Official Surgery Shelf Exam Discussion Thread

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would anyone be willing to point me in the direction of the Pestana Cases/Review file? I've tried a few google searches but am coming up with nothing. Are medical schools actually providing this document?
 
Hey guys,

I was wondering how much time you guys spent studying for this thing? I'm on a pretty rough rotation right now and it might be difficult for me to make up the time.
 
I ended up studying whenever I had the chance (and could stay awake) - maybe 15 minutes here and there with either Recall or a chapter of Lawrence (I'd Xerox a chapter at a time and carry it with me) while in the hospital.

Then after a nap, I'd study a few hours at home when post-call (not that we got many post-call days as MS-IIIs 🙁 ).

Then on your day off.
 
Is lawrence worth it to finish reading?
 
Well, I used Recall and Lawrence to study for my shelf - but remember, this was back in 2003. I don't know what books are out now (instead of Lawrence).

I still maintain that Recall is great for pimping, OR cases, etc. Also easy to read when you have 10-15 minutes free.

Plus I'm one of the contributors. 🙂
 
Blade28 said:
Well, I used Recall and Lawrence to study for my shelf - but remember, this was back in 2003. I don't know what books are out now (instead of Lawrence).

I still maintain that Recall is great for pimping, OR cases, etc. Also easy to read when you have 10-15 minutes free.

Plus I'm one of the contributors. 🙂
Click to expand...

recall is ok. and i agree its good for those last minutes before a surgery. however, its not an easy book to just read and study from because its just high yield question-answers.
 
i took my surgery shelf about 2 weeks ago and i used lawrence (surgery and subspecialty books), recall, pretest, and kaplan q-bank. q-bank and pretest were the most helpful i think, with recall definitely coming in handy for some questions. lawrence is kinda dense and i personally didn't think it helped me as much as everything else. there was a good amount of micro (wtf) and "next step" questions. know trauma real well, and urology/vascular/orthopedics i think were the highest yield subspecialty topics.
 
Is the exam scored on the X00 point scale like 1st/2nd year NBME's (i.e. 480 being average, 700 good, etc.) or just out of 100%? I'm hoping it's the latter, as 79 sounds much nicer out of 100 than 700. 🙂
 
It is scored out of 100. My raw score was 84 and that was the 96th percentile.
 
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Took the exam today and like many have said before there was a ton of medicine on it. I prepared by reading lawrence & recall, and doing pre-test and lange. Both question books were pretty much nothing like the actual shelf. The shelf questions were much longer and I had to move fast and be mindful of time, but the second half was less reading than the first half. The matching questions weren't bad, but they were at the end so it paid to get to them. There were many "what would you do next" questions. Trauma is definitely important as I had many questions on this topic. The rest of the test is a blur.

I have no idea how I did. But, I'm not really sure how I could have prepared differently, other than taking medicine first.

Anyone else who took the shelf today have any thoughts?
 
I too took the exam today. Coincidence or does your school lay prominently on a lake? In any case, the exam would have been more fair were we allowed more time. Nothing was new to me on the exam, however, I just did not have the time to think through my answers. I suspect that half of the questions that I answered incorrectly were simply due to me not getting to think about the other answers. Most people seemed to be in a daze after the exam. I felt like I was the only one to walk out in a panic. I'll be happy if I just pass. What really bothered me was the extra information that they often gave and the possibility between two answers many times. I just can't look back and believe that I scored the 50% that is needed to pass.
 
It was the hardest exam I have taken, including the Step 1. I do not think that having even one solid week to study would have done me much good. Time management is key and I have never had an issue with time. I'm not going into surgery but it hurts when you work your tail off and it can come down to an NBME shelf. This one is 25% of grade. Oh well, they say the first shelf you take as an MS3 is the toughest so lets just hope there is a great curve. In the end I am sure that I could have done some more reading during the rotation, however, my motivation once I got home=0.
 
