OB/GYN Clerkship Books

blueprints is solid

Blueprints. That's what you need. They also make a "Clinical situations" book, which is a pretty cool way to learn the stuff as well. Their Q&A books, while very good books, are a bit of a rip-off. Have someone buy it, and xerox for the rest of the crew on the rotation.

You don't need anything else to do well on the shelf.

Beckmann is a fantastic textbook for OB/GYN. What I liked about it is that it coves all 64 of the ACOG objectives and tells you in each chapter which objectives it's covering there. It was our required reading for our clerkship, and having just taken Step 2 last week, I felt OB/GYN was one of my strongest areas - and I don't even LIKE OB/GYN. If you've got the time, I'd read it.

Originally posted by jpgreer13
Beckmann is a fantastic textbook for OB/GYN. What I liked about it is that it coves all 64 of the ACOG objectives and tells you in each chapter which objectives it's covering there. It was our required reading for our clerkship, and having just taken Step 2 last week, I felt OB/GYN was one of my strongest areas - and I don't even LIKE OB/GYN. If you've got the time, I'd read it.

Click to expand...

I agree. Although I haven't taken step 2 yet, I read most of Beckmann while doing my clerkship, and I did well on my shelf exam.

Hey y'all,

Hope everyone had a good New Years. I am starting OB/GYN next week and was wondering what book people used to study for the shelf. We need at least an 80 on the shelf to get Honors. So I want to start studying soon. Right now I have Blueprints and First Aid for the Wards. Some people told me that Pre-test is worthless. What about Appleton-Lange.

Thanks for your thoughts and
Best o' luck,

I thought that First Aid for OB/GYN was excellent. I just took the shelf and didn't think it was that hard. (hope i didn't fail it! )

As far as pretest, I used some questions in it, but you just have to ignore a lot of others. It asks you questions that you simply do not need to know. But there are some good questions in it. I think most of pretest books are this way.

Others like using blueprints. Unless you want to go into Ob/Gyn, do not buy a text. Even my senior told us this.

Good luck. Most of what helped me on the shelf is what I seen/learned in the rotation, but First Aid filled in the gaps for me.

I'm starting my OB rotation tomorrow and was wondering what books are the best to get and any advice you guys might have?

thanks

For labor and delivery, the essential items for me were learning the cardinal movements of labor -- these are key when it's your turn to deliver the baby -- and knowing how to read the fetal heart strips.

If you want an overview, try reading the applicable chapters from Blueprints for OB/Gyn. I found it to be helpful and quick to read.

Blueprints was really all you need to read. In the last week of your rotation, you can read High-Yield for OB and just hone in on the hot topics. I read Clinical Cases in OB from the blue prints series.

Other than this, just pump-fake like you're interested in everything you see on the wards, and make it believeable.

I agree Blueprints is the way to go....and thick skin will be a definite must....out of all my rotations...Ob/Gyn was the most emotionally labile....

our senior panel told us blueprints sucked and high yield OB GYN was the way to go. any thoughts about this?

Halaljello said:

our senior panel told us blueprints sucked and high yield OB GYN was the way to go. any thoughts about this?

Click to expand...

OB-Gyn was my very first rotation and I pretty much used ONLY blueprints. It was actually my highest shelf score (93). I definitely think that this is one of the BEST blueprints.

blueprints and beckman's ob/gyn book

GiJoe said:

I'm starting my OB rotation tomorrow and was wondering what books are the best to get and any advice you guys might have?

thanks

Click to expand...

well OB rotations require a lot of bedside skills,so i prefer u to purchase a book written by Dr.JAMES DRIFE clincal obg 516 pages,452 illustrations,saunders publishes feb 2004,price 28.99 pounds

Blue prints for ob/gyn is sufficient for the boards. If you are planning to go into ob/gyn you might want to consider something more substantial, Williams or Gabbe but for most M-3's that is tremendous overkill.
Had several friends that swore by the high yeild OB, but I have never seen it so can't recommend it.

Make sure you have a Maxwell's to help you out with notes and you will be just fine.

for me in ogbyn, that book was KEY. if you really know it well (easier said than done, b/c it's one of the "meatier" of the blueprints series), you will do well on the boards and through all the pimpiness..

for right before the test, pre-test is a good review/cram session handbook.

