P A T H O L O G Y Shelf Exam 2006

[path problems]

Hi,

I have my shelf exam coming up very very soon. I've struggled tremendously all year, and toward the end I'm finally started getting a grasp of things. Passing second year depends on the shelf exam I have in the next couple days. I would be grateful if anyone out there who's already had the shelf exam this year could give me some info on:

-what resources you used and your scores - were you pleased?
-what topics were high yield from your memory
-what areas were strongly stressed
-proportion/subject area of pictures
-any additional info that could help

I would really appreciate your help.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[mlw03]

all i feel comfortable saying is to a) know your microbiology b/c there was plenty of that on there and b) spend some time on congenital and metabolic disease (stuff that you would think of more as biochem); at my school we simply didn't emphasize these diseases so much during MSII and I remember thinking during the exam that I wished I'd reviewed my biochem some. other than those tidbits, it was what you'd expect - a sampling of pretty much all human disease.

other than that i used BRS path and first aid, and i was pleased with my score.

 

[DW3843]

I have to take the Path shelf as my final exam in about a week, and I am studying my a$$ off for it. I figured that I should give Path all I can now because it will help the old GPA to do well on this exam.
BUT more importantly, I am already putting in some solid hours on Path to go ahead and get some of that part out of the way when it comes to the real Step 1 board studying that will start soon after my final exams are over and done with.

BRS Path is my best friend right now, and I plan on knowing it cold. Here is a list of what I am using for this Path shelf.....probably about 7-8 hrs per day average over one week of studying:

BRS Path (including all end-of-chapter questions and the cumulative exam)
Robbins review question book (pick and choose the most relevant / high yield)
First Aid (I have 2006, not sure if that really matters)
Goljan (I have a 2 part series of notes, basically an outline similar to the BRS)
High Yield Path -- only if I have time for it near the end
Review BRS and First Aid non-stop the day before the test

**if I had only one book to use it would be BRS and I would know everything in it**

Hope that helps. I'll try to remember to post what I thought about the test after I take it.

 

[Tiki]

Does anyone know how long it will take to get grades back?

 

[mlw03]

Does anyone know how long it will take to get grades back?

ah... this i can answer without worrying about getting in trouble with the NMBE. we got ours back about 3 weeks after we took it. i believe the raw scores were back at our school in about 10 business days, and then it took another week for the curriculum office and the path department to do their thing (conversion to 0-100 scale, curving, etc) and get the grades distributed.

 

[ndspider]

We just took the Path shelf (2006)

It was challenging. but in a good way.
don't expect and knee jerks...... like negri bodies = rabies
or old man, alcoholic, red currant jelly sputum.... klebisella (sp?)

It is hard to characterize... basically know everything . Like know the characteristics of the disease, who gets it and why.

Not much help I know. Basically your score is about 80% predetermined on how well you prepared during the year. so don't stress and take it. The info is in your long term memory anyhow.
Spend an hour in the infectious disease and maybe look over endocrine.

either way. challenging but not too bad if you know your stuff.

G'luck
nd

 

[DW3843]

Here is my update after just taking the Path Shelf test:

I felt like it really was not too hard although I did study quite a bit for this test. As I mentioned previously we had just over a week off after classes ended and final exams began. The Path Shelf is used as the final exam for my Path class, and it is the first of the final exams. So basically I used a week to do nothing but prepare for this test -- I know this is way more than most of you will have.

Here's what I used (not as ambitious as I had originally planned):

BRS Path
Used this during 2nd semester so I was familiar with at least half of it. Went through the entire thing start to finish 1 time and did 3/4 of the chapter questions and then the cumulative exam at the end. I skimmed a few key sections this morning for an hour or so before taking the test.

Robbins Review of Path
I had used this some throughout the year. Over the past week I did questions from about half the chapters and the cumulative exam. I just picked areas that I thought would be high yield or that I felt weak on

First Aid 2006
Ran through this once going over the Path-related sections for each of the systems. This was done after studying BRS and Robbins, so it was a good review. First Aid tends to just regurgitate a bunch of facts, and it is good to have a decent understanding of concepts before you dive in.

That really was it. I glanced at some of those Goljan High Yield lists, and I had his GI lecture on CD in my car all week.

I felt very prepared (hopefully my score will not let me down). I think the key thing is doing well in Path throughout the year, like others have mentioned.
I wasn't a rockstar, but I was always in B/B+ range all year. The amount of studying I did over the past week was just enough to add to a solid foundation.

