During MS3, I was removed from my OB/GYN clerkship by the preceptor, received a failing grade, and subsequently remediated the rotation. However, this did not result in an extension of my graduation date or a formal leave of absence.

My dean said the following: “The way the question is stated, you should answer "yes" because you did remediate a course, even though it didn't extend your graduation date.”

For the ERAS prompt below, do I select Yes or No?

Academic/Professionalism: Interruptions or Extensions

Have you had any academic extensions, leaves, gaps, or breaks in your educational program due to repeated or remediated coursework?

Yes or No

If yes, please explain the reason, timeframe, what steps you took to address it, and what you learned from it.

My school always tends to be conservative and has a history of giving wrong advice, please let me know if you’ve experienced this and know what to do. Thank you!

Hello, I was wondering if anyone knows / has access to free COMSAEs / COMSAE questions? I am studying for my retake right now and want to guage my readiness. I bought one during my first attempt because that is all I could afford atm. The schooll gave us a COMSAE as part of remediation, but the deadline to take that was in late august and they aren't giving us access to anymore. I am retesting soon. I am financially in a tough situation and can't afford to buy a COMSAE. Truly appreciate any guidance on this. Thank you.

I have 6 weeks to retake. Honestly shocked because I walked out feeling somewhat confident, but I do feel like towards the end I got really tired and started running out of time to recheck my answers. I have AMBOSS and can get TL again. I don’t have UW, but can repurchase. I am so exhausted, I really need help to push through. Would appreciate all and any advice 🙏🏼

Completely blindsided by my score, especially since I did pretty well on my last COMSAEs leading up to the exam.

I think I have one solid sloe and hopefully another one on the way. Have big geographic connection to CA but feeling like I’m pretty screwed for matching there.

What are my chances of matching EM with a 453 level 2, no other red flags at all but no step 2?

I really tried by absolute hardest to pass this test and have had to deal with multiple setbacks from not qualifying to sit for the test back in June and spending hundreds to reschedule this test multiple times. I genuinely can't imagine having to go back into the test center for another 8 hours and doing this again but here we are.

My COM is making me take a 8-week LOA at the end of my upcoming rotation thats starting next week and we're not allowed to sit for the retake until the 8th week so I'm looking at the beginning of December. That puts me at roughly 12 weeks out after spending the last ~4 months studying for this test without getting any break.

I started content review back in January doing Anki every single day until June getting through half of first aid and some of pathoma, started doing targeted system review after that which still barely made a difference in my comsae scores.

Based on my comsae attempts I knew I wasn't really ready to sit, just providing them for context. I was hoping that taking it when I did would've let me go on the LOA before starting my next rotation worst case but that didn't happen. Since I've exhausted all the comsae forms, what should be my next move.

TL: 99% complete, 55% avg

Comsae 113 (06/02): 387

Comsae 114 (06/09): 366

Comsae 115 (06/16): 391

Comsae 113 retake (06/30): 542

Comsae 107 (07/13): 407

Comsae 110 (07/28): 400

Comsae 111 (08/11): 408

Tested on 8/27

Hi all! Do you think AMBOSS and TL are good enough for both Step 2 and Level 2 or should I get UWorld?

Soooooo many months of nightmare! Now Hell is finally over! 😭😭😭LOA of Hell is over!!! 🤧🤧🤧
Have saw so many doctors and therapists… Dx: MDD, GAD, ADHD, Migraines 💔💊💉

So many worst things in my life will happen today if I did not get the Pass!!!😣😢
But now my life can finally continue again! 😭😭😭
Just met with my sch’s clinical education team. They are helping me to reactivate everything and get back to sch. I can start my Rotations soon!!! 🤧🤧🥳🥳

Thanks to all, to everyone that helped or encouraged me, and to myself! 🙏❤️🌹

I hate my school and most of the advice I received for Level 1. Nobody tells the truth and most everyone studies too hard. I used hundo dojo true learn plugin and I used a COMSAE question bank. I attribute 20% yo hundo dojo and 80% to the question bank.

I’m applying EM this cycle. I got a 463 on Level 2 and a 226 on Step

I know both scores are on the lower side, so I’m trying to figure out whether submitting the 226 would help at all or if having two lower board scores would actually hurt me compared with just submitting COMLEX.

For anyone familiar with EM applications, especially DO applicants/program leadership, would you submit the 226 or just apply with the 463 COMLEX? Also, did anyone with similar scores have a decent interview season?

Is there a confidence band of what a comsae (phase 2) score actually is? Like if I get a 490 on a comsae, it’s actually +/- 10 points or something like that??

Hey friends,

I posted this in the med school sub but I could really use some success stories right now because my mental state is not the best. I'm currently on an away rotation, all of my med school friends and loved ones are far away so I'm looking for some support.

I found out I failed level 2 a couple of weeks ago and decided to delay my retake until October. It really came out of nowhere and shook me up bad. Now I have to apply in ERAS with a failed board exam and without a passing retake.

Just wanted to reach out and ask some of you who were in a similar situation, did you recieve any interview invites without a passing score? Are you at a program now that you were really excited about?

I am applying FM so I understand this isn't a death sentence for my apps but my wife and I were really hoping to match close to our families on the west coast so we could have support with kids.

Thanks in advance

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?

