Official Surgery Shelf Exam Discussion Thread

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jstuds_66 said:
I'm less than 24 hrs from the shelf. Here's what I've done so far:

Case Files: Made it up to Case 35 (I plan to read very quickly through the rest and only read the bold stuff and answer questions for the rest of the cases)
PreTest: All but about half of the GI and Transplant questions
Pestano Notes: Read completely yesterday (Also listening to audio)
L&A: Took practice test this am (~55% correct)


Am I in trouble for the shelf? What else should I do in my last remaining 24 hrs?

Thanks for any help!
Click to expand...
Could you possibly tell me where I could get the Pestana audio?
 
can someone pm me with the Pestana notes? Thanks in advance!!!
 
About to start my surgery rotation, please review my study plan:

Before I start the rotation:
Read through all of Case files
Learning basic ties and sutures
Review the Anatomy of the abdomen using Acland DVDs
Reading through the first few chapters of Surgery Recall
Loading Recall and Pestana audio onto my Ipod
Review my school's intro to surgery lectures

During the rotation:
NMS Surgery Casebook x1
Pestana audio and notes x 2 (or more)
30 USMLE World questions/day (all medicine and surgery questions) x 1
the USMLE Surgery questions again x1
Surgery recall
My school's lectures
Review anatomy and procedures for each case that I see

Sound good? Overdoing it? Any resources I'm missing? I realize this plan doesn't include a First Aid or Pretest, should I add one of those, or swap something out for one of those? I feel like this is the shelf that I'm most likely to fail, so I want to take my test prep seriously.
 
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Perrotfish said:
About to start my surgery rotation, please review my study plan:

Before I start the rotation:
Read through all of Case files
Learning basic ties and sutures
Review the Anatomy of the abdomen using Acland DVDs
Reading through the first few chapters of Surgery Recall
Loading Recall and Pestana audio onto my Ipod
Review my school's intro to surgery lectures

During the rotation:
NMS Surgery Casebook x1
Pestana audio and notes x 2 (or more)
30 USMLE World questions/day (all medicine and surgery questions) x 1
the USMLE Surgery questions again x1
Surgery recall
My school's lectures
Review anatomy and procedures for each case that I see

Sound good? Overdoing it? Any resources I'm missing? I realize this plan doesn't include a First Aid or Pretest, should I add one of those, or swap something out for one of those? I feel like this is the shelf that I'm most likely to fail, so I want to take my test prep seriously.
Click to expand...
yeah, that's prolly great--if you can get through it all. Maybe try and make it through NMS casebook twice. I'd skip pretest, it seemed like the epitome of suck to me.

One piece of advise I'll give you is to find out from students who've done the rotation at your site or w/ your attending(s) and see if they like to pimp, and, specifically, if they like to pimp anatomy. If they don't, you can chuck Recall, which'll give you a lot of extra time to focus on other high-yield or useful material.
 
turkeyjerky said:
yeah, that's prolly great--if you can get through it all. Maybe try and make it through NMS casebook twice. I'd skip pretest, it seemed like the epitome of suck to me.

One piece of advise I'll give you is to find out from students who've done the rotation at your site or w/ your attending(s) and see if they like to pimp, and, specifically, if they like to pimp anatomy. If they don't, you can chuck Recall, which'll give you a lot of extra time to focus on other high-yield or useful material.
Click to expand...

Every resident told me not to use pretest and I really never saw anyone use FA either.

For the shelf - Case Files and/or NMS, Pestana notes, and UW questions should be enough. The Kaplan Q book questions are good too

I agree about Recall. It's only useful for pimping. Like turkey said find out how they pimp because knowing anatomy well isn't necessary for the shelf so you do not want to waste too much time on recall and anatomy sources. I know you're interested in surgery but you have to be smart with your time b/c the shelf is a beast.
 
2012mdc said:
Every resident told me not to use pretest and I really never saw anyone use FA either.

