Official comlex 1 2012 experiences, advice, and scores thread

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For those of you who have taken COMLEX I, please feel free to post schedules, advice on studying/ how to best prepare, types of questions you saw on the test, something you wish you had done while preparing to improve your score, etc. Also feel free to post your score.

I am taking COMLEX I on June 25th, and I'm getting a bit nervous because I feel disorganized and don't have a solid plan. If I come across good suggestions, I will post them here right away. :D

Thanks for everyone's help, and I hope we all rock this test!!!:smuggrin:
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pipe dream said:
Can anyone else comment on break time? My buddy took it today and said the ten min breaks between blocks 2 and three and blocks 6 and 7 don't count against test time.
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They definitely do. Lunch doesn't, but the 10 minute breaks take away from the four hour total. I wasn't really pressed for time. I took about 2.5 hours total on each section (morning and afternoon).
 
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pipe dream said:
Can anyone else comment on break time? My buddy took it today and said the ten min breaks between blocks 2 and three and blocks 6 and 7 don't count against test time.
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This what the NBOME says....

"Candidates are permitted to take two optional breaks during the test session. One optional 10-minute break is permitted during the first session (following section 2) and one optional 10-minute break is permitted during the second session (following section 6). If candidates choose to take the break, the actual time spend on the break will be deducted from the time allocated to complete the examination. During the break, candidates must leave the testing room. Upon re-entering the testing center, candidates must show a valid ID and provide a biometric ID (fingerprint). If candidates choose not to take breaks, they can continue taking the examination.

An optional 40-minute break is permitted following the first session. This break time does not count against the total exam time. The 40-minute break begins when the first session is completed (following section 4). The second session will begin once the allocated 40 minutes have passed. You must return to the test center promptly before the end of the 40-minute break to avoid losing any time for the second session. Any other breaks, unless approved as part of a test accommodation provided to you in writing by the NBOME, will be considered unauthorized and will subject to review by the NBOME."
 
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Well I took it today.
It was a challenging exam. When I came across something I did not know after about 8 seconds of thought, I marked, guessed, and moved on. This resulted in having about 20-30 min in a block remaining to return and think hard on marked questions (anywhere from 5-10).
The experiences here helped, because we have been warned abundantly about how frustrating some questions can be, so I had decided beforehand when I would encounter something really messed up to mark the question aside, and it gave me the ability to fend off a blow to my test taking 'morale'.
As has been repeated frequently here, the largest makeup of the exam was OMM & MICRO. Honestly, everything after that was very well balanced, it really was. I was expecting Repro/Endo & Neuro/Psych/MSK to be heavily represented, but the test was spread out.
The worst part of my test was during lunch. Out of 10 spots at the test site, I was the only one taking Comlex Level 1, and the rest were taking Level 2. When I came back for the afternoon session, all of them were in the hallway because ALL of their tests CRASHED ( this justifies me using a .....:eek:) So I stepped up to go back in and they let me go inside to give it a shot, and it fortunately worked out, so I ended up taking the afternoon session by myself. I am finishing my rotation on Fri, and I have to move to my new house this weekend and show up to my new rotation on Mon morning and the only thing I could think about was being forced to retake it sometime in 3 weeks in the middle of my rotation and taking a hit to my score. So when I sat down for the second half, I was so thankful just for being able to take it!
I don't know what else to really say. I was expecting Chapman's & Cranial to be well represented, but they were not high yield at all on my administration, so who knows.

The two best pieces of advice I received:
1) When I was asking a 4th year about what he thought was high yield for the boards, before I could finish, he cut me off and exclaimed "EVERYTHING! You just need to know everything about everything" .....
2) From COMQUEST - "The COMLEX will include a few rare diseases that would take 10x more work from you to prepare for. We focus on the highest yield information and leave these outliers out in order for you to use your time efficiently" This is very true. Like I said earlier, I was anticipating"outliers", and brushed them aside when I came across them. Doing this let me return to them later with an abundance time and energy, giving me a chance to answer them correctly, and even more importantly, preserving my esteem.

GL to you all.
 
