r/comlex

We started dedicated a week ago, I took my first COMSAE and absolutely bombed it, I got a 250. I had 50% of UW Q bank done at that point but I realized there was a lot of knowledge gap on the exam and it was very different from UW Qs. I recognized everything and had some idea of where it was going but not enough to select the right answers.

I spoke with my professors and friends and everyone recommends something different, my professors heavily emphasize getting more exposure to more questions.

But I feel like my foundation is not there. There is a lot of physiology that I do not understand, this whole week of dedicated I have been doing only three systems. I did 1-2 blocks where it’s just that one system, then 1-2 blocks of mixed with those three plus OPP, biostats, and ethics questions. My score on UW is dropping lower and lower and remaining around 30-45%. Sometimes I spend hours on one block of questions. I have it timed but in tutor mode. So I review each question I miss by trying to read the explanation and then finding it in FA to understand it more. Nothing has been sticking really…. I’ve tried Anki for the UW questions I miss but I find there are just too many cards if I unsuspend cards for every question I miss and I struggle to do the Anki because I don’t really know what the card is trying to get at, so now I just have cards piling up.

I have my exam scheduled for 6/8.
I have already read over and watched pathoma chapters 1-3, will need to review it more.

My current schedule is 8am-6pm and I have been struggling to keep up with that schedule… everything gets pushed back and I end up only doing 1-2 blocks of questions. I’m still confused about physio, especially when the questions ask what values increase or what decreases with that condition.

What did you all do during dedicated that really helped with learning the material? What do you suggest I do to be more efficient with my studying? Did you all take a lot of notes? Do you think I need to push my exam back?

I've been really struggling to figure out which Qbank to fully commit to. I have uworld, amboss, and truelearn. Before my last comsae I did mostly truelearn but one of my advisors wants me to consider taking step as well.

To me, truelearn has the most accurate question style. Uworld is great for reasoning. Amboss is good too but seems very hard when you include level 4-5 questions.

Has anyone tried the specific COMLEX version of Amboss? Thoughts or suggestions? I'm a few days into dedicated and want to make the right choices

Im trying to hit as much of the content gaps as i can but somehow i feel like at this point i've hit the proverbial "hard cap" seeing diminishing returns so to speak. For reference my scores were 619 (107), 565 (110,111), and 511 (114-School administered). Im solid on OPP, got a 107 on the OPP COMAT trying to brush up on Biostats, Systems based (plan do act stuff), and some Ethics. I test in 7 days exactly, what should i brush up on at this point thats particularly HY?

As the title says, is this doable? Any suggestions on achieving this would be great. Thank you!

For anyone who has taken Level 1 recently, are the individual COMSAEs of any use?

I've taken 2 COMSAEs through my school 114 & 113. How do the individual COMSAEs (107i, 110i, & 111i) compare? And are they worth it?

Currently, I am scheduled to take the exam on June 3. I took my first exam which was form 107 on April 13 and passed with a 420+. Then, I passed our school comsae on April 20 with a 450+ on form 116. Just took form 110 yesterday and passed 500+. I do also really want to take step one and take it after my comlex exam which is a big reason of why I want to potentially move up this exam date. Also took NBME 26 and scored 60%+ on it and completed True Learn Combank Form B at 70%. For q banks, i’ve only been using true learn for questions and have done approximately 70% of the bank at 63% average. **Honestly, I’m just wondering if the scores are reliable enough for me to take comlex in the next two weeks?**

Currently, I feel like I’m guessing on so many questions on these exams despite my score proving me wrong. Dead ass, I feel like I fail every single exam after I take it. For me, I know I still have to heavily review OMM along with Biostat, ethics and even drugs. I did do sketchy micro and drugs throughout pre-clinical but, since dedicated, I’ve just been relying on those images that I did during pre-clinical to keep me going, so I do know that I do have to review that w anki.

Not only that, but on this subreddit, I have read that people still who passed above 450 are failing the exam. I checked the statistics and even my professor (who is a physician that runs our board prep) also stated that if you are getting above a 450 you should be having a 99% chance of passing comlex. I just do not want to end up potentially not doing great on this exam bc I moved it up earlier.

Ultimately, I really don’t know if I should move up this exam date knowing that I still have a lot of weaknesses and I’m still heavily confused how I am passing these exams- I’m just really scared of potentially screwing myself over if I took it early when I should’ve taken it later. At the same time, I only scheduled step one one week out from comlex so that’s another reason.

Ultimately- just wondering are these scores reliable or should I 100% be hitting more prep? I just wanna be able to pass this exam and study my best for step.

how did u feel? i had a mix of stupidly easy & half of "wtf even are these?" kinda questions. Overall feel like I got the P but some stuff nothing couldve prepared me...

