the official COMAT shelf thread

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SynapticDoctah said:
Used psychiatry shelf COMQUEST and was scoring in 95%tile, read FA for Psych and watched OME 2x. Got killed on the COMAT. Rediculous. I had to guess on the last ten cause I ran out of time. It was nothing like any practice questions and there was stuff I had never even heard of before. Gotta love it.
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Sounds just like the COMAT! There’s always a good percentage of random things you’ve never heard of before. Thanks NBOME.
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moyamoya6 said:
Sounds just like the COMAT! There’s always a good percentage of random things you’ve never heard of before. Thanks NBOME.
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It’s infuriating that our grades rely on these joke exams. I know multiple people in our class last year that took all the NBME exams, got honors on all of them, and then had to take the NbOME FM shelf and didn’t get honors.
 
I finished my Surgical NBOME Shelf exam last week. I ran out of time on my last 5-6 quests.

There were def garbage on there that weren't on UW or OME. However, I can solidly say none of the quests were like wtf are they talking about like the COMLEX. In term of content, I have seen at least 98% of them either in OME, UW, or my surgery clinical exp.

At least for the surgery shelf, doing the following will get you exposure to at least 95% of the tested content:

1) OME
2) UW + Pestana quests
3) Pay attention to your pts at work, stay awake during pimping sessions, and read up on crap that you have never seen before on UTD

On the exam, there were def like about 10-20 wtf quests that weren't in either OME, UW, or Pestana. The only reason that I know about them is bc of the pimping sessions with my preceptors, residents, and didactic days.
 
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Black Coffee 24/7 said:
I finished my Surgical NBOME Shelf exam last week. I ran out of time on my last 5-6 quests.

There were def garbage on there that weren't on UW or OME. However, I can solidly say none of the quests were like wtf are they talking about like the COMLEX. In term of content, I have seen at least 98% of them either in OME, UW, or my surgery clinical exp.

At least for the surgery shelf, doing the following will get you exposure to at least 95% of the tested content:

1) OME
2) UW + Pestana quests
3) Pay attention to your pts at work, stay awake during pimping sessions, and read up on crap that you have never seen before on UTD

On the exam, there were def like about 10-20 wtf quests that weren't in either OME, UW, or Pestana. The only reason that I know about them is bc of the pimping sessions with my preceptors, residents, and didactic days.
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I think out of all the COMATs, my surgery, OBGYN, and psychiatry COMATs had the least amount of wtf questions. OPP was the worst.
 
SynapticDoctah said:
It’s infuriating that our grades rely on these joke exams. I know multiple people in our class last year that took all the NBME exams, got honors on all of them, and then had to take the NbOME FM shelf and didn’t get honors.
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Yeah I agree just to update on my psych comat, got a 100+. Was really thinking I got high enough to honor, oh well
 
Am I wasting my time by watching all the surgical subspecialty videos and trauma surgery videos on OME for the surgery comat? Or are those pretty important for this thing?
 
MrTaco92 said:
Am I wasting my time by watching all the surgical subspecialty videos and trauma surgery videos on OME for the surgery comat? Or are those pretty important for this thing?
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I recommend watching the surgical subspecialty videos for skin cancer and surgical HTN. Watch all the trauma surgery videos except for the bites and toxic ingestion ones. My surgery COMAT had a good bit of trauma on it and burns.
 
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moyamoya6 said:
I recommend watching the surgical subspecialty videos for skin cancer and surgical HTN. Watch all the trauma surgery videos except for the bites and toxic ingestion ones. My surgery COMAT had a good bit of trauma on it and burns.
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thank you!
 
Recently switched my surgery rotation and am now taking it next month. So far my plan is to read pestana, anki, Uworld, combank, comquest and ome. Any other advice?
 
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PathoTurnUp1865 said:
Recently switched my surgery rotation and am now taking it next month. So far my plan is to read pestana, anki, Uworld, combank, comquest and ome. Any other advice?
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Sounds like a plan! Surgery was one of the more straightforward COMATs. Definitely know your hepatobiliary diseases and management.
 
PathoTurnUp1865 said:
Think I’ll have enough time for that?
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Depends on how much you want to study. I didn’t even bother with Surgical Recall and took the hit for the pimp questions. I only used Pestana and COMBANK because I got lazy.
 
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moyamoya6 said:
Depends on how much you want to study. I didn’t even bother with Surgical Recall and took the hit for the pimp questions. I only used Pestana and COMBANK because I got lazy.
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Yeah surgical recall is like 900 pages. I’m going to save it for if I somehow have an extra two hours but I don’t anticipate that because of surgery usually being very time intensive. I’ve already started reading pestanas though so I might have time.
 
How do people use OME as a resource? It feels more of a preview to the subject than a full learning tool. Is it good for all specialties or better for specific ones?
 
dostudent545 said:
How do people use OME as a resource? It feels more of a preview to the subject than a full learning tool. Is it good for all specialties or better for specific ones?
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I read the book of whatever is recommended and then watch the omes
 
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Update: I passed the FMED shelf within 1 SD. The NBOME is a bunch of tricky tricksters. Considering I almost cried on my way out of the exam this is good enough for me. It was a rude first experience with a COMAT but I feel more prepared now. Best of luck, all.
 
DrDoxie said:
Update: I passed the FMED shelf within 1 SD. The NBOME is a bunch of tricky tricksters. Considering I almost cried on my way out of the exam this is good enough for me. It was a rude first experience with a COMAT but I feel more prepared now. Best of luck, all.
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which COMAT was it?
 