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1Cor1557 said:
Well I took it today.
It was a challenging exam. When I came across something I did not know after about 8 seconds of thought, I marked, guessed, and moved on. This resulted in having about 20-30 min in a block remaining to return and think hard on marked questions (anywhere from 5-10).
The experiences here helped, because we have been warned abundantly about how frustrating some questions can be, so I had decided beforehand when I would encounter something really messed up to mark the question aside, and it gave me the ability to fend off a blow to my test taking 'morale'.
As has been repeated frequently here, the largest makeup of the exam was OMM & MICRO. Honestly, everything after that was very well balanced, it really was. I was expecting Repro/Endo & Neuro/Psych/MSK to be heavily represented, but the test was spread out.
The worst part of my test was during lunch. Out of 10 spots at the test site, I was the only one taking Comlex Level 1, and the rest were taking Level 2. When I came back for the afternoon session, all of them were in the hallway because ALL of their tests CRASHED ( this justifies me using a .....:eek:) So I stepped up to go back in and they let me go inside to give it a shot, and it fortunately worked out, so I ended up taking the afternoon session by myself. I am finishing my rotation on Fri, and I have to move to my new house this weekend and show up to my new rotation on Mon morning and the only thing I could think about was being forced to retake it sometime in 3 weeks in the middle of my rotation and taking a hit to my score. So when I sat down for the second half, I was so thankful just for being able to take it!
I don't know what else to really say. I was expecting Chapman's & Cranial to be well represented, but they were not high yield at all on my administration, so who knows.

The two best pieces of advice I received:
1) When I was asking a 4th year about what he thought was high yield for the boards, before I could finish, he cut me off and exclaimed "EVERYTHING! You just need to know everything about everything" .....
2) From COMQUEST - "The COMLEX will include a few rare diseases that would take 10x more work from you to prepare for. We focus on the highest yield information and leave these outliers out in order for you to use your time efficiently" This is very true. Like I said earlier, I was anticipating"outliers", and brushed them aside when I came across them. Doing this let me return to them later with an abundance time and energy, giving me a chance to answer them correctly, and even more importantly, preserving my esteem.

GL to you all.
Click to expand...
 
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Hi,
I took COMLEX 1 yesterday. It was more than challenging.Very unusual/unfair kind of test. Here is a sample/glimpse of my test. The actual test was 10 times worse. The questions were long/vague with insufficient information to answer them. About 80% questions were 2 level questions and about half of them were 3 level questions. You are aloowed to make comments while doing the test. On one question about where to incise tympanic membrane, I did send them a comment. I was just struggling and having such a hard time finishing questions. I only took 30 minutes lunch break to finish my test on time.

(1)5-6 questions basedalmost entirely on alpha,beta hemolysis info in scenario

(2)2-3 coccobacilli.weird bugs never heard before, weird medium for growth never heard before

(3)bioterrorism...especiallybleeding in lungs 3 questions

(4)10 questions onhistopathology pictures shown and asking 3 questions about diagnosis..makes itlike 30 questions

(5)lymphatic/hematological spread of cancers especially prostate/breast especiallyeffect of lymph nodes removed in axilla and how does prostate metastatsis getto lung by which artery/lymphatic vessel etc

(6) 10 questions ontemporomandibular joint..difrent movement of it by which muscle and whichnerve...

(7)5 questions sensoryand motor supply of face which nerve (names of nerves not cranial roots)

(8) Surgery of tympanicmembrane...there is perforation...where should surgeon give theincision...upper outer quadrant or any other part of tympanic membrane

(9) 5 questions oninterleukins...give name/numbers for various diseases

(10) name nervessupplying leg...ant...lateral...dorsum of foot etc

(11) Repeats of weirdquestions from one unit of 50 questions to next...4 questins and 3 questions oneach making it 12 questions

(12)cancer drugs causinglung bleed;gout pharmacology

(13)patellofemoralsyndrome

(14) peritonitis afterabdominal surgery..which bugs; one bug causing UTI and peritonitis

(15) questions onproblems with 5th lumbar rotation/side bending etc, mixing it with verylittle info about deep sacral sulcus or seated flexion test and askingdiagnosis of sacal torsion etc


 
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I took COMLEX yesterday and I completely agree with Older Doc...the Comlex was very vague! I am preparing for the USMLE more so than for comlex but had I focused more on OMM it would not have helped in this exam. THere were many techniques and treatments that no first or second year learns in class, First Aid, or Kaplan prep. IN fact many questions I did not know were not even questions you could google for the answer!
 
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pipe dream said:
Everyone keeps saying they're being tested on crap not in review books and not taught in class. How're we supposed to know this crap then???? What the check's going on??? Are we supposed to be born knowing this stuff?
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Every test has topics that you have never heard of, nor anyway of knowing the answers but chances are, no one else taking the exam knows it either. That is why questions are thrown out and there is a curve. This is also why people shouldn't post details of questions on here because they reuse questions, and thus can ruin the curve for those who have already taken it.
 
