Gross Anatomy Boards, What is the recommendation?

[Dr.CCM]

I was wondering how people recommend studying for gross anatomy board exams?

Is their a particularly good Review Book to use?

Should you use a review book exclusively?

Thanks.

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[ClockworkDoc]

You time and efforts are best spent elsewhere: First Aid, USMLE World, Rapid Review Path, BRS Path, Qbook, ect (In that order)

 

[LRAccord624]

You time and efforts are best spent elsewhere: First Aid, USMLE World, Rapid Review Path, BRS Path, Qbook, ect (In that order)

Everyone here has told me to pretty much exclusively use BRS/Rapid Review. I don't have First Aid yet... will I do well with mostly BRS or should I go ahead and buy First Aid? Anatomy here is very clinically oriented, FWIW.

 

[Dr.CCM]

Yeah, I'm not talking about for the step. I'm talking about for the Board Exam in Gross Anatomy at the end of the course.

 

[DrBowtie]

NBME shelf? BRS Anatomy

 

[ClockworkDoc]

Yeah, I'm not talking about for the step. I'm talking about for the Board Exam in Gross Anatomy at the end of the course.

Well in that case, BRS Anatomy FTW.

 

[AlexMorph]

Yeah, I'm not talking about for the step. I'm talking about for the Board Exam in Gross Anatomy at the end of the course.

RR anatomy was very good. more concise as compared to BRS. it also talks about the embryo crap, which you may or may not have to take as part of the anatomy test

 

[KingHopkins]

Would it make any difference if I were to use rapid review over BRS? I've been using rapid review through out the semester and so i'm already familiar with it vs BRS.

 

[Fleur de Me]

To be honest- I just took (and rocked) the anatomy shelf exam, and think that BRS is overkill. Seriously. BRS questions are WAAAAAY harder than the shelf.

I got some good advice browsing around these forums that I would pass on- know collateral circulation paths, abdominal stuff, and take a good look at the uterus/ovaries (a few hysterectomy questions and they LOVE ectopic pregnancy, and don't forget "water under the bridge" for the ureter running under the artery) and know testicles/male reproductive stuff too (there were a good 5 questions on this stuff, should have taken a better look at it).

Very little head and neck (even though this was what was freshest in my mind). A decent amount of muscle/innervation stuff, but nothing super complicated. Refresh yourself on brachial plexus, but don't freak out over it.

Honestly- I thought my best preparation came from knowing the U Mich questions. When I was taking the exam, it felt like 50% of them came right out of U Mich. There was ONE question on the whole exam I had never heard of/seen before. The rest of them I could answer in 2 seconds, or I could narrow down to 2 answer choices, and the only reason I didn't know it because I was too lazy to review some of the sections on U Mich (ie. the fingers/hands- one or two questions on that?)

BRS is way too in depth and the questions are super hard- the shelf is nowhere close to being so complicated.

Just my two cents...

 

[javasr]

Just took the Anatomy shelf yesterday. Do BRS/UMich and it'll be cake and pie. Really easy exam.

 

[CarlATHF]

Honestly- I thought my best preparation came from knowing the U Mich questions. When I was taking the exam, it felt like 50% of them came right out of U Mich. There was ONE question on the whole exam I had never heard of/seen before. The rest of them I could answer in 2 seconds, or I could narrow down to 2 answer choices, and the only reason I didn't know it because I was too lazy to review some of the sections on U Mich (ie. the fingers/hands- one or two questions on that?)

BRS is way too in depth and the questions are super hard- the shelf is nowhere close to being so complicated.

QFT. Just took the NBME Anatomy exam before Thanksgiving, UMich is much more representative of what you'll see on the shelf.

 

[Mean Muggin]

Honestly- I thought my best preparation came from knowing the U Mich questions. When I was taking the exam, it felt like 50% of them came right out of U Mich. There was ONE question on the whole exam I had never heard of/seen before. The rest of them I could answer in 2 seconds, or I could narrow down to 2 answer choices, and the only reason I didn't know it because I was too lazy to review some of the sections on U Mich (ie. the fingers/hands- one or two questions on that?)

You mean from the U Mich anatomy website? Do you know if U Mich has any Board connection or are they just good at picking out the important concepts?

 

[MilkmanAl]

BRS Anatomy is all you need. HY has some great tables, but don't go out and buy it if you don't own it.

 

[LRAccord624]

Thanks for the great info, guys! I obsessively study BRS/Michigan for each of our anatomy exams, because the question type and difficulty level is pretty representative of our tests here. So hopefully that bodes well for the NBME shelf!

 

[Fleur de Me]

You mean from the U Mich anatomy website? Do you know if U Mich has any Board connection or are they just good at picking out the important concepts?

I don't think they have any inside connections- but I think they have just honed their questions over time to make them representative.

Seriously- if you can go through all of the U Mich anatomy questions a few times, there will be little or nothing that surprises you on the NBME.

I pretty much cruised through this, just kicking myself on a few simple questions I *should* have known but ignored because I got lazy (ie. which muscles do PIP joints in the hand). The only thing I would say is that the exam felt long and I started running out of stamina around question 85.

Long, but NOT difficult. I am glad I didn't use BRS much because I feel it was psyching me out and making me feel like I didn't know as much as I actually know.

 

[ijn]

I'd recommend against solely using University of Michigan. They do emphasize high points, but there are a ton of repeat questions.

The day before the Gross Anatomy NBME I did every single question in the BRS book, reviewed the concepts that I missed questions on, and I felt extremely prepared. I didn't find First Aid all that useful. When you're a second year looking back, sure... but immediately after finishing gross you should have innervation ingrained into your brain.

Review radiographs and x-rays! We seemed to have a ton.

 

[TheLoneWolf]

If you are preparing for the USMLE, then you should your time looking at CT's, MRI's, and angiograms. If you want to delve a little further, I suggest you have a look at pelvic arteries as this seems to be a recurring question.

 

[futuredoctor10]

If you are preparing for the USMLE, then you should your time looking at CT's, MRI's, and angiograms. If you want to delve a little further, I suggest you have a look at pelvic arteries as this seems to be a recurring question.

What book do you recommend for reviewing CTs, MRIs, and angiograms? I have heard this is tested on the boards and wasn't sure if there is a good review book for them like they have for other subjects (BRS, RR, High Yield etc)