POUNDED on COMLEX II

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hooperg

hooperg

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Anyone else get totally and utterly slammed on COMLEX II? From those at my school with whom I've spoken that took form B09C specifically, their exam scores were terrible too.

Anyone else have problems with B09C? I was 150 points lower on Step 2 than Step 1 :thumbdown:
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singultus is that omm technique where you massage the phrenic nerve at the clavicular part of the scm. i proved my manhood when i was on call two saturdays ago by doing it to somebody with swine flu.
 
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cyclohexanol said:
I don't recall ever learning a specific term for the signs/symptoms caused by lateral femoral cutaneous nerve dysfunction. -shrug-
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ive never heard of it either. whoever has heard of it was probably taught it by the person for wrote the comlex question.
 
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wmc24 said:
i never heard of an omm technique for it, just that sometimes u have singulosis due to uremia in renal failure.
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Ive never heard of it the way you are describing. Ive heard of it in OMM class-you essentially can rid of them by compressing the phrenic nerve above the clavicle, as another person already posted.

No one else Ive talked to has had these references on their test-maybe its this form of the test?
 
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okayplayer said:
I hated that test, but I thought meralgia paresthetica (lat femoral cutaneous n.) was pretty well known. Maybe just at my school.
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I've never heard of that term or singultus and my school has traditionally done very well on the boards. None of those terms are in Savarese or the First Aid COMLEX book.
 
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One of the questions I remember having and cant seem to get out of my head is something like this: A guy presents with Sx of gall bladder dz (or so I thought). Anyhoo, during the Hx taking, you find out that the guy was supposed to have gone for a bx of pulmonary nodules but didnt. further, a c-xray shows multiple pulmonary nodules. The question then asks, what do you do?

I think I put something like GB US to r/o stones, b/c this is what he presented with. However, I have no idea.

I ask this to anyone else who may have had this, but also b/c this, to me, was a common type of vague question where there were multiple complaints and trying to tease/triage them became difficult.

Any thoughts?
 
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In every reference singultus is referred to as a "rare" medical term for the word hiccups. If that is the case, the sympathetic innervation would correspond to the diaphragms for treatment.
 
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okayplayer said:
I hated that test, but I thought meralgia paresthetica (lat femoral cutaneous n.) was pretty well known. Maybe just at my school.
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Meralgia paresthetica was in my neuro book. We also learned it in anatomy. Furthermore, I've seen several cases of it, so it must be fairly common. I think it is fair game for a national board exam (not sure how it was presented though). On the other hand, I don't want to give the COMLEX any credit cause it's a crappy test so complain away!
 
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cyclohexanol said:
I've been told by a friend who contacted NBOME that B09C is not a particular form, rather it is just a code for Step 2.

This seems to make some sense, as the previous poster just took Step 1 and his "form" was A09C. I looked at mine from last year and saw that it was A08C. It seems that the "form" code goes something like this:

B09C
| | |
| | +--- arbitrary bull**** letter to make "form" code look more genuine
| +--- year in which test was taken
+-- A = step 1, B = step 2, C = step 3

So rather than B09C being a unique selection of questions, it is just an identifier for "step 2". In fact, the selection of stupid questions seems to vary widely. Yesterday, I had some of the stupid questions I was warned about but not nearly as many as others who have recently taken it. I think it was just luck of the draw. I'm sure when my score comes up it will also say "B09C".

Just thought I'd mention..
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So I'd like to see a showing of those that had a DIFFERENT "test form", and what it was, and whether it was similar to BO9C or not.

Anyone?
 
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This whole thread just confirms my conviction to get rid of the AOA and pursue my dermatology training AMA, even if my chances of matching are smaller. I've continuously debated the topic, but I'm so tired of seeing the "good ol' boys club" in action on my away rotations and the way that AOA programs rank applicants.

I'll take my >240 and 260 (step 1 and 2) along with my other credentials and take my chances.
 
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SirCuneus said:
This whole thread just confirms my conviction to get rid of the AOA and pursue my dermatology training AMA, even if my chances of matching are smaller. I've continuously debated the topic, but I'm so tired of seeing the "good ol' boys club" in action on my away rotations and the way that AOA programs rank applicants.