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StressedMedStud said:
For those that took both usmle and comlex, which was easier and which was more representative of FA/UWORLD/Pathoma/DIT?
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Definitely USMLE. when I took USMLE, 90% of the time I would answer the question after reading the stem, then look down and that answer was there. The ones I missed were because I had forgotten the material, I had handful of WTF questions and questions that I had no idea on. I used FA sporadically, UW x 2 and pathoma as my primary resources. Pathoma was actually really helpful for COMLEX, which was a bit surprising. I read through savarese and microcards between USMLE and COMLEX which may have helped me get a few extra questions correct. But for the most part there was way more stuff on COMLEX that I had never heard of or felt there was just not enough info in the stem to answer the question.
 
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Everyone keeps saying there are omm techniques they never heard of. can someone give an example? Can it be figured out based on if the technique is a Muscle energy, counterstrain, HVLA?
 
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Anyone hear anything on when the June 1st scores are coming out? All I got from the NBOME rep was a vague 4-6 wk answer.
 
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willen101383 said:
Anyone hear anything on when the June 1st scores are coming out? All I got from the NBOME rep was a vague 4-6 wk answer.
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If I had to guess week of July 23rd. It sounds like they just release the whole month at the same time based on what ppl are saying abt the May score release.
 
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frankyazz said:
Ya. Bud just called NBOME today, and I guess they changed their mind and May scores won't be released to until next week now.

And I am right there with you.. took mine on june 1st as well.
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I don't understand what caused the delay. The exam is computerized and there is no essay to grade. Does one know why?
 
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bowlin123 said:
I don't understand what caused the delay. The exam is computerized and there is no essay to grade. Does one know why?
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Who knows....why did they have the Step 2 exams the other day lock everyone out after four hours. I just hope I get my score in time for my first rotation. We can't start ours without a passing score.
 
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It says on the website that some ppl in April (after the 18th) still haven't gotten their scores. I took mine in may like a few days after the would be may 18th cut off if they release them in groups of months. This is total insanity. I'm already done with my first rotation for crying outloud. What if I have to retake it. Then I'll be SCREWED.
 
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I called 20 minutes ago right before they closed. They said they had no update and were hoping to release May scores TODAY and working on it right now. If the delay is true and they are not communicating correctly and/or lying, that's (another) load of B.S.
 
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DO you have the option to cancel your exam after you taken it like if you thought you fail can you cancel it like you can on mcat?
 
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StressedMedStud said:
thanks man! how was the exam? can you share your experiences? what resources did you use and did it help?
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As crazy as this sounds.....I did not think it was that bad. Were there some tricky questions? Yes. However I am not sure I understand what people mean by wtf questions. There were questions I did not know the answer to......but I didn't think they were out of the ordinary it was just something I didn't study well and or forgot the relevant information. The questions are vague but not any worse than combank or comsae. I felt like my exam was micro, omt, and msk anatomy with a few questions here and there. There was alot of repeat topics. A couple random bugs.....nothing extreme though. No biostats/equations. Bio chem was scarce.....renal was only uti infections. Cardio and resp both minimal and easy. Ob/gyn/repro was a decent chunk but pretty straight forward. Had a few genetic questions....inheritance patterns......gene deletions. Had a few hiv questions.
I studied using FA/saverese/dit/golijan audio. Used combank.....did about 75% of the questions scoring avg of 80%. My school bought us comsae c and I did that monday and scored a 634. I felt comfortable during comsae and felt about the same with the real thing. Questions were not the same but the style is. Level of difficulty was about the same too. I studied about 5 weeks......my school goes until the third week of may so that is when I started really studying. I am a mom of a 2yo so my study time was avg about 8 hours a day.
I can't say what I would do different though........its a mental marathon! I have to say though I didn't walk out feeling like I failed which seems to be how most feel.....and I'm not tip of my class......maybe that means I bombed it......who knows!
 
