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To the Editor:

I want to commend the National Board of Osteopathic Medical Examiners, Inc (NBOME) for taking a big step recently: deciding to administer the Comprehensive Osteopathic Medical Licensing Examination (COMLEX-USA) on computer only as of July 2005.

For years, osteopathic medical students and residents have been plagued by the cumbersome two-day, 800-question, written examinations—examinations that were only available in paper-and-pencil format and were only offered twice each year. Consequently, osteopathic medical students and residents were often forced to schedule rotations and vacations around NBOME's examination schedule.

I remember taking the paper-and-pencil examination and being mentally and physically drained at the end of each block of questions. While students were trying to concentrate on the examination, there were always many other students around, walking by, coming and going for short breaks, making noise, and so forth.

It was therefore with great pleasure that I read the December 2004 announcement on NBOME's Web site (http://www.nbome.org/) indicating that, starting this summer, all COMLEX-USA examinations will be offered electronically. Although some may argue against this change, I believe that it will make for a less tedious and better test-taking experience for osteopathic medical students and residents.

In fact, for several years, the National Board of Medical Examiners has offered a shorter, less cumbersome examination, the United States Medical Licensing Examination, in electronic format. Test-takers have been able to select the times and testing locations that best suited their schedules.

It will be interesting to see how this switch to electronic-only format works for NBOME this summer. Although the process will probably have a few small bugs that will need to be worked out, I commend NBOME and say "good job." I hope all runs smoothly.

Neurology
State University of New York at Stony Brook School of
Medicine
Stony Brook, New York

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