Official Pediatrics Shelf Exam Thread

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The Peds shelf was my very first shelf of 3rd year and I got an 87 raw (no idea what the percentile was). I basically just read some of Blueprints and did most of Pretest. I think having come off of Step I recently "saved" me (I didn't really take it seriously studying-wise since it wasn't factored into our clerkship grade).
 
I was burned out so I pretty much did not start studying until about a week and half before the shelf.

We were required to do the CLIPP cases and take the CLIPP exam so while I didn't actually read the cases closely I did answer most of the questions seriously and I skimmed all of the case summaries the day before the exam.

I did not read anything for this shelf. I heard it was somewhat difficult but it was my 5th rotation and just didn't have the motivation. I did all of the World questions and repeated my incorrect. I then took notes on the questions I missed for a 2nd time. Did Pre-Test and took notes on every missed question. Same for the Kaplan Q book tests.

Thought the exam wasn't too bad and got a 92 raw.

I think all of the question sources I used were helpful. Pre-Test can get pretty obscure at times but overall it does a good job of covering everything important.
 
Took the test yesterday, it was my last shelf and I have to say, this one really sucked. I used Pretest x2, CFx1, Worldx2 and Blueprints x1, and I just didn't feel prepared for this thing plus made several silly mistakes (guess I was already in vacation mode). In retrospect, I wish I had read CF again and not used Blueprints. People on here claim that Pretest for Peds is great, I didn't find it to be particularly helpful either.

Hopefully I can break the 84 we need for Honors at my school....
 
92 raw, 96th percentile

did NMS Peds, USMLEWorld Peds, USMLERx Peds, PreTest x2, Kaplan Step 2 Qbook Peds

I was hesistant to use Blueprints because it was so superficial, although in retrospect, maybe I should have since the exam was kind of superficial and NMS just went overboard.

goodluck!
 
Peds is my first rotation and I haven't touched any qbanks yet. Do most third years get a 1 yr subscription to UWORLD? I thought UWORLD was more for step 2. Is it an essential resource for shelf exams or would pretest questions/case files suffice?
 
Similar question to the poster above. Uworld for a year is freaking expensive.

Does anyone know how many peds questions are in the uworld q bank? I am thinking about buying a 60day subscription to cover peds and psych. I have a rotation in between so I want to stretch it out as much as I can..
 
wannabedocta said:
Peds is my first rotation and I haven't touched any qbanks yet. Do most third years get a 1 yr subscription to UWORLD? I thought UWORLD was more for step 2. Is it an essential resource for shelf exams or would pretest questions/case files suffice?
Click to expand...

The dean of academic support at my school said that historically over 50% of students (i'm assuming she meant just at my school) get the year-long subscription to cover shelf exams and step 2. The downside to getting it now is that unless you plan on taking step 2 next July, you will have to renew your subscription for another few months until you do take step 2 next year (which means even more $$$$). But as for it being helpful, she think it is essential. For me, UW was golden for step 1 and the majority of shelf exam questions are retired step 2 questions or questions that didn't make "the cut" for inclusion on step 2.

But I'd also love to hear from people who recently finished 3rd year and Step 2..
 
Pedsbro said:
The dean of academic support at my school said that historically over 50% of students (i'm assuming she meant just at my school) get the year-long subscription to cover shelf exams and step 2. The downside to getting it now is that unless you plan on taking step 2 next July, you will have to renew your subscription for another few months until you do take step 2 next year (which means even more $$$$). But as for it being helpful, she think it is essential. For me, UW was golden for step 1 and the majority of shelf exam questions are retired step 2 questions or questions that didn't make "the cut" for inclusion on step 2.

But I'd also love to hear from people who recently finished 3rd year and Step 2..
Click to expand...