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hawthorne said:
As crazy as this sounds.....I did not think it was that bad. Were there some tricky questions? Yes. However I am not sure I understand what people mean by wtf questions. There were questions I did not know the answer to......but I didn't think they were out of the ordinary it was just something I didn't study well and or forgot the relevant information. The questions are vague but not any worse than combank or comsae. I felt like my exam was micro, omt, and msk anatomy with a few questions here and there. There was alot of repeat topics. A couple random bugs.....nothing extreme though. No biostats/equations. Bio chem was scarce.....renal was only uti infections. Cardio and resp both minimal and easy. Ob/gyn/repro was a decent chunk but pretty straight forward. Had a few genetic questions....inheritance patterns......gene deletions. Had a few hiv questions.
I studied using FA/saverese/dit/golijan audio. Used combank.....did about 75% of the questions scoring avg of 80%. My school bought us comsae c and I did that monday and scored a 634. I felt comfortable during comsae and felt about the same with the real thing. Questions were not the same but the style is. Level of difficulty was about the same too. I studied about 5 weeks......my school goes until the third week of may so that is when I started really studying. I am a mom of a 2yo so my study time was avg about 8 hours a day.
I can't say what I would do different though........its a mental marathon! I have to say though I didn't walk out feeling like I failed which seems to be how most feel.....and I'm not tip of my class......maybe that means I bombed it......who knows!
Click to expand...

Thanks for letting us know that! That makes me feel a lot better. I also took COMSAE C and I wouldn't say it was super easy but if COMLEX is on a similar level it is definitely do-able.
 
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I take the boards end july. So far:

I completed DIT (just finished this morning hooray, definately worth it)
I took comsae C before doing any boards studying got 440
completed 1459 questions in COMBANK
read first 4 chapters of savarese


Do you think I should push my exam back? I still want to do Pathoma, finish COMQUEST, read FA 2 more times, finish savarese, Comsae B

HOw much time do you think it will take? Can I accomplish by july 25?
 
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I finished half of DIT, first nine chapters pathoma, 300 questions UWorld 150 questions combank, took NBME 1 time before starting studying and got 203 on it. And then I studied savarase craning over three days and took COMLEX. I got a 621 which is passing.

I then finished DIT, did over 1000 uworlds, and took two more NBMEs a few weeks apart getting 220 and finally 246 5 days before USMLE. I have no idea how I did on USMLE thought I did terrible, only time I didn't finish a section (two blanks, 6 click c real fast). I'll let u know how USMLE went.

Bottom line. I think ur ready. Don't delay. Let's go!!! One time baby!!!

StressedMedStud said:
I take the boards end july. So far:

I completed DIT (just finished this morning hooray, definately worth it)
I took comsae C before doing any boards studying got 440
completed 1459 questions in COMBANK
read first 4 chapters of savarese


Do you think I should push my exam back? I still want to do Pathoma, finish COMQUEST, read FA 2 more times, finish savarese, Comsae B

HOw much time do you think it will take? Can I accomplish by july 25?
Click to expand...
 
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MDD DO2014 said:
I finished half of DIT, first nine chapters pathoma, 300 questions UWorld 150 questions combank, took NBME 1 time before starting studying and got 203 on it. And then I studied savarase craning over three days and took COMLEX. I got a 621 which is passing.

I then finished DIT, did over 1000 uworlds, and took two more NBMEs a few weeks apart getting 220 and finally 246 5 days before USMLE. I have no idea how I did on USMLE thought I did terrible, only time I didn't finish a section (two blanks, 6 click c real fast). I'll let u know how USMLE went.

Bottom line. I think ur ready. Don't delay. Let's go!!! One time baby!!!
Click to expand...

Did you take any COMSAEs?

Or for anyone else who got their comlex scores today, how did it compare to your comsae scores? Thanks
 
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MDD DO2014 said:
I finished half of DIT, first nine chapters pathoma, 300 questions UWorld 150 questions combank, took NBME 1 time before starting studying and got 203 on it. And then I studied savarase craning over three days and took COMLEX. I got a 621 which is passing.

I then finished DIT, did over 1000 uworlds, and took two more NBMEs a few weeks apart getting 220 and finally 246 5 days before USMLE. I have no idea how I did on USMLE thought I did terrible, only time I didn't finish a section (two blanks, 6 click c real fast). I'll let u know how USMLE went.

Bottom line. I think ur ready. Don't delay. Let's go!!! One time baby!!!
Click to expand...

Thanks that makes me feel lot better! I guess i must complete savarase at least and take comsae B.

you got great score! congrats!
 
