u/GreenSatisfaction915

COMSAE 403 → 61% NBME in 3 weeks — honest mid-dedicated breakdown (exam June 17)

Couldn’t find a post from someone actually in dedicated rather than looking back on it. So here’s mine, in real time.
Trajectory: 403 COMSAE → 435 one week later → NBMEs: 28-51%, 33-52%, 32-53%, 31- 61% today. Eight points in one week.
What I cut: Anki, UWorld, passive re-reading.

What’s working:
Amboss COMLEX-1 filter, 80-120q/day, exam mode, 1-4 hammer only. Read every explanation whether you got it right or wrong. Dirty Medicine for video. Pathoma daily. Don’t let dedicated swallow either one.

Biggest surprise gap: Immunology at 32%. Fastest subject to move once you build the framework.

What I learned: Don’t skip the review. Read every explanation whether you got it right or wrong — that’s where the actual learning happens. They test the same concepts across every exam. Once you start seeing the patterns, the score follows. Trust.

DM w questions open to all.

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?

I've been using AMBOSS instead of Uworld (my professor says Uworld is too easy) for my dedicated prep. I'm still very early in dedicated and am looking for advice. I'm a DO student planning on taking both Step 1 and COMLEX.

Should I be including 4 hammers into my normal mixed blocks? Or save them until later?

They are tanking my score. According to AMBOSS they are meant to represent the top ~15% of questions. So theoretically that would be 6/40 questions per block. However, I get 7-9 per block and it's dropping my average below where I feel it should be and it's making me panic.

Any advice would be appreciated :)