How to get at least an 80% on NBME anatomy?

[percywilkins]

I have to take the anatomy NBME and my anatomy is extremely weak, and my grade very low. I need an 80% or higher to pass. I have 2 weeks of time to be able to study solely anatomy. If I memorized BRS anatomy and high yield embryology (I.E. read the whole thing at least 5 times), would I be able to get an 80%? Or did you find that having lots of experience in the lab/knowing textbook material was the only way u could get a high grade on this exam?

PLEASE HELP!

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[Concubine]

I wouldn't say I'm smart, just a slightly above average medical student. However, I did get a 95th percentile on my anatomy NBME, so my advice may be worth something.

The biggest thing is keeping up in your classes. No matter how hard you try, a week of studying for the shelf won't make up for the entire semester of studying anatomy. This may be bad news for you, but just do the best you can and make sure you get the easy points:

To gain lots of the extra points, I just studied the BRS shelf, particularly the pink boxes. Those were clutch. I only had 1 day to study, since you have a week, make sure you get those down cold. In particular, the shelf tests heavily on the abdomen, so know it. For some of the easy points, make sure you know what the cranial nerves do and how to test them.

Good luck.

 

[ChiDO]

I agree with the advice above. If you kept up with your studying it shouldn't be too bad. Also are you taking both the anatomy and embryo section? We only had to take the anatomy section.

The BRS anatomy and HY embryo are both really good books, so if you use those you should be fine.

Also, do you need an 80th percentile or and 80% according to what your teachers grade?

On our exam, a 600 was worth 90% (thus anyone going over 700 got 100%+), with a 500 being 80%. If your teachers use the grading scale we had, getting a 500 isin't that mad, as that is the average score.

If you need to score at the 80%ile on the test, then you need about a 570, which is HUGE difference then a 500. (That's the equivalent of scoring like a 220 vs a 250 on the USMLE).

 

[TexasPhysician]

A lot of schools curve the NBME exams in MSI-II. If so, an 80% is very possible.

If you need 80th percentile, good luck my friend. Anatomy was never my thing though, so who knows?

 

[DeadCactus]

Dumb question: What are the shelf exams?

I thought they were standardized exams you take for each rotation, but this throws me off a bit. So there are ones for the basic sciences? Do you take the various shelf exams all throughout the four years?

 

[bydotte]

Dumb question: What are the shelf exams?

I thought they were standardized exams you take for each rotation, but this throws me off a bit. So there are ones for the basic sciences? Do you take the various shelf exams all throughout the four years?

they're also available during the first two years - some schools use them for some classes, it varies. mine uses the shelf for microbiology, pathology, clinical diagnosis and sometimes biochem.

 

[146233]

they're also available during the first two years - some schools use them for some classes, it varies. mine uses the shelf for microbiology, pathology, clinical diagnosis and sometimes biochem.

👍 For M1 year, mine used them for Cell Bio/Histology and Anatomy. Not sure about 2nd year, though.

 

[MilkmanAl]

I did the practice questions in the BRS, and that helped a lot. I suggest doing that.

 

[Igor4sugry]

I would focus on the following:


[1] Major peripheral nerve injuries and symptoms (e.g. sites of radial/median/ulnar n. damage)

[2] Major muscle actions & don't forget hand innervation (e.g. if you can adduct your thumb in perpendicular plane the ulnar is still working)

[3] Abdomen anatomy is big
-> know the vasculature, organ positions, etc.

[4] Don't spend time on head antatomy (I don't remember seeing anything on Cranial nerves there)

[5] Thoracic anatomy
-> positions of the trachea in relation to aorta, heart abnormalities (ductus arteriosus, patent foramen ovale, etc.)

 

[alphaholic06]

Get your hands on a copy of the kaplan anatomy videos. It's around 10 hours. Watch them and you should get what you need and more on the board.

 

[coldweatherblue]

alright I took the gross shelf this morning..

the anatomy portion is fair and straight-forward. Just know your anatomy and be fine. Know all the answers/explanations to BRS + UMich and you have 90% of the questions already.. the rest are relationship questions that were a lot easier than some of our in-house.

if you wanna rock it.. know anatomy good but study EMBRYO too... gut formation, stages of meiosis, syndromes, etc. I cruised through the first 125 q's fine then got bogged down on the embryo section (last 25 q's).

the test was super long but not unfair (imo). If you kept up with anatomy you'll do fine.. once again, do all BRS/UMich questions and READ the explanations. that alone covers the vast majority of concepts. good luck.

 

[Concubine]

alright I took the gross shelf this morning..

the anatomy portion is fair and straight-forward. Just know your anatomy and be fine. Know all the answers/explanations to BRS + UMich and you have 90% of the questions already.. the rest are relationship questions that were a lot easier than some of our in-house.

if you wanna rock it.. know anatomy good but study EMBRYO too... gut formation, stages of meiosis, syndromes, etc. I cruised through the first 125 q's fine then got bogged down on the embryo section (last 25 q's).

the test was super long but not unfair (imo). If you kept up with anatomy you'll do fine.. once again, do all BRS/UMich questions and READ the explanations. that alone covers the vast majority of concepts. good luck.

Yeah, luckily we didn't have to take the embryo portion of the exam.