Lange's "Case Files: OB-GYN" is also an excellent book. It provides 60 high-yield clinical vignettes, each with discussion and several "comprehension questions" after each reading. I found the format of the book to be extrememly helpful in retaining the information, and it could be read relatively quickly and still be quite useful.

I also used Blueprints. Between those two books I did quite well on the shelf exam.

Good luck!

Although the series is somewhat hit-or-miss overall, Current Clinical Strategies makes a very good pocket-sized ObGyn book. Probably not enough for the shelf (it is fairly complete, but no questions), but it is a great one to have for reading during down time and faster to flip through than a PDA. And it's only around $15. I think they also have downloads at their website that might be useful (I don't know if they are the complete books or just updates).

CCS is also strong for Surgery and Psychiatry in particular, but I can't speak for the other rotations.

kornphan said:

Whats a good book for OB/Gyne rotation ? ( I start this in a few weeks.) Thanks..

Click to expand...

I thought High Yield and BRS were both very helpful.

I agree Blueprints...and High Yield is good for pimping and boards...

blueprints.....golden!

BRS Ob/Gyn. much faster to go through vs. blueprints

Since it was the worst rotation for everyone, I know that you did not want to study for the stupid shelf. What did everyone do to prepare?

I have read 2004 NMS, done 50 % of the questions. I intend on finishing the questions. What else do I need to do to pass?

I haven't gotten my grade back yet, so I can't correlate my studying with my score. But I WILL say that I felt extremely well-prepared and that my studying covered the content fairly completely. What I did....

1. First Aid for Ob-Gyn (I really liked this book - I know BluePrints is the highly-touted "core" book for this rotation but for me FA had the same information in a much more condensed format)

2. CaseFiles (came bundled with FA, I worked through all the cases, and copied any "new" information into FA).

3. Appleton-Lange question book (I did about 60-75% of the questions, again taking notes into FA).

I'm not sure how much time you have to study - I spent about 3 weeks, but of that probably only 5 days of real studying since I had to squeeze it into the ungodly hours that ObGyn requires (as you know). I know that other students who did NMS liked it too. I would really try to finish the questions, and be sure to take notes on all the ones you get wrong. Then STUDY those nots and know them cold.

Good luck, and don't worry. As shelf exams go, the ObGyn shelf is pretty easy. You'll do fine, and there is NO BETTER FEELING than walking out of that test and realizing that this rotation is OVER!!!

To anyone that has taken the Ob/Gyn Shelf, what are a good source of questions that are similar to the actual Shelf questions? I knew for medicine, MKSAP was THE book to do, but what about for Ob/Gyn? Is the NMS book people are referring to the NMS for Step 2 or is there a book for OB/Gyn specifically?

Also, IF there were time to read on the rotation, which reference book would be better to read? Hacker and Moore or Beckmann? Beckmann is like 300 pp longer than Hacker and Moore.....and I'm NOT exactly the best on reading consistently. Or just ditch the whole reference book thing and just know Blueprints Ob/Gyn COLD for the Shelf? Any advice is much appreciated.

I can't begin to tell ya'll how excited I am to have bodily fluids gushing all over my Danksos........

I just took the shelf yesterday and it was much easier than i expected. That's not to say that I aced it, but compared to the medicine shelf it was way more reasonable. To prepare I did some questions in Appleton & Lange but mostly I studied using our paperback textbook by Beckmann (I think that's the author...as you can see i'm already trying to forget this rotation).

Good luck.

I used Blueprints exclusively. I scored a 95 on it and felt is was a rather easy shelf compared to Peds and Psych that I have also taken. I am just hoping to have passed Psych, as I took it yesterday.

Thanks Guys! Any word on Lange Case Files by Toy? Someone gave me the book and I'm wondering if it will be a good use of our apparantly limited time ... so I hear from the PTSD afflicted ppl just on ob/gyn.

ginger_flower said:

Thanks Guys! Any word on Lange Case Files by Toy? Someone gave me the book and I'm wondering if it will be a good use of our apparantly limited time ... so I hear from the PTSD afflicted ppl just on ob/gyn.

Click to expand...

