Decks and exam format checked: October 2026
There is no single COMLEX deck. DO students use two: the AnKing Step Deck (30,000+ cards) for the basic and clinical science that COMLEX shares with the USMLE, and a dedicated OMM deck for osteopathic principles, most often OMM for COMLEX by Jwill on AnkiHub. Add COMLEX-style question banks on top, because the exam weaves OMM into clinical questions in a way no USMLE resource does.
Most Anki advice is written for MD students taking the USMLE, and DO students end up translating it. The translation mostly works: COMLEX and the USMLE test the same physiology, pathology and pharmacology, and the same decks cover them. What doesn't translate is osteopathic manipulative medicine. OMM shows up throughout COMLEX, often inside clinical vignettes, and USMLE decks don't touch it. This page covers both halves.
According to NBOME's examination format page, checked October 2026:
Level 1 has been pass/fail for exams taken on or after 10 May 2022. That lowers the stakes on fine-grained detail but not on breadth: you still need to pass every discipline, including OMM.
The AnKing Step Deck has over 30,000 cards for USMLE Step 1, 2 and 3, maintained on AnkiHub with weekly updates and tagged by resource (First Aid, Boards and Beyond, UWorld and others). For COMLEX, use it exactly as MD students do: unsuspend cards by tag as you cover each system, and keep reviewing them through dedicated study. It needs an AnkiHub subscription. Our AnKing deck guide explains the tag workflow.
What it doesn't do: OMM, osteopathic principles, or COMLEX-specific question bank tags. Don't expect it to.
OMM for COMLEX is an OMM deck on AnkiHub by Jwill, built with a collaborator. In May 2024 the original was retired and replaced by a new version whose note types link to OMM-specific resources (COMBANK, NBOME and OME) rather than the general USMLE resources AnKing uses. Review history carries over if you migrate. The deck's wiki doesn't publish a card count, so we won't guess one. It is the OMM deck we would start with because it is the one still being maintained.
TurnUp2OMT, shared in 2018, is a Zanki-style cloze deck built from Savarese, OMGOMT, OMED, COMBANK and COMQUEST. Users at the time noted it wasn't complete. The Demeter OMM deck was released in its final version in 2021, with its creator saying it would not be updated further. Both are still useful as a second source of cards for a weak topic. Neither should be your main OMM deck in 2026.
| Deck | Covers | Size | Maintained | Where |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AnKing Step Deck | Basic and clinical science | 30,000+ cards | Yes, weekly | AnkiHub (subscription) |
| OMM for COMLEX (Jwill) | OMM and osteopathic principles | Not published | Yes, rebuilt May 2024 | AnkiHub |
| TurnUp2OMT | OMM | Not published | No (2018) | Shared via Reddit |
| Demeter OMM deck | OMM | Not published | No (final version 2021) | Shared via Reddit |
Run AnKing alongside your preclinical courses, unsuspending by system. Start an OMM deck in first year, not during dedicated: OMM is a lot of small facts (tender points, Chapman's points, viscerosomatic levels, technique steps) that spaced repetition handles well if you give it months. Use COMBANK or COMQUEST questions to find the OMM topics you keep missing, and add cards for those. Our Step 1 deck comparison covers the AnKing workflow in more depth.
Switch your AnKing focus to the Step 2 tags and clerkship content, and keep your OMM reviews running so you don't relearn it all before the exam. Our Anki deck for Step 2 page covers the clinical side.
No well-known Level 3 deck exists. Residents usually keep a slimmed-down AnKing review with the Step 3 tags, keep OMM alive at a low daily load, and spend most of their time on questions and clinical decision-making cases. Check which format you will sit: before or after the 13 January 2027 change. The Anki deck for Step 3 page has a resident-friendly plan.
For the shared science, use AnKing and don't build your own. For OMM, the balance is closer. OMM is taught very differently between schools: different technique names, different emphasis on cranial or counterstrain, different lab handouts. Your school's OMM exams follow your lab manual, and a shared deck won't. A good split is a shared OMM deck for COMLEX coverage and your own cards for whatever your OMM course actually tests.
Keep OMM as its own deck or tag so you can control its daily load separately from AnKing. Ten to fifteen new OMM cards a day during the preclinical years is enough to get through a full deck well before dedicated study. Turn on FSRS and never cap reviews so low that a backlog hides. The Anki settings for med school guide and the Anki settings guide cover the rest.
Related guides: Anki decks for USMLE Step 1, Step 2 and Step 3. Or see Anki decks for med school for every subject we cover.
Use AnKing and an OMM deck for board coverage. StudyCards AI is for the part those decks can't cover: your own school's OMM lab notes, handouts and lecture slides. Upload them as a PDF and get question and cloze cards for the techniques and findings your course actually tests, ready to download as an Anki .apkg file. Check every generated card against your lab manual before you study it.
Try StudyCards AI FreeMost DO students use the AnKing Step Deck for the core science and pair it with a dedicated OMM deck such as OMM for COMLEX by Jwill on AnkiHub. AnKing is written for USMLE, so it does not cover osteopathic principles and practice, which COMLEX tests throughout.
Yes. The most active one is OMM for COMLEX by Jwill on AnkiHub, rebuilt in May 2024 with note types linked to COMBANK, NBOME and OME resources. Older options include TurnUp2OMT and the Demeter OMM deck, which are no longer updated.
Yes, for the shared basic and clinical science content, which is most of the exam. You still need a separate OMM resource and COMLEX-style question banks, because AnKing has no osteopathic manipulative medicine content and is tagged to USMLE resources.
Yes. NBOME reports only pass or fail for COMLEX-USA Level 1 for exams taken on or after May 10, 2022. Level 2-CE and Level 3 still report numeric scores.
There is no well-known Level 3 specific deck. Residents usually keep reviewing the AnKing deck with the Step 3 tags, add an OMM deck for osteopathic content, and focus on question banks for management and clinical decision-making cases.
Generate Anki flashcards from PDFs