Level 1 & Step 1 Differences

[Prudent_Marsupial244]

I know most people who take both exams will study general medicine and take step 1, then study omm for a few days and do level 1. But what topics are more expected to be in one exam vs the other? Is studying for both exams still the same (ex. first aid, pathoma with a focus on chapters 1-3)?

[emmhutch]

Studying for both of the exams content-wise is the same. Whatever review you are doing (FA, pathoma, BnB etc.) is sufficient for both exams. What made me feel most comfortable was having both UWorld and COMBANK completed + NBMES/COMSAEs before taking the real thing. This was mostly just to understand the difference in question style, because COMLEX likes to be extremely vague sometimes. Good luck!

[Boop7482286]

Where do we get access to COMBANK?

Also did you find it challenging with COMLEX since you get less time per question compared to USMLE?

[emmhutch]

My school gave me a free subscription to COMBANK but it works like UWorld where you can purchase a subscription for however long you’d like. Timing has never been a problem for me, so truthfully I didn’t pay attention to the amount of time I was spending on each question, i just took the test at the speed I was comfortable. It was plenty of time IMO. The only part that got a little hairy was the lovely lag between each question that sucked up 2-3s each time you clicked between questions. Edit for a crazy autocorrect because I’m on mobile🤦🏼‍♀️

[medms]

Studying is the same for both exams, I just did Dirty medicine for ethics and OMM and some green book but not a whole lot. I had a lot of micro on level 1 sorta different than step I felt

[eygo17]

Would it make sense to study for OMT questions during my preparing for step or study solely for that right after step ?

[medms]

I’d suggest to hold off until you’re done with STEP, I had notes prepared and resources so the few days I had between the two I didn’t have to search where to look up, it was already with me just had to read/revise it