Medicine Clerkship Book for Shelf Exam

[wvshootr]

Hey guys,
Just started my IM clerkship today, and am wanting some opinions about the best manageable book to use to study with. Don't even mention that I should read all of Harrison's or CMDT, I get my share of laughing in every day. I want something that I can realistically get through once or twice without OCD reading/studying. We take the national shelf exam, so i want to be prepared for that. Most of my fellow students are using Blueprints. The department gives us Cecil's Essentials, but by the looks of them, no one has ever opened them, mainly because they're 1000 pages of heavy reading.

I would like some opinions on the following as to how they prepare you for the Shelf exam and/or Step 2:
1) Blueprints in Medicine
2) Harrison's Companion Handbook
3) Medical Secrets
4) Washington's Manual (still a little long)

Thanks for any ideas!!!!!

Travis

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[Voxel]

I read NMS medicine cover to cover twice. It's fairly thorough and felt adaquate for the shelf.

 

[Jim Picotte]

Blueprints for the shelf and Step II worked great for me. I honored my medicine rotation because of this book. NMS is probably really good too but I just don't care for that style, but a lot of students seem to love it.

 

[Voxel]

Jim, Blueprints? I found that to be alittle on light side in terms depth of material. It's a good intro text though.

 

[neutropeniaboy]

•••quote:•••Originally posted by wvshootr:
•Hey guys,
Just started my IM clerkship today, and am wanting some opinions about the best manageable book to use to study with.
Travis•••••I read MKSAP 12 for medicine, all volumes except the Dermatology volume. Aced the shelf exam -- actually, my highest score of any shelf exam.

 

[Jim Picotte]

That's the only book I used for medicine. True, it's a thin book but all the info in the book is pretty important. I didn't crush the shelf but scored an 88 which was good enough for me. I did carry around a Ferris guide and used that as well for the day to day patient management but didn't study from it.

 

[dr.evil]

I personally used Harrison's Principles. Usually not my style of book but for some reason it works during a medicine clerkship. Not quite as cut and dry as most and realistically you can only get through the thing once but for the shelf exam, it rocked. You could also use a step 2 review book and thumb through the medicine part (First Aid, Crush the Boards, etc). It really depends on how you study and what other types of books you like. During medicine, I didn't really feel like any of the books were very good so that's why I went with Harrison's and just read about 10 pages/night.

 

[12nico12]

i used completely different books for my shelf exam and did well.

1. "medicine" by fishman. text that is easy to read; not like nms which i couldn't handle since it just seemed like a big list. i took notes while i read this and reinforced that by doing the corresponding questions in

2. appleton and lange- medicne; i can't remember the exact name but it is just full of board style questions organized by system; good for review and reinforcement

3. saint-frances "guide to inpatient medicine"- very short and easy to read. full of pneumonics and approaches to patient that are memorable and useful.

4. nms cd rom for step II- i did the medicine section as a review right before the shelf exam and felt that many of the questions were similar.

hope this helps. good luck!!

 

[12nico12]

i used completely different books for my shelf exam and did well.

1. "medicine" by fishman. text that is easy to read; not like nms which i couldn't handle since it just seemed like a big list. i took notes while i read this and reinforced that by doing the corresponding questions in

2. appleton and lange- medicne; i can't remember the exact name but it is just full of board style questions organized by system; good for review and reinforcement

3. saint-frances "guide to inpatient medicine"- very short and easy to read. full of pneumonics and approaches to patient that are memorable and useful.

4. nms cd rom for step II- i did the medicine section as a review right before the shelf exam and felt that many of the questions were similar.

hope this helps. good luck!!