Please help keep me in med school with some surgery shelf help

[Somedaydoc]

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Hey everyone,

So I have my surgery shelf in 3 weeks and need to pass it to not get dismissed from med school. I have been super-busy on my surgery rotation trying to not get any bad evals which might also get me dismissed. Please let me know, in your opinion, what are the highest yield things that I should study and how many times I should go over them in order to pass. Anything that you thought was helpful or that you should have done-now is the time to save a fellow med student. And if you want to message me any advice that would be great too! Also, I have looked through the Surgery Shelf thread, but folks just used too many things for me and I just ended up getting disheartened/confused about which was the highest yield stuff to start with.

Send me some good vibes, Ya'll
Somedaydoc

 

[Corker]

I have no suggestions for surgery shelf (cause I'm still in my first rotation)... but I just wanted to send you a "good vibe/chin up!" message and wish you the best of luck! This is a grueling journey... and with the added pressure of possible dismissal, I'm sure your stress level is very high right now. Hang in there... give your best each day... get as much sleep as possible... try to use positive "self-talk" when you're feeling scrutinized or inadequate (which I do very often)... and everything will work out! 😉 Best of luck!!!

 

[nlax30]

What books/resources have you been using so far? Is there a particular review series that you like? Case Files, Blueprints, etc...

The main thing is that it's more a test of medical management of surgical patient instead of surgical technique. I'd say any of those major review series will give you enough to at least pass it as long as you spend some time reading/studying.

Also, have you already failed this or other shelves in the past? I find it hard to imagine failing this one shelf would be enough for dismissal, unless there is already a significant academic history or multiple failed shelf exams.

 

[JustPlainBill]

Get the smaller NMS surgery book (used to be red cover)....and get through it at least twice...that test is more about management....if you've had IM, there won't be much else you need as it's more management.

Seriously, if you passed IM, you should do about the same on surgery...

 

[turkeyjerky]

What books/resources have you been using so far? Is there a particular review series that you like? Case Files, Blueprints, etc...

The main thing is that it's more a test of medical management of surgical patient instead of surgical technique. I'd say any of those major review series will give you enough to at least pass it as long as you spend some time reading/studying.

Also, have you already failed this or other shelves in the past? I find it hard to imagine failing this one shelf would be enough for dismissal, unless there is already a significant academic history or multiple failed shelf exams.

I always hear people say the bolded as if it's some sort of surprise. Do people actually study surgical technique during their rotations?

Makes me glad that the service I'm on doesn't really pimp, so I can direct my studying towards shelf-relevant material, as well as stuff I'm actually interested in.

 

[nlax30]

I always hear people say the bolded as if it's some sort of surprise. Do people actually study surgical technique during their rotations?

Makes me glad that the service I'm on doesn't really pimp, so I can direct my studying towards shelf-relevant material, as well as stuff I'm actually interested in.

I've heard of more than one person relying too much on something like Surgical Recall.... great for pimp questions you may get but not for the shelf.

 

[turkeyjerky]

I've heard of more than one person relying too much on something like Surgical Recall.... great for pimp questions you may get but not for the shelf.

good point, I see some other students who seem to be only using recall--big mistake.

 

[Meerkatology]

NMS for surgery is not a good idea if your limited on time

most high yield stuff for me was:
Kaplan surgery notes + cases (very short 60 pages of notes and like 120 pages of SHORT cases)

uworld surgery questions


you may have heard surgery shelf is more of a medicine shelf than anything else. if you have time, step-up to medicine would be very helpful and just uworld questions on all the organ systems.

don't bother learning any details on procedures, you only need to know when a procedure is indicated. (most of the time a procedure is NOT indicated and you will be asked to provide the medical management, so a good foundation in medicine is really helpful for surgery shelf)

 

[Somedaydoc]

Thank you all so much! Good luck to everyone (myself included🙂 and keep the advice coming🙂

 

[NOsquid]

I also used Kaplan notes and Uworld q's.