School takes all shelves in same week

[redsox93]

So my school has a longitudinal clerkship where we rotate through everything at the same time and don’t have normal 6 week Clerkships. So we’ll be taking all of the shelf exams in August for all 7 clerkships. So far I’ve been trying to just do Uworld and Tzanki both on random and sprinkle in some OME when I have a chance but I feel like its not enough and I’m consistently doing below average on Uworld blocks. I’ve heard that the shelves are even more detailed than Uworld so I’m not sure if I need to be doing more. I doubt I’ll have the time to dedicated to reading a review book for each block since we take the shelves relatively soon. Was just wondering if anyone had any advice for what to do? I would ideally like to get 70 percentile plus since that’s our school cutoff for honors but realize this might be a bit of a reach since I’ll have to study for them all.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[LebronManning]

Damn that sucks. Which school is this?

 

[Naruhodo]

Hi there, I'm also in a longitudal clerkships program, though our shelves are a little more spaced out. I have also found it hard to get through entire review books before the shelves, and was disappointed that my latest shelf score came in below my school average (though thankfully still passing). I think UWorld for sure is a good study tool, and as much additional prep books, flash cards, etc. as you can reasonable handle and absorb. Several of my preceptors have recommended speaking to students the year ahead of me to see what their study strategies were. I don't feel like I have much advice beyond what you're already thinking/ doing, but I just wanted to offer my solidarity. Good luck!

 

[futuremdforme]

I'm always surprised at the terrible ideas some schools come up with to sabotage their own students. Why?

I was fortunate enough not to deal with this but some random advice:
- Internal - uworld sufficient
- Psych - find a review book that covers genetic disorders/peds/FASD. This was insufficient in uworld and is high yield given that there are only a few testable diagnoses.
- Surgery - uworld sufficient. Lots of overlap with internal.
- OB-gyn - I did uworld and case files.

I HIGHLY recommend the practice exams from the NBME site, they helped a lot. Especially since you'll be new to the test format then have a ton at once! Some questions repeat and you get a sense of what's important that might not have been obvious (eg. the genetics stuff in psych.) I would do this before any review books since time is pressed. It is also reassuring if you get a decent score. My score was always the same or above my practice score.

 

[doyouhaveaflag]

Man that does really suck. I don’t have great advice for you but I will say that at least if you can take step 2 shortly afterwards the additional study burden would be minimal.