My school requires a 475 on COMSAE before are allowed to sit, my performance on the COMSAEs I've taken are:

COMSAE 113: 287 (taken March 16th)

COMSAE 116 :395 (taken May 4th)

Between the two COMSAEs I did not do any board prep because we had exams to prep for and maybe had about 4 days of actual prep for the COMSAE on May 4th

The next COMSAE my school is offering is May 28th and I am hoping for a 475 or higher? Would that be realistic considering I have about 2/3 weeks in between? My COMLEX date is June 15th and I cannot move it due to availability/ we have to sit for it by June 26th. Am I on the right track?

Title: finished TrueLearn and need another bank to do. I haven’t touched UWorld because I noticed the way they asked questions is different from comlex.
Taking COMLEX 1 in a couple weeks on May 26th so is it worth it to do UWorld right now or would that fuck up the logic I already built? Or should I just start doing incorrect random blocks of TrueLearn till my exam?

I’m going to buy the Welcom exams since my friends told me they saw questions pop up on their exam from it and it’s made from NBOME so might as well hit that in my final week.
Thoughts?

If you have taken COMLEX, how detailed were the treatment questions for Muscle Energy, HVLA, stills, etc...? TL keeps coming up with treatments for tender points I have never heard of

I know there are 6 forms for level 2, but $60 a pop seems a little steep. I was wondering if anyone had anki or info with the material, similar to how there are things like this for NBME.

I am wanting to take a self-proctored COMSAE before having to take my second one via the school. Got a 470 on my first, need a 460+ on the second.

For those who have taken them, which of the forms (BSA113i, BSA114i, BSA115i) was most representative of the actual exam?

hello people. i’m scheduled for step 1 on 5/29 and level 1 on 6/4. ive taken two school administered COMSAEs:

113 (took in march when i still had 2 mods of material left in school curriculum): 542

115 (took a few days ago): 619

Also took NBME form 31 last week: 79%

I just feel like I wanna get the exams over with if I’m scoring well on these practices, but for my sanity would love to hear outside opinions on if i’d be making a poor decision and jumping the gun. Appreciate ya’ll🙏

Extra context: haven’t done a whole lot of truelearn or uworld

First comsae for level 1 was a 290
Studied for a month while also studying for classes. Did all of endo and sketchy questions on truelearn.
Second comsae was a 250 :/
I have to get a 475 by the end of this month. I’m hoping now that classes are over I’ll do better but
What do I do ???

Hope this will be helpful to someone who wants a study plan that worked OK to build off of. I'll be going through all the resources I used from the day after I took level 1 and what I found to be useful.

Q-bank utalization during third year:

Every med student should finish a Q bank full stop. Some people are warlocks and can get high scores without finishing a full q bank, but they are the exception and not the rule. The big 3 to chose from is Uworld, truelearn, and Amboss. I think there is no objective superior choice and it's whatever you have a personal preference for. I personally used Uworld and used truelearn for OMM only. You should ideally have the qbank being progressed the entire time you're in third year. It's the best way to get ready for the COMATs. If you finish every COMAT sub-section by the end of third year, you can grind out the general review questions as a way to stay fresh during dedicated. If you are doing step also, do not use truelearn only. It's significantly easier than NBME step questions and will not leave you prepaired for step 2.

You should utalize the qbank as the main way you learn. You should not care about your % correct. It doesn't matter and it causes uneccisary stress. It is a tool and you use it to build knowledge. On a typical day, after my rotation, I would do 25 questions. Most Q-banks can be finished after a year of study at this rate. Adjust to personal tolerance and how much of a dedicated period you have.

The important thing to keep in mind you want to have no more than 3 or so weeks for non-qbank studying in my opinion. The bigger the gap, the more random useless factoids you are going to forget. I had 3 weeks after I finished my qbank and honestly wish I would have taken my exams sooner.

How to review questions:

When you get a question wrong, you should break down questions into 3 catagories. 1) I had no idea what the question stem was even going for. 2) I knew what the question was going for, but I didn't know the factoid. 3) I knew the factoid and question but I read the question wrong. If it's problem #1, you need to do a deep dive into that topic. If you got a question about cryoglobinemia and you realize you know nothing about it, you need to read about it. Write notes, unsuspend flash cards, whatever jam you put on your cake in that regard. If it's 2, quick skim, be able to explain to a 5 year old what the answer means in relation to the question, move on. 3 is read, slap your forehead, chill out and move on.