I used pretest and blueprints exclusively for ob/gyn. Non-call days were technically pretty easy on ob. But the people were such asses that I didn't even want to think about it when I got home. So I did screw-all study. Really, theres not all that much to know about ob/gyn. So don't sweat it too much, it's one of the easier shelfs. Seemed like every other question was about bleeding so know that well. Good luck.

OB was my worst rotation too. The residents were crazy and I was threatened with poor evaluations regularly. So I studied my a$$ off, more than for any other shelf exam. I aced it...99%

I had high yield OB on my person for most of the rotation. I think it contains everything you need for the shelf. I did some of the appleton and lange questions too, but I think knowing the high yeild OB cold was the best use of my time.

My "motto" for shelf exams is questions, questions, and more questions. For OB, A & L was pretty detailed, but it was still pretty good. The questions in Blueprints were quite good. I also thought FA was much better than BP because it hits the shelfworthy things in a more thoughtfull way. Pre-test was decent but tends to have way too much un-shelfworthy material. The exam itself was pretty fair. I think the key is to really ask yourself why they are asking the question. They take the basic concepts and try to bury them in a bunch of useless text and lab values. I remember one question that vaguely described someone w/ Sheehan's syndrome and then asked what the first step in her w/u would be. I had to "step back" and see that it was in fact sheehan's and then it was much easier to sort out. The question was based around amenorrhea, so at first glance it seemed pretty vague. Anyway, hope this helps.

Art Vandelay said:

My "motto" for shelf exams is questions, questions, and more questions. For OB, A & L was pretty detailed, but it was still pretty good. The questions in Blueprints were quite good. I also thought FA was much better than BP because it hits the shelfworthy things in a more thoughtfull way. Pre-test was decent but tends to have way too much un-shelfworthy material. The exam itself was pretty fair. I think the key is to really ask yourself why they are asking the question. They take the basic concepts and try to bury them in a bunch of useless text and lab values. I remember one question that vaguely described someone w/ Sheehan's syndrome and then asked what the first step in her w/u would be. I had to "step back" and see that it was in fact sheehan's and then it was much easier to sort out. The question was based around amenorrhea, so at first glance it seemed pretty vague. Anyway, hope this helps.

Click to expand...

Did anyone use BRS OB/Gyn? I've heard its pretty good. Anyone else have thoughts on NMS Ob/Gyn as well?

PACtoDOC said:

I used Blueprints exclusively. I scored a 95 on it and felt is was a rather easy shelf compared to Peds and Psych that I have also taken. I am just hoping to have passed Psych, as I took it yesterday.

Click to expand...

Nice job PAC! I'll be using Blueprints then.

bigfrank said:

Nice job PAC! I'll be using Blueprints then.

Click to expand...

Its absolutely all you will need BF, I can promise you!!

I just took the shelf yesterday and I can say that it is extremely straight forward compared to the medicine exam, which I think was harder than step one. The OBGYN exam hit on all the stuff you would exect it to - the field is really very limited. Know first and thrid trimester bleeding, abnormal uterine bleeding, etc. There were no surprizes, although I should have know my antibiotics better. All I used was pre-test, and I read through parts of my second year textbook. We also had to give mini presentations and had an oral exam, both of which I think prepared me very well for the test.

Of course, the best thing is that I don't have to go back!!!!!

And please don't say A & L or Pretest. Those are two of the most horrible review books I have at least tried to use in med school. The typical Q & As in A& L goes something like this:


During a breech delivery, after the infant has been expelled to the umbilucus, teh next step would be>

A) Blah blah

B) Gently traction

C) Blah Zay Woo



A: The answer is B. You really want to do B in this case. Did you know that Bees can make honey and if a baby eats that honey it can sometimes develop floppy baby syndrome?



How many ovaries does a woman have?

A) 1.

B). 2

C). 3

D) Depends.


A: The answer is D. That's right. It depends if the woman had one or more ovaries removed in the past, has Turner's syndrome or not, or is actually a woman. By the way, I hope you are not counting on us explaining why the other answers are wrong.



Don't even get me started on Pretest. I need a good source of questions.

Don't look for the "best" question source. Get ALL of them and write down the things you get wrong. And borrow instead of buying otherwise it gets very expensive very fast.

For a text, BP is enough. On the OB/GYN shelf at least a third of the questions are about "bleeding" btw. Good look.

