Shelf exam study resources?

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Sportsdude89

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Hey guys!

I was wondering what books/resources/apps/etc you used to ace your shelf exams during third year clinical rotations? Also, how do you coordinate studying with rotations? Do you read the materials before starting/along the way? Any input you have would be great!

ER:

Pediatrics:

OBGYN:

Family medicine:

Psychiatry:

Surgery:

Neurology:

Anesthesiology:

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Pediatrics: BRS Peds and UWorld. BRS is dense but it doesn't take long to get through, just read here and there, mostly at home because there wasn't much down time at work. UWorld questions on my phone, mainly in the last week of the rotation. Haven't gotten my score back yet but I felt pretty good walking out of the shelf.

I'm interested in what people have to say about FM. I have Essentials of Family Medicine and Case Files, but the questions in Case Files are too easy and I'm not sure how/if to do UWorld.
 
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Hey guys!

I was wondering what books/resources/apps/etc you used to ace your shelf exams during third year clinical rotations? Also, how do you coordinate studying with rotations? Do you read the materials before starting/along the way? Any input you have would be great!

ER:

Pediatrics:

OBGYN:

Family medicine:

Psychiatry:

Surgery:

Neurology:

Anesthesiology:
ER and Anesthesiology don't have a shelf. Also #2 - use the search function.
 
Pediatrics: BRS Peds and UWorld. BRS is dense but it doesn't take long to get through, just read here and there, mostly at home because there wasn't much down time at work. UWorld questions on my phone, mainly in the last week of the rotation. Haven't gotten my score back yet but I felt pretty good walking out of the shelf.

I'm interested in what people have to say about FM. I have Essentials of Family Medicine and Case Files, but the questions in Case Files are too easy and I'm not sure how/if to do UWorld.
http://www.benwhite.com/medicine/studying-for-third-year-nbme-shelf-exams/
 
Lol sounds like no one really knows how to study for FM. I perused the FM shelf thread and found out about the AAFP questions, and this guy mentioned them too, so maybe those in addition to essentials and case files. I've already had ambulatory medicine and pediatrics (my school does a separate 8 week ambulatory rotation), so I think that might be an advantage.
Well he mentioned other resources in that link. The problem is FM is a combination of other subjects IM, Peds, OB-Gyn, etc. hence why it's more difficult to prepare for. Unless you want to buy Swanson's FM. Case Files and Pretest are a given.
 
Pediatrics: BRS Peds and UWorld. BRS is dense but it doesn't take long to get through, just read here and there, mostly at home because there wasn't much down time at work. UWorld questions on my phone, mainly in the last week of the rotation. Haven't gotten my score back yet but I felt pretty good walking out of the shelf.

I'm interested in what people have to say about FM. I have Essentials of Family Medicine and Case Files, but the questions in Case Files are too easy and I'm not sure how/if to do UWorld.


Yes the AAFP questions, NMS Q&A book for family medicine, Casefiles, Pretest is really about it.

If you need to reference something some people use Step up to medicine ambulatory section as well and then flip through other parts of Step up to medicine or BRS Peds if they need more in depth review of those topics.

Best of luck.
 
This has already been covered in this forum. There are entire threads devoted to individual shelf exams. The time balancing act is the trickiest part of M3. Finding the energy to come home and study after some of those days was incredibly challenging. Be efficient with your time on the wards. If you're hanging around all afternoon while your residents write notes waiting for something to happen, you should be going over questions / reading material. Often times the OR was so behind schedule, I'd show up early and end up waiting in the hallway for 30-40 minutes - time like that adds up if you use it wisely.

Lol sounds like no one really knows how to study for FM.

That's completely accurate. It's such a hard shelf to prepare for because it essentially covers 3 specialties (with preventative medicine almost being a 4th) and in many med schools it's a shorter rotation than others. Basically the best way to prepare is to be lucky and have IM, OB, and peds (hopefully at least 2 of the 3) before FM. I used Case Files, the ambulatory part of UWorld, and the Pre-Test series worked well for me in general. It's a tricky shelf to prepare for.
 
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