Anatomy Shelf

[Babylonian]

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uhhh, how do people study for this beast. I don't know where to start. Any advice would be nice. I heard this exam is hard and it is worth about 30% of our grade..

 

[Droopy Snoopy]

It is a beast, but don't stress too much about it or any of these board exams. The exam is curved nationally, then it is curved locally. Around 1% fail, and almost everybody else falls into the 75-90% range. So if you're passing the class you'll pass the board, and probably within 5 points or so of the grade you carry in there with you. Do a search for more info (I swear this was discussed like 2 days ago), but here's my oft-posted link o' the day on this, showing all the NBME shelfs, sample questions, and how each exam breaks down.

http://www.nbme.org/programs-services/medical-schools/subject-examinations/comprehensive-exams.html

 

[rup47]

It was tough but really not that bad...

If you have a BRS for anatomy, do a few practice tests and that should gear you up

Like the previous poster said you'll probably perform pretty close to how you were on other anatomy tests (especially if the grades are curved to students at your school).

 

[vtucci]

It will depend entirely on your school and what the tests are like. I scored considerably better (i.e., over 15 points higher) on the shelf than I ever did on my in-class exams (because I have a tendency to focus on clinical applications and not obscure footnote issues).

BRS is not a bad start. I would also recommend First Aid. Find a copy of the 2005 First Aid (as it is by subject and not organ system like the 2006 and on versions)

 

[krust3]

yeah, hit the clinical scenarios hard. BRS should get you in the right mindset.

i found embryo a little tougher than what i expected. i'm the first to admit though that i neglected it during the course, but still it wasn't what i expected.

 

[abcabc]

I did BRS anatomy for a week and got 56th percentile on the shelf. This was the anatomy without embryology option though.

I tackled a chapter a day from BRS. This is all after I had failed my school anatomy test and had to redeem myself through the shelf exam, so I'm not a model student.

 

[JosephFaecesMD]

Chung BRS is the ****!

 

[flykid]

It is a beast, but don't stress too much about it or any of these board exams. The exam is curved nationally, then it is curved locally. Around 1% fail, and almost everybody else falls into the 75-90% range. So if you're passing the class you'll pass the board, and probably within 5 points or so of the grade you carry in there with you. Do a search for more info (I swear this was discussed like 2 days ago), but here's my oft-posted link o' the day on this, showing all the NBME shelfs, sample questions, and how each exam breaks down.

http://www.nbme.org/programs-services/medical-schools/subject-examinations/comprehensive-exams.html

Where did you get those percentages from?

and BRS rocks for any course

 

[Droopy Snoopy]

Where did you get those percentages from?

and BRS rocks for any course

It's one of the things our dean told us last year before taking the first shelf. If I remember right, the median raw score becomes a 500, with an s.d. of 100. Passing is 300, meaning roughly 2.2% fail a given exam at the national level. But since the exam is curved by the school (or my school at least), that percentage goes down to a little over 1%. Out of 110, we had 2 folks fail the biochem, but they were already failing the class anyway. I don't think we had anyone fail Histo, Gross, or Micro, and 1 person failed the Neuro board and 1 failed Phys.