I bought UW for the entire year and will have to renew it because I'm not taking Step 2 until Nov. Whether or not you should buy it for the entire year depends on your rotation schedule. I found it very useful for Surgery and IM while it can be less useful for stuff like Psych and not used at all for FM. I had Surgery and IM in my 1st 3 rotations so I bought the year subscription. I wasn't worried about "wasting" it before Step 2 because I knew by November I wouldn't remember most of the questions if I remembered any at all.

I did reasonably well on all 5 of the shelf exams I have scores for (84 was my lowest and it was my 1st shelf of the year) and UW was a large part of that. I highly recommend it.
 
do you think case files, uworld, and pretest are enough for the shelf?
 
XRanger said:
do you think case files, uworld, and pretest are enough for the shelf?
Click to expand...

For sure...I also found the Peds section of MTB for step 2 ez/useful to peruse the night before the exam, and so too was reviewing the Peds section of FA for CK (or at least those same topics in FA for step 1)...e.g. immunodeficiency disorders, TORCHES, biochem enzyme deficiencies, etc.
 
Read BRS, did pretest and Uworld. In retrospect, would have done none of it b/c I felt those shelf questions were so out there that none of those resources were really useful. Just took it today, dont know about score. I didnt really feel like much of what I learned in the hospital or outpatient clinic was useful either. Most of the questions were zebras that you'll never see. I think there was one question on asthma. ONE question. I saw an asthma patient almost every day. There were questions and answer choices that I'd never heard of before. Other questions wanted you to distingusih between 5 different types of eczema and other random skin conditions I'd never heard of. Of the stuff that is really cookie cutter, very typical clinical presentation, they'll basically tell you everything that you would have known such as the most common cause, the Tx of choice, the next step in managementetc, etc. right at the end of the question. Then they'll ask you something totally random and non related.
 
RySerr21 said:
Read BRS, did pretest and Uworld. In retrospect, would have done none of it b/c I felt those shelf questions were so out there that none of those resources were really useful. Just took it today, dont know about score. I didnt really feel like much of what I learned in the hospital or outpatient clinic was useful either. Most of the questions were zebras that you'll never see. I think there was one question on asthma. ONE question. I saw an asthma patient almost every day. There were questions and answer choices that I'd never heard of before. Other questions wanted you to distingusih between 5 different types of eczema and other random skin conditions I'd never heard of. Of the stuff that is really cookie cutter, very typical clinical presentation, they'll basically tell you everything that you would have known such as the most common cause, the Tx of choice, the next step in managementetc, etc. right at the end of the question. Then they'll ask you something totally random and non related.
Click to expand...

Just took this shelf as well and I agree with you. The vignettes were often vague and difficult to decipher the next step in management. Oftentimes, even when they serve you up a buzzword, the question that follows is unrelated and/or beyond what you learned in Pretest. I over-prepared myself for it and it didn't matter. There were a lot of interdisciplinary questions that go beyond even Step 1. Lots of management that I just have not gotten to from 1 rotation. I am now only hoping I will pass. I did:

Case Files x 2 passes
Pretest x 2 passes
UWorld x 1 pass
Kaplan Pediatrics video series x 1 pass
Blueprints for reference
 
Anyone know what the mean and SD of the Peds exam has been lately? I have tried searching on the NBME website but I find that site very robust and not user-friendly. I can never find anything on there.

Anyway, I got a raw score of 82 but have no idea what the percentile is, what the mean and SD of the exam was.

Any ideas? Thanks.
 
sivman17 said:
Anyone know what the mean and SD of the Peds exam has been lately? I have tried searching on the NBME website but I find that site very robust and not user-friendly. I can never find anything on there.

Anyway, I got a raw score of 82 but have no idea what the percentile is, what the mean and SD of the exam was.

Any ideas? Thanks.
Click to expand...
NBME scales the raw score so that a mean is always 70, FYI. usually the percentile is assigned by your medical school-- for example, a raw score of 90 was a 97. hope this helps
 
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I did Casefiles x1, Blueprints x1, Pretest x1 and the quick review at the end of each chapter in Blueprints x1. Scored a 78 raw. This was a tough shelf and thought I didn't do well on it at all. I think that reading BP twice would've been better than doing it once and Casefiles once.
 