I'll take my >240 and 260 (step 1 and 2) along with my other credentials and take my chances.
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I agree with you about the AOA but the "good ol'boys club" goes both ways. I've seen U.S. Allopathic students who have failed boards and classes and still end up at reputable programs.
 
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how does comlex post scores? Do they do it online and do they send u an email like usmle to let u know its available? I took mine august 10th just wondering when to start lookin for it.
 
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I was wondering how many people were as shocked as me when they got their comlex 2 score back. My score went down over 150 points! Yet my USMLE score was highly consistent. Surely the test is flawed. What can I do? The NBOME basically blew me off when I tried to investigate.:mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:
 
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comlexinvestiga said:
I was wondering how many people were as shocked as me when they got their comlex 2 score back. My score went down over 150 points! Yet my USMLE score was highly consistent. Surely the test is flawed. What can I do? The NBOME basically blew me off when I tried to investigate.:mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:
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there's nothing you can do. you just accept it and re-take if it comes to that
 
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comlexinvestiga said:
I was wondering how many people were as shocked as me when they got their comlex 2 score back. My score went down over 150 points! Yet my USMLE score was highly consistent. Surely the test is flawed. What can I do? The NBOME basically blew me off when I tried to investigate.:mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:
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When did you take the exam?

I'm hoping that it was just the one terrible exam form and not a trend.
 
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Comquest Qbank covers this topic also. If anyone has still not taken this test or needs to repeat it then I would suggest getting COMQUEST asap. I think just covering these two topics at least that had ppl stumped on Comlex should be a good reason to get it. I have combank as well and there is no mention of such topics there.

okayplayer said:
I hated that test, but I thought meralgia paresthetica (lat femoral cutaneous n.) was pretty well known. Maybe just at my school.
Click to expand...
 
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SURVIVOR25 said:
Comquest Qbank covers this topic also. If anyone has still not taken this test or needs to repeat it then I would suggest getting COMQUEST asap. I think just covering these two topics at least that had ppl stumped on Comlex should be a good reason to get it. I have combank as well and there is no mention of such topics there.
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I took the exam on 10th Aug. This thread scared the s... out of me. Awaiting results. But the posting by mj1878 makes sense. So anyone figure out the last "c"? The "B" and "09" makes sense . I think that could be an indication of which format/version. I am sure in one day of testing there are various formats? Like the MCAT? Sorry this was not a "reply" to the above quote. My mistake!
 
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misparas said:
Yep. I had that question. I didn't have a clue. I hadn't heard the word in my life.
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The only place I have heard singultus before is in an ER board lecture, and the guy only used it to make fun of people that use latin just to sound smart. So I just happened to know what it was. I also got pyrosis, which I never heard before (heartburn). Agree with everyone else about this test. If they let me use my laptop for the test, it would not have helped with the questions I went back to. I could not find a definite answer to their odd scenarios and vague symptoms when I looked it up at home. Be prepared to decide which is better between two equally correct answers on questions.
 
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SURVIVOR25 said:
Comquest Qbank covers this topic also. If anyone has still not taken this test or needs to repeat it then I would suggest getting COMQUEST asap. I think just covering these two topics at least that had ppl stumped on Comlex should be a good reason to get it. I have combank as well and there is no mention of such topics there.
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Were both in the OMM section? I haven't hit that section yet
 
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Why can't I log onto NBOME?? Can this peice of $^%&^* testing modality get any worse??? :thumbdown:
 
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Ok - so I got the website to work after experiencing some of the same difficulties that others mentioned......no joy on scores at this point.....

Tonight/this AM I'm sitting here busily completing my ERAS application to get this thing in gear. And tonight, it seems that the NBOME website is upchucking again. I feed it the userid/password that worked just a day ago and it doesn't like it. So I think that maybe I have fogotten my password in the multitude of information I carry around in my head and get it changed.....still no joy on logging in.....

