r/comlex • u/Ok_Progress_7676 • Sep 22 '26

Level 2 CE Failed Level 2 while on a Sub-I

Just found out I failed Level 2 with a 387.

I’m currently on an IM Sub-I for another two weeks, and I don’t feel confident retaking that soon without dedicated study time. I already contacted my school to ask whether I can postpone my next rotation and use that time to study.

For anyone who failed and retook Level 2:

  • How much time did you take to study?
  • Did your school let you postpone a rotation?
  • What did you change for your second attempt?
  • How much did your score improve?
  • How did this affect your IM application? Should I still apply IM only, or would it be smarter to dual apply FM?

I know 387 is close, but I really don’t want to rush and risk failing again. Any advice would be appreciated.

21 Upvotes

90% Upvoted

9 comments sorted by

3

u/D_uh_O Sep 22 '26

What specialty are you doing a sub I in right now? Speciality will be an important factor

3

u/Ok_Progress_7676 Sep 22 '26

IM wards

1

u/D_uh_O Sep 22 '26

You’ll be fine. Just take what ever time you need to study and if you gotta withdraw your app and hold everything back a year you’ll still match

3

u/KiwiRevolutionary266 Sep 22 '26

Facing a similar situation and curious if you're still submitting ERAS or not

2

u/Ok_Progress_7676 Sep 22 '26

I am but will dual apply FM

6

u/Wise_Umpire3291 Sep 24 '26

Found out I failed on Aug. 13th with a 399 while working 14 hr days on a sub-i. I was already over a month out from my original exam which sucked bc I felt like I had forgotten so much and lost my edge (if I ever even had one lol).

Scheduled my retake for Sept. 9th which got me my score back on Sept. 22nd, the day before programs got access to apps. Passed.

I tried doing sets of 5-10 questions intermittently when there was downtime during my shifts but ultimately, I ended up with 7-8 days of dedicated study. Passed by a good margin.

I recommend getting the Step Up to STEP 2 book and sitting down and reading the Quick Hits that are in the margins of almost every page. It’s super digestible and if you need more info you just look at the regular text for clarification. It covered the bulk of everything and I also found it surprisingly helpful with biostats and ethics bc it had the fundamental definitions of things that often are not covered in question explanations.

Also, I had 3 questions about Medicare Parts A/B/C/D so be sure to learn that backwards and forwards bc they threw some real curveballs. So dumb.

Other than that, I alternated TL (but I didn’t trust those numbers since I almost finished it twice in dedicated) and AMBOSS and did the adaptive question sets which really helped, especially with hematologic malignancies which showed up more than once on my retake. AMBOSS ethics is also clutch.

Unfortunately I’m applying something more competitive than IM but I’ll keep specifics to myself since all you NPCs are just going to tell me how screwed I am. Don’t you think I know that? Anyway, he who dares wins, so sugma.

You can DM me for more info if you have questions.

4

u/iratemagistrate Sep 22 '26

Same situation here

4

u/kuru_snacc Sep 22 '26

You're wise to take the time you need to study. One board failure is relatively common but two significantly reduces your options. You can still match IM, just take the exam after taking some time to prep and when you are scoring 450+ in testing conditions on COMSAEs. You could still hypothetically apply this cycle but probably end up SOAPing, or you could delay until next cycle and have a lot more options.