OB-Gyn Shelf Exam

This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.

Books Preferred for Ob-Gyn Shelf Exam

  • Blueprints

    Votes: 24 70.6%

  • NMS

    Votes: 2 5.9%

  • First Aid

    Votes: 2 5.9%

  • PreTest

    Votes: 4 11.8%

  • Boards and Wards

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Appleton and Lange

    Votes: 2 5.9%
  • Total voters
    34
  • Poll closed .
Members do not see this ad.
eablackwell said:
Yes, one is PE and the other is torsion, 100% sure. 🙂

Answering your question- 1) Urine pregnancy test isn't an option 😉 In practice you would definitely do an in-house urinalysis, but there is actually a small percentage of females that don't get positive pregnancy tests via urine. If you're pregnant, something WILL show up in serum...unless implantation hasn't happened yet. 🙂
Click to expand...

Thanks alot, very helpful!
 
anbuitachi said:
just took the obgyn shelf on friday. will get back score in 7 weeks from school. but man that was brutal . . .
Click to expand...

7 weeks, wow! Was it a paper test? Online the results are pretty much instantaneous and they release them the next school day. I'd go nuts if I had to wait 7 weeks!

Good luck! 😀
 
also took it on friday. used blueprints except didn't read breast or infertility chapters. did some uwise, ~40 uworld qs, that's it. I thought blueprints was great and very manageable over the rotation, especially if you start week one (which I wish I did hehe).

exam was tricky. a loooottt of obs! esp post delivery complications, antepartum hemorrhage, preterm labour. some infections.

not sure how I did!!
 
1. B19V infection accounts for 15%-20% of cases of nonimmune hydrops fetalis. So that's likely it. Also, most people are asymptomatic with parvovirus infections as adults.

2. I think it's D. Normal sequence is PPD -> CXR -> sputum culture

3. Likely 21 hydroxylase deficiency -> leads to virilization in female infants

MODERATOR EDIT: took out copyrighted material
 
Last edited by a moderator:
This shelf is a hard one. Did case files U world and U wise. Should have finished all of uwise
 
Scaled score: 90. I did not like my ob/gyn rotation. I especially hated L&D, but I did surprisingly well considering the fact that I didn't start studying til the last 3 weeks before the shelf. (I'm just an average student, btw.)
Did UWise x1, First Aid x1, and Casefiles x1 -- in that order. Also did ~50 questions of UWorld. Read casefiles the week before the exam. Please do yourself a favor and READ CASEFILES! Blueprints is definitely not necessary to do well on this shelf.

Hope this helps someone!
 
I posted a very similar post after I got medicine back, too. Just wanted to give support for studying solely from QBank questions. I really liked this rotation, but I am 0% interested in going into OB/GYN and was not about to read the review books or text books. I did the UWorld questions until I got them all right, did all the UWise questions once, did as many USMLE-Easy questions as I could (we get these free through our school library).

I got a 90 scaled, which I think is >90th or 95th percentile. Just want to put it out there that reading Blueprints may be helpful for learning specific topics regarding your patients/looking good in front of the residents, but questions is the way to go if you want to do well on your shelf and don't want to read/buy another book. Unfortunately, if your practicals are like my school's you probably need some sort of review text to prep for that.
 
Can anyone tell me how they did on the practice NBMEs? I just took ObGyn NBME 1 and got a 22 which converts to a 74. I'm only three weeks into my rotation and have three weeks to go before I take the actual exam. Anyone tell me if these are fairly predictive? I need 75 on the shelf to honor.
 
normtheniner said:
Can anyone tell me how they did on the practice NBMEs? I just took ObGyn NBME 1 and got a 22 which converts to a 74. I'm only three weeks into my rotation and have three weeks to go before I take the actual exam. Anyone tell me if these are fairly predictive? I need 75 on the shelf to honor.
Click to expand...

Yes, the NBMEs are always the best predictors, including for the ob shelf.
 
Norm, I got in the 80's on both practice shelf and got a 96 on the real shelf. Feel free to message me for more info
 
Possibly dumb question -- should we have a pretty good general idea of cancer staging for the shelf? I'm thinking probably not, unless there's a big difference in treatment between stages, but wanted to confirm. Thanks.
 
I can't deal with these stupid questions anymore. They're ****ing ******ed.
30ish y/o Woman presents with metrorrhagia. Negative urinary pregnancy. Endometrial biopsy was negative. What do you do next:
I picked: Progesterone levels
Correct answer: Ultrasound
Okay, first of all, you don't ****ing do a biopsy unless you have high suspicion of cancer. ACOG site SAYS you do an ultrasound for abnormal uterine bleeding as part of the protocol in diagnosing bleeding BEFORE you do anything including a biopsy in women under 40. Over 40 - you look for cancer. I get that structural issues are the main cause of uterine bleeding. But what I hate is inferring/assuming things from these questions. They're telling me "Oh, hai, you have bleeding, let's do a biopsy against ACOG recommendations!". Okay, fine, then why don't we just not follow ACOG altogether and just skip everything and do exploratory surgery?

