FM first?

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appollo7927

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Hey guys,

For those of you who have or had FM as your first rotation, what books are you planning on using? My plan is written below. Just wanted to know what you guys thought.

Blueprints FM
NMS Question book and MKSAP question book
Kaplan Lecture series book for IM as a reference for explanations to questions I don’t understand.

Let me know what you guys think. I hear this is a rough one to have first so hopefully we can get through it together. In my school, FM is only a month long so my plan is that its better to get through the material twice than read too much and get through it only once. What do you guys think?
 
I just finished FM as my first rotation and the shelf was pretty bad. I read Blueprints, Case Files FM twice, the OB, Peds, and Outpatient chapters in Boards and Wards, and did all of Pretest Physical Diagnosis and I don't think that any of them really helped me for the shelf. It was really weird and about 70% of it was not FM. I don't know what advice to give- probably do more IM stuff as you are planning and you should be good.
 
i'm thinking the best thing might be to go through the IM book well and supplement it with Peds and OB from Blueprints (which is really broad) and Boards and Wards or Step 2 secrets.

this rotation is really starting to get me nervous
 
Hey UNM, did you find blueprints or case files to be helpful on your rotation (even though they weren't for the shelf)? I'm looking for a source that I can read to get some basic knowledge for the rotation so that I don't look like an idiot b/c it's my first rotation.
 
diosa428 said:
Hey UNM, did you find blueprints or case files to be helpful on your rotation (even though they weren't for the shelf)? I'm looking for a source that I can read to get some basic knowledge for the rotation so that I don't look like an idiot b/c it's my first rotation.
Click to expand...

I personally did not think that Blueprints was good for anything- the layout is ok, but is too broad. Case Files was really good and I thought it was the best source I found- reason why I read it twice. It covers almost everything you will see in a good format. Go with Case Files.....
 
One more thing- I tried to use the NMS book because they gave us one for the rotation, but thought it was outdated, too detailed, and had some errors in it. The main problem was that all of the antibiotics "first-lines" are not the same as they were 8 years ago...
 
diosa428 said:
Hey UNM, did you find blueprints or case files to be helpful on your rotation (even though they weren't for the shelf)? I'm looking for a source that I can read to get some basic knowledge for the rotation so that I don't look like an idiot b/c it's my first rotation.
Click to expand...

I have come up with a plan....

Since this is our first rotation we are going to have to work extra hard. I am going to read through the blue sections of blueprints and focus on questions. I hope to finish the casefiles and nms question books. I am also reading the medicine part of FA for the wards and also using the peds and ob sections of step 2 secrets book.

the key is going to be q's.
 
some perspective here: there is a ton of material that can be covered; you cannot possibly learn all the IM in MKSAP properly in a 4-week rotation. Also, MKSAP is heavily based on current evidence-based practice, and shelf exams are 3-4 yo questions generally in a completely different style. Do not drive yourself crazy.

My advice is to learn as much as possible, read up on the issues that you encounter with your patients, and really learn the important stuff that comes up over and over again. Pick ONE book and study that (Case Files is golden for everything else, why not FM too, but bear in mind I did not take the NBME shelf exam for FM).

Most important: if you are going into FM, your actual grade in FM is not very important. You will do a subI, get a good grade, and get in anyway. If you are not going into FM, no one cares about your grade in FM. Also, it is hard to do very well on your first rotation of MS3 because you are still learning how to do well on rotations. Give yourself some space and time.
 
Get Step Up Medicine and read the outpatient section (and as much of the rest as you can since you are fresh and motivated :laugh:). That section is only about 50-70 pages long, but it is pretty useful for the FM test. Learn to love this book, it is extremely useful for FM, IM, and the boards. Other good sources for this exam are IM pretest and anything to refresh your knowledge on STDS (had a lot of STD questions on the exam when I took it.) This is a broad exam in content, but it is mainly in the context of an outpatient setting. It is tough to start out with, but at least it isn't surgery! An important thing to remember...reading through 8 books so quickly that you don't remember anything is NOT going to help you. Calm down, stick to a couple of sources, and try to get familiar with the information in them.
 
Thanks guys,

I'm just going to chill and finish case files first while reading blueprints and some FA for the Wards (the medicine section only). You guys are write, too many sources screwed me over in the past too. I just went on a book buying frenzy ...have casefiles for fm, FA for the Wards and Crush Step 2. I think i'm gonna chill a little..lol.

Do you think I need to buy Step up for medicine and read the outpatient part? I'm gonna do case files first and see what i think.

thanks for pep talk.
 
It is a good source, but don't bother unless you finish the other stuff and are just itching for more. Definitely get that book before medicine! 🙂 I will swear by it.
 
