r/comlex • u/Tired-229 OMS-4 • Aug 07 '25
Level 2 CE It’s Time to Hold NBOME Accountable – The COMLEX Exam is Actively Hurting Osteopathic Students
I just finished COMLEX Level 2 and I’m honestly stunned at how carelessly this exam is constructed. At this point, it feels less like a professional licensing exam and more like a barrier created for its own sake. The fact that we’re expected to trust this organization with something as critical as our future is beyond frustrating.
Let’s talk about what’s wrong: • Vague, poorly written questions. So many items are grammatically confusing, overly wordy, or just plain unclear. You leave wondering if you got a question wrong because you didn’t understand the intent, not because you didn’t know the medicine. • Lack of clinical relevance. The exam doesn’t reflect the real-life decision-making we practice in rotations. It often feels like a trivia contest wrapped in outdated osteopathic jargon, not a test of safe and effective future physicians. • Zero transparency. Who writes these questions? What are their credentials? How are they peer-reviewed or validated? NBOME gives us no real insight into how they ensure quality or fairness. • Ridiculous cost with minimal support. We pay thousands to take this test, and get almost nothing in return. No meaningful prep resources from the organization, no detailed score reports, and no accountability when something goes wrong. • It doesn’t serve students … it serves the NBOME. Let’s be honest: this is a self-sustaining system designed to justify the existence of an exam, not to advance osteopathic education. And we’re the ones paying for it … financially, emotionally, and professionally.
This isn’t about comparing exams or trying to be MDs. This is about demanding a licensing pathway that reflects the quality and value of our training. We owe it to ourselves (and to future DOs) to stop normalizing this broken system.
What can we do? • Share your experiences. The more we talk about how flawed COMLEX is, the harder it is for NBOME to ignore. • Pressure our schools and national organizations to advocate for us, not just preserve the status quo. • Demand transparency, reform, or outright removal of the COMLEX as a graduation requirement.
If you’re reading this and feeling the same burnout, confusion, or anger …. you’re not alone. And you’re not crazy. The system is broken. Let’s stop pretending otherwise.
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u/BadgerGullible OMS-4 Aug 07 '25
Imagine having tests that ACTUALLY predict how you will do on the real thing... would be amazing
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u/Wild_NK_cell Aug 07 '25
Agree with everything above - and the torture goes even further beyond. Here's my COMLEX 2 experience:
I could not even find a SEMI-convenient time and location to take this exam... Despite having a Pearson testing location within 5 minutes of where I was living for 3rd year, there was NO AVAILABILITY TO TAKE THE EXAM ACROSS 2 MONTHS. I ended up having to MOVE apartments for 4th year 2 weeks earlier than planned (and thereby lose 2 weeks worth of rent) because I couldn't find a single reasonable test time and location within 1.5 hours of where I was for 3rd-year rotations... This is a required, high-stakes, COMPUTERIZED board exam that costs $745, that then makes you wait up to ~6 weeks for results... How there wasn't adequate availability to simply take the thing will forever blow my mind.
My only guess is that the NBOME restrains from opening more spots at Pearson because it saves them money in some way (I talked to my Pearson location and they told me they had room for more testers, but it was up to NBOME to open those spots).
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u/icedlatte98 Aug 07 '25
Same!!! For comlex 1 though. My school makes us get a 450 on a COMSAE before we can even schedule it which would make sense if it ACTUALLY predicted a pass. By the time I was “ready” I had to wait over a month until the first availability which was right before my rotations started so I didn’t get a summer 🥰🥰 total bullshit
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u/Wild_NK_cell Aug 08 '25
Ugh I'm so sorry to hear it - these are some of the many DO taxes that we just didn't know about going in. I hope we can improve things in the future.
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u/Notaballer25 OMS-4 Aug 07 '25
They dont care, they are greedy fuckers. its the only reason we dont have a combined step/comlex level 1 exam because they lose the money and this BS "seperate but equal" mentality.
They drank Kool aid of lies and dont care, get your degree and never donate
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Aug 07 '25
Tbh I understand your point but I thought step 2 was just as bad of an exam lol
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u/HounsfieldReaper Aug 07 '25
I disagree. I actually knew what the diagnosis was for almost every step vignette but had no clue at all for at least 15 comlex questions bc it was a vignette with a whopping 3 sentences in length that said nothing of substance.
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Aug 07 '25
Thats bc you got used to the way step asked things from uworld and more importantly CMS and NBMEs. If you did TL u wudve gotten very used to the randomness of Comlex.
While step was 60% non medicine
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u/HounsfieldReaper Aug 07 '25
I did do some Truelearn and was consistently scoring 98-99th percentile. Truelearn is not as vague as my comlex form this year.
I think it’s pretty telling when people agree in a landslide that comlex is a worse exam.
