Peds - abstruse content tested?

[anon-y-mouse]

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How much of the shelf was knowing about genetic bs? Like Charcot-Marie-Tooth and Hunter/Hurler/SanFilippo/etc. etc. that all present with features I don't give a damn about. Also, what about all the different immunologic diseases- e.g. Bruton's, IgA deficiency, all those other rare rare immunologic crap? I memorized all of this for the boards, but I have absolutely no energy to learn that material again. Also, how high yield is memorizing inheritance patterns?

Someone, please please please tell me what is high yield for this shelf. I am kind of going crazy because I feel I know nothing.

 

[Scaredshizzles]

How much of the shelf was knowing about genetic bs? Like Charcot-Marie-Tooth and Hunter/Hurler/SanFilippo/etc. etc. that all present with features I don't give a damn about. Also, what about all the different immunologic diseases- e.g. Bruton's, IgA deficiency, all those other rare rare immunologic crap? I memorized all of this for the boards, but I have absolutely no energy to learn that material again. Also, how high yield is memorizing inheritance patterns?

Someone, please please please tell me what is high yield for this shelf. I am kind of going crazy because I feel I know nothing.

I would learn all that stuff, considering it is very much fair game on step 2 too. The Peds shelf tests a lot of stuff that can't otherwise be tested in medicine. Something like Charcot Marie maybe not because that often presents in adults anyway...but the metabolic disorders and immunodeficiency syndromes and genetic syndromes/malformation associations...definitely.

 

[anon-y-mouse]

I would learn all that stuff, considering it is very much fair game on step 2 too. The Peds shelf tests a lot of stuff that can't otherwise be tested in medicine. Something like Charcot Marie maybe not because that often presents in adults anyway...but the metabolic disorders and immunodeficiency syndromes and genetic syndromes/malformation associations...definitely.

How in-depth? I mean, how would they possibly test it anyway? Like, give the diagnosis? The only thing I can think of is something like... classic description of DMD, then asking what the chance of having another child w/ it would be... or something. Like, would they ask "what is the diagnosis" given a presentation? Treatment? I'm not really sure how the hell we can treat something like Krabbe's disease. Do I just have to remember crap like "sural nerve biopsy" for the next step in managing Charcot-Marie-Tooth?! Aghhhhhh... and don't get me started on how every disease has losing milestones / ******ation / failure to thrive / etc. with few distinguishing features, and the distinguishing features simply have to be memorized. it is frustrating to learn stuff which I can't reason out on the spot.

ps- my goal is just to try to do well on this shelf- I'm going to worry about step 2 later since I will probably take it after I apply to residency.

 

[Scaredshizzles]

How in-depth? I mean, how would they possibly test it anyway? Like, give the diagnosis? The only thing I can think of is something like... classic description of DMD, then asking what the chance of having another child w/ it would be... or something. Like, would they ask "what is the diagnosis" given a presentation? Treatment? I'm not really sure how the hell we can treat something like Krabbe's disease. Do I just have to remember crap like "sural nerve biopsy" for the next step in managing Charcot-Marie-Tooth?! Aghhhhhh... and don't get me started on how Charcot-Marie-Tooth sounds like every other stupid losing-milestones-******ation-failure-to-thrive diagnosis...

ps- my goal is just to try to do well on this shelf- I'm going to worry about step 2 later since I will probably take it after I apply to residency.

Well CMT is classically a combined sensory and motor neuropathy that develops slowly...distal lower extremity tends to be first part involved (foot drop, history indicative of sensory defect--like ulcers, burns, etc.) Werdnig Hoffman is your classic pure LMN involvement throughout, with very fulminant type of course---age 2 or so iirc. Myotonic dystrophy with a hypotonic infant that eventually develops myoclonus by school age or later(hand/muscle contractions that don't relax easily.) A lot of these things, like the immunodeficiencies are in fact simple diagnosis questions. The peds test unlike the medicine test is probably at least 1/2 plain diagnosis type questions...matching sets, etc.

