The drugs were very random and they wanted you to know their side effects. The hard bug questions mostly focused on worms and protozoa. You really need to know beyond what's covered in first aid on these organisms. This includes recognizing specific eggs and insects from a picture. The pathological images were pretty blurry and would ask you to differentiate similar looking conditions. These images usually would not show pathognomonic structures (eg. granulomas, orphan annie eyes, giant cells) and instead would have conditions with more vague changes like hyperplasia, nuclear atypia, neutrophilic infiltration, lipid deposits, etc. Also my exam seemed to have several questions on stroke locations and medical laws/organizations/payment plans. Compared to what most people have said my exam did not have very many OBGYN questions and the ones it did have felt pretty straight forward. Well that was my experience (n=1), good luck to everyone who is getting ready to take the exam.

Congrats on finishing and thank you for sharing! do you know of any particular sources that would be good for the micro pictures? and when you say atypical drugs are you meaning atypical antibiotics or just in general

 

[trs88]

None of my cranial questions asked about the axes. Most of my cranial involved vault hold positions. That being said, I feel like testing on the axes is more than fair game for this exam. I think I have a pretty decent grasp on cranial if you have any questions about the different axes.

Yes, you need to know the axes

Argh. Thanks guys. Guys I'll just buckle down and get them memorized. It just doesn't make sense conceptually to me. I try to visualize them rotating in my head to see "vertical is this way" "okay, so AP is this....way????? ugh, this makes no sense"

 

[Photonic]

Congrats on finishing and thank you for sharing! do you know of any particular sources that would be good for the micro pictures? and when you say atypical drugs are you meaning atypical antibiotics or just in general

Unfortunately I don't know of any specific resource that would help with the pathology images off the top of my head. For the pharmacology portion, the antibiotics questions were not too bad. The harder parts were about drugs like anesthetics, anti-seizure drugs, psych drugs, sleeping medication, cough drops, and antiemetics.

 

[AlteredScale]

Unfortunately I don't know of any specific resource that would help with the pathology images off the top of my head. For the pharmacology portion, the antibiotics questions were not too bad. The harder parts were about drugs like anesthetics, anti-seizure drugs, psych drugs, sleeping medication, cough drops, and antiemetics.

For those harder drugs was it like random side effects like which anesthetic cause hepatotoxicity or something like that?

 

[wxman393]

Is it a good idea to memorize all the test names in savarese (Adsons, Wright...etc) There is about 12 of them

Yes, know your special tests, both by description and if you were to see it in video form.


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[Event_Horizon]

Anyone recommend doing the MSK, neuro, anatomy, and micro questions of COMBANK before the test? Took USMLE on Monday and now COMLEX this Friday, and I am just trying to be prepared for some of the emphasis on these topics that people have been suggesting and to see the COMLEX variation in questions compared to the USMLE. I've done all the COMBANK OMM questions and have read through Saverese once as well.

 

[MedNation907]

Anyone recommend doing the MSK, neuro, anatomy, and micro questions of COMBANK before the test? Took USMLE on Monday and now COMLEX this Friday, and I am just trying to be prepared for some of the emphasis on these topics that people have been suggesting and to see the COMLEX variation in questions compared to the USMLE. I've done all the COMBANK OMM questions and have read through Saverese once as well.

Those are the exact topics I chose to review in COMBANK, only got through half of the OMM questions, and didn't even crack Savarese. I felt fine during the test, FWIW

 

[Event_Horizon]

Those are the exact topics I chose to review in COMBANK, only got through half of the OMM questions, and didn't even crack Savarese. I felt fine during the test, FWIW

Was COMBANK helpful at all for these topics? Or do you mean you planned to do them, but ended up not and still felt fine during the test?

 

[wxman393]

I felt COMQUEST was more "on point" than COMBANK. OMM and micro were good if you can make it through those questions.


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[hack646]

For those who took the test, how was the difficulty of the questions compared to combank, conquest, and Uworld?

Edit: Also it seems like there are a lot more diagrams and histology photos in uworld when compared to the comlex qbanks. What is the test closer to in regards to that?