Anki (Anking):

I hate anki and use it every day. There's sadly no better way to get facts into your brain. It is best for meaningless, regurgitated, googable stuff these tests make you memorize. Which mutation is associated with CLL or whatever the philidelphia chromosome meme is. I've already forgoten. If it's a concept on the card, be able to explain it, not just memorize it. Use it responsibly, not lazily. Med students are tempted to be intellectually lazy because of the quanity of info we have to learn. The facts should make sense as you recite them like a medical creed. If you're just vomiting shit back like a bird to its baby, you are not using anki right. Instead of memorizing a chart of hemodynamic changes in different states of shock, just be able to talk and think through it and explain what every variable means and you will never forget it.

Be very careful what you unsuspend. Anking has bloat. "A triangle is triangle shaped" type shit. Make sure it's info you actually want to memorize. My final step 2 deck had 7500 cards in it that I had matured. Continue your cards between comats. It's not that much extra work because they quickly become cards you see once every 3 months and you will be shocked what helps you recall. Do your anki every day. It like farming; plant seeds, water them, and you'll get strong returns. My anki only took me about 30 minutes every day to finish my whole deck doing this. Just lock in and take your medicine once a day and you'll thank your previous self.

Should I keep up with my level 1 deck?

Honestly, right now I wouldn't, but I bet in 5 to 10 years the suggestion is going to be yes, keep up with it. Level 1 type knowledge is metastizing into level 2 now that level 1 is pass fail. I saw it on step, I saw it on COMLEX, I anticipate that trend will continue. Things I would keep are management type answers like which antibiotic is best for which infection, your rare genetic diseases and how they present, MOAs of diabetes drugs, etc. Things you'd actually want to know as a doctor instead of which specific caspase does ebola activate.

What about other resources like boards and beyond, med school boot camp, etc?:

I personally did not find these resources helpful, but some people swear by them. As long as you are increasing your understanding of medical concepts and achieving scores you desire, you could play the kazoo blindfolded on a roof for all anyone cares as your primary study method. Outcomes, not methodology, are the only relivant data point to be considered with any substance.

For podcasts, if I wanted to play hardcore WoW / ff14 or go on a walk but also wanted to study, I'd throw on some devine or C3 and just listen while I did some mindless task like fishing or grinding trash mobs for mats. I picked up a few bits of info that were helpful. YMMV.

How do I study for ethics and biostats?

People online really harp on ethics being annoying. I personally never found these sectoins challenging and that I preformed well using my above study bank. If it's a real pain in your neck, do uworld. They have a ton of ethics and give you a good sense for what they're looking for. Looking at my score report, it seems like I didn't miss a single ethics question, so uworld is definitly a big dog in terms of helping you score well in this department.

I hated biostats. I never completed a math course in college. Just not something I ever understood or cared to understand. For me, I found that if I stopped memorizing formulas and explained what the results actually meant in plain english, I developed intuition like a monkey with a socket wrench trying to fix a helicopter that somehow worked. It wasn't perfect, but it was a lot better than the blind fury and boredom I felt reviewing it when trying to write out A/A+B / C/C+D or whatever. What I mean by this is understand what sensitivity is actually measuring, what a confidence interval actually is, etc. Then it'll make sense why a CI that contains 1 is meaningless. These tests are moving away from calculate a number to interpret a result and explain what it functionally means, so in general this is a smarter way to study anyway.

I'm not the guy to ask about how to crush this section. I merely survived it with a good enough. Don't sleep on it. You will see it on your exams.

OMM?

It's there. Never understood it. Never had any intuition for it. It was my worst section on the exam (pretty measurably below average in my score report). Take heart that if you are bad at it you can still score well. Again, not the guy to ask about how to crush this section, but I did the green book (Savarese) and memorized the charts about chapman's points and autonomics. Obviously not the best way to go about it if you want to do well in this section. Sorry but I am of no help if you struggle in this department. Same bro is all I can really say.

What should I do during dedicated?

1. Finish a q bank

2. At the very tail end (3 weeks out), I dropped anki. I did not have the energy nor were the cards worth doing anymore. It was an accumulation of facts that refused to enter my brain over the course of the year and frankly were not getting in there in 3 weeks. They were all very low yield and frankly should not have ever entered my deck.

3.The effort you're spending needs to shift from gaining more knowledge to not losing what you already have. The mental game became #1 priority. Take lots of practice tests. I was doing 3 CMS forms (the step practice shelf exams, I assume COMLEX has their own version you could do if you're a comlex only andy) a day. They're 20 bucks a pop and very helpful.

