Shelf exams

[Medstudentquest]

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Ok, so I am bummed! I got my shelf IM scores back yesterday, and I lost my clinical Outstanding because I wasn't able to get the score I needed on the shelf exam. I lost another previous clinical outstanding also by a few points because of the shelf. I have a hard time finishing them because I read very slow. I was unable to finish about 15 questions on the IM shelf, and about 18 or so on the psych shelf. What can I do? I know the material well, and study appropriately to prepare. Can anyone give me suggestions? I am feeling very bummed at this point that I keep losing my clinical outstandings because I'm off by a few points on the shelf exams. Advice please?

 

[lord_jeebus]

If you're reading every word, you're reading too many words.

Do lots of paced practice questions and work on highlighting the pertinent information without getting bogged down.

Also consider skipping the very long questions and coming back to them later.

 

[domer621]

Do lots and lots of questions and time yourself.

 

[blz]

you have to practice reading only key words and directly picking out the answers. theres no time to read the page long questions and going through all 20 of the answer choices for each question.

 

[koma]

Ok, so I am bummed! I got my shelf IM scores back yesterday, and I lost my clinical Outstanding because I wasn't able to get the score I needed on the shelf exam. I lost another previous clinical outstanding also by a few points because of the shelf. I have a hard time finishing them because I read very slow. I was unable to finish about 15 questions on the IM shelf, and about 18 or so on the psych shelf. What can I do? I know the material well, and study appropriately to prepare. Can anyone give me suggestions? I am feeling very bummed at this point that I keep losing my clinical outstandings because I'm off by a few points on the shelf exams. Advice please?

I agree with previous posters that the key is to do a lot of questions (at lest 500 per rotation, ideally more). I recommend Usmleworld for practice (although it might be expensive -$90 for 1mo, but you can split it with someone). once you go through a bunch of questions, you will see patterns and will be able to pick out important info. In the beginning of the year long strings of lab values are difficult because you're not used to them and often have to look them in the back which wastes time. If you dont want to get usmle you can always get pretest which works well for most specialties. in fact, pretest question books is all i used for most of the subjects and i did pretty well on the shelves. the key during shelf is time yourself mercilessly and if you are taking too long on a question, pick a choice and move on.

 

[Medstudentquest]

I agree with previous posters that the key is to do a lot of questions (at lest 500 per rotation, ideally more). I recommend Usmleworld for practice (although it might be expensive -$90 for 1mo, but you can split it with someone). once you go through a bunch of questions, you will see patterns and will be able to pick out important info. In the beginning of the year long strings of lab values are difficult because you're not used to them and often have to look them in the back which wastes time. If you dont want to get usmle you can always get pretest which works well for most specialties. in fact, pretest question books is all i used for most of the subjects and i did pretty well on the shelves. the key during shelf is time yourself mercilessly and if you are taking too long on a question, pick a choice and move on.

Yes, that's my problem. I mean it takes me long time to read, so obviously studying takes a long time for me, and I always run out of time on shelf exams. It is very frustrating. I am sort of just giving in to the idea at this point that I will lose every single clinical outstanding and will end up with Advanced in most rotations. Oh well.