Cpt.Hook Hamate said:

I am just looking for a "good" question source...something I can at least stomach. Anyone knows of any other 'good" Q & A ob/gyn boook besides the above mentioned?

Click to expand...

BP was woefully inadequate for the shelf in my experience and according to many people at my school. Case Files saved my arse. Use it.

Good luck.

What's wrong with pretest? I've used pretest for surgery, peds, and OB and scored above the 90% in all of them on the shelf.
i think they rock personally. they seriously over prepare you in my opinion. I think they are quite challenging and sometimes they can be ridiculous, but you learn a ton in the explanations. I highly recommend them. they're working like a charm for me this year.

later

Case Files, Case Files, and more Case Files. I rotated with the author, Dr. Toy, for Ob/Gyn. He is by far the best teaching attending I have had thus far in medical school. I plan to buy his books for every rotation they are available! Get it!

12R34Y said:

What's wrong with pretest? I've used pretest for surgery, peds, and OB and scored above the 90% in all of them on the shelf.
i think they rock personally. they seriously over prepare you in my opinion. I think they are quite challenging and sometimes they can be ridiculous, but you learn a ton in the explanations. I highly recommend them. they're working like a charm for me this year.

later

Click to expand...

Yeah, pretest and A&L were pretty much spot on for ob, I found. I used brs too. There's really not all that much to learn for Ob/gyn. OP, don't sweat it too much.

phoenixsupra said:

Yeah, pretest and A&L were pretty much spot on for ob, I found. I used brs too. There's really not all that much to learn for Ob/gyn. OP, don't sweat it too much.

Click to expand...

Did you take the same ob shelf i took!?? I found that Pretest was good for what one should know "in theory" (for a fair test), but I found the shelf to contain TONS of questions about breast onc, weird repro tract tumors, and had all these impossible pictures that I couldn't decipher, things that weren't even hinted at in Pretest.

I honestly don't know what one can do to prepare for that test. I think doing well is a matter of combining your book knowledge with your individual on-the-job learning experience in the ob ward, especially when it comes to management issues and ordering appropriate investigations.

I really liked the Blueprints questions for Step II and III. I did those along with the questions in the back of the Blueprints text and did really well.

Mike59 said:

Did you take the same ob shelf i took!?? I found that Pretest was good for what one should know "in theory" (for a fair test), but I found the shelf to contain TONS of questions about breast onc, weird repro tract tumors, and had all these impossible pictures that I couldn't decipher, things that weren't even hinted at in Pretest.

I honestly don't know what one can do to prepare for that test. I think doing well is a matter of combining your book knowledge with your individual on-the-job learning experience in the ob ward, especially when it comes to management issues and ordering appropriate investigations.

Click to expand...

I don't know if I had the same test as you. I just took the psych shelf a few days ago. Someone who also took it on Friday posted a thread here describing his test, and it seemed way harder than mine so I guess they vary a fair bit. Fortunately they're curved so it doesn't really matter.

Pre-test on it's own is not enough for Ob/gyn, but combined with A&L it should get you there. That being said, it's an obvious no-brainer for any of these tests that the more prep you do the better your result will be. So for anyone who wants to do super well, they should get everything they can get their hands on and use it all.

I used BP for a text and I think there was enough factual material in it. But that was the last time I ever used blueprints. I just don't like the format. To much extraneous verbage to wade throug to get to the relevant factoids. Being an english major I tended to get too distracted by the non-medical words and turns of phrase. Science majors seem to like BP though. It has enough factual content. Use it if it happens to appeal to your personal style.

"How to Not Strangle Your OB Resident."

Seriously though, all you really need is Case Files to do well on the board. It is totally doable.

I plan on using Blueprints and A&L. I like what I've read of Blueprints thus far.........

How much anatomy can we expect on the exam? Is Case files better than the BP clinical case series? Is Beckmann worth it?

Thanks!
Scared Med student

Any suggestions on what to use for books for this rotation. I really know very little about this field and I need all the help I can get. Alsom is the shelf difficult?

ziffy 850 said:

Any suggestions on what to use for books for this rotation. I really know very little about this field and I need all the help I can get. Alsom is the shelf difficult?

Click to expand...

I used the Case Files Ob/Gyn. The book was easy to read and very complete, and the questions were superb. Ended up Honoring Ob/Gyn because of my 88 shelf exam score.