For the shelf - Case Files and/or NMS, Pestana notes, and UW questions should be enough. The Kaplan Q book questions are good too

I agree about Recall. It's only useful for pimping. Like turkey said find out how they pimp because knowing anatomy well isn't necessary for the shelf so you do not want to waste too much time on recall and anatomy sources. I know you're interested in surgery but you have to be smart with your time b/c the shelf is a beast.
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I think NMS + Pestana +/- USMLEWorld questions if you want to pay for them. Recall for pimp questions. You'll be set.
 
What I used:
Causally (i.e. not all the way through, often in spare time)- case files and pretest- should have skipped the pretest and done all the case files.

I found myself referencing Netters and Robbin occasionally, but for my own review not anything exam wise.

NMS for specialties. Our textbook was Essentials of General Surgery by Peter F. Lawrence, which I read, but hated it.
Pestana notes 2x
UW:
Surgery questions 1.5x
Electrolyte Qs under IM
Per someone advice on here- got through half GI and Hepatology q under IM.
I wish I had skipped the electrolytes and done all the GI/H qs... very high yield.

Things I wish I had done: reviewed more pertinent X-Rays/CT scan, etc.

The exam was hard, but I feel that Pestana + UW the last week made the exam bearable.
 
So Pestana and UWORLD is money for the shelf?

I am a minimalist when I study. For Step 1 I went with Rapid Review Path, UWORLD, and First Aid as my core and it went well. I feel like I have been spreading myself thin with too many resources during clerkships.
 
badasshairday said:
So Pestana and UWORLD is money for the shelf?

I am a minimalist when I study. For Step 1 I went with Rapid Review Path, UWORLD, and First Aid as my core and it went well. I feel like I have been spreading myself thin with too many resources during clerkships.
Click to expand...

There is no "money" source for this shelf. Pestana is helpful, but by no means should it be the only thing you read. I read NMS casebook and found it helpful for my in-house practical exams, and somewhat useful for the shelf. UWorld was good as well, but it's pretty heavy on trauma and ortho. The shelf I found to have a pretty much even distribution of questions from various disciplines.

In the end, there is no magic key for this exam. I would recommend Pestana, NMS casebook and then UW questions for both surgery and medicine. I had a question asking me what antibiotics to use for community-acquired pneumonia...
 
badasshairday said:
So Pestana and UWORLD is money for the shelf?

I am a minimalist when I study. For Step 1 I went with Rapid Review Path, UWORLD, and First Aid as my core and it went well. I feel like I have been spreading myself thin with too many resources during clerkships.
Click to expand...

NMS (or Case Files) + Pestana + UW is enough to do well. I used that formula with Case Files and got 90+ percentile with it being my 1st rotation
 
2012mdc said:
NMS (or Case Files) + Pestana + UW is enough to do well. I used that formula with Case Files and got 90+ percentile with it being my 1st rotation
Click to expand...
Agree with this. I half-assed NMS (read maybe 50-60 pages of stuff I wasn't very knowledgeable about), read Pestana a total of once over our 3 month rotation, and did most of UW once. I came out with 70-ish percentile score, I think, so if you take it seriously and buckle down, you'll be prepared pretty well.
 
Could someone please PM me the pestana audio?
 
Isn't pestana audio/video just him sitting there reading his vignettes and explanations out loud? Same thing as the notes? I think I have both, just want to confirm.
 
Pretty much, but he does go into more depth I think and offers better explanations. It's good for driving and other times when you can't read or are tired of reading vignettes.
 
I got the notes by googling around, but cant seem to find the audio. Is it worth it? Could someone please send it to me!
 
Is Pre-test Surgery a good source for practice questions?
 
I used pretest and case files. I thought pretest was very very good. My raw score was 86. It was my first third year rotation.
 
My plan is case files+pestana+Uworld. Was hoping to get through NMS surgery (big book), but the shelf is approx a month away and I don't think I'd have time to get through it in addition to the plan above. There seems to be chatter that the shelf includes quite a bit of specialty stuff, so not sure if those resources are enough. Thoughts?
 
