Bacis sciences shelf exams????

[Jalby]

Hey guys, I just learned that there are shelf exams that schools take during their clinical years. I'm curious if any of the other schools take them?? (PS State your school, please)

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[moo]

I thought most schools take them. I know we do (Northwestern).

 

[nutmegs]

Are you talking about basic sciences or clinicals?
Just took one in anatomy at Temple.
It sucked...

 

[fernj1975]

I have taken anatomy, biochem, histology, neuroanatomy, physiology and will take next week behavioral science and microbiology with immunology shelf exam. Here (meharry) we take all the basic sciences shelf exams and during the 3rd year we also take the clinical shelf exams. (so far the anatomy shelf was by far the toughest and the Histology the easiest.

 

[jconway]

stupid question i know
but what exactly is a shelf exam?
heard the term used, have no idea what it means

 

[ussdfiant]

Originally posted by nutmegs
Are you talking about basic sciences or clinicals?
Just took one in anatomy at Temple.
It sucked...

Are they still optional for gross? For the second years we have the Micro/Immuno shelf on Wednesday and it's worth 20%!

 

[Bevo]

taken the histo, biochem, neuro, physio and today the anatomy shelf.

got the average on the 1st two. find out my results of the last 3 a week form today.

basically, some of them are impossible (like todays!)

I knew my gross anaotmy very well, but the anatomy shelf tested over things I didn't know existed in the body. My clinical anatomy knowledge was average.

I feel like Id be lucky if I got half right.

shelfs are national board of medical examiners tests over particular medical school topics.

physio I thought went very well. anatomy violated me.

 

[EUROdocMOM]

We took the NBME (USMLE) shelf after year one. It had all subjects on it and I believe it was either 150 or 200 questions (can't remember exactly). I'm not really sure why we took it, since I go to a DO school. It wasn't that bad, but I suspect the real deal will be way harder.

 

[kevinf911]

so for those of you who've taken the Biochem shelf, gimme the scoop please.....mine is monday morning, and it's worth 19% of our grade.

 

[fernj1975]

kevinf911 don't worry too much about it if you are doing well in the class. I used the NMS review book along with the BRS and I found their questions on par with the level of difficulty you will see on the shelf exam. I remember they had a lot of flow charts and diagrams that you will have to interpret. Good luck on Monday.

 

[Bevo]

I used Pretest to review for that exam.

It was difficult, but not suprising like my anatomy shelf was yesterday.

 

[phllystyl]

Originally posted by ussdfiant
Are they still optional for gross? For the second years we have the Micro/Immuno shelf on Wednesday and it's worth 20%!

I feel like a cow being lead to the slaughterhouse. Wednesday there will be blood shed, and it will be mine.

 

[nutmegs]

Originally posted by ussdfiant
Are they still optional for gross? For the second years we have the Micro/Immuno shelf on Wednesday and it's worth 20%!

uhhhh yeah gross and histo are both 20% of our grade which means that 60% of our gross grade was determined on thurs/fri. seems to be the new trend... can't say I'm a fan.

 

[Bevo]

<--not getting any sympathy for me.

Since last Monday till this upcoming monday (7 days), I will have had 4 tests which accounted for anywhere between 40 to 60% of my grade in every subject.
If you go to the friday before my first shelf. I had my 2nd anatomy lab practical which means since that friday, 12/05, I had 20% for the lab, 20 for the shelf, 15 for the local final this monday.
55% for physio with the shelf and local final. And 60% for neuro (with the lab happening sometime in this time range too. Too much to remember).

Wish they wouldn't throw most of our grade into such a small time span.

I was doing great until now. Who knows how well I'll be doing after monday ....

Its not we can't learn the information, its just a matter of time and time mangement.

sorry to bitch. still a bit pissy from the spanking I got yesterday in my anatomy shelf. Never left a test before not understanding or ever seeing most of the questions asked of me.

 

[uclacrewdude]

Originally posted by ussdfiant
Are they still optional for gross? For the second years we have the Micro/Immuno shelf on Wednesday and it's worth 20%!

no! you fokkers made it mandatory by bringin beers to your shelfs last year!

 

[Jalby]

Wow. It sure does suck to be you guys.

 

[GoodMonkey]

Originally posted by jconway
stupid question i know
but what exactly is a shelf exam?
heard the term used, have no idea what it means

yep, i'm with you. no idea.
we don't have anything like what everyone seems to be talking about here. at least not first year, but i don't think 2nd year either. i've heard m3/m4 talk of it, but still have no idea what it means. i hung a bunch of shelves in my new place this summer, but that's about it.

 

[Samoa]

All of our exams are 100% locally grown and harvested.

 

[moo]

I thought Jalby meant shelfs for third and fourth years... We don't have basic sciences shelfs here. i don't see what the point of that is anyway, except to maybe help for the boards?

 

[Samoa]

And spare the faculty the agony of trying to write fair questions and then dealing with exam question challenges afterward.

 

[nutmegs]

A shelf exam is an ugly, long exam that you take under MCAT like security for a little added stress. It's written by the National Board of Medical Examiners (who also bring you USMLE) but it's questions based on only one of your courses- they have them for basic sciences as well as rotations. For basic sciences, it's my understanding that they are not quite like the boards because they aren't as clinically oriented. Many schools have students take them in addition to (and I suppose it could replace) an in-house final for a course, especially if that school was teaching the course directly for the boards. It gives students an external measure of their knowledge (supposedly) as scores are normalized and provided as a percentile of the nation-wide score. I think it's been pretty common-place during m3/m4 but more schools seem to be integrating it into the basic science courses. That's my understanding of it, hope that helps.

