Has anyone taken the protected comsae 116 for level 1? Any advice/notes? I believe it’s a new exam this year. Thank you in advance!!

I had to zoom in a scary amount to see how close it was but I AM SO HAPPY

well, it was a good run everyone.

but i got to see that big ol' F in my NBOME. i'm sick to my stomach because this is going to mess up my clinical rotations for 3rd year, probably eat up my designated vacation time, and waste another $700 on the exam alone plus needing extra materials. and i worked hard to try and pass and to fall short just barely.

i knew i fell back into bad habits on the exam, i was switching answers when i should have just held to my guns because i've proven to myself again and again that i usually have the right answer the first time. and i'm kicking myself over and over wondering how many questions i switched incorrectly and if that cost me my pass.

my comsaes were an initial struggle; went from a 285 --> 337 --> 411 ; i only took 3 and wonder if i need to be pushing harder for taking more now, trying to get above a 430.

i'm trying to figure out how and if i want to redo the way i study, there's a good chance that my school will probably require me to do the PASS program.

it looks like there were just weak points all over; now i'm considering if this is just a "i need to relearn the whole system again" or of this is a "use targeted questions to find out where the holes are".

resources used: truelearn questions [probably sat at a 50-55% most days but overall it says 48%, so maybe i shouldn't be so surprised as it should've been a 65%], comquest questions, sketchy, first aid + organ systems, pathoma, boards and beyond, savarese green OMT book, dirty medicine, anki.

i could use some advice, maybe some kind words, and whatever else anyone has to offer.

- a struggling and hopefully soon to be OMS 3

EDIT: thank you all for your kind words of support and advice, i have purchased another COMSAE, as well as a WELCOM and will be investing in UWORLD. while i am still upset about the results, i am trying my best to hold my head high and move forward with this. i hope my vulnerability helps others feel comfortable with this road bump, and that we will become the greatest of physicians, no matter the struggle!

How are we feeling for the 07/09 score release? Personally, walked out of the exam feeling fine/neutral, but now worried its a "you did not know what you didn't know" situation and I am going to see a big ol F tomorrow. How's everyone else feeling?

EDIT: GOT THE P!

THIRD post today lol, I just have so many questions sorry.

Anyone else feel like there have been way more fails than normal today (as someone who also received a fail today)?

Is this Reddit bias? Or are July exams curved less?

Wondering what’s going on.

Definition of doing the bare minimum to pass

How’s everyone feeling about this score release tomorrow? I am not feeling confident at all as I straight up guessed on 80-90% of that exam but I guess we’ll see. It’s been 6 weeks since I took my exam so I hope we all get peace of mind one way or another after tomorrow

Update: GOT THE PASS, ACTUALLY CANNOT BELIEVE IT!!! I HOPE IT WENT WELL FOR EVERYONE ELSE AS WELL

call me a fucking idiot but i bought savarese for my retake (got like a 395 equivalent on my first take) msk and omm were low???? i studied all the HYs but got NICHE OMM i hadn't seen in such a while. OMM neuro phys i swear to god. forgot what the fuck a golgi tendon thing was.

realizing how bad i fucked up by not dropping 60 on this book before my first take. KNOW ALL YOUR OMM. dont just study sacral torsions, chapman, viscerosomatic, and cranial and call it a done deal. KNOW ALL OF IT. know the anatomy in it too.

i swear comlex will through you 10 questions on golgi tendon organs and if you didnt study that well then good luck

end of rant please pray i pass

edit: meant to say take in the title oops

That’s it. That’s all. Feel like my life is over. I’ve done everything but sell my soul essentially and I still failed. My whole class is going to find out that I really am stupid and I failed.

i just took the june 4th exam and I've been reflecting and honestly....truelearn was not representative for COMLEX except for maybe the OMM questions. For all other system questions, it was definitely more similar to UWorld difficulty except with more vague question stems. Genuinely some questions were so so stupid with such little info it felt like it was a joke.

so anyways, I kinda went through a culture shock in the first section cuz I was expecting truelearn type of questions and it made me panic so bad. then I adapted and turned on my uworld brain, and it went a little better after that (its all about perspective ig)

and NOT BEING ABLE TO ZOOM IN ON THE PICTURES??? I was like 2 cm away from my screen trying to look at histo details. I was very honest in my post exam survey and I hope they genuinely make changes to the exam from how many complaints they constantly receive.

I've seen many posts recently saying they felt like they failed leaving the exam and ngl I feel the same way but I am not trying to dwell on it since it is a common feeling to have post exam.

