What Is the COMLEX-USA?
The COMLEX-USA is the licensing examination, or more accurately the series of licensing exams, for osteopathic physicians. Osteopathic medical students and graduates take the COMLEX-USA, sometimes referred to as the NBOME for its administrator, the National Board of Osteopathic Medical Examiners, as a series of step exams before, during, and after residency. You'll need to take and pass the COMLEX-USA to get a license in your state as an osteopathic physician. If you face COMLEX-USA exam misconduct charges or other issues sitting for the exam or getting your exam results to qualify for licensure, retain national discipline defense attorney advisor Joseph D. Lento to help you overcome those obstacles.
COMLEX-USA Format and Content
The COMLEX-USA series of osteopathic physician licensing exams includes Level 1, Level 2, and Level 3 components. Each series level has a different format and content. The National Board distributes osteopathic physician competency domains and clinical presentation skills across the three levels. Competencies include osteopathic principles, practices, and manipulation, professionalism, continuous learning, and systems-based practice, among other areas. Clinical presentations include wellness, reproduction, and endocrine, nervous, musculoskeletal, circulatory, gastrointestinal, and other systems. Candidates for licensure take each COMLEX-USA series level at a different time during their osteopathic medical education and residency. The COMLEX-USA series includes:
- the COMLEX-USA Level 1 400-question, mostly multiple-choice exam taken during the student's osteopathic medical education;
- the COMLEX-USA Level 2 CE 400-question mostly multiple-choice exam also taken during the student's osteopathic medical education; and
- the COMLEX-USA Level 3 two-day exam involving 420 multiple-choice questions, clinical decision-making cases, and other novel test item formats, taken during or after residency.
Who Administers the COMLEX-USA?
The National Board of Osteopathic Medical Examiners, a private independent nonprofit organization, administers the COMLEX-USA series of licensing exams for osteopathic medical students and graduates. The National Board's mission ensures the public that osteopathic physicians have the necessary knowledge and presentation skills. The National Board only develops and administers the COMLEX-USA series of licensing exams. The National Board does not license osteopathic physicians. Instead, licensing boards in each state receive and accept National Board COMLEX-USA scores as a part of the licensing process. If your state licensing board has not received or will not recognize your COMLEX-USA score, retain national school discipline defense attorney advisor Joseph D. Lento to help you regain your qualifying score and license status.
Who Must Take the COMLEX-USA?
The COMLEX-USA is the critical pathway to licensure as an osteopathic physician for practice in any U.S. state or territory. Any osteopathic medical student anticipating graduation, licensure, and practice must take the COMLEX-USA beginning with Levels 1 and 2 during the osteopathic medical education. While graduation may be possible without taking the COMLEX-USA, osteopath program graduates who do not take and pass the COMLEX-USA will not qualify for licensure and practice. Unlicensed osteopaths may have career opportunities in medical administration, public health, or related fields and professions but not in the clinical practice of osteopathic medicine. Retain premier discipline defense attorney advisor Joseph D. Lento to overcome COMLEX-USA misconduct charges or other issues and to preserve your ambition to practice osteopathic medicine.
Qualifying for the COMLEX-USA
The National Board requires COMLEX-USA student applicants to obtain their school of osteopathic medicine's attestation of good academic and professional standing before sitting for the Levels 1 and 2 COMLEX-USA exams. The National Board further requires the graduate applicant to provide an attestation of good academic and professional standing from the residency program director to take the Level 3 COMLEX-USA exam. Misconduct charges or discipline at your school of osteopathic medicine under codes like the one in the Student Handbook for Michigan State University's College of Osteopathic Medicine or in your residency program can interfere with your ability to sit for the COMLEX-USA exam. Fortunately, colleges of osteopathic medicine maintain procedures like those at Nova Southeastern University's College of Osteopathic Medicine, enabling students to protect themselves from false or unfair misconduct allegations. Retain national school discipline defense attorney advisor Joseph D. Lento to clear your school record so that you can sit for the COMLEX-USA exam.
COMLEX-USA SAP Disqualification
To get your school's letter of good academic standing to take the COMLEX-USA, you will also need to maintain satisfactory academic progress, meeting your school's SAP standards like those at the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine. If poor grades or frequent course incompletes and withdrawals have caused your school to place you on SAP probation or suspension, retain national school discipline defense attorney advisor Joseph D. Lento to pursue your SAP appeal. Your school may reinstate you due to your unique circumstances, if your SAP appeal shows good cause, documents that show, and articulates a strong plan for remediation. Your school will likely have an SAP appeal procedure like the one at the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine.
Misconduct Disqualifying for the COMLEX-USA
The National Board requires that candidates taking the COMLEX-USA agree to terms and conditions outlined in its Bulletin of Information. Several of those terms and conditions address misconduct before or after the exam that can disqualify you from sitting for the exam. If you cannot qualify to sit for the COMLEX-USA or have had the National Board revoke or refuse to release your score, retain national school discipline defense attorney advisor Joseph D. Lento to help you overcome that challenge. Under the National Board's Bulletin of Information, disqualifying outside-the-exam actions include that the candidate must not:
- “in any manner whatsoever, discuss, disclose, paraphrase, publish, or otherwise make known to anyone any test item” not publicly available on the COMLEX-USA website;
- “in any manner whatsoever contribute to or participate in the development or administration of any test preparation service” for the COMLEX-USA until at least eighteen months after taking the exam;
- fail to report examinees who offer test preparation services within that eighteen month window;
- fail to fully cooperate with investigation of irregularities in test administration, candidate behavior, or breach of test security;
- engage in “any irregular conduct in connection with the application, registration or taking of an examination” including behavior that “violates the integrity or security of the examination,” “is disruptive to administration of the examination,” or is “inappropriate in connection with the application, registration, taking, administration, integrity, and security” of the COMLEX-USA exam;
- engage in loud, lewd, or culturally insensitive comments toward test personnel or other examinees; and
- discuss or disclose test items or clinical cases after the exam.