One other point: I thought there actually were quite a bit of the "knee-jerk" type questions. They might not have been completely obvious, but I noticed quite a few. I would stress knowing key relationships: things like patients with APKD also have. . . . berry aneurysms. Stuff like that


p.s. - This site is a pdf that has an overview of the exam with a question % breakdown (it's from 2003 but still seems accurate to me). It also has a few sample questions, one of which might just be worth your time to take a look at if you know what I mean 😉
http://www.nbme.org/pdf/nbme2003subjexams.pdf

 

[hypersting]

p.s. - This site is a pdf that has an overview of the exam with a question % breakdown (it's from 2003 but still seems accurate to me). It also has a few sample questions, one of which might just be worth your time to take a look at if you know what I mean 😉
http://www.nbme.org/pdf/nbme2003subjexams.pdf

Haha- That was like the first question on the test. How nice of them.

 

[path problems]

thanks for all the posts. really means a lot.

i took the exam - mainly used kaplan's review and qbank. tried using goljan's stars review, but it was too dense for the 3 short days i had.

i felt the exam was tough. the questions seemed way longer than qbank and seemed to be more secondary and tertiary. i don't know how much of my experience stems from the pressure to do well on it. i was going slow in the beginning which might not be the best thing to do. i should have focused on key words more. they put a lot of jargon in the question stem.

other posts recommend robbins qbook - since i was trying to make up for a poor performance the first half of the year, i just ran out of study time. after feeling like the exam was disasterous, i flipped thru the robbins qbook and the questions seem juvenile compared to the real shelf exam. again, it could just be poor test taking under pressure. i'm not good at gauging how i do.

granted, there are a few "shout outs" - i can't believe i didn't think klebsiella - that's been grilled into our brains.

i'm praying i did better than i felt. it's been a rough year. and the exam was nerve-wracking.

shelfs up next, ICD (no clue), micro, pharm... any advice?

 

[gschl1234]

ah... this i can answer without worrying about getting in trouble with the NMBE. we got ours back about 3 weeks after we took it. i believe the raw scores were back at our school in about 10 business days, and then it took another week for the curriculum office and the path department to do their thing (conversion to 0-100 scale, curving, etc) and get the grades distributed.

Our course director wasn't very clear on this. Do you actually get your score from NBME or just the "converted" score from your school's Pathology department? The Path director made it sound like we were only getting the "converted" scores.

 

[DW3843]

shelfs up next, ICD (no clue), micro, pharm... any advice?

I also have the Clinical Diagnosis shelf coming up next week. I was a bit clueless as to how to prepare for it until our course director gave us this pdf file. Apparently Pre-Test Physical Diagnosis is the best thing to study.

 

[DW3843]

just as an update I did extremely well on the Path shelf and i think my study plan above would be helpful for others taking the test as well

BRS Path was the most valuable
the Robbins questions are also really good.


If anyone is taking the ICD (Intro to Clinical Diagnosis) shelf test.....
Use Pre-Test Physical Diagnosis and review your BRS Path book. The Pre-Test book alone is enough to far exceed the national average, but it helps to have a decent understanding of Path also. (tons of overlap).

good luck to those who may be taking either of these tests in the near future

 

[Tiki]

Our course director wasn't very clear on this. Do you actually get your score from NBME or just the "converted" score from your school's Pathology department? The Path director made it sound like we were only getting the "converted" scores.

We only got the converted score which really annoys me. I did really well, but it would have been nice to know if I did well compared to all medical schools, or if I just did well in my class and our course director curved it.

 

[mlw03]

Our course director wasn't very clear on this. Do you actually get your score from NBME or just the "converted" score from your school's Pathology department? The Path director made it sound like we were only getting the "converted" scores.

the nbme provides a score out of 800, as well as a percentile. at our school that information is provided to us, along with the converted 0-100 score.

 

[DW3843]

I was also given a raw score and an adjusted grade as the path shelf was used as the final exam. Our teacher told us that the national average for the raw score was 490 if that helps at all.

 

[kami316]

hey buddy is it a possiblility of i can get a copy of those goljan 2 part set, i have been all over for them. thanks.

 

[kami316]

is anyone willing to give me or sell me goljan's outlines, would appreicte it, thank you. send me an email at [email protected]

 

[drdr2010]

has anyone taken the shelf yet this year? just thought i would bump this thread now that the year is wrapping up...

 

[Its_MurDAH]

Hey I am taking the path shelf as my final as well. Any input from those who have taken the test this year would be really helpful. Also, did anyone else think that the sample questions in that pdf posted above are too easy? I hope that is exactly how the shelf is...

 

[Its_MurDAH]

so NO ONE has taken this thing yet??

 

[myrtle]

so NO ONE has taken this thing yet??

