My COMLEX 1 experience:
Halleluiah 417. For COMLEX 1, 400 is the passing points and I am not sure about the max points, but I heard it is close to 800. So, 417 is near the bottom of the passing. You might think I would be very disappointed; however, I am in fact very happy with my score. After series of failed exams that include COMSAE, failed COMLEX, failed COMAT exams for surgery and psych, I finally got “pass” in my transcript. It has been so long that I have passed for any exams since I entered medical school. I already failed several courses and had to take 3 years off (2 years involuntary and 1 year voluntary to prepare COMLEX). I entered my medical school, MSUCOM in 2014, and now I officially finished my second year and moved up to third year rotation which will start soon. My MCAT score was 17 whereas my class average was 29, and my percentiles for most courses were merely 5% or less. Before I entered MSUCOM, I was an engineer and acupuncturist. I got my Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering and worked in AT&T Bell Lab for 10 years before I started my acupuncture school, PCOM (Pacific College of Oriental Medicine). Then, I became an acupuncturist with my wife. After a decade of practice, I realized I wanted to combine Eastern and Western medicine together, and decided to enter a medical school. Although having a Ph.D. in engineering, I haven’t taken any science courses in my life until I started studying for MCAT simply because science seemed to me too hard. The last science course that I took before MCAT studying was about 45 years ago in my 1st year middle school. I did not know what the periodic table was until I took the courses for MCAT.
I am now 58 years old and I don’t know anyone in my class as well as in any medical schools older than me. I have to finish 3rd and 4th year rotations and finish 3-4 years of residency to practice. So, I will be 64 years old to open my first clinic.
I have two missions to become a physician (DO – Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine).
First, I want to combine Eastern and Western medicine together. Many practices claim they are integrative and combining both medicines; however, they don’t understand each other. In reality, they live in different worlds. As a licensed acupuncturist who has to spend full time 4 years training in acupuncture school, if I treat a patient with CPT code 90311 and 90312 which is insertion of acupuncture needles for first 15 minutes and next 15 minutes, the insurance pays me about $32 whereas if I were a MD/DO acupuncture, i.e., certified acupuncturist, the same code will be paid about $85. What could certified acupuncturists who need only 300 hours of weekend classes know about the acupuncture? Do they know about yin/yang principles? Do they know about 5 elements theory? Qi Gong? Tai Chi? How Qi works? They just know the acupuncture points and they got paid about 3 times higher than licensed acupuncturists. That is the sad reality in medicine. They don’t understand each other and fight all the time since they don’t understand the other. So, when I become a DO, the first thing I have to do is to downgrade my license to certification since it is required for me to practice acupuncture as a DO. How sad… Understanding the other is the key element of combining two medicines together.
Second, I want to become an example for young people who doesn’t have enough courage. Many young people are not really young any more. Young people must have a vision, dream, and energy to overcome difficulties; however, many young age people are so old that they don’t have vision and dream. They give up so early, and they don’t want to do anything challenging. Often times, they blame their surroundings and sometimes even their age. 20 year old is blaming lack of family support for going to a college. 25 years old is blaming his old age for not pursuing a graduate school. Changing career is forbidden since he is already 30. I have been a homeless three times, but homelessness never killed me or failed me. Being smart and going to the high paying jobs are the moral standard, and they become life goal. Money can not buy life. That richness is not a beauty of life. Our society is getting old and weak. Life is full of challenge and Life without challenge is meaningless.
I just overcame the very first small stage of my journey to become a DO. There will be many more challenges ahead of me even after I become a DO, and I am determined to do my best to fight and win the challenges.
Sorry about the long explanations regarding my personal experience rather than studying tips. My studying tips for people who prepare step 1 or COMLEX 1: FA is the bible, and you need to recite it over and over again. Pathoma and Sketchy should be as important as FA. Those are my top 3 resources along with UW. For COMLEX preparers, COMQUEST and COMBANK should be secondary tool rather than main study tool. So, I recommend to study after UW so that you can become familiar with the question format towards the very end of prep. For OMM, green book is the bible, and I recommend Online Med Ed videos which are more clear than other resources for OMM such as DIT, Kaplan.
Good luck to you all and wish and pray for me for my upcoming rotations and COMAT and COMLEX 2 exams. Thank you very much for reading and if you have any questions, please PM me.