Hardest and Easiest Shelf Exams

[orthoman5000]

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O.K., M1's what did you think were the hardest and easiest shelf exams of the first year? My picks are probably going to be a bit different from others but here goes:

Easiest to Hardest:
1. Physiology
2. Gross Anatomy
3. Biochemistry
4. Cell Biology and Histology
5. Neuroscience

 

[bnichols0330]

Our class only took 3 but I would rank them: (easiest to hardest)

1) Gross anatomy
2) Physiology
3) Histology/ Cell Biology

However, I think this order reflects the quality of the faculty not the exam itself.

 

[beriberi]

Shelf exams are scored on a percentile, no? Doesn't that mean they are all equally difficult? We only use the clinical exams, but on those tests 50% do better than average....

 

[daisygirl]

Shelf exams are scored on a percentile, no? Doesn't that mean they are all equally difficult? We only use the clinical exams, but on those tests 50% do better than average....

I don't think that they are all equivalent in terms of difficulty. I took the biochem, neuroscience, micro and pharm exams. I won't comment on biochem since I am a completely dimwit it that subject matter. Micro and Neuro were very difficult. I thought pharm was the easiest of the four (maybe b/c pharm exams administered in my school were completely psychotic?).

Perceived difficulty may be due to how the courses are taught at individual schools- some courses seem to be taught in a very anti-step I manner sometimes. For example, the neuroscience shelf tested on concepts that were not taught during first year at my school (sleep stuff, drugs, I think there was some other stuff in there too), and this definitely contributed to the difficulty of that exam.

 

[Bevo]

Of all the shelfs Ive taken

1) Histo was the easiest
2) Behavioral
3) Physio
4) Biochem
5) Neuroscience
6) Anatomy

That list doesn't correspond on how well I did though. because you would probably have to read it in reverse order. I felt Neuro and anatomy were the 2 hardest and they were the shelfs I did the best on oddly enough.

 

[AlexRusso]

I've only taken two and I'd have to say Behavior was really easy studied for 2 days and did really well. Path was really hard studied for like 6 days and didn't do so hot.

 

[phllystyl]

Of the ones ive taken so far, I think Micro was the hardest. youll be surprised by just how many bugs youve never heard of or how nitpicky they are concerning toxin mechanisms

 

[Stinger86]

Easiest to hardest to me:

1)Pathology
2)Pharmacology
3)Behavioral Science
4)Intro to Physical Diagnosis
5)Neuroscience
6)Cell Bio/Histology
7)Microbiology/Immuno (mainly because those stupid "optional" immuno q's)
8)Gross Anatomy/Embryology
9)Physiology

As daisygirl also mentioned, my first year tests were definitely more difficult because they were taught totally opposite of the way the NBME tested them. The shelfs are clinically oriented, but my courses are like "who cares about medicine, here's another protein I just discovered"

 

[macdown]

I've only taken the Neuro shelf and I didn't think it was that hard, in fact I thought it was easier than our class final. Although we didn't get our perectile score, we did get our raw score.

 

[orthoman5000]

I finally got back my neuroscience and physiology shelf exam scores back and it looks like other than Cell Biology/Histology and Neuroscience places being switched my scores from highest to lowest are also how I rated them from easiest to hardest. Nothing particularly outstanding on any of them, 76's on physiology and gross anatomy, 72 on biochemistry, 70 on neurscience, and a poor 63 on cell biology and histology. The last one is kind of an anomaly because I took it last year prior to taking a leave of absence and my grades were not that hot then.