comp

[ag8416]

if u pass the 1st comp, can u still take the second comp? i heard somewhere that once u pass the comp, u cant take it again (but this was last semster). i am talking about NBME comp (not the kaplan comp)

[georgelucas45]

You can take two comps. So if you pass the first one, you can take the second one or the third one, but not both. If you really want to take all three, you need to fail the first two.

[BiologyBY]

From what I heard, if you pass first one you can only take second but not the third

[ag8416]

You can take two comps. So if you pass the first one, you can take the second one or the third one, but not both. If you really want to take all three, you need to fail the first two.

cool; thanks

[kemper6036]

You can take two comps. So if you pass the first one, you can take the second one or the third one, but not both. If you really want to take all three, you need to fail the first two.

for the people who perform the best under pressure i guess

[DRDRWMD]

They let me take the comp three times. For the last one, Dr. Y. let me be an "extra", so if there was an extra test, I could take it. There were quite a few extras. I figured it was good practice for the Step and I was going to maximize my tuition dollar.

[kemper6036]

i would like to take it as much as possible too, but if not, i guess two comps and all the shelf exams will have to suffice

[AndyDufrain]

ooooooooooo weeeeeeeeeee it's comp time at AUC. I could never figure out how they did get the 2 digit scores. Just remember when in doubt pick C, at least kaplan says so.

[BiologyBY]

It the mystery behind statistics way above medstudent level

[kemper6036]

its just a mystery period.....but who cares as long as its above the passing score, preferably by a lot

[ag8416]

what were the stats for this semester's comp? Last semester, they said 40% of the class failed? I wonder what % failed this semester considering it's the first semester of students that did block exams and the pass score now is 62% instead of 60% (like it was last semester). I bet dr. Y is gonna "adjust" the pass % if a lot of people failed.

[hypotenuse]

I talked to Dr. Y. She hasn't even had a chance to review the results yet. She has had to dedicate a lot of time to organizing the symposium.

She also told me there will be no average released for the comp or number of kids who passed/failed. If they ever adjust the grades, it would probably be after the 3rd comp.

[ag8416]

If they ever adjust the grades, it would probably be after the 3rd comp.


true dat yo.

[brob311]

Must be nice (60%-62%) pass rate, we at cut-throat Ross have to get at least a 64%. How do the students do who get on the lower end of the pass rate at AUC (60-62%). Just curious

[ag8416]

the overall pass rate at AUC for step 1 is 82%. The stats person told me that and she is really objective (ie she would never exaggerate the truth). also, that was the 1st comp and this is the beginning of the semester, so after 3 or 4 months of prep, that average would probably be a lot higher.

[CaptainInsaneO]

The first comp is not exactly fair considering that the 5ths still have to finish Pharm II and review some more.

[BiologyBY]

Nope, we don't have pharm II, you will however :) So it was all a fair game

[kemper6036]

Must be nice (60%-62%) pass rate, we at cut-throat Ross have to get at least a 64%. How do the students do who get on the lower end of the pass rate at AUC (60-62%). Just curious

62....64.....not really that much difference. how do students at ross do on the lower end?

[kemper6036]

The first comp is not exactly fair considering that the 5ths still have to finish Pharm II and review some more.

not true.....like BY said. what else are they having 5th semester take? beh sci i think?

[CaptainInsaneO]

Nope, we don't have pharm II, you will however :) So it was all a fair game


True, cry for me :)

At this point, I just roll with the punches. Come what may, I'll just have to be more like Basil...haha

[ag8416]

Must be nice (60%-62%) pass rate, we at cut-throat Ross have to get at least a 64%. How do the students do who get on the lower end of the pass rate at AUC (60-62%). Just curious

wait a minute? AUC minimun pass for the comp is 68%. Where did u here 60-62? U must be thinking of another school or something. Must be nice with a 64% pass rate.