Any one else having the same thing happen? What's the fix other than calling the NBOME and pleading for them to hire 24x7 IT support that wears a pager and answers it and knows how to fix their system.
I just went through a 3 hour fiasco of getting my schools IT people to put down the beer, drive their butts in and fix the schools webmail server. Gee - when you call yourself IT Support you actually have to support the product...fancy that....
 
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wildsimmer said:
Jonathon13180
If you only want to pass it, then I think you might want to consider asking them to re-score your test. I know someone who failed Part 1 and requested a re-score. He ended up with a passing score after the re-grading. He didn't pass by much, but atleast he did. It will save you the 500 bucks to re-register for it.
But if you're looking at it as a 2nd shot, then I don't know have much advice. I did pretty much what you did. I used Combank, Kaplan Q bank and FirstAid and used Saverese for OMM questions. You could spend the money and get some exams from the NBOME. I'm not sure how much they will help. A friend of mine bought a few and scored an avg of 570 on them. But on the real test, she got less than 460. It's totally unpredictable and is a crappy test no matter how you look at it. Good luck!
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How long does the "rescore" process take?
 
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Score just posted today, B09C = 679. A 121 point increase vs Step 1. I agree, I think "B09C" is just a BS identifier
 
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Stinking NBOME, here's hoping our USMLE scores are more representative.
 
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UNBELIEVABLE! Dropped 70+ points from step I. Pounded the material (knew B&W/CRUSH/Savareese COLD)for over a month while hitting 2 q-banks at least twice each.
WTF CAN YOU DO??? +pissed+:bullcrap::beat::slap::diebanana::wtf:
Thank you NBOME for continuing to produce S#IT exams for us to struggle through. Next time, write it in Chinese so it might make more sense. ANOTHER perpetuation of why the DO profession will continue to struggle in the real world in gaining true respectability. We take PATHETIC examinations written by PATHETIC people and there is nothing we can do about it. To those who improved, congrats. :thumbup: To those who didn't (the ones I read about last month and thought "those guys are exaggerating their score drop"), I truly feel your pain and anger. Yes I'm pissed....time to go punch a kitten.
 
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Definitely felt like I got hammered today on the comlex.

Breakdown wise:
50% OMM
30% Prevenatitve Medicine
20% everything else

Of the OMM: 25% cranio, 25% anatomy and positional, 50% viscerosomatic

Of the everything else:
tons of what medication would you give this person with this EKG
lots of what is the next step for this person with these GI lab values
very little of obgyn, peds, endocrine,
5 to 7 questions on OPTHO
I felt like every other question was "how would you prevent this?"

I used comquest and thought it was an awesome resource, a lot of questions were almost word for word, but I definitely wasn't prepared for rare MINERAL deficiencies, optho, and it was a month since I've gone over cranial, which just happened to take up a huge chunk of my exam, or at least felt like it did.
 
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Yeah I think that the BO9C is just a test identifier and not a specific form. I had improvement from step I to Step II to 639.
I agree that many of the test Q's are confusing and often poorly written and that in all honesty are highly subject to large variabilities in scores. I think that any one of us could rock the test on one day but do much worse if we took a different version on a different day. Therefore it is somewhat luck of the draw, which also explains why so many of us get scores that are >50-100 points different between step I and II.
 
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HogFan said:
... Therefore it is somewhat luck of the draw, which also explains why so many of us get scores that are >50-100 points different between step I and II...
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And this is exactly why I question the validity of NBOME's testing methods. If the test were truly valid, such extreme variance should not occur.
 
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i went up 20 points on my step 1 to step 2, but in all honesty i walked out feeling like i killed the test. thought i was easily over 600, and very frustrated with my score. now i will wait til oct 7 for usmle step 2 and hopefully have a better result.
 
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A lot of people on here had me worried about how Comlex 2 would turn out, but it was virtually identical to my comlex 1. B09C is definitely just the identifier (it's exactly what I had as well). I hope everyone continues to do well, and I feel for anyone who didn't get the score they wanted, because this thing definitely is a friggin' crapshoot...

Comlex I: 614
Comlex II: 613 (exam Aug. 17)

I'm most impressed by the quick turn around.

Oh yeah, and once again, COMSAE way overshot my score - 650 the day before.
 
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