Any tips for those who take it before Internal med??
 
I know it is difficult to answer, but can anyone please give some guidance on what to do if you take surgery before internal med??
 
I took it before internal medicine and used Case Files, Casebook, Lawrence (as a refernce) and did half of pretest and half of A&L. I would really focus on trauma and know your fluids, electrolytes, acid/base stuff well. They key is to be know the medical management behind all surgical cases COLD. The aforementioned books go through this well.
 
I took the shelf at the end of September (having already done Medicine and Psych.) I used mostly Lawrence during the first month of my rotation and tried to make notes. I started a few NMS Casebook chapters, but didn't get very far. I used Recall as a quick reference during this first month to get oriented to what I was seeing in the OR. During the second month I tried to finish up Lawrence and noted that I had to pick up the pace if I wanted to get at least half the book done. I managed to make notes for about 3/4 of that book and eventually finished reading the whole thing. I would say Lawrence is great for mastering the basics, but not something high yield you want to be studying during the last two weeks. Midway though the rotation, I read through NMS Casebook first and started tackling A&L questions. During the last two weeks, I started going over recall which is great for quick review and testing yourself. It is not good for understanding the big picture so I wouldn't use it as a primary resource early on in the rotation. During the last week or so, I went over the answers I'd missed in A&L, went over some chapters in Casebook again, flipped through recall and used Pestana's review sheets. Pestana is GOLD, if you can get your hands on it. It was passed along by email attachment around my school and contains short vignettes and answers. I would say I knew at least half of the answers on the shelf just by knowing Pestana cold. Google it, it's there. Oh I also looked through Platinum Vignettes, loaned to me by a friend, but I thought it was too basic to add much benefit. Is good for a quick, simple review though.
My study schedule was a lot more intense for surgery than for medicine or psych and it showed in my score (low 80s for med and psych to 95 for surgery.) I was just more interested in and motivated to study for surgery -- don't know if I wanna be a surgeon though. Once again, Pestana is Gold. Hope this helps.
 
Can someone PM me about finding Pestana Review? Google's not helping me for some reason. Thanks!

I am about to start my 8 wks of surgury. Sounds like I will be working like a dog and and will be q3 for 4wks of it; so I need to choose my reading materials wisely. As of now, I am planning on studying Recall (for pimping), NMS casebook, A&L questions, and MKSAP2/3 (for FEN/abdominal pain/liver/breast only).

I am also seriously thinking of reading Surgical attending rounds OR Lawrance general. I happen to have the former from our library but would half to buy the latter. Do we have any die-hard Lawrence folks in the house who would strongly encourage me to read it (if so why)?

Thanks! 😎
 
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Surgery Shelf in 6 days,
halfway done with recall, some GI chapters, and mostly all the specialties left to read
NMS casebook with cardiothoracic, vascular, and trauma chapters left
should i focus a lot on specialties, or give them a one through

which question books are the best, i keep hearing pre-test surgery, A&L Questions,
what about Qbook, blueprints Q&A, blueprints surgery casebook questions

thanks

izzy
 
IzzyMD09 said:
Surgery Shelf in 6 days,
halfway done with recall, some GI chapters, and mostly all the specialties left to read
NMS casebook with cardiothoracic, vascular, and trauma chapters left
should i focus a lot on specialties, or give them a one through

which question books are the best, i keep hearing pre-test surgery, A&L Questions,
what about Qbook, blueprints Q&A, blueprints surgery casebook questions

thanks

izzy
Click to expand...
I didn't do that great on the test but I'd suggest spending less time on specialty stuff and more time on A&L and Pestana. I liked Case Files alot too.

