Neurology SDhelf Continues To Live Up To Reputation

[Cpt.Hook Hamate]

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Well, I took that bad mother this morning. For about the first 40 questions, I was thinking, "hey, this test isn't all that bad" and began to imaging myself being the first one to get up and leave to go home with smile then all of a sudden it was is the test yelled out "who's yo daddy!" It then became hard to choose an answer. There was indeed some truly esoteric stuff in there. I had to blindly fill in the last 6 questions because of time constraints.


I used Blueprint, pre-test, and Undegroung Cinical Vignettes, and some of the MSKap Neuro questions. I felt all of this was necessary. I read each once through fully in the 3 and 1/2 weeks we had to prepare so it is very doable. Avoid the mistake of waiting to the last minutes to do the last 15 questions( my biggest mistake). They are the easiest questions.

 

[bigfrank]

I had a similar experience. 🙁

 

[14022]

I thought it was the easiest shelf this year, but still challenging. Most questions were very basic, one-step problems. Covered very common problems, with very few zebras. Most questions were, "what is the disease" or "where is the lesion" and NOT "what is the mechanism of this disease." There were a lot more therapeutic questions than I anticipated.

I read blueprints and pre-test. I have used pretest for every shelf and I felt pretest for neuro was the best of the series bay far. I knew many questions on the shelf just because I did all of the questions and read all of the solutions (regardless of whether I got it right or wrong). I would recommend it HIGHLY for shelf prep.

 

[Cpt.Hook Hamate]

I thought it was the easiest shelf this year, but still challenging. Most questions were very basic, one-step problems. Covered very common problems, with very few zebras. Most questions were, "what is the disease" or "where is the lesion" and NOT "what is the mechanism of this disease." There were a lot more therapeutic questions than I anticipated.

I read blueprints and pre-test. I have used pretest for every shelf and I felt pretest for neuro was the best of the series bay far. I knew many questions on the shelf just because I did all of the questions and read all of the solutions (regardless of whether I got it right or wrong). I would recommend it HIGHLY for shelf prep.

Yeah, I heard pre-test did not really work well with this exam but I felt by reading it it gave me a decent foundation to work through the exam although I feel it is another one of those exam where I just want know how I performed until I see my score. But there was some stuff in there that I just didn't run into in the books I read.

 

[14022]

But there was some stuff in there that I just didn't run into in the books I read.

Don't get me wrong, there were plenty of difficult questions such as the ones you refer to here. But those are on every shelf. Some are sample questions that the NBME is collecting data on (they dont count towards your score..~5-10 per test), and others are to help separate the test takers. I just felt there were less of these questions on the test and more basic principle questions (eg, B12 and thiamine deficiency; classic presentations of diseases like MS, Alz, HSV enceph, ALS; treatment of things like a-fib, status epilepticus, Parkinson's). A lot of this stuff we learned in our neuro module second year and for step 1.

 

[TruTrooper]

Don't get me wrong, there were plenty of difficult questions such as the ones you refer to here. But those are on every shelf. Some are sample questions that the NBME is collecting data on (they dont count towards your score..~5-10 per test), and others are to help separate the test takers. I just felt there were less of these questions on the test and more basic principle questions (eg, B12 and thiamine deficiency; classic presentations of diseases like MS, Alz, HSV enceph, ALS; treatment of things like a-fib, status epilepticus, Parkinson's). A lot of this stuff we learned in our neuro module second year and for step 1.

The neurology shelf is a beast just like the surgery. There will always be people that think a test is easy but I have taken my share of tests just like everyone else and the neurology shelf is "top shelf." There is a good share of basic stuff in there but there is also a good share of junk that will put you on your azz. If you can have easy shelf exams, I definitely wouldn't rank neurology amongst them.