[kemper6036]

62 is the minimum passing score on the nbme comp for this semester. that could always change

[brob311]

Chill out brosef, just getting the numbers from reading the previous posts by the others on this thread. I am not trying to stir anything up, I am just wondering how much a couple of points mean as far as Step 1 performance.

[brob311]

62....64.....not really that much difference. how do students at ross do on the lower end?


I am not sure, but as a whole we have been told that the Step pass rate has been in the 90%-ile over the past couple of years. They implemented the 64% on the comp a few years back, and I think the requirement has helped the pass rate for the Step.

Now I am not sure if this % includes second/third time takers or not, but I heard the number from a person who sits in on the meeting where they talk about these numbers.

Anyway, this is not a my school is better than yours...Ross can suck a big one at times, I am just wondering b/c Ross is so animate about a 64 (supposed to be equal to a 185), and not letting a 62 or 63 slide by.

[CaptainInsaneO]

The minium is set so people don't waste their time and money taking the stp only to fail it. That magic number has been determined to be 64% and anything less is not going to cut it.

[BiologyBY]

62 is a minimum passing score. 68 is if you want to take step the next day after the semester ends

[CaptainInsaneO]

62 is a minimum passing score. 68 is if you want to take step the next day after the semester ends


Don't you also need a certain GPA to be able to do that? 82 or something?

[slevit1]

Don't you also need a certain GPA to be able to do that? 82 or something?

I could definitely be wrong, but I'd think that most people who get a 68 on the comp probably have at least an 82 average.

[kemper6036]

Don't you also need a certain GPA to be able to do that? 82 or something?

you need an 80

[kemper6036]

I could definitely be wrong, but I'd think that most people who get a 68 on the comp probably have at least an 82 average.

most people maybe.....i'll stand as living proof that that isn't true always. not everyone in the honor society has over 82 from my knowledge so that caveat would seem to be irrelevant for most

[kemper6036]

I am not sure, but as a whole we have been told that the Step pass rate has been in the 90%-ile over the past couple of years. They implemented the 64% on the comp a few years back, and I think the requirement has helped the pass rate for the Step.

Now I am not sure if this % includes second/third time takers or not, but I heard the number from a person who sits in on the meeting where they talk about these numbers.

Anyway, this is not a my school is better than yours...Ross can suck a big one at times, I am just wondering b/c Ross is so animate about a 64 (supposed to be equal to a 185), and not letting a 62 or 63 slide by.

the bottom line is coming from a caribbean school you're going to have more hoops to jump through before you get to step 1 as im sure you're aware. for us its passing the comp and passing the kaplan sim. i'm sure ross has its own deal. each school sets its own requirements and the students must abide because they control your ecfmg cert. its all about standards....i'm sure there is not much wriggle room at any of the big four schools

[ag8416]

last semester the kaplan comprehensive was thrown out. What is the deal THIS semester? Does it count now? is it for pratice? Do we have to take it, but we dont have to pass it? Did they change the level of difficulty from very hard to medium like in a video game?

[kemper6036]

are you currently in fifth semester now? if you are then you should know the answer to all of this already and if you aren't then don't worry since you won't be taking kaplan. this semester is the last for kaplan at auc

[slevit1]

are you currently in fifth semester now? if you are then you should know the answer to all of this already and if you aren't then don't worry since you won't be taking kaplan. this semester is the last for kaplan at auc

Well, sort of. This semester is the last semester where it's mandatory and counts for credit. However, it will continue to be included in tuition and available for people who want to take it.