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I walked out of the test marking around 20 questions that i was unsure of. Now i realized that there were like 6 that I missed out of stupid mistakes.....darn. Just out of curiosity..how much do you have to miss to get a 600 ? (not that im gonna get anywhere close to that)
 
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StressedMedStud said:
Wonder why nobody is posting their comlex socres?
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Sorry! Hospital all day. 550 on comlex. Comsae A 498 3 weeks out; Comsae B 537 5 days out. Just used FA and Goljan audio for prep with Combank. Competed Combank with a 75%. Followed my own schedule..ligh t for the first 8 weeks, then about 10-12 hr days for 3.5 weeks. Not stellar score but HATE standardized tests...met my goal....want to do Peds.

Thought I bombed the test, so I'll take it.

Good luck everyone else!
 
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Lewist02 said:
Sorry! Hospital all day. 550 on comlex. Comsae A 498 3 weeks out; Comsae B 537 5 days out. Just used FA and Goljan audio for prep with Combank. Followed my own schedule..ligh t for the first 8 weeks, then about 10-12 hr days for 3.5 weeks. Not stellar score but HATE standardized tests...met my goal....want to do Peds.

Thought I bombed the test, so I'll take it.

Good luck everyone else!
Click to expand...

wow you did reallly great!!! 550 is my goal toooo!!!!!!!!!

did you do any usmle world or kaplan or comquest? u just did all of combank?
 
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StressedMedStud said:
wow you did reallly great!!! 550 is my goal toooo!!!!!!!!!

did you do any usmle world or kaplan or comquest? u just did all of combank?
Click to expand...

Nope..talked to too many students who felt like they overused resources and a bunch who scored high 600s low 700s w just what I used. You really just have to find what works for you. Some people swear by uworld and some don't.
 
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i bet we will, so next week is either going to be very happy or very sad since we will be getting two scores back.... ahhh i just wanna know now!
 
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Can anyone that has taken the COMLEX recently comment on if they felt comQUEST was very helpful for them on the actual exam?
 
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Combank was error-ridden and the explanations were poor at best. I did about 750 Combank questions and was just too frustrated to continue, so I switched to Comquest. It is a very quality q-bank. My only complaint was with myself for not starting it earlier. If I had to do it over, I would not have done Combank or DIT and I would have done UWorld once and Comquest twice.
 
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jumpmanv15 said:
Agree. Anyone know when June 22 scores are going to be released?
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i took it the 18th and was wondering the same thing.

are they released each week now that the new round of scores are released by test week or are we waiting until early august for scores??
 
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Given the release pattern of 2011 they should start releasing every 2-3 weeks from here in out
 
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Has anyone else taken the June 29th COMLEX? From the horror stories I've heard from other students earlier in the testing season I was expecting the worst, but I thought it was surprisingly straightforward with relatively "high yield" concepts. Any thoughts other June 29th-ers?
 
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medschoolfamily said:
Has anyone else taken the June 29th COMLEX? From the horror stories I've heard from other students earlier in the testing season I was expecting the worst, but I thought it was surprisingly straightforward with relatively "high yield" concepts. Any thoughts other June 29th-ers?
Click to expand...

Could you elaborate on Topics focused on?

And did you find the test similar to COMSAE, combank, or comquest? Thanks.
 
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It was very comparable to Combank (although there wasn't a single question that was word-for-word from Combank like Comsae had).

Questions were similar to Comsae in that many of the vignettes were unnecessary and the answers could easily be found by one or two "buzzwords" (i.e. gram positive cluster of grapes, black eschar, lucid interval after head injury, etc.) and simply reading the question stem rather than the entire question's vignette. Of course there were the questions that were only one sentence, and therefore they didn't have a vignette, but you get the picture.

The heavy hitting topics were autonomic levels, micro (at least 5 were S. aureus and quite a few endo-/exo- toxin), psych pharm, brain trauma (I would estimate 15 epidural/subdural/subarachnoid questions)

Only had 2 chapmans (nasal congestion and adrenal) and 2 cranial. I had a few obscure ethics/billing questions that might as well have been written in hieroglyphics, but I expected those so...

This entire testing season has been filled with complaints of obscure questions and vague vignettes, but my test seemed to follow the general rules and "high yield" topics that our professors had been preaching to us for the past 2 years. All in all, the June 29th test seemed surprisingly fair and I hope the others on this day felt the same way.
 
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Thanks for the input guys.

Any of you take Step 1 as well? If so how did you balance the studying between the two in the last few days leading up the exam? Focus on combank, redo uworld?

I am taking both tests and getting anxious now because I have kind of been focusing too much on step 1. Although I have been focusing on micro, but not enough combank.

Appreciate any input!
 
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