 

[mpp]

During first two years at Mayo we take shelf exams in Anatomy and in Microbiology. Neither are worth much toward your final grade (I don't think the Microbiology test is worth anything toward your final grade). Anatomy is a pass/fail course anyway and you would have known if you are failing long before you take the shelf exam. The professors do comment on your performance (if you do well or no comment if you don't) on your course evaluations. I don't think it means much in the end.

 

[Lara]

Originally posted by uclacrewdude
no! you fokkers made it mandatory by bringin beers to your shelfs last year!

Geez, I hope you're not serious! If it's any consolation, our micro shelf was H-O-R-R-I-B-L-E. I burned out after the first hour and was tired, cold and hungry. Talk about being led to the slaughter. I was so happy when I was done last year but this time I was too exhausted to enjoy my freedom. I guess that'll have to wait till I get home tomorrow...

 

[nutmegs]

Originally posted by Lara
Geez, I hope you're not serious! If it's any consolation, our micro shelf was H-O-R-R-I-B-L-E. I burned out after the first hour and was tired, cold and hungry. Talk about being led to the slaughter. I was so happy when I was done last year but this time I was too exhausted to enjoy my freedom. I guess that'll have to wait till I get home tomorrow...

just out of morbid curiousity... how bad was histo?

 

[fernj1975]

OH this is great, I have the micro shelf on Friday. I hope I don't burn out. I think I'm going mad, all these viruses, bacterias, conjugation, transformation, and immunology on top of that. I think I'm going mad!

 

[Lara]

Pretty bad, but it's hard to remember since there was no pressure and I was past caring at that point (we'd done the anatomy shelf earlier in the morning). I was however surprised to find that I had actually scored higher on histo - I really thought it'd be the reverse.

fernj - good luck! Really the best thing to do if you can is get a good night's rest. Don't count on the disease ID's being too obvious, and know your molecular stuff (virus binding, bacterial transformation etc) as well as pharm.

 

[amelie]

i took the histo shelf exam this am. really wasn't so bad. checkerboard was a pretty good review. good luck!

 

[fernj1975]

Lara, did you also take the optional immuno section? If you did, how was it?

 

[Lara]

Yes, we did immuno too. It wasn't *great* but I found it more decent than the micro. I figure it should help boost up my score. If you don't have much time to review going over the section in First Aid might be good. It was only 25 questions out of 150 so don't expect a 50-50 split at all.

 

[fernj1975]

Thanks Lara, well I have gone over all the chapters in BRS microbiology and immunology review book along with doing all their questions. I hope this will prepare me for the test. Thanks for the info.

 

[ussdfiant]

Originally posted by fernj1975
Thanks Lara, well I have gone over all the chapters in BRS microbiology and immunology review book along with doing all their questions. I hope this will prepare me for the test. Thanks for the info.

I took it with Lara yesterday, and unfortunately the BRS Micro/Immuno doesn't go into enough detail on a lot of stuff! I'm curious to see if it worked for you.

 

[fernj1975]

Well I just finished doing the pretest microbiology book, hopefully this along with BRS will be suffice. I'll let you know what I think afterwards.

 

[JM.]

Originally posted by ussdfiant
Are they still optional for gross? For the second years we have the Micro/Immuno shelf on Wednesday and it's worth 20%!

That histo shelf was hard.

 

[carrigallen]

Originally posted by jmwalker
That histo shelf was hard.

You hit your elbow on it? ouch :/

 

[jayzway]

Does anyone have any advice on how to study for the anatomy shelf exam? I have never taken the shelf before. What is "pretest" and where do you get it? Any help would be appreciated!

 

[Bevo]

took the anaotmy shelf a few weeks ago.

Not sure how Id prepare for it again. I felt like it was an impossible exam. Know your anatomy. Ours really concentrated on the abdominical area.


It had the classics like if you injured a nerve running through the quadrangular space, what function would u lose.

stuff like that. But knowing your gross anatomy and anatomical relationships will help you the most I think.

Ended up getting a 75 on it myself somehow.

I walked out thinking I got 15 right though.

 

[fernj1975]

Wow, I will ALWAYS use pretest from now on. I just got my grade back from the microbiology with immunology shelf exam grade and boy was I happy. I got an 82 (86th percentile). I read BRS micorbiology with immunology, read "how the immune system works" and did all the questions on pretest. Pretest by far was to me at least the most helpful. I remember that their questions were very similar to the real thing. I only hope this is true for step one.

 

[ussdfiant]

Originally posted by fernj1975
Wow, I will ALWAYS use pretest from now on. I just got my grade back from the microbiology with immunology shelf exam grade and boy was I happy. I got an 82 (86th percentile). I read BRS micorbiology with immunology, read "how the immune system works" and did all the questions on pretest. Pretest by far was to me at least the most helpful. I remember that their questions were very similar to the real thing. I only hope this is true for step one.

What is "pretest"? Do you know if they have them for other shelf exams?

 

[fernj1975]

I left you a link on your other post.