UWorld vs. COMBANK

[DO_ctor]

I know this has been debated multiple times, but I've been getting so many mixed opinions from older threads, and so I want to see what the latest opinions are - I have 1 week left until COMLEX, I've been doing UWorld, but would it be more worth my time to do COMBANK instead? I'm planning on doing 400 questions a day and I've heard UWorld is harder than the real thing, and some say COMBANK is a lot like the exam, while others say COMBANK is a easier, what do you guys think would be the best use of my time?
I'm just trying to pass, my hopes are on USMLE which I'm taking in September, dedicated was such a mess for me and I know I've improved a lot since it started, but not as much as I would have liked to...
Any and all thoughts/comments/advice are much appreciated! Thank you!!

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[InternistDO]

You should definitely at least do OMM COMBANK questions in the days leading up to your exam.

 

[QueenJames]

You should definitely at least do OMM COMBANK questions in the days leading up to your exam.

Do you think a solid plan is to get through savarese and focus only on combank questions in 6 days???

 

[InternistDO]

I hope so, because I'm doing all the COMBANK questions in only 3 days hahaha.

We have to take the OMM shelf exam at the end of second year though, so I've had some more recent exposure to it. If you're good at churning through questions you can easily do it in 6 days, there are only like 300 OMM questions I think. I thought they were helpful for the shelf exam, so hopefully its the same for the COMLEX

 

[QueenJames]

I hope so, because I'm doing all the COMBANK questions in only 3 days hahaha.

We have to take the OMM shelf exam at the end of second year though, so I've had some more recent exposure to it. If you're good at churning through questions you can easily do it in 6 days, there are only like 300 OMM questions I think. I thought they were helpful for the shelf exam, so hopefully its the same for the COMLEX

BOSS.

Ur gonna kill it.

<3

 

[moyamoya6]

I know this has been debated multiple times, but I've been getting so many mixed opinions from older threads, and so I want to see what the latest opinions are - I have 1 week left until COMLEX, I've been doing UWorld, but would it be more worth my time to do COMBANK instead? I'm planning on doing 400 questions a day and I've heard UWorld is harder than the real thing, and some say COMBANK is a lot like the exam, while others say COMBANK is a easier, what do you guys think would be the best use of my time?
I'm just trying to pass, my hopes are on USMLE which I'm taking in September, dedicated was such a mess for me and I know I've improved a lot since it started, but not as much as I would have liked to...
Any and all thoughts/comments/advice are much appreciated! Thank you!!

I did not feel like COMBANK prepared me for the COMLEX very well. COMLEX felt like a curveball to me. If your school provided you with the 8 hour assessment on COMBANK, I highly recommend doing that. I think UWorld and COMBANK OMM questions should suffice before your test next week. Good luck!

 

[Staphylococcus Aureus]

I did not feel like COMBANK prepared me for the COMLEX very well. COMLEX felt like a curveball to me.

What makes you say that?

 

[moyamoya6]

What makes you say that?

Questions were written vaguely and they tested a lot more on obscure processes than I anticipated. And the pictures were terrible quality and were pixelated.

 

[Rekt]

I know this has been debated multiple times, but I've been getting so many mixed opinions from older threads, and so I want to see what the latest opinions are - I have 1 week left until COMLEX, I've been doing UWorld, but would it be more worth my time to do COMBANK instead? I'm planning on doing 400 questions a day and I've heard UWorld is harder than the real thing, and some say COMBANK is a lot like the exam, while others say COMBANK is a easier, what do you guys think would be the best use of my time?
I'm just trying to pass, my hopes are on USMLE which I'm taking in September, dedicated was such a mess for me and I know I've improved a lot since it started, but not as much as I would have liked to...
Any and all thoughts/comments/advice are much appreciated! Thank you!!

I don't see how you could possibly do 400 questions a day, let alone get anything out of it. Focusing on UWorld and explanations in detail will benefit your more than machine gunning a bunch of questions that you don't even read the explanations for.

 

[CoomassieBlue57]

I don't see how you could possibly do 400 questions a day, let alone get anything out of it. Focusing on UWorld and explanations in detail will benefit your more than machine gunning a bunch of questions that you don't even read the explanations for.

This x100. You need to read and memorize every concept in UWorld. Simply doing the questions, and not reviewing all the answer choices is not the point of UWorld and a poor use of such a great tool.

 

[NuttyEngDude]

BOSS.

You need people like me. You need people like me so you can point your f*****' fingers and say, "That's the bad guy." So... what that make you? Good? You're not good. You just know how to hide, how to lie.