[kemper6036]

Well, sort of. This semester is the last semester where it's mandatory and counts for credit. However, it will continue to be included in tuition and available for people who want to take it.


so take it, but no stress necessary

[slevit1]

so take it, but no stress necessary

that's the plan

[ag8416]

are you currently in fifth semester now? if you are then you should know the answer to all of this already and if you aren't then don't worry since you won't be taking kaplan. this semester is the last for kaplan at auc

yes, i am currently a 5th semester; GOOOOOOOOOOODDDDDDDDDD; pleeez just answer the Q, and don't tell me what i SHOULD and SHOULDN'T know; I obviously dont know. i was so looking forward to an answer to my Q, and this is what u take ur time to post??????

come on

Q: Is kaplan comp mandatory?
A: u should know this

great

i missed the stupid mandatory orientation;

pleez dont email me back telling me i shouldnt have missed the orientation for scheduling this semester

[slevit1]

yes, i am currently a 5th semester; GOOOOOOOOOOODDDDDDDDDD; pleeez just answer the Q, and don't tell me what i SHOULD and SHOULDN'T know; I obviously dont know. i was so looking forward to an answer to my Q, and this is what u take ur time to post??????

come on

Q: Is kaplan comp mandatory?
A: u should know this

great

i missed the stupid mandatory orientation;

pleez dont email me back telling me i shouldnt have missed the orientation for scheduling this semester

Yes, Kaplan comp is mandatory

[c13]

She also told me there will be no average released for the comp or number of kids who passed/failed. If they ever adjust the grades, it would probably be after the 3rd comp.

What? Which comp? NMBE? The numbers for the 1st one are taped to the desk of the registrar lady. The mean was 59.2, Std 7.4, highest score was an 80 and the lowest was 41. I didn't write down how many people took the exam, but you get the idea...
There is also a table that correlates the NMBE scores with Step 1. 62 is 180, 64 is 185, 80 is 223, I think.

[kemper6036]

yes, i am currently a 5th semester; GOOOOOOOOOOODDDDDDDDDD; pleeez just answer the Q, and don't tell me what i SHOULD and SHOULDN'T know; I obviously dont know. i was so looking forward to an answer to my Q, and this is what u take ur time to post??????

come on

Q: Is kaplan comp mandatory?
A: u should know this

great

i missed the stupid mandatory orientation;

pleez dont email me back telling me i shouldnt have missed the orientation for scheduling this semester

seriously? you're almost a month in and don't know whether or not you have to take and pass the kaplan exam? no words

[BiologyBY]

hmm....agree with kemper here

[ag8416]

seriously? you're almost a month in and don't know whether or not you have to take and pass the kaplan exam? no words


all i was i saying is that if someone posts a legitamate question on valuemd, then either answer the question or dont; it's not cool to tell someone that they "should" know something, and then never actually answer the question;

imagine if u were this guy,
5th sem student: What % of csf supplies nutrients to the brain?
Dr. D: U are a 5th semester; u should know that by now

then she just leaves w/out answering; wouldnt u be annoyed?

bty it's 0%

[kemper6036]

:):(:confused::mad::p;):D:rolleyes::cool::-smiley7

[slevit1]

thanks for the neuro lesson. when you have people that aren't even in bbcm right now telling you that you must pass the kaplan comp, doesn't that make you wonder a bit?

that's what I was thinking, but oh well :)

[ag8416]

why would the kaplan comp count this semester and not last semester? Why would the results be different this semester? Are they gonna make it easier or something?

[CaptainInsaneO]

why would the kaplan comp count this semester and not last semester? Why would the results be different this semester? Are they gonna make it easier or something?

From what I heard, they changed the kaplan style drastically last semester b/c Kaplan was losing business to other prep programs. Whether kaplan counts or not will depend on how people do....probably.

But what do I know:-smiley7

[ag8416]

From what I heard, they changed the kaplan style

what does it mean that they changed the "style"

[slevit1]

what does it mean that they changed the "style"

it means Kaplan admitted the questions were way too hard (PhD level). I don't remember the exact reason for why it happened, but they had to rewrite a lot of questions for some reason and it clearly didn't work out that well. But, it should be fixed for you guys. Last year was the exception, not the rule.

