Family Medicine Shelf Exam?

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nmcorp33

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Hello SDN members,
I know there is already a thread for FM shelf exam, but there hasn't been any recent updates. Our school has a weird FM system where we take the shelf exam at the end of our M3 year. As I was beginning to study, I have noticed there doesn't appear to be any good resources. What books did you guys use to study? Thanks in advance! So far I just started reading case files, but any additional resources will help immensely.
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nmcorp33 said:
Hello SDN members,
I know there is already a thread for FM shelf exam, but there hasn't been any recent updates. Our school has a weird FM system where we take the shelf exam at the end of our M3 year. As I was beginning to study, I have noticed there doesn't appear to be any good resources. What books did you guys use to study? Thanks in advance! So far I just started reading case files, but any additional resources will help immensely.
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The family medicine shelf is broad based and notoriously difficult if taken early in the year, but after all of your rotations done . . . we also take the test at the end of the year, and I owned that sucker. I mean owned it and in some ways I wish I hadn't. It was my best shelf and at every interview the score came up as in, "Did you think about Family Medicine. It was your best exam." ARRRRGGGH! (That's not a knock on FM at all, but when you're NOT applying for a certain specialty, it's annoying to have someone, form the specialty you are interested in, to suggest that maybe(?) you should have applied for a different specialty) Anyway, let's bring it back a bit form the tangent . . . just start to prepare for Step 2 - questions, Questions, QUESTIONS! - and you'll pick up everything family is going to test on. You'll be fine.
 
how did ur interviewers get your shelf exam scores? wtf...they give those out?
 
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So there is not one precise book you studied out of? That is a bummer...
 
I used the Swanson's question book. It has more than plenty questions and covers all the major topics.
 
i dont want to hijack this thread with this issue...but the dean's letters have all of our shelf exam scores? that seems ridiculous to me. they should just get the letter grade, why the hell do they need a breakdown of everything. maybe they should include a urinalysis on the dean's letter too.
 
arthrodisiac said:
i dont want to hijack this thread with this issue...but the dean's letters have all of our shelf exam scores? that seems ridiculous to me. they should just get the letter grade, why the hell do they need a breakdown of everything. maybe they should include a urinalysis on the dean's letter too.
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Depends on your school I suppose . . . I wanted my scores there
 
OK back to the topic at hand. I am also in FP right now and was curious about the books to use. I am reading Blueprints, and doing questions out of NMS Q and A. I also plan to read the Pretest Physical Diagnosis as I heard from someone that it is really good for FP. Blueprints seems really broad and an overview without saying anything specific. Has anyone used these sources or heard anything good/bad about them? Thanks in advance.
 
i'm curious too. i'm going to have family med as my first rotation and i was wondering which books i should pick up as the 4th years head out
 
I know that there are a lot of people on here that have finished FP. PLEASE people, help us out.....
 
arthrodisiac said:
i dont want to hijack this thread with this issue...but the dean's letters have all of our shelf exam scores? that seems ridiculous to me. they should just get the letter grade, why the hell do they need a breakdown of everything. maybe they should include a urinalysis on the dean's letter too.
Click to expand...

My school puts the scores for all the shelf exams on there as well.
 
jdh71 said:
It was my best shelf and at every interview the score came up as in, "Did you think about Family Medicine. It was your best exam." ARRRRGGGH!
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That is really annoying. I did well on the IM shelf, and actually had to have a conversation with the clerkship coordinator about my possible future in the field. Not exactly what a pre-surgical student wanted to talk about . . .

If you have a real big set of onions, you can always say, "I considered your field, but in the end I realized I wanted more of a challenge."
 
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UNM2009 said:
OK back to the topic at hand. I am also in FP right now and was curious about the books to use. I am reading Blueprints, and doing questions out of NMS Q and A. I also plan to read the Pretest Physical Diagnosis as I heard from someone that it is really good for FP. Blueprints seems really broad and an overview without saying anything specific. Has anyone used these sources or heard anything good/bad about them? Thanks in advance.
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We have to take the FM Shelf exam at the end of our second year. Most of my classmates used Blueprints and they all said it was HORRIBLE. It's too general to be of any use. I took the shelf without studying and relied on the knowlege I gained though my FM rotation. I did the same as people who prepared by reading the whole Blueprints book (and I'm a below average student). The only other source I heard about was the MKSAP Question book (or whatever it's called)... The few student who used it like it.

I would have felt more prepared for the shelf exam if I had done more assessments and plans (you know... the last 2 sections of the SOAP notes) on my rotation. I think if you get a lot of practice in deciding what steps to take with a patient (AND IN WHAT ORDER THE STEPS SHOULD BE TAKEN), you won't need to study as hard for the shelf.
 