There will only be a few questions from each subspecialty if they are tested. I only had a few. There is way less ortho than is represented on UWorld.
 
nc0821 said:
My plan is case files+pestana+Uworld. Was hoping to get through NMS surgery (big book), but the shelf is approx a month away and I don't think I'd have time to get through it in addition to the plan above. There seems to be chatter that the shelf includes quite a bit of specialty stuff, so not sure if those resources are enough. Thoughts?
Click to expand...
I would highly recommend nms casebook over casefiles
 
turkeyjerky said:
I would highly recommend nms casebook over casefiles
Click to expand...
Second that (but when they get down to the nitty-gritty on which operation needs to be performed etc. skip over that).
 
can someone please PM me the pestana audio as well? I would really appreciate it 😍
 
yeah I actually would really appreciate the pestana audio too if someone doesn't mind. Thanks!
 
Many say that Surgical Recall has answers to all the "pimping" questions that are asked by the doctors during the clerkship. But is it good for the Surgery Shelf exam?
 
drmedstudent said:
Many say that Surgical Recall has answers to all the "pimping" questions that are asked by the doctors during the clerkship. But is it good for the Surgery Shelf exam?
Click to expand...
It's virtually useless for the shelf. You have to study for the shelf and pimping pretty much separately.
 
If someone could PM me the audio that would be more than appreciated 🙂
 
How is timing for the surgical shelf? I ran out of time during the medicine shelf despite rushing (had to randomly bubble in ~10 or so ?s :/). Does anyone think this one is easier/harder to finish?
 
psych said:
Anyone have any input?
Click to expand...

Out of any standardized test in med school I felt the most rushed for the surgery shelf. I barely finished in time and I'm normally a fast test taker. Haven't taken medicine yet but I heard that one is the longest, worse than surgery
 
2012mdc said:
Out of any standardized test in med school I felt the most rushed for the surgery shelf. I barely finished in time and I'm normally a fast test taker. Haven't taken medicine yet but I heard that one is the longest, worse than surgery
Click to expand...
I can confirm medicine is tougher to finish, at least IMHO and according to my friends. I also took it when we got 2 hrs 10 min whereas you get 2.5 hrs. ("Back in MY day...")
 
During the rotation, I used:


-NMS casebook as a primary source to read up on topics.

-Uworld surgery, and acid base/elyte section of medicine.

-Pestano, Pestano, Pestano (read over once before you start studying, and one or two times more after youre done).


Don't go into overkill with too many sources. I used these 3 and ended up doing just fine on the shelf (high 90's %ile).
 
hey could someone email me the Pestana audio? i can't find it anywhere and the shelf is a week way. im doing some of pretest which seems random. I read through NMS 1x, Kaplan Notes 1x, some of NMS surgery here and there, will do uworld 1x surg,

[email protected]
 
can someone message me the pestana audio too?! thanks!
 
I take the shelf this Friday (in 6 days). I read Casefiles slowly the first two weeks of the rotation a few months ago. I've read NMS Case book 1.5x and Pestana x 2. I did Pretest and found the q's very esoteric and often unnecessarily difficult and unhelpful.

Should I go ahead and drop $99 for the month-long subscription for UWorld to use this last week? Or does someone have a better recommendation? (like, for example, reading Kaplan Surgery or FA Surgery)
 
GuyWhoDoesStuff said:
I take the shelf this Friday (in 6 days). I read Casefiles slowly the first two weeks of the rotation a few months ago. I've read NMS Case book 1.5x and Pestana x 2. I did Pretest and found the q's very esoteric and often unnecessarily difficult and unhelpful.

Should I go ahead and drop $99 for the month-long subscription for UWorld to use this last week? Or does someone have a better recommendation? (like, for example, reading Kaplan Surgery or FA Surgery)
Click to expand...

The UW questions were nice, but it was almost all trauma and ortho.

The shelf is more medicine+surgery than raw surgery, so the UW questions involving GI and pulmonary med would also be helpful.
 
I'd actually just buy a year subscription, if I were you. I assume you'll be taking Step 2 within the next year, so fire away.
 
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