Kaplan step 2 CK notes...people at my school have said they're very useful. Has anyone had any experience with this?
 
Took the shelf last week. Extremely random with all kinds of step 1 trivia dispersed throughout that you cannot really prepare for. If you want to be as prepared as possible I recommend Pretest x1 and UWorld x2, repeating UWorld incorrects on the second pass. The key is to get through Uworld in the last week before the exam so the questions are fresh in your mind since I had 4-5 questions that were World repeats. Aside from that learn as much as you can on the wards and just read up on your patients when you can. I really do not think Case Files are necessary and I have an especially challenging time getting facts from Case Files to stick for some reason.

On the whole for shelf exams you really cannot prepare for some of these ridiculous questions. Do your best, learn as much as you can on the wards/clinic, and that's all you can ask from yourself without going crazy. Good luck!
 
Just took the exam. Would rank it as a usual difficulty for shelf. I used BRS, UWx2, pretest and some of the kaplan questions. I'd know the stuff on world and the key points from pretest about separating similar dx.
 
99 Here. This is what I used: NMS Pediatrics, Casefiles, Pre-Test, and UWorld.

I walked out of the test feeling like crap (I know people say that a lot on this site, but I honestly felt that way). It felt like I was making a lot of guesses, and I just wasn't able to think critically about some questions because I was pressed for time. Needless to say, I was dumbfounded when I received my score.

A lot of this beast is diagnosis and mechanism of disease based. There are a few management questions, but not as much as the other shelf exams (e.g. surgery). NMS was my main resource. I read it about 3 or so times, and I took notes from the book on the 3rd pass. I also did the practice questions that come with the book and the online practice test (which was somewhat helpful, but I wouldn't do it if pressed for time). I did Pre-test about 2 times: once at the beginning of the block and once just before the test. I thought it was ok, but not as helpful as some people on this site think it is. Casefiles is casefiles: I read through it about 2 two times trying to pick up anything that I missed from NMS and PreTest. I used it as a review book towards the end of the block once I had almost all the major concepts down. I also saved UWorld for the last 1.5 weeks and carefully read each explanation as I went along (even for answers that I "knew").

If you get NMS, the first 150 pages or so are fluff. I would skip over them until just before the shelf exam.

Good luck!
 
Hello there,

Does anyone have the 2010-2011 raw score to percentile conversion chart for the peds shelf exam? If so, would you please post it here? Thanks so much.
 
Anyone else get annoyed with all the "chihuahua" references in Pre-Test?
 
taking it in less then 40 hrs
went through
Kaplan notes x 2 (not sure if this is enough as am only getting around 55-60% for pretest and around 65~75% from casefile q's)
Pretest 10th ed x 1 (felt around 1/3~1/4 of these are random q's)
half way through the q's in casefile 2nd ed
doing UW after this

*
65 raw, unscaled
kaplan peds is decent to get one to around the 60 mark (unscaled), but quite a few q's are from fields such as internal med/neuro (myotonic dystrophy, management of HIV with CD4 below 60 etc.)
Uworld q's and explanation is prob one of the best qbanks, since it repeats around 1-2% in the previous test
 
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Used CFx1, Pretest x1, Blueprints x1, UWorld x 1.
Score= 97
 
anyone think blueprints and UW is enough?
No idea how you have the time to do other books
 
anyone use a resource with a lot of questions? i'd prefer to do questions if possible. a good resource like lange Q and A for psych or the AAFP questions for family med shelf.
 
I get the general suggestions for resources are : Case Files, Pre-test, Blueprints, UWorld with some adding in NMS and Kaplan.

Any suggestions as to which to cover first/how to go through them? Peds will be my first 8 week rotation and I'm trying to get an idea of how people generally tackle the studying throughout the rotation. And... anything I should look over before the first day?
 
osias said:
I get the general suggestions for resources are : Case Files, Pre-test, Blueprints, UWorld with some adding in NMS and Kaplan.