My experience-- my first shelf exam of 3rd year, and I barely finished in time. I read Case Files (twice), First Aid for Surgery, read about the subspecialties in Surgical Recall, skimmed Platinum Vignettes for gen surg, did half of the Appleton & Lange questions, read the Pestana packet. Got a 77.
 
thats doable in two days, especially since the text part is 67 pages, and the vignettes are the rest

but how should i divide the rest of my time

Pre-test surgery and A&L Surgery
they both have hundreds of questions

thanks all

izzy
 
IzzyMD09 said:
thats doable in two days, especially since the text part is 67 pages, and the vignettes are the rest

but how should i divide the rest of my time

Pre-test surgery and A&L Surgery
they both have hundreds of questions

thanks all

izzy
Click to expand...

One thing that I am planning on doing is carrying a question book either pre-test or blueprint in my coat and do a few questions here and there when I get a chance.
 
I did one chapter in Appleton and Lange, and I must admit the errors and irrelevance to what will be on the shelf is astounding, I think there were maybe 5 next step questions out of 100, at least 20 totally bonkers questions out of 100, and at least 15 errors out of the same 100 question set

Rather than waste my time with those I have switched to pre-test, yes the questions are harder, they take longer to go over, and sometimes when you answer B you look op the answer and it says D, you get all sad and depressed on the inside, but then you read the answer choice and it clearly states that B is the right answer and its like you are born again, besides all that I think pretest material is more shelfy,

No one has brought this up but the Blueprints for Step II Q & A has 200 questions per 3rd year rotation, and they are wicked similar to shelf questions. Has anyone used that for surgery before?

Izzle
 
bmcgilligan said:
It is scored out of 100. My raw score was 84 and that was the 96th percentile.
Click to expand...

This statement is not really true.

"Scores are provided on a scale that has
been developed individually for each
test. These scores are scaled to have a
mean of 70 and a standard deviation of
8 for a specific group of examinees. It is
important to note that although the
scores have the "look and feel" of
percent-correct scores, they are not. This
scale provides a useful tool for
comparing the scores of your students
with those of a large, nationally
representative group taking the subject
test as an end-of-course assessment."

-NBME Subject Examination Program Information Guide.

It is rumored that by special request the actual raw score can be given but this takes some effort and is not typical by any means.

Thus a score of 86 would be 95th percentile. 84 would be lower than that thus certainly lower than 96th. However it is common for individual schools to adjust the standard score based completely on your own peers and thus they may have assigned the 96% to suit their own purposes.
 
Thanks.for.everyone's.advice.up.until.now....I.just.took.the.test.today,and.
I.felt.things.went.pretty.well.

I'm.a.strong.believer.in.Case.Files....this.series.served.me.well.for.IM.and.
Surgery.and.I.plan.on.using.them.for.Peds.and.Ob/Gyn.no.matter.what.

NMS.casebook.was.also.a.great.review...particularly.for.pathology.of.the.
breast.and.GI.ddx.and.what.do.you.do.next.questions.

Otherwise.I.used.Washington.Manual.for.Surgery.as.my."text".and.it.also.served.
me.well.It's.got.too.many.details.for.the.shelf,but.it.was.just.enough.for.the.
ward.and.then.some.I.particularly.liked.the.chapters.on.preop.management.and.
really.really.liked.the.chapter.on.fluids.and.electrolytes.

Blueprints.Surgery.is.the.biggest.piece.of.*&^(*&^(*&^(*&^(*&^^%
I.have.ever.read.in.medical.school.I'm.surprised.they.still.print.them.

Thanks.again.y'all.
Peace.
 
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Wohooooo!!!

I found out yesterday that I passed my Surgery Shelf Examination!!! I'm soooo happy! :clap: :hardy: :clap: And I did well!

