USMLE & COMLEX Tutor in Hawaii

Hawaii's school list is short, one MD school and no DO school: the John A. Burns School of Medicine at the University of Hawaii at Manoa in Honolulu, public and founded in 1965 (school list). It has been LCME-accredited since 1966 and is due its next full survey in 2032-33 (LCME).

In 2025-26 the school had 2,369 applications for 77 first-year places, and 79.2% of its entering class came from Hawaii (AAMC FACTS). Eight teaching hospitals are on the CMS list for Hawaii: five in Honolulu, among them The Queen's Medical Center and Kuakini Medical Center, and one each in Wahiawa, Hilo and Aiea (CMS teaching hospital list).

Medical schools in Hawaii

School list: LCME and COCA accreditation lists, via the list of medical schools in the United States, checked October 2026.

Teaching hospitals in Hawaii by city

• Honolulu: The Queens Medical Center; Kuakini Medical Center; KFH-Hawaii; Straub Clinic & Hospital; Kapiolani Medical Center for Women & Children
• Wahiawa: Wahiawa General Hospital
• Hilo: Hilo Medical Center
• Aiea: Pali Momi Medical Center

Facts about Hawaii

Accreditation: LCME directory; applications, places and in-state share: AAMC FACTS, Table A-1.

ABIM internal medicine certification exam by residency program: ABIM residency program pass rates; ABIM says to read rates from under 25 takers with caution.

• JABSOM's pre-clerkship years are divided into eight instructional units, six of them organized around problem-based learning tutorials. (John A. Burns School of Medicine)
• JABSOM's third year is a set of longitudinal clerkships in family medicine, internal medicine, obstetrics and gynecology, pediatrics, psychiatry and surgery, and students may be assigned a clerkship site on a neighbor island. (John A. Burns School of Medicine)
• JABSOM's second year closes with MD 8, a 10-week unit called Consolidation and Transition, before the third-year clerkships begin in June. (John A. Burns School of Medicine)
• JABSOM's fourth year sets 4 weeks each of emergency medicine, geriatric and palliative medicine and a sub-internship, plus 20 weeks of electives. (John A. Burns School of Medicine)
• JABSOM calls itself a community-based medical school: it partners with community hospitals rather than running a traditional university hospital of its own. (John A. Burns School of Medicine)
• JABSOM reports that about half of Hawaii's practicing physicians are graduates of its MD program or its residency and fellowship programs, or are its faculty, and that the AAMC ranks it first in the nation for keeping combined MD and residency alumni in-state. (John A. Burns School of Medicine)
• JABSOM sponsors 19 graduate medical education programs, all ACGME-accredited, with 228 residents and fellows in AY 2022-2023, and lists 1,695 volunteer clinical faculty. (John A. Burns School of Medicine)
• In the 2025 Main Residency Match, programs in Hawaii offered 86 residency positions in 9 specialties, the most in internal medicine (37), family medicine (16), and pediatrics (8). (NRMP)

Sources: LCME, directory of accredited U.S. programs (checked October 29, 2026); AAMC FACTS, Table A-1, 2025-2026 (checked October 29, 2026); John A. Burns School of Medicine, MD Program (checked November 1, 2026); John A. Burns School of Medicine, Four Year Curriculum (checked November 1, 2026); John A. Burns School of Medicine, Facts & Figures (checked November 1, 2026); NRMP, 2025 Main Residency Match by state and specialty (checked October 29, 2026); ABIM, residency program pass rates 2023-2025 (checked October 29, 2026).

A medical school without a university hospital

JABSOM calls itself a community-based medical school. It partners with community hospitals instead of running a traditional university hospital of its own, so its students learn on the wards of the Honolulu and neighbor-island hospitals named above rather than in one academic medical center (JABSOM facts and figures). The school also lists 1,695 volunteer clinical faculty, the community physicians who do much of that teaching.

The first two years are problem-based. They are divided into eight instructional units, six of them built around PBL tutorials, with lectures, labs, standardized patients and simulation around the tutorials (JABSOM MD program). For board study that format is an asset and a gap at once: case discussion trains the clinical reasoning Step 1 vignettes test, but a tutorial group covers what its cases raise, so we check coverage against the full Step 1 content outline and fill what the cases skipped.