Anyone who did OK on this shelf have any other advice on prep?
 
bump.....anyone else have any advice 🙂
 
I read through Case Files and did around 250 questions on USMLEWorld, mostly in the IM section with some peds and OB scattered here and there. I was very happy with my shelf score.

I found the easiest questions were ones that reminded me of particular patients I saw, so make sure you're looking up stuff related to your patients along the way.

Not really much else to say, it's a pretty broad shelf so you just need to try to get as much exposure and practice as you can, whether through your actual clinical experiences or through doing questions.
 
I only used Case Files for FM, but to answer many of the shelf questions, I had to go to back of my brain to remember things I learned from Step 1. Many of the cases were beyond your typical ambulatory outpatient scenario. Many of my classmates actually reviewed their First Aid Step 1 book for this shelf. I don't know if I would have done as well as I did if I had not just taken Step 1.

I thought NMS questions were poorly written. I did a few MKSAP questions, which were okay. I have heard UWorld is excellent for the shelves in general, but I don't want to spend $400 for year-long access to it.
 
Personally, I thought Blueprints for Family was woefully inadequate. I liked "The Resident's Guide to Ambulatory Medicine".
 
NMS questions were horrible and a waste of time. Honestly, the test was 90% IM. I don't remember even seeing that much preventative medicine on it or OB/GYN. Those free AAFP.org questions were better than the NMS book.
 
Has anyone used Pretest Family Medicine? A new version was released recently, and I am probably going to use it. Also, are the AAFP questions approximately the same level of difficulty as the real test? I have not found the questions to be exceptionally hard, but I do think they do cover some obscure topics. Would Pretest and AAFP questions be good preparation? I am hoping to slide by without Swanson's and NMS.
 
Avoid blueprints for FM. It is great for neuro and great for obgyn, but SUCKS for FM and all others.

Casefiles is OK, MKSAP would be pretty good, but the advice about reading step up to medicine (esp the outpt section) is golden.

If I were to do it again, I would read casefiles, step up to medicine (as much as I could bc the book is long and there is no way i could finish it in a month) and then do mksap.

Avoid pretest, swansons, and esp blueprints.
 
Here's what you do:

Step 1 - buy any internal medicine review book
Step 2 - tear out the first page of each chapter
Step 3 - read those pages and commit them to memory

Guaranteed honors!
 
I did very well on FM Shelf with Primary Care Secrets and skimming through our libraries copy of Swanson's Family Medicine Review. The Internal Medicine stuff is way overkill but useful for IM shelf (as was Swanson's).
 
I did really average on the shelf in the national picture, but really well comparably to students within my rotation. Why?...you will be going up against your fellows from around the nation who have had IM, Surg., Peds, OB/gyn, etc... which is a real advantage on this exam. I'm thinking I got 75-80% or so right and I'm thinking those who were well above me scored in the range of 90-95% of the questions correctly. The questions weren't terribly difficult, but each miss is worth tons in comparison.
The post above about if going into FM, do well 4th year and if not going into FM.., the test and grade don't mean much (unless a Sat or below)...is right on.
My study for what it's worth, was internal med focused book work with USMLE world questions to supplement the week prior.

Don't stress about it...they (the establishment) have got to much invested in you to let you fail miserably:meanie:
 
Just wanted to bump this up for new advices as I am starting my third year this summer with FM first.

So far the basic gist I have been getting is case files and step-up (outpatient chapter) are solid. Ones to avoid are blueprint and NMS. How about pre-test? Any experience with that?
 
I used Swansons, Case Files for Family, USMLEWORLD, Peds Blueprints and Peds Case Files, OB/GYN blueprints for my ambulatory rotation. I did quite well on the shelf so would recommend these books.
 
ambiguous said:
Just wanted to bump this up for new advices as I am starting my third year this summer with FM first.

So far the basic gist I have been getting is case files and step-up (outpatient chapter) are solid. Ones to avoid are blueprint and NMS. How about pre-test? Any experience with that?
Click to expand...

I don't think any books are needed....
 
Apparently everyone takes FM at the end of the year, so there's no advice out there. Every 4th year I talked to said, oh just pretest/case files, but then they prefaced with but I had just done all the other rotations so 80-90% was still fresh...
 
I had it first. The rotation was awesome. The exam, however, was brutal. Not knowing how clinical medicine works and having experience with medicine makes the exam horrible.
Everything else was awesome. It was just the exam. It's ridiculous. They expect you to know everything which sucks coming out of second year.
 
My family medicine is the first rotation of the year. Given the choices again I would just do Uworld questions, as many as I can before the shelf.
 
Just purchased Uworld, there is no "Family medicine" subsection. Should I just choose all the rest (Medicine, Ob/Gyn, Peds, Psych)-maybe all besides surgery) and do as many of those as I can?
 
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