Psych Shelf Exam

[spacetygrss]

I used BRS Psychiatry and that was all I needed to ace the shelf exam. Seriously, I had seen everything at least once when I took the test just from using that book.


Good luck.

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[Jaded Soul]

BRS Psych was amazing for the shelf.

 

[scootad.]

First Aid for Psych was also solid. I'd say it was the best bang for yer buck of any review book I had ever used. Concise yet pretty damn thorough.

 

[Blade28]

I used BRS Psych and the little green Current Clinical Strategies books for my shelf exam.

 

[areesha]

there is one book named high yeild 4 psych
it is short and comprehensive
try it out
dr areesha

 

[Scooby Moo]

I thought First Aid for the Psych Clerkship was great. That was my main review source for the end-of-clerkship exam, and it worked out great.

Both of the CCS titles mentioned by the citizen are great to have too during your day-to-day work on the rotation.

 

[Carm]

Blueprints works great for psych. It was the easiest of all boards to study for in my opinion. I basically studied the two days before the test and did fine, as opposed to steady studying during the rotation on others.

 

[TommyGunn04]

Here's a warning: STUDY CHILD PSYCH!!! My shelf from a couple months ago was almost 25% child psych, even though we didn't do any child psychiatry and only had one lecture on it throughout the whole rotation. I second the Blueprints recommendation.

There's also typically a lot of medicine-type questions regarding side-effects of anti-psychotics, and about psychiatric emergencies such as neuroleptic malignant syndrome.

 

[MediCane2006]

Very medicine-heavy - a lot of questions that were psychiatry-themed but not necessarily testing psychiatry knowledge. I think that's kinda par for the course on shelf exams though. I memorized FA for Psychiatry cover-to-cover and found that while that gave me the knowledge to be a rock-star on the wards, it just wasn't in-depth enough for the shelf. I can highly recommend Appleton-Lang though.

All-in-all, there wasn't one topic emphasized more heavily than another. Know your disease definitions, especially the timeline for symptoms (i.e., how long does someone need symptoms before you can diagnose panic disorder?). You might want to spend extra time on Child Psych if you didn't do a Child Psych service, just because there are some special topics unique to Pedi Psych. And of course know your drugs, and their side effects (side effects were well-represented). If you cover all that I think you'll feel good about the test. I didn't think it was too bad.

Good luck!

 

[TigerPath05]

I thought this was the easiest shelf exam as long as you KNOW the drugs & child psych!! Side Effects & classes of drugs seemed to be tested heavily.

 

[jmdeer]

First Aid Psychiatry v BluePrints V High Yield?

Which one is the Best for the Psychiatry Shelf Exam?

Are either one of those enough for the shelf exam?

I dont need to read a larger text do I?

thanks

 

[bigfrank]

Not getting involved in this little catfight......

Anyways, I take the Psychiatry Shelf this week and have used Blueprints, A&L's question book, and PreTest. I'll let you all know how it goes.

The Psych Shelf is kind of shrouded in mystery at my school. People usually say it's incredibly easy or impossible -- I've never heard a middle ground answer yet. But we'll see.

 

[14022]

I only used blueprints and pretest and I scored 97%ile. I was shocked at the amount of medicine, peds, and neuro were on their. These 3 disciplines covered at least 15-20% of the questions.

Know your drugs and their major side effects, eg, TCA's and anti-cholinergic side effects (be able to recognize specific anti-cholinergic side effects that will be described), EPS symptoms (know each phase of EPS and how you treat each phase).

 

[14022]

thank you very much (and congrats!)

Thanks. It isn't your 99% on peds, but I was happy nonetheless. If you wouldn't mind, could you give me some tips on how you studied for peds. I am planning on going into peds and obviously would like to do great. So far I am planning on reading Blueprints and doing the Blueprints Clinical Cases and Blueprints Q&A books. Then I was planning on using Appleton and Lange and/or Pretest for questions. Any other suggestions?

 

[bigfrank]

In order (for Peds), I.......
1. Read Blueprints --> did 75 questions at end
2. Did PreTest and made notes on ?s I missed.
3. Did A&L questions and made notes on ?s I missed
4. Reread Blueprints

Actually, my raw score was a 99, but who's counting. Good luck on the Peds Shelf.