Me, I don't have that problem. Me, I always tell the truth. Even when I lie. So say good night to the bad guy! Come on. The last time you gonna see a bad guy like this again, let me tell you.

AL PACINO IS SCARFACE

 

[LChristmas]

You definitely need to add combank micro into the mix. They just have a strange way of asking things that uworld doesn't replicate.

 

[Mad Jack]

They did a study at my school and found those that used COMBANK had lower scores than those that used any other resource, and were lower than those that only used school-provided Kaplan resources. The highest scores went to UW, next to baseline resource users, then Comquest and COMBANK were both below the Kaplan baseline. Another previous study at MSU showed students with UW performing the best and COMBANK users performing worse than those that used no question bank at all.

 

[Mad Jack]

I don't see how you could possibly do 400 questions a day, let alone get anything out of it. Focusing on UWorld and explanations in detail will benefit your more than machine gunning a bunch of questions that you don't even read the explanations for.

Anyone who is doing more than 120 or so UW questions a day on their first pass is using it wrong

 

[Yadster101]

They did a study at my school and found those that used COMBANK had lower scores than those that used any other resource, and were lower than those that only used school-provided Kaplan resources. The highest scores went to UW, next to baseline resource users, then Comquest and COMBANK were both below the Kaplan baseline. Another previous study at MSU showed students with UW performing the best and COMBANK users performing worse than those that used no question bank at all.

Correct me if wrong, but DOs using UW are probably planning on taking both tests while those using only Combank are probably planning on taking comlex. So it’s likely that the combank users are the bottom half of the class which is why they are more focused on comlex while uw users are stronger students. I hope what I’m trying to say makes sense.

 

[BorntobeDO?]

Correct me if wrong, but DOs using UW are probably planning on taking both tests while those using only Combank are probably planning on taking comlex. So it’s likely that the combank users are the bottom half of the class which is why they are more focused on comlex while uw users are stronger students. I hope what I’m trying to say makes sense.

Any study worth its weight would have adjusted for this by stratifying by GPA/rank to avoid this obvious confounder, otherwise the conclusion would be totally worthless. It doesn't matter whether the student was a Comlex only or Comlex plus USMLE. They both have to take COMLEX. Besides, how else could you get an apples to apples comparison except to use students rank/gpa? Also lots of students use UWORLD even if they are planning to do COMLEX only.

I want to know how Zanki/bros compares tho.

 

[Mad Jack]

Any study worth its weight would have adjusted for this by stratifying by GPA/rank to avoid this obvious confounder, otherwise the conclusion would be totally worthless. It doesn't matter whether the student was a Comlex only or Comlex plus USMLE. They both have to take COMLEX. Besides, how else could you get an apples to apples comparison except to use students rank/gpa? Also lots of students use UWORLD even if they are planning to do COMLEX only.

I want to know how Zanki/bros compares tho.

Other studies in the past have shown that class rank, at least on the USMLE side, is one of the weakest predictors of USMLE success.

 

[Scrubs101]

Other studies in the past have shown that class rank, at least on the USMLE side, is one of the weakest predictors of USMLE success.

It’s by no means the best predictor but also not the worst, probably depends on school curriculum. MCAT and undergrad GPA seems to be the worst predictors here.

http://www.com.msu.edu/Students/Boards_and_Prep/Board Prep Documents/Should-Osteopathic-Medical-Students-Take-the-USMLE-Step-1.pdf

http://www.com.msu.edu/Students/Academic_Guidance/Updated Online Academic Documents/Why Grades Matter.pdf

 

[Drrrrrr. Celty]

They did a study at my school and found those that used COMBANK had lower scores than those that used any other resource, and were lower than those that only used school-provided Kaplan resources. The highest scores went to UW, next to baseline resource users, then Comquest and COMBANK were both below the Kaplan baseline. Another previous study at MSU showed students with UW performing the best and COMBANK users performing worse than those that used no question bank at all.

I surmise that there's a large confounding variable in that those who explicitly are COMLEX only were already the kids who were going to likely do worse.

 

[Drrrrrr. Celty]

I think you should practice OMM questions, read Savarase, watch OMT vidoes, etc for 3-7 days prior to your COMLEX.

 

[BorntobeDO?]

Other studies in the past have shown that class rank, at least on the USMLE side, is one of the weakest predictors of USMLE success.

I wasn't suggesting class rank was a good predictor, rather that it would be the obvious way to stratify scores for comparison. I.e. - this student in second quartile used UWorld and got a 530, while this other student in the second quartile got a 450 using COMBANK.

They also could do it by COMSAEs (has a Correlation Coefficient of 0.7) but that would be kind of pointless, unless you had a baseline from 'pre-board study' where both students had scored low, but one improved drastically using a different resource.