For those of you who will be taking/are currently on your Surgery Rotation, I found the following books to be helpful:

1. Case Files: Surgery (I read 1 case file/day for the first 2 months,, and then reviewed
the entire book again during my 3rd month of surgery)

2. Kaplan Surgery Review Book/Qbook(this was provided to me by my school, which pays for the students to receive live Kaplan lectures, in addition to having access to Kaplan review books and online questions. They've already given us our Step II Kaplan Review Books)

3. Surgery Recall (This may sound a bit simplistic, but that book truly helped me, esp. with those topics, such as endocrinology, that I didn't have time to officially go back and read the textbook-required chapter on)

4. Surgery Pretest (I only reviewed specific sections of this book because of a time factor.)

I wish all of you the best 🙂
 
Does anyone have thoughts on Advanced Surgical Recall vs Surgical Recall? I can only get a copy of Advanced from my school lib and would rather just use that than shell out the $42, but the only reviews for it on Amazon say that it's more for residents than med students. I don't know if that's because it's more detailed, or because it contains different information entirely. Does anyone know?
 
Advanced Surgical Recall is more for residents, and helpful when self-quizzing for the ABSITE.

I wouldn't bother with it as a med student.
 
So its been a week since I took the Surgery Shelf Exam, enough time for me to sleep, get drunk, start pediatrics, sober up, drink, join a gym, find a new girl and what not.... (not all in that order)

So my mind is clear now, crystal, and I will tell you about this shelfy shelf

2h10min, except we got jipped 10 minutes, which in the end didnt really affect me,

What I thought: Wow...is this the surgery shelf or the internal medicine shelf, I got one question on fluids, maybe 4 or 5 on trauma, and the rest were mostly GI or Cardiothoracic, there were some endo q's with breast and thyroid sprinkled around, but most of the other subspecialties, besides pediatrics were not represented.

I did not think the test was difficult at all, there were a couple that got me stuck but then i remembered oh yeah preggers have their appendices' pushed all the way up there, i cant believe i almost forgot duh, so yeah everything everyone said about it being internal medicine with a greater focus on WHAT TO DO NEXT is right.....always know what to do when medicine fails, the answer is usually surgery, know which imaging modality will be the best bet for whatever system you are working with, CXR for lungs, US for biliary stuff, CT for masses in the thigh....yada yada

so what did i use that allowed Internal Shelf pt Deux to be so easy for me

well Ill tell you 🙂

1. NMS Casebook- Gold plus plus, lots of pictures, diagrams, and procedures galore weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!! It presents a case and then changes the age, or the gender, or the presentation so you get every facet of a surgical patients presentation, less wordy than case files, which I am using now for Peds and thought was great for Internal, and more visual which is what you need cause their is a lot of visual on this exam

2. Surgical Recall - why........why.....why........-Goljan, there are no explanations in this book, which is to be expected, so this book just put down when its shelf study time, good for the wards when johnny go get em wants to know the right answer to a question, or read during boring lectures, bad for shelf...tsk tsk this book ah sucked WHAT IS ANOTHER NAME FOR ULCERATIVE COLLITIS? the answer: UC........so stupid

3. Blueprints Cases for Surgery - also another loser, cases were good, but questions were not relevant, not enough coverage of the essentials, only four or 5 cases for trauma, no pre/post op care, didnt do the 100 q's in the back, maybe they were good,

4. Blueprints Q&A for Step II - Solid gold platinum, same type of questions, length, and difficulty, its sad that there are only 200 of them, its enjoyable and quick, even if you are getting a butt load of them wrong, but this is good for all the shelfs ive come across, i plan on using it again

5. Appleton and Lange or as I like to call Crap-ah-ton and Dang...as in Dang this book really woulda been great if I knew I was going to have a shelf test on the Esophagus, which it seemed like I would seeing as how many here claim that the shelf is just like these questions (which its not), yes there is a lot of what disease is this, but in Crap and Dang there are no vignettes, its all what disease has nutcracker esophagus, what is the stomach, these are not shelf type questions, dont waste your time with this book

6. Pestana Review - Ca Ching...Platinum, read it twice, got me at least 10-15 questions on the exam

7. Kaplan Qbook - did 50 before i started studying, didnt do the other 50 because after reading pestana it was clear that he wrote all the questions, and it wouldve been to easy

