Peds before Medicine ?

[Cantal]

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Any tips for someone taking pediatrics before medicine? I heard the shelf in peds has strong bias toward things you learn in medicine.

Is it worthwhile to study for medicine during the peds section? Am I doomed to not do as well as my colleagues who have taken medicine?

I'm kinda scared from horror stories.

 

[opus03]

I wouldn't worry much about that. I've already had peds and won't have medicine until January. I wouldn't study for medicine now either, study for peds....I've only taken 2 shelf exams (surg & peds) but between the two, surgery seemed liked more medicine than the peds shelf. I only used Blueprints and Pretest and felt fairly well-prepared for this one...it had a lot of classic presentations and very few "next step in management" questions.
good luck!

 

[RonaldColeman]

Any tips for someone taking pediatrics before medicine? I heard the shelf in peds has strong bias toward things you learn in medicine.

Is it worthwhile to study for medicine during the peds section? Am I doomed to not do as well as my colleagues who have taken medicine?

I'm kinda scared from horror stories.

I actually think the optimal rotaion schedule is Peds first then Medicine then the rest of the rotations. In my opinion, taking medicine improves your score on all 3rd year shelf exams except Peds. The Peds shelf is different than the other 3rd year shelf exams. The presentations are very classic, and there are very few next step in management questions. Many of the questions on the exam are things you would have learned during the first 2 years of medical school. For example, there are quite a few mechanism of disease questions. I think taking Peds first is a great idea because you can do great on the shelf without any other 3rd year courses, and you also learn concepts that will help you on the medicine shelf (which then helps you on the rest of the shelf exams!).

 

[njbmd]

Any tips for someone taking pediatrics before medicine? I heard the shelf in peds has strong bias toward things you learn in medicine.

Is it worthwhile to study for medicine during the peds section? Am I doomed to not do as well as my colleagues who have taken medicine?

I'm kinda scared from horror stories.

Hi there,
Pediatrics is medicine for people under the age of 18. You do not need to study internal medicine (medicine for those 18 and over) before or while doing your pediatrics rotation. Most of the good pediatric texts will give you everything that you need to be learning for your pediatric rotation if you do the reading. I honored Pediatrics and aced the Peds shelf using Baby Nelson and Blue Prints for Pediatrics. I used Big Nelson for any special topic reports that I had to present. Pediatrics was my first rotation third year.

njbmd 🙂

 

[Adcadet]

Did peds first as well. I didn't think there was anything in the shelf that I didn't see in the commonly listed review sources and didn't feel the need to study IM stuff.

 

[Casey James]

Any tips for someone taking pediatrics before medicine? I heard the shelf in peds has strong bias toward things you learn in medicine.

Is it worthwhile to study for medicine during the peds section? Am I doomed to not do as well as my colleagues who have taken medicine?

I'm kinda scared from horror stories.

Just get all the peds question books you can find and start early. The peds shelf is hard. Technically peds is similare to medicine - but really the shelf exams don't have a lot in common. Each has it's own tradition of buzzwords and specific problems. Not having taken medicine won't hurt you.

 

[jojo14]

Any tips for someone taking pediatrics before medicine? I heard the shelf in peds has strong bias toward things you learn in medicine.

Is it worthwhile to study for medicine during the peds section? Am I doomed to not do as well as my colleagues who have taken medicine?

I'm kinda scared from horror stories.

I think taking peds before medicine is a great way to get your feet wet in the clinical setting (although I don't know if you have had required rotations before this). Pediatricians tend to be much nicer and willing to explain basic clinical and hospital stuff (ie why we get a CRP, why a CT, how to write orders, etc). In medicine I got made fun of for being "a baby med student" who didn't know how to get a consult! Don't study medicine during peds- there's more than enough unique peds issues that will come up on the SHELF.