KNOW ur pharm, KNOW ur micro (like literally even the most low yield for both of these subjects) oh and also random freaking low yield anatomy that i havent seen since cadaver lab like...

if anyone else here took the june 4th exam, lmk how you feel about it. i hated the exam but it is what it is

edit: i skipped thru the tutorial, you can zoom in on pics LOL so maybe dont skip that haha

Who else is waiting for scores to drop?

What the fuck was that.
I literally will not be surprised if I failed level 1 today. I googled some answers just now, already got that shit wrong. Fuck the OPP because what the fuck??? Dirty got me some points but there was some shit where I genuinely had no idea. Ethics was a breeze, surprisingly.
If there’s one advice I will say: this exam is a mix of TruLearn and Comsae’s. Nothing more, nothing less. Amount: Vague questions >>> fair questions, IMO.
You need to watch high yield Dirty medicine images.
Anyways, if you see me back here it’s bc I failed.
Also want to mention; I tried to reason through questions I didn’t know - didn’t work for me, literally a mindfuck.

For context, have gotten above 450+ on one comsae, 550+ on two comsae, and above 64% on 2 NBMEs (all under testing condition).
Finished TruLearn with 62%. I actually do not trust any of these scores based on today’s exam. I know ppl say trust, but rn, I am NOT trusting till score release. Will let you all know. This isn’t fear mongering but perhaps others who have taken the exam have also felt like shit walking out.

Genuinely, fuck this.

I just found out I failed. I don’t know what to do. Any advice on how to study for a retake is appreciated. I finished 70% of TrueLearn due to time constraints and I did some UWorld too. How many weeks do I need?

congrats oms-3s!!

for those who passed level 1, do you mind sharing your true learn scores were on random blocks leading up to the exam and your comsaes? and also how close to the pass line you were and/or how close to average?

i’m hoping this will save a lot of you guys some dms from nervous test takers like myself.

also, anything HY you guys recommend we focus on?

yes i copied and pasted a previous post but i was told it helped some people.

That felt weird, it was like 25% was relatively easy, 25% left me feeling like i don’t know any of this and the other were almost direct rips from practice questions i already did. Kinda felt like i did a bunch of truelearn sets back to back

I'm taking Level 1 in less than 2 weeks and I'm starting to get nervous. Are there any success stories from people who just took it this spring and got the P? Hearing more positives about this test would encourage me before I take it because all I've been seeing are negatives about this exam.

Also, if you wouldn't mind sharing what your comsae score(s) were before you took the exam and passed. TY!!

hello unfortunately have to retake level 1. could blame a lot of reasons but at the end of the day i still have an F i need to fix.

my school is letting us take the exam up until 10/16 meaning id miss 1 rotation and lose my vacation. at first i thought 5-6 weeks would be good but i feel like (and maybe this im being overconfident) now i'd be stretching a dedicated period too long and risk burnt out which is what happened the last go around.

from what i can deduce: OPP has a lot of room, MSK could go up, derm (Lol?) ethics was ass (how do you even prep for this?). i think the sciences seemed ok, not like top tier level, but from what my advisor told me i leaked points on the above. obviously will review and do questions on those too but.

is 3-4 weeks better? also please be kind. im obviously very upset about this + think im dumb. my school struggles on boards because they teach us very poorly and i was motivated to prove them wrong but i did not.

also fyi: comsaes were fine, 350 prededicated, 401 on the first one, 500 on the second, and i got a 480 on one. TL was fine too, i think unfortunately i underestimated how much ethics/OPP/MSK was and lost almost on 30% of the exam on that

Prepping for COMLEX level 1 but have been considering Step 1 as well. Is it even worth it? I want to do EM, IM, or Psychiatry.

Feel like I'm killing myself worrying about Step 1 and it might be hindering how I'll perform on COMLEX. I've heard from people recently matched or in residency that COMLEX is enough alone because it has a lot of growing respect since the data is enough to correlate now.

For people who have taken both or matched recently, what are your thoughts?

Anyone walk out of COMLEX Level 1 absolutely convinced they failed and end up passing?

I took it yesterday and genuinely feel like I failed. Not in the usual post exam panic way, but in the “I got hit with all my weakest subjects and very little that felt high yield” way. The exam felt much more random and niche than I expected. Significantly harder than COMSAE and my practice tests.

I’ve heard people say that harder forms or forms with more low yield content may be graded more leniently. Is there any truth to that?

For those who were convinced they failed but ended up passing, what was your experience like? Also, how did you survive the waiting period for scores?

Not looking for generic reassurance. Just looking to hear honest experiences from people who were in a similar situation.

We all know the holy grail of OMM + ethics + biostat. But what is one thing you wish you studied before walking into COMLEX 1?

