How to not suck at shelf exams

[nope80]

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Seriously, I need help on figuring out how to properly study for shelf exams. I have not done so well on all of my previous ones (passed but not by much) and I still have surgery and medicine coming up. Since my next rotation is surgery, I would like to at least get an average score and prove to myself that I can do better than be at the bottom of the bell curve. For some reason, I think I have had a lot of trouble figuring out how to study in med school; i'm always three steps behind and figure things out, after the fact, when its too late. This happened with the first two years of med school, step 1..and I'd like to not let it happen for the rest of third year.

So basically, I'm starting surgery in a week. For those that know how to conquer these shelf exam beasts, what do you do exactly? How do you organize yourself? I have case files and NMS for surgery so far. I'm thinking of getting Uworld as well. But I haven't had medicine, so I know I will have to be studying extra or just differently since apparently the surgery shelf is really medicine

I'd really appreciate any help people can provide since clearly I'm not approaching the shelf properly..and I really would like to know what I should do or change, etc. Thanks😳

 

[Cliff Huxtable]

My problem is I try to do too much and spread myself thin. I have to buckle down and say I am only going to read this one book multiple times. Not Book A, then Book B, and then Uworld, etc.

That's just me though.

 

[Depakote]

My approach to shelf exams:

-Early on, figure out what the consensus is for good books/resources by talking to classmates, upperclassmen, people on SDN. Borrow/buy those then make sure to get through them.

-Start early. Make sure to include shelf-specific prep in my daily reading. Yes, surgical anatomy is important to know for the case you're doing tomorrow, but it's low yield for the shelf.

-Questions, questions, questions. Uworld has been great. Better for some subjects, but still does a great job teaching the material. You can reset 6+ month subscriptions so I'm not particularly worried about "using it up" before Step II. Plus, if I can learn and retain it now, then it's done it's job if I know the facts and am getting the questions right later.

 

[clement]

Seriously, I need help on figuring out how to properly study for shelf exams. I have not done so well on all of my previous ones (passed but not by much) and I still have surgery and medicine coming up. Since my next rotation is surgery, I would like to at least get an average score and prove to myself that I can do better than be at the bottom of the bell curve. For some reason, I think I have had a lot of trouble figuring out how to study in med school; i'm always three steps behind and figure things out, after the fact, when its too late. This happened with the first two years of med school, step 1..and I'd like to not let it happen for the rest of third year.

So basically, I'm starting surgery in a week. For those that know how to conquer these shelf exam beasts, what do you do exactly? How do you organize yourself? I have case files and NMS for surgery so far. I'm thinking of getting Uworld as well. But I haven't had medicine, so I know I will have to be studying extra or just differently since apparently the surgery shelf is really medicine

I'd really appreciate any help people can provide since clearly I'm not approaching the shelf properly..and I really would like to know what I should do or change, etc. Thanks😳

my approach to the nmbe shelf exams is to read fast and praise the lord.

seriously though, it's soo annoying to have to dig through piles of posts on sdn just to get an idea of which books are the *gold standard* (and still not know who's working for the publishing co or qbank that's being plugged).

 

[rachmoninov3]

I'm a fan of pre-test. So far, making sure I do 25 to 50 questions a night (in order to get through all 500 twice) seems to be adequate for passing by quite large margin. With this method, my lowest raw score has been 79.
Now since this is SDN, anything less than a raw of 90 can be considered suck range so take my suggestions as you see fit.

 

[jope]

As someone who has taken both surgery and medicine shelf and done very well, I recommend the following resources which I used on recommendation after skimming the many dozen threads on the NBME exams here:

1) Surgery
-NMS casebook
This book is the red one and not the big NMS surgery book. Read it at least twice.

-Pestana review notes
This floats around the internet as a 76 page word document. Know these vignettes cold.

-Kaplan USMLE Step 2 Notes
Another good resource. Has vignettes which are basically an expanded version of the Pestana notes.

-Kaplan USMLE Step 2 QBOOK
Contains about 100 questions for surgery. Questions are in low supply for this shelf and these help.

-UWorld
You'll regret not paying for it. The price in the long run of not doing well will probably cost more than the subscription.

2) Internal Medicine
Lots of resources and questions so easy to study for.

-Step Up to Medicine (2nd Ed)
Read this from day 1 if you can and try to go thru it twice. If you know everything in it, getting a 90%+ is guaranteed.

-Uworld
nuff said. 1500+ questions to really test your medicine knowledge from every angle. I was getting mid 60-70 on this, and got a 98 on the actual shelf. Review all of your incorrect answers before the exam too.

MKSAP 3/4
do both if you can as more questions just gets you answering them for the actual test more efficiently.

Other resources: I found the pretest series and blueprints cases books fairly useless and would recommend not wasting your time with them for either surgery or internal medicine shelf exams.

 

[tacrum43]

As someone who has taken both surgery and medicine shelf and done very well, I recommend the following resources which I used on recommendation after skimming the many dozen threads on the NBME exams here:

1) Surgery
-NMS casebook
This book is the red one and not the big NMS surgery book. Read it at least twice.

-Pestana review notes
This floats around the internet as a 76 page word document. Know these vignettes cold.

-Kaplan USMLE Step 2 Notes
Another good resource. Has vignettes which are basically an expanded version of the Pestana notes.

-Kaplan USMLE Step 2 QBOOK
Contains about 100 questions for surgery. Questions are in low supply for this shelf and these help.

-UWorld
You'll regret not paying for it. The price in the long run of not doing well will probably cost more than the subscription.

2) Internal Medicine
Lots of resources and questions so easy to study for.

-Step Up to Medicine (2nd Ed)
Read this from day 1 if you can and try to go thru it twice. If you know everything in it, getting a 90%+ is guaranteed.

-Uworld
nuff said. 1500+ questions to really test your medicine knowledge from every angle. I was getting mid 60-70 on this, and got a 98 on the actual shelf. Review all of your incorrect answers before the exam too.

MKSAP 3/4
do both if you can as more questions just gets you answering them for the actual test more efficiently.

Other resources: I found the pretest series and blueprints cases books fairly useless and would recommend not wasting your time with them for either surgery or internal medicine shelf exams.

That's a lot to study, especially when you're on rotations with lots of call like surgery and inpatient medicine. Good for you if you were able to study all of that and do well, but not everyone will do well with that strategy. I know I wouldn't have.

I found picking 1 or 2 high quality resources and knowing them extremely well is better. I didn't ace every shelf this way, but I did Honor several of them and got High Pass on others.

I agree with the Pestana review for sugery and MKSAP 3/4 for IM. I found UWorld is to be too much, unless you're also reviewing for Step 2 at the same time (used this for Peds and it worked well).

 

[Knicks]

-Questions, questions, questions. Uworld has been great. Better for some subjects, but still does a great job teaching the material. You can reset 6+ month subscriptions so I'm not particularly worried about "using it up" before Step II. Plus, if I can learn and retain it now, then it's done it's job if I know the facts and am getting the questions right later.

That's also my outlook on it too, although I used UW only a month before the CK (which I still haven't taken yet).

For me, redoing questions I already did and getting them right the 2nd time around doesn't mainly "artificially boost my confidence". The real benefit to me is that it shows to me that I know/learned the facts and I can comfortably apply them to questions (old or fresh) later on.

 

[molossus]

pretest is a waste of time uworld and qbank are better prep but this shelves are tough, passing is ez, but if you want to score high(ie HONOR the rotation), its not so simple