8. PreTest Surgery 10th Edition, wrought with errors but not the type that will screw you up, more so the type where you choose the answer B and then you look and see the answer is D, get all suicidal and want to kill yourself because you were sure that B was the answer, and then in a final moment you read the reasoning and the book agreed with you the whole time explaining that the answer indeed is B, ha ha jokes on you, better get that blood loss taken care of with some D5W .9%NS and a few units of PRBCS. Got a lot wrong A LOT, not cause i didnt know my stuff, but because I didnt know it in depth, this book filled in all holes, and glazed over them with an evenly spread foundation of awesome, they seem hard, but its worth it and more to get through as much as you can, because you WILL catch yourself and not make the same mistake without considering why you chose a wrong answer

I will let you know how i did but we are just F/P/H

sorry this is long

izzy😎
 
Any last minute tips? Anyone take this recently? My test is on Friday.
 
took it last week. Used in this order:
blueprints surgery - useful for a quick summary of common sugical cases. MCQs are ok
surgery recall - very helpful for floor work and our osce. there are some good tidbit in there for the shelf
NBME casebook - equal to pestana notes with more detail. good subspecialty coverage
pestana and kaplan qbook - these are great. hit up all of the high yield material and subspecialty material that complemented deficiancies in NMS
pretest - missed a lot ~ 45 % of them. as mentioned good for fillinf in details but a lot of these were not tested.

went though all missed questions. felt well prepared going in to the exam and well as i was leaving the exam. ended up with 90+ percentile
 
So I am taking Surgery before Medicine because I thought I wanted to do Medicine. But lo and behold, now I rather do Surgery residency at community program in Boise State, Arkansas and need to do well on the shelf because my grades suck and I don't have enough charm or whatever you want to call what we med students do in the hospital to get Honors on evaluations. If there was ever a time I needed you guys, it is now (no, I am not asking for actual questions as someone up there did).

So everybody says its a medicine exam.... I probably think this is true because you have to know when not to cut if off. However, I doubt you have to know how to manage it other than give the diabetic guy who didn't have hemorrhagic pancreatitis some insulin (I'm not even sure this is the differential and tx, showing you how little medicine or anything I know). Okay, maybe some fluids too? Or does that give him renal failure....

So what's the low down? Chest pain that is not Ptx, but turns out to be acute MI. Or do I need to know it is LV MI that is RBBB from an CXR? Do I need to know it is primarily an afterload acidosis mixed w/ preload alkalosis treated by Sertraline w/ .9% normal Insulin?

Please someone tell me the detail we need to know in Medicine. I have already read Case Files Internal Medicine twice to prepare for the Surgery shelf! Don't laugh at me because its the only book series I can understand. Will someone slap some sense into me before Korsakoff psychosis? Or do I need to break out the Harrison's and maybe Moore and Dudley?
 
diosa428 said:
Does anyone have thoughts on Advanced Surgical Recall vs Surgical Recall? I can only get a copy of Advanced from my school lib and would rather just use that than shell out the $42, but the only reviews for it on Amazon say that it's more for residents than med students. I don't know if that's because it's more detailed, or because it contains different information entirely. Does anyone know?
Click to expand...

I got both and it is more detailed although it does cover some of the subspecialties that general recall does not do as well.
 
anyone who just took the shelf have any info about raw scores and corresponding percentiles?
 
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anyone find UW for surgery helpful? seems to be ALL trauma and ortho. wtf is up with that.
 