 

[pmpkn219]

I thought rare genetic (or even quasi-uncommon) syndromes and diseases were extremely Low yield on the Shelf. I think the most "genetic" mine got were a question or two on sickle cell... stuff like that.

Maybe one question wanted to know if you knew what the pathophys of Tay-Sachs was, but no Hurler/Hunter all that stuff.

I really don't remember that being super high-yield on CK either, but for some reason my memory gets more blurry there.

 

[Scaredshizzles]

I thought rare genetic (or even quasi-uncommon) syndromes and diseases were extremely Low yield on the Shelf. I think the most "genetic" mine got were a question or two on sickle cell... stuff like that.

Maybe one question wanted to know if you knew what the pathophys of Tay-Sachs was, but no Hurler/Hunter all that stuff.

I really don't remember that being super high-yield on CK either, but for some reason my memory gets more blurry there.

It's all relative, but 2-3 out of 100 questions on a test is still kind of high yield enough to know...There is a lot of things that you will study that won't be on the test at all. Just luck of the draw, but you're almost guaranteed to have some genetic and metabolic questions on the test.

 

[anon-y-mouse]

It's all relative, but 2-3 out of 100 questions on a test is still kind of high yield enough to know...There is a lot of things that you will study that won't be on the test at all. Just luck of the draw, but you're almost guaranteed to have some genetic and metabolic questions on the test.

If those 2-3 are going to be from this gigantic list of crappy genetic diseases, then obviously they're going to have to pick the most important ones... tay-sachs, sickle cell, maybe a gaucher's... I think that's a reasonable assumption to make. So the key to my dilemma was how much of the test made up this crap... haha.

 

[Scaredshizzles]

If those 2-3 are going to be from this gigantic list of crappy genetic diseases, then obviously they're going to have to pick the most important ones... tay-sachs, sickle cell, maybe a gaucher's... I think that's a reasonable assumption to make. So the key to my dilemma was how much of the test made up this crap... haha.

Yea, I think you can play the odds with which ones are most likely on there (San Fillipo or Kiny Hair syndrome are not likely on there), but I wouldn't bet on there only being 2-3, I would bet on there being at least that many, with upwards of 10 questions between genetic/metabolic/malformation/immunodeficiency syndromes. These questions are ideal for matching set type questions, so they come in groups of 2-3. Obviously you can pass without knowing any of them, but you could also pass without knowing any peds cardio or peds neuro. The only area you would struggle passing without knowing any answers in is peds ID obviously. I don't know what you're going into, but some of this stuff is worth knowing imo...most of us have or wind up with children afterall.

 

[SouthernSurgeon]

Yea, I think you can play the odds with which ones are most likely on there (San Fillipo or Kiny Hair syndrome are not likely on there), but I wouldn't bet on there only being 2-3, I would bet on there being at least that many, with upwards of 10 questions between genetic/metabolic/malformation/immunodeficiency syndromes. These questions are ideal for matching set type questions, so they come in groups of 2-3. Obviously you can pass without knowing any of them, but you could also pass without knowing any peds cardio or peds neuro. The only area you would struggle passing without knowing any answers in is peds ID obviously. I don't know what you're going into, but some of this stuff is worth knowing imo...most of us have or wind up with children afterall.

Have you taken the peds shelf? It's been a while for me now (~6months) but the test was not anywhere close to 10% made up of these types of disorders. Sure you can make an abstract argument that they are "worth knowing" but that wasn't the OP's question - they are definitely not very high yield for the shelf exam.

 

[Scaredshizzles]

Have you taken the peds shelf? It's been a while for me now (~6months) but the test was not anywhere close to 10% made up of these types of disorders. Sure you can make an abstract argument that they are "worth knowing" but that wasn't the OP's question - they are definitely not very high yield for the shelf exam.

I seem to recall ~4-5 on the peds shelf...I recall about 8 on my step 2 though....8/368 questions on a test that is supposed to be 2/3 medicine is a lot.... Might as well learn them while taking the shelf.