MKSAP percentages

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personal jesus

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For those who have used MKSAP and taken the IM shelf what percentage of q's correct with MKSAP 2/3 correlates with a decent shelf result?

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I would also like to know a correlation btw MKSAP and IM shelf scores. Is there anyone out there that remembers their scores?
 
ambientbaby said:
I would also like to know a correlation btw MKSAP and IM shelf scores. Is there anyone out there that remembers their scores?


I did MKSAP but my %s varied for each section.....there were a couple sections that I got around 22/26 or 21/25 or whatever.....others such as liver disorders for some reason rocked me (33% I believe).....HIV section is very difficult as well......I'd say on average i prob got about 60% for the whole thing (totally guesstimating). I am not a gunner whatsoever but probably studied harder in medicine than for any other shelf.....got around a 70% on most shelfs 3rd year and i got an 84 on the medicine shelf......STEP-UP MEDICINE is very solid! MKSAP helps alot as well. Good luck.
 
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Thanks Jamie, that helps out a lot. I'm around 60% as well.
 
Any one else keep track of percentages? I'm taking mine at the end of this week. thx.
 
I was getting on average about 60% on MKSAP, on the real thing 83.
 
If you do the MKSAP on the CD and hit "Answer sheet" it calculates for you both percentages by section and total percentage...I found this feature helpful.

I'd like to hear how the MKSAP correlates as well if anyone has been keeping track.
 
Well to answer my own question I think I was getting in the 70's on the big topics cards pulm renal etc but getting anywhere from 50-70 on some of the smaller blocks. In the end I got 87%. In retrospect I think the main advantage of MKSAP is timing. It taught me to read quickly and find the key details so that I could finish on time. I basically skimmed the passages rather than reading carefully. Try it with MKSAP. If you can keep getting the right answer it might be helpful for the shelf.
 
I can't say I was keeping too close of track of my %correct when doing MKSAP...but I'd say between 80 and 90% correct on MKSAP and 94% (99th) on the real deal.

The important thing is just to know that MKSAP is great preperation for the shelf. good luck.
 
Why do people care about this stuff? Just do more questions if you find yourself wondering that. God med students are anal.

By the way, I got a 92. I forgot my percentage though. My bad.
 
Why do people care about this stuff? Just do more questions if you find yourself wondering that. God med students are anal.

By the way, I got a 92. I forgot my percentage though. My bad.

What a great post. Thanks for your contribution.
 
I did MKSAP 3 in the days just before the shelf exam, and I got a 63% (259/408). I got a raw score of 78 on the shelf. Don't know what percentile that is.
 
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I only used MKSAP to learn, not to quiz myself, and I didn't keep track of %. But if you've taken the shelf and want to know what the heck the raw # means, an 84 was 94th percentile nationally in Sept (I'm sure it changes each time)
 
MKSAP 3 (one time through): 71%
IM Shelf: 83 (no other reading)
 
I heard MKSAP is one good source for studying for FM shelf.
What's the number that comes after the title "MKSAP"?
It looks like there are 14 MKSAP untill now. Is it like different edition
of MKSAP? (i.e. 14th edition of MKSAP?)

Also, people on this forum talk about MKSAP as if it has different
part to it (e.g. MKSAP 1, MKSAP 2, and MKSAP 3).
How do they differ from each other?

On ACP website, MKSAP is offered on line. Is it the same as the
printed version? It looks really nice but only has questions and answers.

Thank you as always.
 
I did MKSAP but my %s varied for each section.....there were a couple sections that I got around 22/26 or 21/25 or whatever.....others such as liver disorders for some reason rocked me (33% I believe).....HIV section is very difficult as well......I'd say on average i prob got about 60% for the whole thing (totally guesstimating). I am not a gunner whatsoever but probably studied harder in medicine than for any other shelf.....got around a 70% on most shelfs 3rd year and i got an 84 on the medicine shelf......STEP-UP MEDICINE is very solid! MKSAP helps alot as well. Good luck.

Oh gosh, I feel so much better! I have done very well on certain sections, particularly the ones I've recently studied but ya, I had a tought time on the HIV section and a few other sections as well! Is the IM similar to the questions on MKSAP? I'm also studying Step up to medicine. I need a 74 to keep my honors but I'm not very good at shelf exams.
 
just wondering if anyone this year kept track... the test is tomorrow and I apparently have time to kill on SDN :)
 
MKSAP was so useless for the IM shelf. i dont know why everything thinks it is worth it. i got like every question wrong on MKSAP and got a 93 on the IM shelf. NONE of those MKSAP questions were even remotely close to what was on the shelf. I mean, who the hell cares about post nasal drip and crap? wasted my time. step up to medicine was gold and probably the only reason i scored so high.
 
I did MKSAP two times and Pre-test once. Thats it.....but during my rotation I "read around my patients" (up-to-date articles, emedicine, a little medline searching, etc) like crazy.

My school just said I got >95th%tile.....they didn't give me a raw.
 
There are two different series of MKSAP. MKSAP was originally for internal medicine residents preparing to take the IM boards. The series consists of several books (one on each subspecialty of IM), containing both high yield info and a question bank. The series gets updated about once every 3 years. They are currently on MKSAP 14.

The MKSAP everyone here is talking about is the MKSAP for Students series. This consists of one book, filled with a whole bunch of questions designed to help medical students with their IM rotation, and a lot of people use it to study for the shelf. Currently, this series is in it's third edition, and the book to buy is MKSAP For Students 3.
 
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