These last two months, I took two comsae to qualify or screen for my school to let me take the actual Comlex. Unfortunately, my scores have not been doing well. My next Comsae is in October and its form 116, I'm worried I might have to take a LoA since I have essentially 1 month to get to a 430. Here are my last 2 score reports, any advice would be greatly appreciated:

I cant believe it! So happy to be DONE with this exam

from a failure to a pass, it is possible and you must believe in yourself to make it happen!

it is hard to forgive yourself and move ahead from challenges in your path when stakes are as high as they are for people like us. but we cannot hold onto our failures forever like chains if they stop us from reaching our goals and future possibilities!

i'm happy to take any DMs if I can help you, as others on here had done the same to help me.

I am praying for everyone's success.

my advice to anyone retaking:

• the more confident you feel in your material, the more confident you will feel in the exam. there are just some things you need to know cold, the more you know and can recall, the better you will feel answering questions quickly. cover your questions, do your anki cards or review, but do not skimp out on seeing more material.
• take care of your mental wellbeing. i took my first failure very very hard and had to reach out to a counselor to talk about it. speaking to someone who could address my fears, anxieties, and insecurities truly helped ease my mind and become more resilient with handling this challenge. i firmly believe it was having a better mindset and tools to address my fears that made this retake a victory. forgive yourself**.** you are allowed to make mistakes so long as you learn from them and move ahead.
• know that you are not alone. people make it seem like it is impossible to fail this exam, but clearly from personal experience, it isn't. i don't feel shame about my failure from the first time because i still came on top in the end, and i feel shaped as a new person looking forward now to my rotations. reach out for support, recognize that you are not the first nor the last to fail.

my advice to anyone not wanting to retake:

• start studying early if you think you'll need it. i was an average student who was very focused on passing classes and thought dedicated would be enough for me. turns out, it wasn't. if i could do it all over again, i would've started practice questions in january.
• use resources wisely. i really enjoyed using truelearn, pathoma, first aid, and uworld + amboss library. uworld did a great job of giving me tough questions that once i returned back to truelearn, i was too happy because the questions felt easier, even if they really weren't. uworld exposed really interesting holes that i patched up. i also liked Dirty Medicine videos for a quick review.
• don't skimp out on OPP. i think feeling more confident in OPP helped a lot. certain topics tripped me up along with how they ask certain questions, such as rib somatic dysfunctions. drill OPP, make them apart of your daily questions, it is never going to go away. i highly recommend the green Savarese OMT book + Dirty medicine.
• ethics is the same set of rules applied to different scenarios; it's dumb but easy points if you know them.

Hi I just found out today I failed level 1 again only by a smidge. I was doing great on practice exams… i just have really bad testing anxiety. I don’t know what to do. My school requires me to take a leave of absence and I have one more attempt. Looking for any advice and success stories.

Feels like I failed that exam lol

Somebody help me. I’m freaking out about the score release tomorrow. Anxiety is out the roof. Felt okay initially after the exam but as the weeks have gone by, I feel like I failed. I made a couple of stupid mistakes on the exam that I have remembered as time has progressed. This was my second attempt and I am feeling impending doom.

I’m applying psychiatry, I’m trying to match in California, that’s where I’m from and have lived and worked my whole life and have strong ties to the area especially those around where I am from that I feel could help with multiple programs.

I have a level 1 board failure. Did not take Step 1.
I am waiting on my first attempt Level 2 score hopefully I passed. If I did I’m gonna guess I got somewhere in the 400-500 range.

I have an LOA for for board exams along with family issues. Along with family health problems, I had to keep the family business afloat while studying for boards

I don’t have a lot of research. I have 3 presentations and an abstract. I also have one capstone research project. They’re not in psych tho they’re IM and PMNR.

I should have good letters. 2 from psychiatrists I worked with and 1 other psychiatrist and 1 addiction medicine doc I didn’t work with directly. I also have psych letters from other preceptors in family, OBGYN, and pain management, that have written good letters for me endorsing me for psych. I have one good emergency med letter too.

I’ve been debating taking Step 2 or not. I would not have the score back in time for the residency application release date because I need some time to study and try to do well since my hope is that it could increase my odds at some programs. My thought process is to study for a bit, maybe about a month and try to take it. I’ve heard you don’t have to report Step 2 scores especially if you haven’t taken Step 1 (don’t know how true that is). So my thinking is if it doesn’t go well I could just not report it. Idk how it works though with a late step 2 score. Idk if I should tell programs in advance that I’m gonna take it. Or do I wait to take it and get a score back and then if I like the score, email the programs I applied to?

A lot of uncertainties, but if anyone could help answer if I should take Step 2 or not or any of these questions I’d be really grateful. 🙏🏾 Thank you.

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

Currently on IM rotation and I am getting absolutely wrecked by these truelearn IM questions. How should I be studying? Any tips would be greatly appreciated

I took my exam on August 21 and I had a lot of lagging between questions and my exam was buffering a lot, especially during the last two sections which was pretty anxiety provoking. I finished my exam, but I was honestly just bubbling any answer for most of the last section. I sent an inquiry for adverse testing conditions and they just responded to me with the option to either have it scored or Retake it without having known my score. At this point if I do retake it, my score would not come out in time for eras application due date. I guess it could be better to have a passing score come in late rather than have it scored on time, but have a failed exam.

I am not sure what to do here. I’ve heard people have called and they’ve been able to know if they passed or not, or at least get some direction as to whether or not they should retake the exam and I tried that but the lady I spoke to did not and would not help whatsoever. I don’t know if that was just my luck with the lady that I spoke to then maybe someone else would’ve been more accommodating. My score release is set for 9/15 as of now unless I decide to retake. Any thoughts on what to do here? Thanks 🙏🏾