 

[Mad Jack]

I wasn't suggesting class rank was a good predictor, rather that it would be the obvious way to stratify scores for comparison. I.e. - this student in second quartile used UWorld and got a 530, while this other student in the second quartile got a 450 using COMBANK.

They also could do it by COMSAEs (has a Correlation Coefficient of 0.7) but that would be kind of pointless, unless you had a baseline from 'pre-board study' where both students had scored low, but one improved drastically using a different resource.

Hey, all I know is every data point ever gathered says UW>>>>>>>Combank. Even the students in my school that only took COMLEX but used UW to study outperformed those who used COMBANK. I was a UW+Combank for OMM only student that scored 585/730 on COMLEX, middle of the class rank.

 

[UnoMas]

COMBANK is only good for the OMM questions, mostly because you have no other good source of OMM practice. I actually feel dumber using that qbank for other sections because its vagueness and stupidity make me doubt myself alot when I go back to Uworld. This applies to both level 1 and 2

 

[Money4MyHoney]

Comquest > combank for only level 1 of course

 

[shadowlightfox]

Comquest > combank for only level 1 of course

Really? I heard they have good explanations but I also heard questions are way too rudimentary compared to combank.

 

[navigator]

TCOM is officially getting rid of COMBANK as our official testing prep service provider and is now using UWorld instead... if that doesn’t say something, idk what will. combank sucks lol

 

[tankaer]

COMBANK is only good for the OMM questions, mostly because you have no other good source of OMM practice. I actually feel dumber using that qbank for other sections because its vagueness and stupidity make me doubt myself alot when I go back to Uworld. This applies to both level 1 and 2

100% Agree. I wouldn't be surprised if COMBANK actually leads to lower board scores. The explanations of correct answers are often wrong or poorly written and frequently use Medscape as the only reference. Explanations of incorrect answers are typically along the lines of "because the other answer is right".

 

[Scrubs101]

TCOM is officially getting rid of COMBANK as our official testing prep service provider and is now using UWorld instead... if that doesn’t say something, idk what will. combank sucks lol

for TCOM

Cheap tuition + including most expensive part of UFAP = success

 

[QueenJames]

TCOM is officially getting rid of COMBANK as our official testing prep service provider and is now using UWorld instead... if that doesn’t say something, idk what will. combank sucks lol

GODDAMN IT I WISH I MOVED TO TEXAS WHEN I HAD THE CHANCE.

GOD BLESS YOU BASTARDS!

 

[AnatomyGrey12]

I regret not throwing an app at TCOM honestly.

 

[shadowlightfox]

I'm just posting to confirm that at least on my COMLEX, COMBANK did not help at all, not even for OMM...

And now I'm debating on whether or not I should even consider COMBANK for level 2...

 

[AlbinoHawk DO]

I'm just posting to confirm that at least on my COMLEX, COMBANK did not help at all, not even for OMM...

And now I'm debating on whether or not I should even consider COMBANK for level 2...

Obviously UW is the best source, but for OMM portion, COMBANK is useful for level 2. Re-doing the COMATs can help too.

 

[shadowlightfox]

Obviously UW is the best source, but for OMM portion, COMBANK is useful for level 2. Re-doing the COMATs can help too.

Eh. Right now, because I'm an ankiholic, I'm trying to figure out what would be the best anki deck to use for third year first.

What's your opinion on COMQUEST and Amboss, if you've tried either or both of these?

 

[Rekt]

Obviously UW is the best source, but for OMM portion, COMBANK is useful for level 2. Re-doing the COMATs can help too.

Eh. Right now, because I'm an ankiholic, I'm trying to figure out what would be the best anki deck to use for third year first.

What's your opinion on COMQUEST and Amboss, if you've tried either or both of these?

Having just finished Level 2, Combank and Comquest were both absolutely worthless and nothing like the real exam. Maybe it'll get you 4-5 out of the 50-60 OMM questions at best. Even Savarese is useless now. There's nothing to prep for that OMM.

 

[AlbinoHawk DO]

Eh. Right now, because I'm an ankiholic, I'm trying to figure out what would be the best anki deck to use for third year first.

What's your opinion on COMQUEST and Amboss, if you've tried either or both of these?

Didn't use these, but I keep hearing about this Amboss being like the new huge thing? I heard it's originally from Germany?

 

[Jinxapotato]

Do you think a solid plan is to get through savarese and focus only on combank questions in 6 days???

I just read the green book twice in 3 days, didn't do a single OMM question, 600+ on COMLEX 1. I think the green book is plenty for OMM, save the money for icecream after your exam.