What’s the maximum possible score for the COMATs? I understand that since it’s supposed to follow a standard distribution 130 should encompass 99.xx% of test takers but I don’t think I’ve ever heard of someone scoring that high.
 
TrashCanMan said:
I'm assuming it depends on the spread of scores of the people you're taking it with how high scores can go. I don't think there is a hard ceiling.

All my COMATs were 120s, 130s, and one at 146. OMM was my lowest at 116.
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ROFL

Just 146? You’re a failure. People in my school average min 200.
 
scrublyfe21 said:
What’s the maximum possible score for the COMATs? I understand that since it’s supposed to follow a standard distribution 130 should encompass 99.xx% of test takers but I don’t think I’ve ever heard of someone scoring that high.
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I’ve had a few in the 130s.
 
Thought I would throw it out there. Took the Psych COMAT on Friday. Used OME, Zanki, combank, comquest, Uworld, and Psych FA. Felt like most of it was covered, there were only a handful of questions or questions with certain answers (prolotherapy :eyeroll: ) that I hadn't encountered. Walked out feeling much better than the OMM COMAT last month, though..
 
So when do COMAT results get back? Took my exam a week and half ago ...
 
Oreo#1 said:
So when do COMAT results get back? Took my exam a week and half ago ...
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You might want to just check the NBOME website. You don't get notified that the COMATs are posted and if your school is anything like mine they won't tell you either. I took mine 8/24 and it was posted on Friday.
 
Is anyone using the COMQUEST FM bank? I am getting absolutely slaughtered on these questions...anyone having the same experience? I feel like 50% of these questions I have never heard of the answers they are giving and 25% are super picky details. Anyone score well on the actual exam and not do so well on this bank?
 
SynapticDoctah said:
Is anyone using the COMQUEST FM bank? I am getting absolutely slaughtered on these questions...anyone having the same experience? I feel like 50% of these questions I have never heard of the answers they are giving and 25% are super picky details. Anyone score well on the actual exam and not do so well on this bank?
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I used the FM Combank since it’s free through my school and it sucked (like it always does). Scored 2 SD’s above the mean on the FM COMAT.

I’d recommend reading the Ambulatory section of Step Up to Medicine.
 
IntheClouds4ever said:
Thought I would throw it out there. Took the Psych COMAT on Friday. Used OME, Zanki, combank, comquest, Uworld, and Psych FA. Felt like most of it was covered, there were only a handful of questions or questions with certain answers (prolotherapy :eyeroll: ) that I hadn't encountered. Walked out feeling much better than the OMM COMAT last month, though..
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Update after score release- question banks and OME during the month and watch Emma Holliday 2x, two days before exam. If you do Zanki + OME and Emma, you don’t need FA (imo).
 
SynapticDoctah said:
lol sorry i meant any particular part of the ambulatory section @TTPpentad
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I just browsed through that whole section the morning of my test. 50ish pages and did pretty quick skim. Definitely got me 5+ questions right on the test that I would have had to think a lot harder about otherwise.
 
Any last minute advice on surgery shelf?
Watched all onlinemeded 1 x, read through quicktables, 75% UWORLD, 65% comquest, 66% Combank, done about half of the pestana questions and did anki. Worried about this one just because don't know what to expect and my comquest/combank avgs were lower than I wanted
 
PathoTurnUp1865 said:
Any last minute advice on surgery shelf?
Watched all onlinemeded 1 x, read through quicktables, 75% UWORLD, 65% comquest, 66% Combank, done about half of the pestana questions and did anki. Worried about this one just because don't know what to expect and my comquest/combank avgs were lower than I wanted
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Do all UW Renal and GI quests. If you don't have time, do GI UW quests first.
 
PathoTurnUp1865 said:
Any last minute advice on surgery shelf?
Watched all onlinemeded 1 x, read through quicktables, 75% UWORLD, 65% comquest, 66% Combank, done about half of the pestana questions and did anki. Worried about this one just because don't know what to expect and my comquest/combank avgs were lower than I wanted
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Cram in the Parkland formula and make sure you know your hepatobiliary and GI stuff. Review it once more in Pestana if you’re still weak in that area.
 
NecFasc92 said:
How the heck is your uworld % 10% higher than comquest????????????
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Uworld tested completely different stuff. Comquest and combank were sooooooo left field. Uworld was pretty consistent and mostly trauma stuff, which is stuff I like. The other stuff really harbored on IM which like what people have said in the past, is kind of what comat surgery test on.
I’ve got about 18 hours. Will probably try to cram the renal stuff in. I think it’s my worse part. Probably try to glance through Pestana and see if there’s anything I’m missing. Will write about it after my test tomorrow!
 
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In case it helps anyone with their IM COMAT - got a 109 using usmle-rx. I feel like if you did ok on your step 1/level 1, you should be fine with the IM comat.
 
Just started Blueprint Medicine book. Any input on it for IM shelf? I'm thinking that book and questions, but not sure if it's a good enough plan?
 
How hard is it to fail a COMAT?

The time limit on these things is killer. Took family med recently and I probably had to skim/guess the last 15. But throughout the whole test it seemed like it was hard to gauge how I was doing.
Anyone know if there’s a certain percentage even after it’s scaled, where you definitely fail? Like 40% raw score or so?
 
Anybody that has gotten a 115+ on FM comat, what did you do/use?
 
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