Step 1 sits at the end of a ten-week consolidation unit

JABSOM's second year closes with MD 8, a 10-week unit called Consolidation and Transition, and the third-year clerkships start in June (JABSOM four-year curriculum). Those ten weeks are where dedicated Step 1 study lands. We plan back from a test date inside or just after the unit, with a baseline NBME self-assessment at its start and the last practice exam a week or so before the real one.

Step 1 has been pass/fail since January 26, 2022 (USMLE), so the target is a safe first-attempt pass. A student who walks into MD 8 with a question-bank habit from MD 6 and MD 7 spends the ten weeks closing gaps instead of meeting the material for the first time.

Six clerkships side by side, sometimes on a neighbor island

JABSOM's third year is longitudinal. Family medicine, internal medicine, obstetrics and gynecology, pediatrics, psychiatry and surgery run alongside each other rather than in one-discipline blocks, and a student may be assigned a clerkship site on a neighbor island (JABSOM MD program). Shelf preparation has to run in parallel too: we split each week's questions across all six disciplines rather than finishing one subject before starting the next, and we schedule sessions around the time difference and clinic hours of whichever island a student is on.

The fourth year sets 4 weeks each of emergency medicine, geriatric and palliative medicine and a sub-internship, plus 20 weeks of electives (JABSOM four-year curriculum). Step 2 CK is the scored licensing exam on a residency application now that Step 1 is pass/fail, so we fit its dedicated weeks between the end of the longitudinal year and the sub-internship.

Training in Hawaii after medical school

Hawaii's programs offered 86 residency positions in 9 specialties in the 2025 Main Residency Match, 37 of them in internal medicine and 16 in family medicine (NRMP). JABSOM itself sponsors 19 graduate medical education programs, all ACGME-accredited, with 228 residents and fellows in AY 2022-2023 (JABSOM facts and figures).

Staying matters here. JABSOM reports that about half of Hawaii's practicing physicians trained in its MD or residency programs or teach on its faculty, and that the AAMC ranks it first in the nation for keeping combined MD and residency alumni in the state (JABSOM facts and figures). With that few local positions, a student who wants to stay should treat Step 2 CK and the shelf scores behind it as the part of the application that is still open.

Which board exams Hawaii students take

The John A. Burns School of Medicine is Hawaii's only MD school, so its students sit one exam series, the USMLE: Step 1 around the MD 8 unit that closes year two, then Step 2 CK after the longitudinal clerkship year, then Step 3 once they have graduated (USMLE).

Hawaii's school list has no DO-granting school. DO students from out of state who rotate through Hawaii hospitals sit COMLEX-USA instead (NBOME), so their exam calendar follows their home school.

Hawaii's internal medicine residents later face ABIM's exam. In 2023-2025, 90% of 58 first-time takers from the University of Hawaii program passed, and 92% of 13 from Kaiser Permanente Hawaii, though ABIM advises caution with rates from fewer than 25 takers; Tripler Army Medical Center's program passed 86% of 36 (ABIM).

Hawaii licensing rules that affect your exam plan

Hawaii sets no cap and no clock. In FSMB's table, the board lists no limit on USMLE or COMLEX attempts and no time limit for finishing them. What it asks for is training before a first license: 1 year, or 2 years for international medical graduates (FSMB).

Source: FSMB state licensure requirements, checked October 2026; confirm with the board before relying on them.

What Hawaii's rules mean for how you study

• Hawaii's board lists no limit on attempts (FSMB), so the exam program sets the ceiling: four attempts at a Step without passing makes you ineligible for any Step (USMLE eligibility rules).
• No time limit means a research year or a leave of absence does not start a Hawaii clock (FSMB).
• A first Hawaii license asks for 1 year of training, or 2 for international medical graduates (FSMB). IMGs aiming at Hawaii should add the extra year to their timeline.

How much Hawaii searches for board prep

Hawaii sits low on every exam search Google Trends measured. Among the 50 states and DC it ranks 45th of 51 for USMLE, 41st for USMLE Step 1, 40th for USMLE Step 2, 42nd for the shelf exam and 39th for COMLEX, its best showing (Google Trends, October 2021 to October 2026). The two exam series land close together, so interest does not tilt toward either.

Source: Google Trends, United States, past 5 years, retrieved October 2026; ranks show relative interest, not student numbers.