[stateofequilibrium]

it means Kaplan admitted the questions were way too hard (PhD level). I don't remember the exact reason for why it happened, but they had to rewrite a lot of questions for some reason and it clearly didn't work out that well. But, it should be fixed for you guys. Last year was the exception, not the rule.

Too hard? The USMLE asks "PhD" level type questions. If you've ever done USMLEWorld, it's along those lines, not Kaplan.

[kemper6036]

according to kaplan, there was a security breech in the exams distributed to individual schools which caused them to rewrite the exam at the last minute with very little editing as to content and relevancy.

[slevit1]

Too hard? The USMLE asks "PhD" level type questions. If you've ever done USMLEWorld, it's along those lines, not Kaplan.

You've taken it, so you'd know better than me. I'm just writing what I heard. Apparently, Kaplan admitted that the questions were too difficult.

[Scott1981]

from what i read on other school's forums...... they all had drama with this new kaplan exam. some complaints that i read were poorly written questions, image glitches, no right answers, multiple right answers.

[kemper6036]

i also heard they had the faculty do the questions from their respective disciplines and all failed but one

[CaptainInsaneO]

That may be true but some people still passed the kaplan comp. What does that say about these students?

[BiologyBY]

Luck is always a factor on these exams, and there will always be students passing it. Point is, the Kaplan rep said it straight out that the questions weren't written right as they scrambled to put a test together because there was a security breach.

[kemper6036]

right.....and when you have top students failing and other people who have made it through your curriculum, passed the comp, etc what does that say about the test? its bad business to have people successfully navigate their coursework only to fail a third party exam

[ag8416]

right.....and when you have top students failing and other people who have made it through your curriculum, passed the comp, etc what does that say about the test? its bad business to have people successfully navigate their coursework only to fail a third party exam

that's not why some of the better students failed it last semester. The kids who took it in the beginning of the week were telling the ones who take it later in the week what was on it. Some kid even told me "make sure to schedule ur kaplan comp at the end of the week so u can do well" I dont get these people who look at old comp tests either. They dont get freebees for the real exam; i scored well on the first comp this semester and some kid is like "if u had the old questions, u would have done even better" Makes u wonder how kids like that do on the actual step.

[kemper6036]

the better students failed it because they took it earlier in the week? that doesnt make much sense. people don't look at old comps for freebies...since you can get them from the nbme its almost foolish to not look at them in your preparation.

[DRDRWMD]

i also heard they had the faculty do the questions from their respective disciplines and all failed but oneIt would be nice to know which faculty member passed. Kudos to them for understanding their material. It would be nice for them if the "council of the deans" added that piece of information to their evaluation during contract renewal time.

[DRDRWMD]

that's not why some of the better students failed it last semester. The kids who took it in the beginning of the week were telling the ones who take it later in the week what was on it. Some kid even told me "make sure to schedule ur kaplan comp at the end of the week so u can do well" I dont get these people who look at old comp tests either. They dont get freebees for the real exam; i scored well on the first comp this semester and some kid is like "if u had the old questions, u would have done even better" Makes u wonder how kids like that do on the actual step.I took the comp three times and I did not see any repeated questions. There were very similar questions asking different items. If one knew the topics covered on one exam, that topic was often covered on the next exam. It was much like the NBME practice tests were with Step 1. The pics from those tests were actually on the Step 1 when I took it (although the question asked about the pictures were different). The difficult part is the fact that it costed $45 to take each one, so it can get expensive; however, the questions were closest to the step 1 that I saw.

[ag8416]

the better students failed it because they took it earlier in the week? that doesnt make much sense. people don't look at old comps for freebies...since you can get them from the nbme its almost foolish to not look at them in your preparation.

no.... a lot of good students wouldn't get info on what was on the exam from students who took it earlier in the week. Many students who passed the kaplan comp last semester knew a lot of what was on the exam because they were told what was on it by students who took it earlier that week. That's why the percent of people who failed it on the first day it was administered was so high (11/22) and on the last day it was much lower. GOT IT????