**** this.
 
What resources did people find best? What order did you use them in? Thanks!
 
abc12341 said:
What resources did people find best? What order did you use them in? Thanks!
Click to expand...
I ended up giving up on Blueprints after a couple of chapters and switched over to First Aid and Case Files. I did FA first and then, went through Case Files. After each chapter in FA, I'd do the corresponding UWise questions. The last 2-3 weeks was when I really started going through UWorld questions.
 
Kaushik said:
I ended up giving up on Blueprints after a couple of chapters and switched over to First Aid and Case Files. I did FA first and then, went through Case Files. After each chapter in FA, I'd do the corresponding UWise questions. The last 2-3 weeks was when I really started going through UWorld questions.
Click to expand...
You are one of the few people who have said they used FA. How was it in your opinion? Did you do pretest? Would you recommend going straight into questions or read FA beforehand to at get a feel for what ob/gyn is all about?
 
Exam is in a week. Finished all but one block left in UWorld and I'm at a 51% average. Found this to be a really tough rotation compared to peds and psych. Felt the balance of question style switched compared to peds and psych. The latter were mostly what's the diagnosis, whereas the former asked a lot of - "what's the next best step in mgmt" and not so much diagnosis questions.

Studying for CK is making me age really fast. 🙁
 
Do you think first aid or kaplan is better? I found 2011 first aid online and 2008-2009 kaplan. I begin next week.
 
I used both the first aid book and the kaplan videos. Both were on point.
 
This was my fourth rotation of the year and I really enjoyed it. 8 week rotation with 2 weeks of inpatient gyn, 2 weeks of inpatient OB, 1 week of residency clinic, 1 week of nights, 1 week of outpatient clinic, and 1 week of gyn-onc.

It was cool to experience a field of medicine that is so hands-on. To prepare for the shelf exam I read about half of blueprints, did all the UWorld questions and all the UWise questions. I spent about a week preparing for our oral exam by reviewing dozens of potential cases. Also took both practice NBME exams.

NBME 1 - 72
NBME 2 - 88
Actual shelf score - 77

I am disappointed with my score because I expected better based on my second NBME… and I missed honoring my rotation by 2 points. If I could change anything about how I studied I would have read all of blueprints. Difficult shelf in my opinion. Congrats to those of you who rocked it!
 
Last edited:
Did any of you guys use the DIT videos on the Ob/GYN?
 
I'm half way into my Ob/Gyn rotation and I have been reading the Case Files on my schools library website. Little did I know, that it was the third edition of Case Files. I found out today from a friend that the guidelines for Ob/Gyn have changed last year and I will definitely not be able to do well on the shelf if I do not have the most current edition of Blueprints or CaseFiles.

Is this true? Or if someone has taken the shelf recently, can you confirm? My shelf date is in 1.5 weeks and I am willing to go and buy the kindle version of the 4th edition if I have to, but I'm strapped for funds and I don't know if I can re-read the first half considering the tough schedule I have this next week.

Any advice is appreciated. I also have done Uwise sporadically (getting creamed on it) and I have done Uworld (48 q's left of ob/gyn).

If I can't finish all of unwise, is the cumulative section enough?

thanks in advance for any advice! 🙂
 
I took the shelf at the end of March and used Case Files lightly. It's best to just study all the cervical screening guidelines from ACOG. They were updated at the end of 2013, so that's the only way to be sure you're studying the most recent guidelines. UWise uses the most recent guidelines in their questions.

I would not buy the 4th edition, especially with 1.5 weeks. At this point, do questions. I have not found Case Files useful for any rotation, but doing tons of questions and studying the answers well works most of the time. I did all of UWise, and repeated sections I was weak on. I also did all the OBGYN UWorld questions and repeated the ones I got incorrect. Scaled score was >90. The material is very specific for this rotation, so just make sure you know the guidelines and do tons of questions.
 
ACOG UWise questions + CaseFiles is sufficient. No need for blue prints or even uworld for this shelf. PS....everyone is bleeding on the shelf lol
 
Shelf exams take a while to become current to new guidelines. Remember that the shelf exams are composed of old retired Step 2 questions. If you look very closely, very few questions hinge on knowledge of up-to-date guidelines.

Old edition of Casefiles is fine and pretty comprehensive.
 
Is there an excellent online review (preferably by a 4th year student) for the high yield stuff or one that goes over how the questions are asked on the shelf? I keep hearing that this is one of the shelves that's regularly underestimated and ends up being the lowest score on many a student's transcript.

Edit: I know there's kaplan, but I'm not a huge fan.
 
Last edited:
Brain Bucket said:
Is there an excellent online review (preferably by a 4th year student) for the high yield stuff or one that goes over how the questions are asked on the shelf? I keep hearing that this is one of the shelves that's regularly underestimated and ends up being the lowest score on many a student's transcript.

