Cramming for NBME Path Shelf in 3 days

[minwoo]

Any suggestions? I'll have exactly 72 hours to cram for this thing. I'm thinking of just reading all of Pathoma. It's been said in other posts that Goljan's RR is GOLDEN for the path shelf but it's a dense book and I don't see myself going through all 600 pages in 2-3 days

Any advice/recommendations would be much appreciated~

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[radsman]

Use BRS pathology and make sure you do the questions after every section as well as the cummulative practice final at the end. Given 3 days BRS is definitely your best bet.

 

[Wordead]

Use BRS pathology and make sure you do the questions after every section as well as the cummulative practice final at the end. Given 3 days BRS is definitely your best bet.

+1 BRS questions were good I thought - covers everything and there are no "tricks", per se - unlike Robbins questions, which always had low yield stuff, which you don't have time for in 3 days.

If you want to do RR, just read the blue boxes. I had 3 days to study for path shelf too, and I thought RR + BRS + whatever other question banks I had time for were a solid way to prepare. Ended up 90%tile, for what it's worth.

 

[minwoo]

Ok BRS it is. Thanks guys

 

[thedoctor8706]

I want to throw in a vote for Pathoma... it's like a refined RR. It's a really easy read and is thorough, but doesn't have all the extra fluff.

 

[Kaustikos]

I don't think anyone will have longer than 3 days to study this ****. I have 5 daysish to study for clinical medicine and path shelf...

 

[Charles_Carmichael]

Pathoma + the blue margins/boxes in RR was more than enough. I've never used BRS Path, so I can't comment on that.

Edit: Actually, Pathoma alone was solid -- I didn't have time to go through the RR blue margins/boxes for more than a couple of chapters.

 

[minwoo]

I want to throw in a vote for Pathoma... it's like a refined RR. It's a really easy read and is thorough, but doesn't have all the extra fluff.

Kaushik and doctor8706..thanks for the input! yeah the original plan was to do Pathoma but wasn't sure if I could get through all of it in 3 days..do you guys think it's enough to get a 80+ percentile on the shelf? I'm assuming you guys have already taken it?

 

[Charles_Carmichael]

I did Pathoma throughout the school year. I had 2 days between one exam and the pathology shelf to study for it. I only reviewed the first few general pathology chapters and skimmed a few other sections I felt weak on (ex. heme/onc, reproductive, etc). I didn't review the systems we had just completed (lung and neuro).

If you have 3 days to study for it, I think you can definitely get through a good chunk of Pathoma. I would focus in the general path (fairly high yield) and the sections you feel weak on. It was a tough exam, but I felt like if you've been keeping up with path throughout the year (ie. not cramming the night before exams), you could reason your way through most of the questions even if you hadn't reviewed that particular topic. If you can get through all of Pathoma, or even the stuff you feel weak on, I think you can set yourself up for getting 80+ percentile (IMHO -- of course, this also depends on your test taking abilities, such as ruling out wrong answers, being able to pick up on buzzwords, etc).

Hope that helps.

 

[thedoctor8706]

Just wanted to follow up real quick too, I did Pathoma along with my main Pathology course (though I did the last 4 chapters the week before my shelf exam), and casually reviewed it hear and there. Didn't cram much the day before but I made sure I got good sleep. I just got my score back today and was in the 80's percentile wise. I really hope others reading will consider Pathoma, my experience showed that it helped with long term retention as I did no cramming and was still able to pull the info out of the deep recesses of my brain somehow. I just want to add I haven't touched Golijan all year; I really believe Pathoma in and of itself is a great review!! I know you have already taken your exam by now OP, but good luck in retrospect!!