Surgery rotation study time

[MrBurns10]

Advertisement - Members don't see this ad

I start my first rotation (Surgery) in a little over a week, and I was just wondering how much time you all spent studying for the shelf exam on a typical day during your rotation.

I'm afraid that I'll use most of my free time during the day/night studying the relevant anatomy and case history of the surgeries I'm scheduled for the next day, but I don't want to neglect studying for the shelf until the week before the exam. About how much time would you say you guys studied on a typical day, and do you have any suggestions for how to go about studying for the shelf throughout the rotation?

Thanks!

 

[DOctorJay]

you'll be amazed at how much wasted time you will have on your rotations, especially surgery. keep something to read on you at all times and make use of the 5 or 10 minutes you have here and there to get your reading in. some people print out articles to keep in their pocket or photocopy chapters of a book. it's tough to get used to at first but you'll soon learn how to use your time wisely like this which will free up some of your time after your rotation.

read on what you see and then try to read at least one hour a day for your shelf and you should be very well prepared.

 

[UCLAstudent]

It's possible. I probably average 1 hour/day of reading. On some days, my team will send me to the library to read on a particular topic for an hour --- this is when I read Surgical Recall. I'm usually too tired to read when I get home in the evening. I try to read 1-2 chapters from Lawrence on my day off each week and do the questions at the end of each chapter.

 

[MrBurns10]

Awesome. Thanks for your comments, guys.

 

[You'reCrazy]

It's possible. I probably average 1 hour/day of reading. On some days, my team will send me to the library to read on a particular topic for an hour --- this is when I read Surgical Recall. I'm usually too tired to read when I get home in the evening. I try to read 1-2 chapters from Lawrence on my day off each week and do the questions at the end of each chapter.

hey uclastudent or anyone else, what is your opinion on Lawrence?, since I'm also starting surgery in a week I was wondering if you were finding it useful. I know I am going to look at recall and NMS, wondering if I needed more for the clerkship itself and then the shelf. thanks

 

[UCLAstudent]

hey uclastudent or anyone else, what is your opinion on Lawrence?, since I'm also starting surgery in a week I was wondering if you were finding it useful. I know I am going to look at recall and NMS, wondering if I needed more for the clerkship itself and then the shelf. thanks

Lawrence isn't too bad. The questions can be irritating because some of them are kind of detailed. The thing is that UCLA has an in-house exam for the surgery clerkship, not a shelf --- and there's a big emphasis placed on Lawrence by the clerkship director. I'm not sure how helpful it is for the shelf.

 

[umza]

I found my percentile scores were directly related to the number of q's I did.
Appleton and Lange has >1000 q and Pretest ~500.
Although your score on those q's won't accurately reflect how you do on the exam; I found if you score greater than 60% on the practice q's, you were at the 80tile.
Reading for the first 3 wk/ques for the last 3 wk of my 6 wk blocks.
Good Luck!!

 

[MadameLULU]

hey uclastudent or anyone else, what is your opinion on Lawrence?, since I'm also starting surgery in a week I was wondering if you were finding it useful. I know I am going to look at recall and NMS, wondering if I needed more for the clerkship itself and then the shelf. thanks

I used Lawrence ONLY as a reference for any questions that I could not answer using NMS casebook, CaseFiles or things I did not understand when going through the Pretest and Appelton and Lange questions. I do think it has a fairly good section on fluids and electrolytes and that was one of the few chapters I read in its entirety.