Pharmacology Shelf

[babydoc13]

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Hey I only have 3 days to study for the pharmacology shelf... passing is at the 15% and I've seen that threads from 6 years ago said First Aid was a good source. Just wondering if anyone had to study for this exam and if so, what did you use?

Thanks so much! 🙂

 

[PharMed2016]

Hey I only have 3 days to study for the pharmacology shelf... passing is at the 15% and I've seen that threads from 6 years ago said First Aid was a good source. Just wondering if anyone had to study for this exam and if so, what did you use?

Thanks so much! 🙂

15%? 😕

 

[babydoc13]

haha thats just passing. i would like to do a lot better but with three days to study i'm starting to worry about how well this will go! can anyone say burn out?

 

[PharMed2016]

haha thats just passing. i would like to do a lot better but with three days to study i'm starting to worry about how well this will go! can anyone say burn out?

Wait in order to pass the pharmacology shelf... all you need is a 15%? That doesn't seem right...

I would recommend doing Lippincott's Pharmacology Review (haven't taken the pharmacology shelf yet) ~ do the questions at the end of each chapter and read only the chapters that you don't know well.

 

[Stellar Clouds]

Pharm section of USMLERx is solid for this shelf

 

[babydoc13]

Thanks I'll check them out!

 

[loveoforganic2]

Taking it Friday. Just going to knock out Qbank pharm on Thursday

 

[Kaustikos]

Taking it Friday. Just going to knock out Qbank pharm on Thursday

Read this thread

As I said - First Aid is more than enough.

 

[loveoforganic2]

Read this thread

As I said - First Aid is more than enough.

I made a pass of FA a couple weeks ago, we've had finals all week, just looking for something more active w/Qbank. Out of curiosity, is the reason for sublingual nitro to register the "sting" and ensure it was taken properly? I thought nitrates did have a super high first pass effect

 

[babydoc13]

Read this thread

As I said - First Aid is more than enough.

thanks! i totally didn't see that. Looks like I'm set - going through FA for the third time now and then hitting some questions. Thanks so much!

 

[PharMed2016]

I made a pass of FA a couple weeks ago, we've had finals all week, just looking for something more active w/Qbank. Out of curiosity, is the reason for sublingual nitro to register the "sting" and ensure it was taken properly? I thought nitrates did have a super high first pass effect

Nitroglycerin bypasses first-pass metabolism through absorption by the vasculature in the mouth as oppose to absorption in the gut (mesentric veins-->-->-->metabolism in liver) with oral nitrates.

 

[Wordead]

I distinctly remember USMLERx Qbank being ridiculous for this, as in a good 50% of the shelf questions practically being question recall.

Pharm was by far my weakest subject M2, ended up with a 93% (dont remember raw score). That's how good Rx was for this.

 

[thedoctor8706]

Wait in order to pass the pharmacology shelf... all you need is a 15%? That doesn't seem right...

He probably means he needs to score above the 15th percentile... which is probably around ~60% correct answers. Our school has a similar passing requirement for basic science shelf exams.

 

[loveoforganic2]

Nitroglycerin bypasses first-pass metabolism through absorption by the vasculature in the mouth as oppose to absorption in the gut (mesentric veins-->-->-->metabolism in liver) with oral nitrates.

Sorry, I didn't think about the question being misinterpreted. In the thread Kaushik linked to, he had posted

Well, minus the reason why Nitro is taken sublingual. The intuitive answer about first-pass is wrong...

I was wondering if the source where he read that said the reason it was given sublingual was for the confirmatory sting you get when NG is dissolved under the tongue (proving it hasn't degraded in storage)

 

[PharMed2016]

I was wondering if the source where he read that said the reason it was given sublingual was for the confirmatory sting you get when NG is dissolved under the tongue (proving it hasn't degraded in storage)

The reason NG is given sublingual is so that it can get into the system rapidly without having to go to the gut (in addition to bypassing 1st pass). In general, it takes approximately 30 minutes for most medications to be dissolved and absorbed by the gut via the enteral route. This is subject to change base on the intrinsic properties (charge, lipophillicity... etc) of the medication. That is far too slow for someone with angina... hence the sublingual formulation where you have the patient keep it underneath their tongue until it fully dissolves (swallowing will increase time it takes for absorption).

 

[loveoforganic2]

The reason NG is given sublingual is so that it can get into the system rapidly without having to go to the gut (in addition to bypassing 1st pass). In general, it takes approximately 30 minutes for most medications to be dissolved and absorbed by the gut via the enteral route. This is subject to change base on the intrinsic properties (charge, lipophillicity... etc) of the medication. That is far too slow for someone with angina... hence the sublingual formulation where you have the patient keep it underneath their tongue until it fully dissolves (swallowing will increase time it takes for absorption).

Basic concept I totally didn't put together for some reason, thanks!

 

[babydoc13]

from anyone who has taken it before... are the practice questions they give you online (the ones from NBME) anything like the real exam? cause i just did those and thought they were super easy.. I'm assuming the real exam is a bit harder but hoping not by much...

any thoughts / opinions would be appreciated! thanks

 

[thedoctor8706]

from anyone who has taken it before... are the practice questions they give you online (the ones from NBME) anything like the real exam? cause i just did those and thought they were super easy.. I'm assuming the real exam is a bit harder but hoping not by much...

any thoughts / opinions would be appreciated! thanks

Actually I thought the examples they gave were pretty spot on with the real thing. I guess this seemed an easier test to med students everywhere, as the curve showed a higher percentile needed more correct questions than other subject exams I have taken. But it was more or less pretty basic stuff, simple pharmacokinetics, really obvious side effects and drugs of choice, that kind of thing.

 

[evilbooyaa]

The shelf exam is harder than the 20 question example they give for all the NBME subject exams.

Do first aid + UWorld. If you're scoring over 50% on UWorld sets reliably, I think you'll be OK to break 15% percentile. Probably.

I never tried USMLERx, but based on the glowing recommendation I would consider it if I had to go back and re-take it.

 

[bangarang]

I used FA + Lange pharm cards + whatever I learned from UWorld. I didn't get through all the organ systems, but I focused on my weaknesses before going in. This advice might be too late, but definitely look over the general pharm section from FA and try to understand all of it. They will ask you a lot of basic questions about receptor agonists/antagonists. I thought it was pretty difficult but ended up with a 69 (mean 50, SD 10).

 

[Kaustikos]

The reason NG is given sublingual is so that it can get into the system rapidly without having to go to the gut (in addition to bypassing 1st pass). In general, it takes approximately 30 minutes for most medications to be dissolved and absorbed by the gut via the enteral route. This is subject to change base on the intrinsic properties (charge, lipophillicity... etc) of the medication. That is far too slow for someone with angina... hence the sublingual formulation where you have the patient keep it underneath their tongue until it fully dissolves (swallowing will increase time it takes for absorption).

Yeah,
That question tricked me.

 

[loveoforganic2]

Ended up not studying for it, was just not feeling it. Probably one of the easier shelves I've taken (out of phys, neuro, biochem, and micro)

 

[babydoc13]

Laughed when i got the same nitroglyc question... First aid and u world all the way. High 80s for me but that's because I was exhausted and couldn't remember drugs that were in first aid. Glad that's behind me

 

[cher25]

I got an 80 on this shelf (don't know my raw score). I used USMLE Rx exclusively. I only had 2 days to prep and did the 553 pharm questions in Rx. I did it in tutor mode and read every explanation. I was weak on cardio and renal prior to this exam otherwise I would have likely scored higher.