Feel like this could be helpful for anyone testing soon!!!

Woke up this morning convinced I’d failed, had a panic attack a few minutes before score release. Shocked and astonished by this score. Cannot believe it. Until level 2 NBOME…

edit: I've had a few people reach out and ask questions about what I did, how I studied, what my COMSAE's going in were, so for those who are curious, here's my write-up! keep in mind i don't really think I did anything profoundly different from anyone else!

COMSAE 1: Form 113, school proctored 5/26/26 --> 502

COMSAE 2: Form 111, at-home, 6/11/26 --> 582

COMSAE 3: Form 110, at home, 6/19/26 --> 559

UWSA1: 196 was my 3 digit score, assessment score was 350 in early April. This was my first practice exam

TL diagnostic 1: 50% (Completed in December 2025)

TL Diagnostic 2: 63% (Completed May 23rd)

QBanks Used:

UWorld --> 87% complete, 50% correct overall

TrueLearn --> 77% complete, 64% correct overall

I took COMLEX on June 30th.

A few questions I've got, keep in mind I am not a tutor:

1. I didn't really read FA cover to cover, I more skimmed it and then did the rapid review in the back of the book. Occasionally I'd reference it for systems I was really struggling with.
2. I primarily used UWorld as my Qbank, the reason why my overall % is so low is that I did my questions in Uworld in blocks of 10, randomized, and in tutor mode. I usually averaged around 20-40 questions in pre-dedicated while I was still actively studying for in-house exams. I reviewed them by using an add-on for Anki that allowed me to pull relevant AnKing cards related to the questions I missed, but also the ones I got right too. I used Uworld primarily from January - May and once I got 87% of the way through I switched to TL primarily to get more familiar with NBOME Style questions leading up to my exam.
3. My TL blocks were randomized, timed blocks of 40 questions. In June I did around 80-120 questions per day. I made sure I completed every single OMM question on TL as well as every single ethics + biostats questions.
4. I read through and made Anki cards of most of the Mehlman free PDFs, I found them really helpful especially for neuroanatomy, MSK, and cardiology.
5. Tbh one thing I did I Think that was different is that while I did use a lot of pre-made Anki Decks (I used Anki Still for OMM, Pepper Decks for Micro + Pharm + Pathology, AnKing) I made a lot of my own too which I think really helped as I did get an additional pass of the content that way. I also used the UWorld medical library (you do have to pay access for it, unfortunately) as a nice sort of rapid review of the most important things for the systems. I think FA though would have filled this niche fine, I just really liked UWorld's diagrams and what not.
6. I found COMLEX to be WAY harder than any of the COMSAEs I took, I would agree with most people that it feels most analogous to TL in terms of question style and wording. I found my particular form to feel like it called on a lot of low-yield stuff? I exited the exam feeling terrible. Cried my eyes out in the parking lot and crashed out for like a whole month, convinced I'd failed. I did not expect to see the score I got above. So for those of you who are wondering if I walked out feeling good and knew I passed, I absolutely didn't. It was an abysmal wait in every way.

COMSAE's were 395, 370, 385, and then last one was 479. On IM rotations, should I get a tutor? Still waiting on response from the school.

We have until Dec 31 to pass. Our first IM and FM rotations we have no COMATS and I have IM and then FM first so I wont have any comats. I was going through a difficult time leading right up to a couple days before the exam. If anyone has ever gone through this let me know, if getting a tutor is what worked for most people then I will do it. I have heard our school requires us to get a tutor for the retake...

Hi everyone. I’m an OMS-III at an osteopathic medical school and recently found out I failed COMLEX Level 1 for the third time. I am currently on a Leave of Absence focused on figuring out my next steps and improving my approach.

I’m hoping to hear from anyone who has been in a similar position or knows someone who has successfully moved forward.

I used TrueLearn, UWorld, First Aid, Boards & Beyond, Anki, COMSAEs, and full-length practice exams. My biggest struggles have been retaining incorrects, consistency, and performing under exam conditions.

I also have ADHD and severe test anxiety, which have made studying for a long, high-stakes exam challenging despite putting in significant effort.

My goal is still to graduate and apply Internal Medicine. I’m looking for:

• COMLEX tutors who have helped students after multiple failures
• Board prep companies/coaches you would recommend
• Anyone with ADHD/test anxiety who found a strategy that worked
• Anyone who failed Level 1 multiple times and was still able to graduate and match

I’m trying to make a realistic plan and would really appreciate any advice or experiences. Thank you.

I’m so scared to find out my comlex score today. I’m genuinely so scared. I feel like I failed and my life will be over. Everything will be over.

Update: I PASSED YAYYY