Trauma was probably 25% of my shelf-- very high yield so it is worth doing those questions.
 
has anyone seen the new Step Up to Surgery book? what do you think? i just started surgery and am trying to choose between NMS and the new step up.
 
nevermind, i was informed by the lady at our school bookstore that this book (step up to surgery)has been "recalled" because of a lot of errors, and it will have to be republished.
 
took the shelf today, will update with score later.

resources used:
NMS Casebook: excellent book. Well-organized, easy to read.
Blueprints Surgery Qbook: great for covering the basics. the 4 tests don't take much time do.
Kaplan Qbook: good book, just too bad it only has 2 tests.
Appleton & Lange: horrible. Tests a lot of minituae. Typos everywhere. Explanations too short (sometimes all you get for an explanation is a single sentence). Not uncommon to find an answer which recommends an outdated diagnostic/therapeutic step.
Pestana Review: great summary (especially for the day before the shelf).
PreTest: amazingly good. the sections on pre-op/post-op care, critical care and trauma are particularily well-written, and contain very pertinent information.
Schwartz Board Review qbank (via accesssurgery.com): excellent resource, more so for the rotation than it is for the shelf (since it is a board review qbank for residents). but still doable. Explanations are very well-written
Case Files: ok. never really was a Casefile guy. probably a good read at the beginning of the rotation.

Shelf: mainly got questions on trauma, thoracic injuries/conditions, surgical oncology. not as much fluids/electrolytes as anticipated. 3 questions relating to choice of antibiotic in certain conditions (SBP, pancreatitis, ventilator-associated pneumonia). minimal uro, ortho, neuro, peds. no ENT/head and neck, vacular, cardiac or plastics.
 
lankysudanese said:
took the shelf today, will update with score later.

resources used:
NMS Casebook: excellent book. Well-organized, easy to read.
Blueprints Surgery Qbook: great for covering the basics. the 4 tests don't take much time do.
Kaplan Qbook: good book, just too bad it only has 2 tests.
Appleton & Lange: horrible. Tests a lot of minituae. Typos everywhere. Explanations too short (sometimes all you get for an explanation is a single sentence). Not uncommon to find an answer which recommends an outdated diagnostic/therapeutic step.
Pestana Review: great summary (especially for the day before the shelf).
PreTest: amazingly good. the sections on pre-op/post-op care, critical care and trauma are particularily well-written, and contain very pertinent information.
Schwartz Board Review qbank (via accesssurgery.com): excellent resource, more so for the rotation than it is for the shelf (since it is a board review qbank for residents). but still doable. Explanations are very well-written
Case Files: ok. never really was a Casefile guy. probably a good read at the beginning of the rotation.

Shelf: mainly got questions on trauma, thoracic injuries/conditions, surgical oncology. not as much fluids/electrolytes as anticipated. 3 questions relating to choice of antibiotic in certain conditions (SBP, pancreatitis, ventilator-associated pneumonia). minimal uro, ortho, neuro, peds. no ENT/head and neck, vacular, cardiac or plastics.
Click to expand...

Damn, you used a ton of books. I didn't have time for all that. I used Recall (which I carried around in my pocket) to do quick prep for cases because it has common pimp questions in it.

Otherwise all you need is NMS Surgery. I'm not saying I read all of it, because it's very dry; but I went through GI, trauma, fluids/lytes...common stuff. I did every question in that book twice and killed the shelf. You have to commit to a source to study effectively because you can get bogged down trying to figure out what's what when different books differ on minor points or emphasize different concepts.

There's only so much time in the day, and it's best to accept that your source may have some mistakes in it or leave some stuff out but you're just going to commit to that source for test purposes and learn the hell out of the material. Otherwise you just can't get through it all, at least not effectively.

Better that than sitting there going "wait, book X said that the most common cause of _____ is condition A but book Y said that the most common cause of ______ is condition B...at least, I think I read that...let me get the other one out, well, that's confusing...is LR really better than NS, or is it 1/2 NS? ****, now it's 3:45 and I have to take the shelf in 4 1/2 hours."
 
DrDre311 said:
Damn, you used a ton of books. I didn't have time for all that. I used Recall (which I carried around in my pocket) to do quick prep for cases because it has common pimp questions in it.

