How much time does your school give you to study for Shelf exams?

[traxxradiorocks]

At my school, we get half a day. Basically, the exam is the morning after your last day at the clinic.
How about you?

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[jdh71]

Dude. It's not like the date or subject is secret. You usually have at least TWO months to study on any given rotation. You mean "special time"? Doesn't happen in the real world, so you might as well get used to it now.

 

[illixir]

Ours is same, and we take multiple shelves at once since they're all grouped into 3 cores, like over 4 months you'll do 3 rotations and then take 3 shelves on the last 2 days of the 4 months, no days off.

 

[traxxradiorocks]

Ya, no biggies but I've been hearing about these schools who give times off study. Just wondering, that's all.

 

[Perrotfish]

Most rotations at my school finishes clinical duties on a Wednesday and has the shelf exam on a Friday. Some have a half hour oral exam that Thursday, though.

 

[2012mdc]

At my school, we get half a day. Basically, the exam is the morning after your last day at the clinic.
How about you?

On Surgery we did not see patients for the last 2 weeks. The last 2 weeks consisted of lectures purely for med students, the regularly scheduled didactics/conferences, doing a ppt presentation, and taking a in class exam the friday before. This was a pretty recent change and they did it bc the shelf is hard and the shelf basically decides your grade - miss an A by 1 pt, it doesn't matter if you were the perfect student on the floor and the OR

On other rotations the last week is reserved for in house MC exams, oral exams, OSCE, etc and the shelf that friday

 

[kdburton]

On Surgery we did not see patients for the last 2 weeks. The last 2 weeks consisted of lectures purely for med students, the regularly scheduled didactics/conferences, doing a ppt presentation, and taking a in class exam the friday before. This was a pretty recent change and they did it bc the shelf is hard and the shelf basically decides your grade - miss an A by 1 pt, it doesn't matter if you were the perfect student on the floor and the OR

On other rotations the last week is reserved for in house MC exams, oral exams, OSCE, etc and the shelf that friday

Wow this is absolutely ridiculous. No shelf is hard enough that you need two weeks of pure shelf-prep in addition to whatever time you were able to put in prior when you were "seeing patients."

 

[Winged Scapula]

On Surgery we did not see patients for the last 2 weeks. The last 2 weeks consisted of lectures purely for med students, the regularly scheduled didactics/conferences, doing a ppt presentation, and taking a in class exam the friday before. This was a pretty recent change and they did it bc the shelf is hard and the shelf basically decides your grade - miss an A by 1 pt, it doesn't matter if you were the perfect student on the floor and the OR

On other rotations the last week is reserved for in house MC exams, oral exams, OSCE, etc and the shelf that friday

Sounds like someone's school tested below the national average on the Surgery shelf and didn't want that to be widely known, so implemented a new program which takes students away from the clinical arena. Smart.

 

[LifetimeDoc]

We have between the hours of when-we-get-out of the hospital to when we have to go back to study. So that's maybe 2 hours a night, if you want to sleep, and one and a half days on the weekends to study. Pretty standard, I think.

 

[gynogrl]

The best is when the shelf is in the afternoon, and you actually have to go in and round the morning of. I considered myself lucky if I got out at a reasonable hour Thursday evening and the shelf wasn't until 8 a.m. Friday.

 

[deleted263296]

Sometimes a day, sometimes not. Depends on rotation. Shelf exams are a pain in the ass. Wouldn't be so bad if time spent in the hospital was better preparation.

 

[robosurgeon]

On Surgery we did not see patients for the last 2 weeks. The last 2 weeks consisted of lectures purely for med students, the regularly scheduled didactics/conferences, doing a ppt presentation, and taking a in class exam the friday before. This was a pretty recent change and they did it bc the shelf is hard and the shelf basically decides your grade - miss an A by 1 pt, it doesn't matter if you were the perfect student on the floor and the OR

On other rotations the last week is reserved for in house MC exams, oral exams, OSCE, etc and the shelf that friday

this is way better than spending time on the floors. having CLINICALLY related lectures is the way to go if i were to run a med school. the time spent on the floors is absolutely useless. the time spent in the OR is even more useless as a third year.

even if your school's average was lower for the shelf, it sounds like the new method you have will at least give you time to sit down and COMPREHEND what you should be learning.

i understand that in the "real world" there is no time to do that kind of thing, and you have to learn on the fly, but this still is NOT the real world. everything is BRAND spanking new and time needs to be taken to explain and understand basic concepts of clinical medicine via lectures.

props to your school

 

[turkeyjerky]

Sounds like someone's school tested below the national average on the Surgery shelf and didn't want that to be widely known, so implemented a new program which takes students away from the clinical arena. Smart.

I agree it is smart. Now those students might actually learn something, instead of spending 16 hours a day watching other people work.

 

[cabinbuilder]

LECOM (when I went there) didn't have shelf exams. They gave a 10 questions quiz at the end of each rotation that did not count toward your grade.

Interesting the differences in schools.

 

[MDROCKSTAR]

LECOM (when I went there) didn't have shelf exams. They gave a 10 questions quiz at the end of each rotation that did not count toward your grade.

Interesting the differences in schools.

Not the case anymore...we take the six NBME shelves.

 

[coldweatherblue]

just got an email that our school is giving us a day off to study before the psych shelf. awesome cause i got this feeling there's gonna be waves that day and blowing off med school to surf is one of my favorite things in the world..

 

[PokerDoc]

none

 

[cabinbuilder]

Not the case anymore...we take the six NBME shelves.

Too bad, sorry