4.I took a full length pratice exam about once every week or two, just depending on my internal intuition when I felt ready to check in again. In my experience, my second practice test was always worse than my first and my third was always better than my first. I went 238, 233, 248, 255 on my practice NBMEs this run. Last time for step 1, I went 60% correct, 45% correct, and my final NBME was 77% correct. Do not despair, do not crash out. You will bounce back. Have faith and trust yourself. If you're calm, vibing, and going with your gut insticts, you will preform. Overthinking, panicing, tilting will result in you missing the forest for the trees. If you do enough questions, you'll read a question, say "this sounds like HIV," have absolutly no good reason to say that, and be right. I can't explain it but you get gestalt for questions if you do enough. Trust that and trust the process. I could write a book on how to have a good mental on these tests because I went from having a dogshit mental to iron warrior mental. And you want that strong mental when things are not going well and you have to quickly make a good choice in real life. It's worth cultivating now when the stakes are the lowest they're ever going to be.

5. Brush up on weak areas. Review your section breakdowns of what is low for you and take CMS forms on those sections. My worst were IM, peds, and psych. I finished all those forms. I did not review EM, obgyn, surgery, etc because I was very strong in those sections. Family medicine is always worth reviewing because they love asking screening guidelines and those are easy to forget.

Test day tips:

Focus on being calm and not getting tilted. The death sentence on these exams is tilt. My stress tolerance is very high and even I have gotten flustered at getting a few questions in a row where I'm lost on what they're even going for. In that regard, recall that a nice slice of these questions are experimental. Someone's little brother got the controller and slammed out some God forsaken question that's a fever dream of a retired attending with Alzheimers. It is what it is. If you don't know the answer, that's an experimental question. Even if the question is who is AT Still, that's experimental if you don't know the answer.

Do not care about scoring well on test day. If you get too into your head about needing to get X score or you won't match is death. Spiraling about how you might do poorly and disapoint people is death. Treat it like a for fun knowledge test. It's pimping on paper. Read click trust vibes and move on. Do everything you can to get into a flow state and fly. Take frequent breaks, walk around, be calm, you'll do well.

Final advice

Watch the dirty medicine morning routine video for how to get enough sleep before the exam and what to eat for breakfast. Actually clutch. I slept well and felt almost no fatigue during my exams except for the last 1-2 blocks.

Don't tilt. Finish a q bank. Review weak areas. Do anki to memorize facts. I made this massive post because I want to keep the ladder intact and help ya'll achieve your goals. If you have any questions or need any help, DM me and I'll get back to you with whatever I can. Good luck!

I take level 1 in about 6 weeks. I got a 411 on my school's administered COMSEA, and I have finished about 50% of TL so far, with my score averaging at 60%. I have also finished 50% of all of sketchy micro and did the autonomic drugs, renal/cardio drugs, and psych drugs on sketchy pharm so far. OMT has always been one of my strengths. Any advice on what I should do to get my score to improve, and if I am on track to pass?

Basically the title. School wanted us to get a 425 before we took the exam. I just wanted to know if anyone else felt good taking the exam earlier in dedicated. Sorry, feeling neurotic right now because I’ve heard of people failing with really high COMSAE scores and I don’t even know what a good one is since with all these differing opinions (I just got told 480 isn’t that good and another person said it’s great)

Just coming here for general advice about my readiness for level 1 - my school has had a drop in board pass rates for the most recent years so they have pretty much just been scaring us for the past year (which I get but it certainly can be overwhelming), I believe I am on the right track but there is so much conflicting information on accuracy of COMSAEs/Uworld/Truelearn scores

1/08 COMAT-FBS-C: 204 (idk how much this helps but my school made us take it)
4/25 COMSAE 107: 412

4/27 COMSAE 114 (school administered): 505

Dedicated started 4/28 for us - I have been reviewing first aid, anking, and questions for each system since january, now I am doing random mixed question sets and tracking my incorrects (and making an anki deck with those incorrects). I do not like to watch videos so I have just been reading first aid, pathoma, and an old cases for step 1 book.

Truelearn ~17% done with 68% avg

Uworld ~32% done with 62% avg

I do also plan on taking 2 other COMSAEs, all of the nbmes, and my school requires us to take a kaplan COMLEX assessment (and get above a 57%)

I plan on taking comlex 6/8 and step 6/15 -- does it look like I should be in a good place to pass both?

I got a 398 on COMSAE Phase 1.

Biochem was pretty rough, as was Path and Pharm. Everything else was in the average column. I am looking at doing dirty medicine for biochem + anki for that.

For omm are the questions in the green book worth my time?

I am planning to finish sketchy and do pharm/pathoma. I have amboss and am planning to do their 30 day study plan here in a few days + anki reviews for missed questions. I know I have alot of material I need to review and familiarize myself with.

The school requires a 425 on a practice test (our next one is end of may) is that doable? I test end of june

Any advice would be helpful.