Otherwise all you need is NMS Surgery. I'm not saying I read all of it, because it's very dry; but I went through GI, trauma, fluids/lytes...common stuff. I did every question in that book twice and killed the shelf. You have to commit to a source to study effectively because you can get bogged down trying to figure out what's what when different books differ on minor points or emphasize different concepts.

There's only so much time in the day, and it's best to accept that your source may have some mistakes in it or leave some stuff out but you're just going to commit to that source for test purposes and learn the hell out of the material. Otherwise you just can't get through it all, at least not effectively.

Better that than sitting there going "wait, book X said that the most common cause of _____ is condition A but book Y said that the most common cause of ______ is condition B...at least, I think I read that...let me get the other one out, well, that's confusing...is LR really better than NS, or is it 1/2 NS? ****, now it's 3:45 and I have to take the shelf in 4 1/2 hours."
Click to expand...

I'm confused as to what you are trying to say. Obviously there is enough time to do all of this studying AND spend time in the OR/floors, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to do it. Most of the these resources went about covering the same topics (except A&L), so it was great for solidifying the info through repetition. So I'm sorry to say that I was never confused b/c of reading different info in different books. And why do you assume that because I used all of these resources then I must have studied inefficiently? Just because sticking to NMS Surgery and Recall worked for you doesn't mean that it works for other people.

But thanks for the advice. I will keep it in mind if i find myself having to re-take the shelf.
 
lankysudanese said:
I'm confused as to what you are trying to say. Obviously there is enough time to do all of this studying AND spend time in the OR/floors, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to do it. Most of the these resources went about covering the same topics (except A&L), so it was great for solidifying the info through repetition. So I'm sorry to say that I was never confused b/c of reading different info in different books. And why do you assume that because I used all of these resources then I must have studied inefficiently? Just because sticking to NMS Surgery and Recall worked for you doesn't mean that it works for other people.

But thanks for the advice. I will keep it in mind if i find myself having to re-take the shelf.
Click to expand...

I can't comment on the adequacy or lack thereof in your personal test prep because I have no idea how well you did on the shelf (and I've never had occasion to pick your brain about GS knowledge).

I don't care about your result or your GS knowledge, either. That comment wasn't directed at you personally. The only thing involving you was a cursory statement observing that you used a lot of books. Go for it, if that's what you like.

I'm just doing what everyone on this thread does, which is postulate an exam strategy. It's great that you feel like you succeeded using 800 books, but that wouldn't work for me. NMS did work (and worked extremely well), and it sure seems like a simpler strategy to stick to one source, so I am sharing that with future takers of the surgery shelf.
 
DrDre311 said:
Damn, you used a ton of books. I didn't have time for all that. I used Recall (which I carried around in my pocket) to do quick prep for cases because it has common pimp questions in it.

Otherwise all you need is NMS Surgery. I'm not saying I read all of it, because it's very dry; but I went through GI, trauma, fluids/lytes...common stuff. I did every question in that book twice and killed the shelf. You have to commit to a source to study effectively because you can get bogged down trying to figure out what's what when different books differ on minor points or emphasize different concepts.

There's only so much time in the day, and it's best to accept that your source may have some mistakes in it or leave some stuff out but you're just going to commit to that source for test purposes and learn the hell out of the material. Otherwise you just can't get through it all, at least not effectively.

Better that than sitting there going "wait, book X said that the most common cause of _____ is condition A but book Y said that the most common cause of ______ is condition B...at least, I think I read that...let me get the other one out, well, that's confusing...is LR really better than NS, or is it 1/2 NS? ****, now it's 3:45 and I have to take the shelf in 4 1/2 hours."
Click to expand...

This is how I feel about preparing for all tests, whether it's a shelf or Step I or Step II or whatever. I think committing to one source + doing questions is a better way to prepare for exams. It allows for emphasis through repetition. I'm sure other people do it different ways, but in my experience I have scored significantly better when I do it this way.

This comment is directed at any future takers of standardized tests rather than any single person.
 
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