Hmm well the FM shelf is days away. It is interesting that there doesn't seem to be a clear cut way to study for this exam... I guess it is back to reviewing the MKSAP questions and looking at case files. I just glanced over blueprints and I agree that it is way too general. Well here goes nothing... Wish me luck!
 
nmcorp33 said:
Hmm well the FM shelf is days away. It is interesting that there doesn't seem to be a clear cut way to study for this exam... I guess it is back to reviewing the MKSAP questions and looking at case files. I just glanced over blueprints and I agree that it is way too general. Well here goes nothing... Wish me luck!
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How did it go?
 
domer621 said:
How did it go?
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Well by studying only case files and reviewing some of the MKSAP questions I scored very well on this exam. Looking back I agree that blue prints is way too generalized. Your best bet is to read through the new and update case files and try to repeat the MKSAP questions. The only other resource I had was a old family medicine residency exam given to us by our FP docs. Good luck!
 
how similar is FM shelf to IM shelf? would it be dumb to study the IM stuff? is ee that some of u are studying MKSAP
 
jdh71 said:
There is a thing called a "Dean's Letter" the comments form my Family preceptors and the score of NBME Family Test were there. Go figure.
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...wait a second, the NBME Family Test? The NBME writes your shelf exams?
 
In some ways the FM exam has some similarities to the IM exam including tx, dx, and signs from multiple organ systems. However there are also questions on prevention medicine (when to screen for colon ca, pap, etc) and other illnesses that you encounter in the primary care clinic. Hope that helps. If you need more info just drop me a msg. Good luck.

surprisedgirl said:
how similar is FM shelf to IM shelf? would it be dumb to study the IM stuff? is ee that some of u are studying MKSAP
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I may have missed something...but what is this MKSAP thing?
 
My school puts shelf tests on the Dean's Letter if you score 70th percentile or more. This includes 3rd year exams, as well as basic science.

I too have heard that Blueprints bites the big one... so what is a good book to use for this rotation? Or is Boards and Wards good enough? How should you properly cram the week before?
 
I used Blueprints and the 660 questions on the AAFP website (which you actually need to be a member to get). I don't really recommend Swanson's...it takes too long to get through and it's not really that representative of whats on the test. I wish I had just done case files instead. I did the first 100 pages of Swanson's before I stopped. Also, just pay attention during your clerkship and read up on management/treatment of common diseases/issues (HTN, hyperlipidemia, diabetes, asthma, COPD, pnuemonia, PID/ureithritis/vaginitis, cervical changes, birth control, gout, eczema, tinea, vaccinations, childhood viral diseases, etc.)

I ended up getting a 77. I wish I had gotten a little higher (reading Case Files probably would have helped boost my score up into the honors region) But for my first shelf, I'm fine with it.
 
anybody try blueprints casefiles? (I accidently bought it thinking it was the other case files)
 
does anyone know the raw score you have to get to be above 2 SD's below the mean? just trying to figure out if i passed...
 
Just took it today. Keep in mind that they can literally ask any question on this exam (and they did), so it's pretty tough to study for it. I was surprised that there was very little obstetrics on the exam. There were lots of distractors, so be sure to read each question very carefully!
I would recommend the AAFP.org free board review questions and Case Files for the shelf. Honestly, it would be very nice to go through Step-Up to Medicine for this exam, since most of the test is in there. I do not recommend the NMS Q&A question book, because the questions are ridiculous, way tougher than the shelf, and seem to be meant for residents.
 
domer621 said:
Just took it today. Keep in mind that they can literally ask any question on this exam (and they did), so it's pretty tough to study for it. I was surprised that there was very little obstetrics on the exam. There were lots of distractors, so be sure to read each question very carefully!
I would recommend the AAFP.org free board review questions and Case Files for the shelf. Honestly, it would be very nice to go through Step-Up to Medicine for this exam, since most of the test is in there. I do not recommend the NMS Q&A question book, because the questions are ridiculous, way tougher than the shelf, and seem to be meant for residents.
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Just a heads up on the aafp.org questions...I just went to sign up for membership to access the questions, and got an email telling me that it would all be processed in 4-6 weeks, at which point I could start using these resources. Kind of pointless since my shelf is next week. So make sure you sign up way ahead of time if you're planning to use these questions!
 
Yeah, I should have mentioned that. It took me 2 weeks to get my membership. You might get lucky!
 
can the aafp ?s be used by more than one persoN? i have a friend who has membership and she said ic ould use them but i dont want to take away ?s from her!
 
surprisedgirl said:
can the aafp ?s be used by more than one persoN? i have a friend who has membership and she said ic ould use them but i dont want to take away ?s from her!
Click to expand...
Yep! It's not restricted access.
 
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