Irregular Conduct During the COMLEX-USA Exam
COMLEX-USA examinees also face risks of misconduct allegations from actions inside the test center during the COMLEX-USA exam. Unanticipated events and strong emotions can make for a volatile testing environment leading to misconduct suspicions and allegations. The National Board's Bulletin of Information lists these examples of irregular conduct that can result in misconduct charges and sanctions including failure of the exam:
- copying another's exam answers, allowing another to copy your answers, or other fraud, deceit, or dishonest conduct during the exam;
- failure or refusal to provide proper identification, or presenting false identification, around the exam;
- disrupting other examinees with loud noises or distracting actions;
- harming or threatening to harm test center staff or other examinees;
- communicating or attempting to communicate with other examinees;
- removing or attempting to remove any test material or scrap paper;
- damage to test center materials, furnishings, equipment, or property;
- violating test center rules and security requirements;
- misuse of cell phones or wearable devices for exam information;
- possession of unauthorized helpful material on the exam;
- bringing personal property into the test area; and
- any other behavior testing personnel deem unethical or unprofessional.
COMLEX-USA Irregular Conduct Proceedings
The National Board's Bulletin of Information provides that when exam officials suspect irregular conduct, they must notify the candidate of the allegations. The Bulletin of Information gives the accused candidate ten days to submit a signed personal statement answering the allegations. The National Board alone determines irregular conduct and what sanction to impose. The Bulletin of Information states, “Decisions regarding irregular conduct are determined solely at the discretion of the NBOME, and all such decisions of the NBOME are final.” The National Board, though, is not the licensing authority. The state licensing board will have elaborate administrative procedures through which a candidate can challenge a misconduct determination. Those procedures must provide fair notice and reasonable opportunity to contest the charges, typically at a formal hearing. You will also likely have the right to have your retained attorney advisor conduct those proceedings, including examining witnesses at the hearing. Depending on your state's court rules and administrative procedures, you may also have a right to appeal the licensing board's decision to a civil court. Retain national school discipline defense attorney advisor Joseph D. Lento to help you strategically invoke those protective procedures to defend and defeat COMLEX-USA misconduct charges.
COMLEX-USA Irregular Conduct Consequences
The National Board's Bulletin of Information stating the NBOME's terms and conditions tells you what the National Board can do if its test center personnel suspect that you engaged in irregular conduct before, during, or after an NBOME exam. Simply failing to cooperate with an investigation can result in sanctions including “examination failure, notation of irregular conduct, suspension of eligibility, or permanent loss of eligibility to take a future COMLEX-USA examination.” The National Board's other options for discipline include voiding your exam score, not scoring your exam at all, deeming that you failed the exam even if your score indicates otherwise, noting that your results included irregular conduct for the licensing body to consider and further investigate. The board can also suspend, revoke, or refuse to provide a score report, refuse to let you take or retake the exam, report irregular conduct to your college of osteopathic medicine or residency program, and take any other action the National Board in its discretion deems appropriate. These actions may mean you cannot qualify for licensure at all. Misconduct findings could have other potential collateral consequences carrying extraordinarily high costs. Don't underestimate the costs. Retain national school discipline defense attorney advisor Joseph D. Lento if you face allegations of misconduct on the COMLEX-USA exam. Preserve your osteopathic medicine career.
Representation in COMLEX-USA Disputes
When you retain qualified, skilled, and experienced attorney advisor representation, you may have multiple avenues for effective relief. Don't retain an unqualified local criminal defense attorney. Instead, retain national school discipline defense attorney advisor Joseph D. Lento who has successfully represented hundreds of professionals and students in exam and other misconduct disputes. Attorney advisor Lento may be able to help you correct a school misconduct record or SAP issue so that you can sit for the COMLEX-USA Levels 1 and 2 exams. If instead you have residency program issues preventing you from qualifying for the COMLEX-USA Level 3 exam, attorney advisor Lento may be able to help you resolve things favorably to obtain the required letter of good standing. Schools and residency programs have dispute-resolution procedures for attorney advisor Lento to strategically invoke on your behalf. If, on the other hand, your issues are with the COMLEX-USA exam itself, then trust attorney advisor Lento to invoke COMLEX-USA misconduct procedures and state licensing board procedures on your behalf, to meet those issues head on and resolve them as early and efficiently as possible. Retaining the best available attorney advisor representative is your best move for your best outcome.
Premier Attorney Advisor Available
Remember that you have made huge investments in your osteopathic medicine education and career. Qualifying for and passing the COMLEX-USA is one of your last few significant hurdles to gaining permanent employment and enjoying a fruitful career in osteopathic medicine. Respect and value your investment. Remember your anticipated rewards. Trust premier national school discipline defense attorney advisor Joseph D. Lento to win your best possible outcome. Call 888.535.3686 or go online now to retain attorney advisor Lento and the Lento Law Firm's student defense team.