I'm not sure what to say about it, it's tough! There were definitely some easy questions on there that were a no-brainer and a good amount where I was able to narrow it down but there were quite a few where I had no idea even what they were trying to get at.

I would check out the breakdown from the NBME and remember to review the basics of path, including the inflammation stuff and don't forget about immunology and Heme/Onc - highly represented. There were about 10 or so color pictures on it - some you needed to be able to extract some info out of the pictures, some you didn't really need a picture for it.

I used BRS, Qbank, Robbins Review of Path and select topics from RR and Goljan audio that I thought he was really helpful with. I didn't feel prepared but supposedly most people don't and there is some grade upping that happens through the NBME and through the school. We'll see...

Good luck

 

[DrKitty]

Took path shelf today. From what I can remember and without violating NBME rules, I think it would help if you know GENETICS, immunology, and basic mechanisms of diseases.

 

[medstylee]

i definitely agree with what others have said about the test being particularly heavy on straight up microbiology, immunology and genetics. the prompts were a lot wordier than i expected and i had just enough time to finish the exam (and i usually finish tests fairly quickly). even so, there were also more rapid recall-type questions that i assumed there would be. i dunno... just one of those tests you leave having no idea how you did.

for prep, i put in kind of a superhuman effort and chugged through all of goljan's rapid review in just a few days. i'm really glad i did, though, because it helped me immensely with some of the signs/symptoms and more clinical stuff that BRS does not cover. i used BRS quite a bit alongside my pathology class, and i know it's a good book. in my own opinion, though, i think using goljan's rapid review will help you get more points on the shelf and step 1. the only drawback is that it is more cumbersome. anyway, best of luck to anyone who is taking the shelf soon.

 

[Twitch]

Hmm...RR Path > BRS Path, eh? I was planning on buying 1 and this does help.

i definitely agree with what others have said about the test being particularly heavy on straight up microbiology, immunology and genetics. the prompts were a lot wordier than i expected and i had just enough time to finish the exam (and i usually finish tests fairly quickly). even so, there were also more rapid recall-type questions that i assumed there would be. i dunno... just one of those tests you leave having no idea how you did.

for prep, i put in kind of a superhuman effort and chugged through all of goljan's rapid review in just a few days. i'm really glad i did, though, because it helped me immensely with some of the signs/symptoms and more clinical stuff that BRS does not cover. i used BRS quite a bit alongside my pathology class, and i know it's a good book. in my own opinion, though, i think using goljan's rapid review will help you get more points on the shelf and step 1. the only drawback is that it is more cumbersome. anyway, best of luck to anyone who is taking the shelf soon.

 

[myrtle]

i definitely agree with what others have said about the test being particularly heavy on straight up microbiology, immunology and genetics. the prompts were a lot wordier than i expected and i had just enough time to finish the exam (and i usually finish tests fairly quickly). even so, there were also more rapid recall-type questions that i assumed there would be. i dunno... just one of those tests you leave having no idea how you did.

for prep, i put in kind of a superhuman effort and chugged through all of goljan's rapid review in just a few days. i'm really glad i did, though, because it helped me immensely with some of the signs/symptoms and more clinical stuff that BRS does not cover. i used BRS quite a bit alongside my pathology class, and i know it's a good book. in my own opinion, though, i think using goljan's rapid review will help you get more points on the shelf and step 1. the only drawback is that it is more cumbersome. anyway, best of luck to anyone who is taking the shelf soon.

I also second the time thing - I'm usually a fast test-taker and this test was tight. I finished just before the 10 min lockdown.

 

[Its_MurDAH]

Thanks for all the input guys, the test seems beastly.

I only have a day and a half after my Path final tomorrow to study for the shelf so I am pretty much screwed in every way possible. I may just try to read BRS cover to cover in that time and hope that I remember stuff from earlier in the year.

For those of you that used the robbins review of path, did you feel like that helped you a lot (a lot more than goljan alone, for e.g.) on the test? Also, are the questions more like qbank where a lot of the times you already have the diagnosis in your head but there is a secondary or tertiary question related to the diagnosis that you need to know to answer the stem?

 

[Its_MurDAH]

One more thing, how well were the different organ systems represented on the test? I know the breakdown is available online but I wanted some input from you all as to whether some organ systems were favored a lot more than others. I know one person said heme/onc was big...any others? Which systems were under-represented, or not there at all?

 

[FenderHM]

you get a whole day between your final and the shelf? we had like 2 hrs, including lunch.


oh and just randomly, neutrophil's oxidative enzymes are pretty interesting don't you guys think?

 

[medstylee]

oh and just randomly, neutrophil's oxidative enzymes are pretty interesting don't you guys think?

ha, yeah really. i found myself fascinated with them over and over and over again... 👎