shelf studying

[Day man]

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Hello all, I am curious about what everyone feels the best method for studying for shelves is. I've seen the threads, use the books/question sources...but I have yet to do anywhere near my potential on these exams. I haven't struggled with shelves in MS 1/2 or Step 1...but these are kicking my ass. The curious/weird/extremely frustrating thing is...my clinical evaluations are stellar. I know the questions, help out, ect and have received some great feedback. But these shelves are pretty much pushing me down from an honor to a high pass.

I realize this is kind of a douchey thread, but I see such great scores on here, and I'm just curious what everyone does. Read every night? Cram? Only questions? Thanks for any help and reading this. -day man

 

[turkeyjerky]

yeah, you have to read every night, cram the day before the shelf and do a lot of questions. Clinical evals have remarkably little to do w/ clinical knowledge or acumen, and pimping questions really aren't representative of knowledge required for shelves. Read about your patients and common conditions on uptodate, and use good sources, as detailed on numerous threads on this site, to study for the shelf. If you've been doing these things already, then you should switch it up--try getting a qbank or using kaplan books. But don't spend your time reading Recall books or studying anatomy.

 

[Day man]

Thanks for the advice, I'm going to try to read about what I see each night then do the qbanks twice. Prides a little beaten to ****e but rather learn clinical does not equal shelf early and learn from it. Appreciate the advice.

 

[MilkmanAl]

It's all about UW, as usual. With the exception of medicine, I didn't study except the week(ish) before the shelf and still handily beat the average on all of them. Crank through the UW questions a couple times, and you'll be fine.

 

[gynosquad]

Is there an alternative to Qbank while studying for shelves? I feel like it's a little expensive to buy it for almost two years straight. Any suggestions? I am about to start family med as my first rotation and all I've bought is step up to medicine and mskap (sp?). I also have first aid for step 2 ck and boards and wards. I was considering buying a thing anatomy atlas to bring with me and the pocket medicine (green book). Any feedback would be great since this is my first rotation and it starts in ten days!

 

[MilkmanAl]

Is it more expensive than buying a book for each rotation and then buying it for a shorter period of time for Step 2 study? Probably not.

 

[gynosquad]

Oh I see, so you forgo buying books for each rotation and just do usmleworld? I could see how that wouldn't be expensive in that way. Thanks!

 

[Valadi]

Yeah, I know a couple friends that rock clinically and can't hit the shelves hard. You have to spend time during the day figuring out what would be super important, and that stuff is most likely to be asked on a shelf (e.g., shock, COPD, fetal heart tracings) then plow through that **** on uptodate and fill in the rest with a review book + world.

I don't know how people get by without studying except for right before a shelf. I would usually take the first few days off to rest from the last clerkship, then hit the books. A hard hour a night can go a long way. If you get through a review book once before shelf studying, then it'll be much easier to blast through for the shelf. So I'd go once through a book (a chapter a day) during the clerkship, then last week was all world + re-reading the book.

I think these books are the best per clerkship. Supplement with uptodate for big hit topics and world, and you'll be golden.

Surg - FA+NMS
Med - SU2M/MKSAP
OB - Blueprint
Neuro - blueprints
Family med - ambulatory section of SU2M, case files
Psych - First aid psych (by far the best)
Peds - blueprints

The green book is good clinically, but it's hard to learn from. You have no need to carry around an anatomy book. FA CK won't help a ton for shelves.

Having family med 1st sucks because its a crapshoot of stuff from every rotation. The family med director at our school showed us a little graph with people scores on the shelf throughout the year and there was a steady rise.

 

[MossPoh]

That increase in score is consistent through the year with every rotation, not just family medicine. One's clinical reasoning and knowledge base generally gets better throughout the year.

Practice questions mixed with a little reading and more practice questions. My goal is usually to average an hour of reading a day. Note that is an average, so some days I may not have any and then other days I will have 2 or 3. I tend to frontload my reading in the 1st half and then the 2nd half is mostly questions. I've found it helps me get more from my patients and impresses my attendings a little more.

 

[officedepot]

it may not necessarily be that you don't have the knowledge necessary (as all you need to do is read at least case files for most rotations and study lots of questions to get a good score) but that the way you take the test is not the best. Do you feel pressed for time? take too long to read each question? This is where doing questions helps. The shelf for me is tough because by the time I get to question 100 there are about 2 minutes left.