Edit: I know there's kaplan, but I'm not a huge fan.
Click to expand...
https://www.apgo.org/student/uwise2/comprehensive.html
 
Brain Bucket said:
Yeah, those two are in my plans, along with Blueprints, Casefiles, Pretest, UW, and RX, with a little Berek and Novak, and Beckmann on the side. 🙂 Was thinking about a 1-2 hour high yield review, kinda like a condensed version of goljan audio.
Click to expand...
That should be fine (minus the Berek and Novak and Beckmann lol). I thought Blueprints was too little (my OB-Gyn knowledge was weak to start with), NMS OB-Gyn helped to explain things much better.
 
Last edited:
DermViser said:
That should be fine (minus the Berek and Novak and Beckmann lol). I thought Blueprints was too little (my OB-Gyn knowledge was weak to start with), NMS OB-Gyn helped to explain things much better.
Click to expand...

Hmm, thanks, I'll have to look into NMS. I was told all NMS besides surgery were useless. Good thing you mentioned it.
 
Last edited:
Brain Bucket said:
Hmm, thanks, I'll have to look into NMS. I was told all NMS besides surgery were useless.
Click to expand...
It's helpful at the beginning of the rotation as I knew nothing going into it. It was my first rotation after Step 1. Blueprints is a quick snapshot of things. Just try not to get overloaded on too many sources. Some people used First Aid for the OB-Gyn clerkship instead of NMS. Just make sure you choose one that you can easily read and get through and retain.
 
jturkel said:
ACOG UWise questions + CaseFiles is sufficient. No need for blue prints or even uworld for this shelf. PS....everyone is bleeding on the shelf lol
Click to expand...

Do you mean that people are doing badly, or is bleeding a common theme in the vignettes?
 
jturkel said:
lol. it's a common theme. it seems as if most of the test deals with bleeders of some kind
Click to expand...
Thanks. 🙂. My meters are a little off, I haven't slept in about 30 hours heh.
 
Remember that the shelf exams are composed of old retired Step 2 questions. If you look very closely, very few questions hinge on knowledge of up-to-date guidelines.
d5HleJ
 
merlpebtall said:
Remember that the shelf exams are composed of old retired Step 2 questions. If you look very closely, very few questions hinge on knowledge of up-to-date guidelines.
d5HleJ
Click to expand...

Composed entirely of old step 2 qs? That sounds suspect.
 
94 raw, 98 percentile.

1x UWise
1x UWorld, repeated incorrects and flagged questions
Read ~2/3rds of Case Files.

If I had time, I would have finished Case Files. I thought it was excellent. I answered several questions on the shelf that were straight from the text. Didn't have much time to study on this busy rotation, but we got very good teaching and lectures throughout, so that probably helped.

Good luck!
 
I thought there were a lot of questions that came out of nowhere. Not really covered in UWise or Casefiles. Harder than the practice NBMEs. Also had a harder time figuring out what they were getting at than on Step 1. I'll update when scores come out.
 
HELLP (pun intended) Any last advise from someone who recently took this monster? How to focuse my time? I have it on thursday. I have classes everyday so not much time.

So far I did:
FA x1 + notetaking, read through them x2 and read all the cases and boxes an additional time
CF x2
All of PreTest - awful book! Don't know why I alway bother it's good for nothing
All the practice questions of Blueprints + read all explanations..
Watched like 40% of Kaplan, the ones not covered well elsewhere.

I am kind of stressed out b/c I still get a lot of mistakes while doing practice questions... Usually do well on shelfes but our rotations was only 4 weeks.
My School doesn't offer uWise besides it's to late to add an additional source.

Someone help me. :S
 
Missorleans said:
I thought there were a lot of questions that came out of nowhere. Not really covered in UWise or Casefiles. Harder than the practice NBMEs. Also had a harder time figuring out what they were getting at than on Step 1. I'll update when scores come out.
Click to expand...
:poke: You're probably busy, but it would be nice to hear your opinion on how to best prepare for it.
 
danse said:
:poke: You're probably busy, but it would be nice to hear your opinion on how to best prepare for it.
Click to expand...

Idk, I guess use something more extensive than Casefiles and UWise. Maybe Beckman, I didn't get through much of it. And drill cervical cancer screening algorithms (like, what to do with ASCUS, or HGSIL paps in woman of various ages).
 
Missorleans said:
Idk, I guess use something more extensive than Casefiles and UWise. Maybe Beckman, I didn't get through much of it. And drill cervical cancer screening algorithms (like, what to do with ASCUS, or HGSIL paps in woman of various ages).
Click to expand...
Thanks 🙂 People at school keep saying UWise is enough, but looks like that clearly isn't the case.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

K
Best books for Psychiatry Shelf Exam in 2024
Replies
2
Views
3K
L8rg8r
L
W
any clinical rotation program suggest for Ob/Gyn?
Replies
3
Views
5K
Clerkships
C
Fay1129
Step 2 and Shelf exam notes
Replies
3
Views
8K
pbsdrinkingwhale
pbsdrinkingwhale
Flux10567
Sports Medicine rotation: MSK exam help
Replies
0
Views
2K
Flux10567
Flux10567
Fay1129
Shelf exam notes free of cost (UW, NBME)
Replies
1
Views
5K
MILITARY OFFICER
M
Top