Just Sick of Shelf exams!!

[Arhat]

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Man, took my Psych shelf exam yesterday, and was so drained after the exam.
Is anyone getting tired of these exams? After taking my 2nd last shelf exam, i thought it would get easier, but it just doesn't seem like it.
Reading 10-15 lines per question just to answer a question is just so mind draining.

Does anyone feel the same???

 

[Pinkertinkle]

I agree, shelf exams are tough. I have to hustle through every one of them and its pretty draining. They're harder than any other tests in school so far including the usmle. They never seem to get any easier. Luckily the grading seems to be fairly reasonable.

 

[PurpleHaze]

I'm with you! I still have to take the Family Medicine and Surgery shelf exams... I'll be so glad when they're over!

 

[basupran]

Yup, they make rotations quite a bit more miserable. The less likely a disease is in real life, the more likely that it will show up on the shelf...drives me insane!!!!

 

[Snuffbox]

I usually go to a buffet after my shelf exams- nothing like the itis to knock me out and forget about the exam I just took.

 

[ubcredfox]

Two more shelfs to go and I'm sooo done with the damn NBME right now. I mean really, who gives a rats azz...

Ditto on the applicability comment. Studying for these shelf's makes you think Wegners is just around the corner and that Von Hippel Landau lurks behind every closed curtain. Not like those rare beasts...pneumonia, chest pain, or MI...lurking in the bowels of the night, never seen, only dreamed.

Good riddance!

 

[basupran]

Studying for the OBGYN shelf. If childbirth was like the shelf, every mother would have severe eclampsia and then suffer from postpartum hemorrhage and die a miserable death... every child would be born premature with multiple chromosomal abnormalities, retinopathy of prematurity and then suffer from sepsis because the crack/heroin abusing mother who was G15P15 was GBS status unknown... the world as we know it would certainly end.

 

[GuzzyRon]

Studying for these shelf's makes you think Wegners is just around the corner and that Von Hippel Landau lurks behind every closed curtain. Not like those rare beasts...pneumonia, chest pain, or MI...lurking in the bowels of the night, never seen, only dreamed.

lol...

 

[omgwtfbbq?]

My school makes us take the surgery and the obgyn shelf on the same day. Just be happy you don't have to suffer that little bit brilliant planning.

 

[rachmoninov3]

yeah, shelf exams are annoying, but I find them better than the wrote memorization used for step 1, plus they seem to build upon prior knowledge which can be useful. That being said, I hate waiting for the scores to come out, and may have failed this last one. Seriously, I just finished neuro (the hardest shelf thus far), and have been spending the break worrying about if I passed or not.

Only two (hopefully two if I passed neuro) shelf exams to go....

What is the point in medical school of taking forever and a day to grade tests? The first two years you were almost through with another class before the previous class's grades were posted. Now with clinical rotations and shelf exams, you're two to three weeks into something new before the damn scores come out!😕 And I still haven't received my final grade for psych!
[thanks for the place to rant]

 

[Kyra17]

GRRRR! Just got an email saying I failed my Ob/Gyn shelf by 1 measly point! Ack! I already failed the Medicine shelf by 2 points (retook and passed thankfully). Me and shelf exams just do not get along.............

 

[twofish]

So freakin tired of shelf test, and the entire 3rd year.
Two more NBME test to go, have to pass both though.

Why is third year so long?

 

[ZagDoc]

I actually kind of like the shelf exams. Its a good form of "forced review" throughout the year and makes me review topics I didn't encounter in person. I just hate when it gets in the way of my patient care. I hate feeling hurried to get out of the hospital to get home to study. When I'm at the hospital, I just want to soak up the wards dammit. When I get home, I just want to rest up so that I'm on my game the next day. I hate starting the day fatigued because, even after leaving work, there's so much work waiting for me at home.

Ideally to me would be to just dedicate the last week of every rotation to studying for the shelf. That way when you're in patient care, you can focus on your patients, reading up on their disorders, having the time to read up on their surgery, or flesh out their differential, or ponder their test results. Then when its time to review at the end, you review.

I know, crazy concept.

What is the point in medical school of taking forever and a day to grade tests? The first two years you were almost through with another class before the previous class's grades were posted. Now with clinical rotations and shelf exams, you're two to three weeks into something new before the damn scores come out!😕 And I still haven't received my final grade for psych!
[thanks for the place to rant]

It took me 13 weeks to get my psych grade. And here, I was sent threatening emails about giving me a fail for a rotation because I waiting 9 days after the end to fill out my evals. Ridiculous.