NMBE site isn't the same Qs as the comps; some are similar concepts, but not the same questions. Trust me if they were the same Qs as the comp, the average wouldnt be 59%.

[Scott1981]

everyone relax. try to refrain from posting borderline flames. this thread actually has some useful info in it and it would be a shame for it to degenerate.

[DrFraud]

the better students failed it because they took it earlier in the week? that doesnt make much sense. people don't look at old comps for freebies...since you can get them from the nbme its almost foolish to not look at them in your preparation.

I took the Kaplan exam last semester, and there is some truth that studetns taking the exam earlier in the week were more likely to fail, but it is not always applicable. For a large class with over 120 students taking the Kaplan final, which was the case last semester, the test was administered to 5 groups over five days. For other semesters, its usually done in 2-3 days.

Yes, the largest group to fail was on the first day. About half the students taking the kaplan exam failed on the first day. By Friday, everyone passed.

The Kaplan exam was a joke. It wasn't a question of it being difficult, it was more of a matter of it being bad, with some questions having multiple answers, some with no answers, some asking details that the Profs. who did the videos said not to bother knowing, etc.

So far, I can say that Kaplan resources are good in some subjects, like pharm, biochem/genetics, and physio, but there isn't enough time to go through the whole program, so use the videos/books to hit weaknesses, then review using Golgian/Usmleworld/FirstAid. At the end of the day, the easiest way to prepare is to learn subjects well the first time so you don't have to waste too much time reviewing your first and second semester classes during 5th semester.

[BiologyBY]

I took the Kaplan exam last semester, and there is some truth that studetns taking the exam earlier in the week were more likely to fail, but it is not always applicable. For a large class with over 120 students taking the Kaplan final, which was the case last semester, the test was administered to 5 groups over five days. For other semesters, its usually done in 2-3 days.

Yes, the largest group to fail was on the first day. About half the students taking the kaplan exam failed on the first day. By Friday, everyone passed.

The Kaplan exam was a joke. It wasn't a question of it being difficult, it was more of a matter of it being bad, with some questions having multiple answers, some with no answers, some asking details that the Profs. who did the videos said not to bother knowing, etc.

So far, I can say that Kaplan resources are good in some subjects, like pharm, biochem/genetics, and physio, but there isn't enough time to go through the whole program, so use the videos/books to hit weaknesses, then review using Golgian/Usmleworld/FirstAid. At the end of the day, the easiest way to prepare is to learn subjects well the first time so you don't have to waste too much time reviewing your first and second semester classes during 5th semester.

Excellent statement!!!

[slevit1]

Excellent statement!!!

It definitely is! I'm starting to see how the phrase "I've forgotten more than you'll ever know" could possibly hold some truth, for some people. I definitely would not want to take the anatomy shelf right now, and I'm not even to 5th semester yet!

[DrFraud]

It definitely is! I'm starting to see how the phrase "I've forgotten more than you'll ever know" could possibly hold some truth, for some people. I definitely would not want to take the anatomy shelf right now, and I'm not even to 5th semester yet!

Start doing your Usmleworld questions today if you haven't yet started, so everything stays fresh in your mind. You'll make your life a lot easier during 5th.

[CaptainInsaneO]

Start doing your Usmleworld questions today if you haven't yet started, so everything stays fresh in your mind. You'll make your life a lot easier during 5th.

You mean start last semester's material, right?

I have looked at Kaplan q's for this semester's material and it is very hit and miss at this point in the semester.

[DrFraud]

You mean start last semester's material, right?

I have looked at Kaplan q's for this semester's material and it is very hit and miss at this point in the semester.

I don't know what semester you are in, but do both current material and past material, and I would avoid Kaplan like it's Yarsinia pestis. Stick with UW, run it in tutor mode during your 10 min. breaks, so you can be doing between 200-300 q's per month.

[slevit1]

Usmleworld was pretty much right on for the MCB shelf.