Any suggestions as to which to cover first/how to go through them? Peds will be my first 8 week rotation and I'm trying to get an idea of how people generally tackle the studying throughout the rotation. And... anything I should look over before the first day?
Click to expand...

I started out with case files and UWorld questions which helped me understand what was important for the test. Learned as much as possible in lecture and at work. Second 4 weeks skimmed blueprints and did all the pretest questions which I thought were great.
 
What I did:

UWorld x 2 (once at beginning of rotation and once at the end, the second time through I memorized the material)
Casefiles x 1 (just read it through)
About 200 pretest questions

Got a 82 on the shelf, 77 percentile. Pretty happy overall.
 
Just got score back today. 94 scaled, 96 percentile. I did all of the uworld, Appleton and Lange and pretest questions with about 3/4th of pretest x2. I had NMS and read a good chunk, but not all. We also had to do clipp cases, which were sheer misery for me. My attending had major discussion topics each day and I had some very challenging inpatient experiences that stuck in my mind. Uptodate had some good reviews for big topics.
 
88raw ?percentile
uworld 2x
case files 1x
pretest 2x

No development, developmental disorders, metabolic disorders, or vaccinations...

My rotation was very weak with a tiny patient load and little teaching. So, all my learning was done outside of the clinic/floor.
 
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Burnt out from surgery but I'm just about ready to start reading something for this rotation-I need one good reference source can't decide between NMS? Casefiles? Blueprints? BRS?


Any thoughts on lange as an extra question source?
 
I was underwhelmed by A&L. NMS is good, but not exactly a quick read.
 
Blueprints and UWorld are all I used and I got a 97. Also all I used for CK and did well on peds. Unless you're really worried about honoring and don't feel great about the rotation so far, I wouldn't spend too much time worrying about peds and spend it studying up more on OB/Gyn and IM for CK.

my 2 cents
 
I'm getting killed on these kaplan qbank questions:laugh: This is the first time 3rd year I've felt completely clueless about the material, this may not end well.
 
96 scaled 95th percentile with cf, pretest, blueprints and ~half of kaplan questions. to the poster above, i ended up with like 57 percent overall on kaplan questions. also, for my test i thought pretest was pure money.
 
Scored 99 on the shelf.

Used the following:

Books:

Case Files x 2
CLIPP Cases x 1
Kaplan Pediatrics Videos x 1

Questions:

A&L x 1
Pre-Test x 4
U-World x 4
Blueprints Qbook x 2
Blueprints regular book (75 q's in back) x 1

Best strategy for doing well on this shelf is to do lot's of questions and review the concepts you missed. World and Pre-Test would suffice to get you a decent grade. If you really want to do well add on A&L and do more than one run the UW + CF.
 
Sapientia said:
Scored 99 on the shelf.

Used the following:

Books:

Case Files x 2
CLIPP Cases x 1
Kaplan Pediatrics Videos x 1

Questions:

A&L x 1
Pre-Test x 4
U-World x 4
Blueprints Qbook x 2
Blueprints regular book (75 q's in back) x 1

Best strategy for doing well on this shelf is to do lot's of questions and review the concepts you missed. World and Pre-Test would suffice to get you a decent grade. If you really want to do well add on A&L and do more than one run the UW + CF.
Click to expand...

Is this the Blueprints Qbook you are referring to?
http://www.amazon.com/Blueprints-Cl...4929/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1338103273&sr=8-1
 
94 raw 95th percentile:meanie:


I prolly studied least for this shelf than others, its the end of the year and I'm burned out-UWORLD and Kaplan QBOOK were money, did about half blueprints, didn't do pretest or lange like I planned.
 
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When people say blueprints they generally mean the text, not cases nor qbook. The text has about 20 chapters on different Pediatric subjects so it's like an overview, like First Aid Pediatrics.

Blueprints: Pediatrics
 
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