 

[QueenJames]

I just read the green book twice in 3 days, didn't do a single OMM question, 600+ on COMLEX 1. I think the green book is plenty for OMM, save the money for icecream after your exam.

Jinx..

my baby boo...

I already took that damn thing lol

We shall see how it goes fam.

Appreciate the reply nonetheless homie!

 

[Oh_Gee]

Having just finished Level 2, Combank and Comquest were both absolutely worthless and nothing like the real exam. Maybe it'll get you 4-5 out of the 50-60 OMM questions at best. Even Savarese is useless now. There's nothing to prep for that OMM.

how are we supposed to study OMM for comlex 2 then? just pray?

 

[Moose A Moose]

how are we supposed to study OMM for comlex 2 then? just pray?

No. You light incense and meditate. As an astral projection, you then go on to seek out AT Still. You must answer his three riddles and you will be granted success upon the OMM segment of your COMLEX.






















































Honestly though, is what I just said any less believable than half the **** they forced down our throats in lab?

 

[Jinxapotato]

No. You light incense and meditate. As an astral projection, you then go on to seek out AT Still. You must answer his three riddles and you will be granted success upon the OMM segment of your COMLEX.



Honestly though, is what I just said any less believable than half the **** they forced down our throats in lab?

 

[shadowlightfox]

how are we supposed to study OMM for comlex 2 then? just pray?

Doesn't matter. Read Savarese anyway. Knowing something about OMM is better than knowing nothing.

 

[PathoTurnUp1865]

So far in my friend group the ones who only used combank were scoring around 100 points less on practice tests than those of us who were using Uworld. We all scored similar scores in our classes. Tried to stress the importance of Uworld and they said “it’s too hard” lol

 

[shadowlightfox]

So far in my friend group the ones who only used combank were scoring around 100 points less on practice tests than those of us who were using Uworld. We all scored similar scores in our classes. Tried to stress the importance of Uworld and they said “it’s too hard” lol

You should've told them that by doing something "too hard" it makes the easy things even easier.

 

[Jinxapotato]

So far in my friend group the ones who only used combank were scoring around 100 points less on practice tests than those of us who were using Uworld. We all scored similar scores in our classes. Tried to stress the importance of Uworld and they said “it’s too hard” lol

Hey to each their own man, if they wanna drag the average down and give you guys a better curve why not lol.

 

[alprazoslam]

You do not need combank or comquest for comlex. Both are inferior to uworld and rx

 

[BorntobeDO?]

I have my own OMM deck that I made last year and updated before the OMM shelf this year. Its mostly based off of savarese and class study guides + a bit of OMG OMT, Comquest and Combank questions I liked. So I guess I have some experience.

I agree that OMM on the comlex really doesn't resemble any of the resources. Savarese is best, COMBANK is second, COMQUEST OMM had more mistakes and I don't actually think it helped my shelf that much (didn't use it for boards). I thought OMG OMT was a bit scampy but high yield. If I picked just one to cram, I would do green book. For reference I was 'above average' (kind of ashamed of this) on both the shelf and COMLEX in OMM.

 

[AnatomyGrey12]

I thought OMG OMT was a bit scampy but high yield. If I picked just one to cram, I would do green book. For reference I was 'above average' (kind of ashamed of this) on both the shelf and COMLEX in OMM.

Ha no need to be ashamed. I know a guy who got a very solid COMLEX score and then was going through his breakdown and realized it was as great as it was because he was 100 percentile in OMM The best part is he is very anti-OMM lol

 

[PathoTurnUp1865]

I have my own OMM deck that I made last year and updated before the OMM shelf this year. Its mostly based off of savarese and class study guides + a bit of OMG OMT, Comquest and Combank questions I liked. So I guess I have some experience.

I agree that OMM on the comlex really doesn't resemble any of the resources. Savarese is best, COMBANK is second, COMQUEST OMM had more mistakes and I don't actually think it helped my shelf that much (didn't use it for boards). I thought OMG OMT was a bit scampy but high yield. If I picked just one to cram, I would do green book. For reference I was 'above average' (kind of ashamed of this) on both the shelf and COMLEX in OMM.

Currently making an all inclusive anki deck. You can find it here:

 

[tealeafexplorer]

Currently making an all inclusive anki deck. You can find it here:

I hope it’s ok man, I’ve been hyping up your deck a bit in forums and to some of my classmates

 

[PathoTurnUp1865]

I hope it’s ok man, I’ve been hyping up your deck a bit in forums and to some of my classmates

No problem! I haven’t found any other decks besides the one that’s on the side bar and I didn’t personally like it. So hopefully others like mine once I’m done!