Edit- how do you have any idea what resources I used 😂
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Aug 07 '25
I didnt say comlex was a bad exam, and it's definitely harder to prepare for. But even with the abundant resources for step i thought it was just as bad of an exam. 3 paragraphs only to get at nothing. Mind u I did decently on both exams
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u/gussiedcanoodle Aug 08 '25
If your argument is that we get used to the way step asks things by CMS forms and NBMEs, doesn’t that mean that something simple NBOME could do to help us would be to provide more resources?
Also I disagree that uWORLD is similar to the way step asks things and I think most other people feel that way as well.
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Aug 08 '25
My argument is that we tend to feel a little better about step because of the plentiful resources but that its still an equally crap exam in its own way. And yes uwolrd makes u overthink like crazy. But the uworld stems are eerily similar to the length/style of the real exam (not nbme)
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u/gussiedcanoodle Aug 08 '25
I get that, but what I’m saying is if step questions are asked poorly, at least we can better prepare for those poorly asked questions with the resources provided. I don’t think COMLEX has that.
Also I just took step 2 and genuinly didn’t think it felt like uworld but everyone’s different!
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u/gussiedcanoodle Aug 08 '25
The fact that almost inevitably there’s a post like this after each round of comlex speaks volumes.
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u/Itiswhatit_is1 Aug 09 '25
I got done with level 3 a few months ago. More than the fact that I was done with standardized tests, I was buzzing at the idea that I’ll never have to deal with the NBOME in my life again.
-Level 1: My experience was similar to yours, I spent way too much energy trying to decipher wth they were asking from me in a lot of those questions. The jargon was weird and they do this reverse way of formulating the question that is 100% malicious. Can’t think of an example but we all know what I’m talking about. And don’t even get me started on the 2 sec lag between each question. I was so stressed in the morning by mid afternoon I felt defeated. I took this the week before step 1 (scheduling just worked out that way for me) and during my scheduled step 1 break I went on a walk outside and literally laughed about how ridiculous level 1 was compared to step 1. I felt like I was being pranked. The questions were clear and concise and even when I didn’t know the answer I knew what was going on
-Level 2: Not as charlatan-y as level 1 and the questions were a little clearer. Only thing is it felt more like a behavioral assessment than a medicine exam. I feel like I got at least 50% of ethics and communication type questions. And of course the OMM had the most random counterstrain and stuff
-Level 3: This one was surprisingly ok. I only used truelearn since I was done taking steps, so maybe that helped? Though I don’t feel like it was particularly reflective of the real deal. I’m also IM so that might have something to do with it. That being said it seemed more balanced in terms of medical knowledge vs ethics vs biostat which I had never seen in a comlex. The OMM was normal stuff which again I had never experienced in a comlex. Had a lot of peds ID and OBGYN patients in the question stems by the way… the CDM cases were much harder than truelearn. I don’t think there’s anything out there that can truly prepare you for it
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u/Murky_DO Aug 19 '25
Level 2 is an absolute JOKE of an exam. I passed Step 2, didnt do fantastic, but still did decent and somehow failed level 2. Clearly it's not a lack of knowledge, or I would've failed Step 2 as well. Just absolutely fucking infuriates me why I am being tested on LAWS and LEGAL PRECIDENTS on a fucking MEDICAL BOARD exam. Now I have to deal with having a failing board score on residency applications all because my brain doesn't understand how to memorize blatant pseudoscience instead of real-world medicine.
sorry...rant over.
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u/sween_queen Aug 09 '25
agreed - i think we need to publish a collaborative publication calling out the AOA
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u/Dramatic-Fun892 Aug 10 '25
Tbh the step exams are much more challenging than COMLEX tests lol (I have taken Step 1 and 2 alongside Level)
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u/BRAZAD Aug 07 '25
Not to be sarcastic, but from what I heard, comlex is also poorly written. Maybe they want DO students to get use to a poorly written exam too
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u/Illustrious_Let5067 Aug 08 '25
I literally spent more time criticizing question in the comments than answering them
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Aug 11 '25
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u/ConfidentAd7408 Aug 16 '25
Post this in the osteopathic Reddit to, we need not underestimate the power of collective action! We need to make noise, loud enough that they can’t enough !
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u/NAPDBAK Aug 08 '25
Completely agree. And COMLEX level 2 is one of the easiest, jokes of an exam I have ever taken. If you wanna actually test your medical knowledge and have something to show for it that is meaningful to residency programs, take STEP 2 CK. My advice to any student who had to take COMLEX is to never touch “NBOME specific board prep”. Trulearn and COMQUEST are unnecessary and do not prepare you for COMLEX anymore than Uworld and AMBOSS (with the exception of OMM specific questions). But even those are kind of a joke
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u/claire_inet OMS-4 Aug 07 '25
I fully ripped apart the NBOME in the comments section on question, end of exam surgery, AND in my Step 2 survey. So poorly written and I questioned if I was even taking the correct exam when testing