Surgery Shelf

Started by CaptKirk
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CaptKirk

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How to prepare, what should I "try" to read? So far I've read very little in surgery. I have Surg Recall from a friend and Surgery Case Files. Would reading through both of those be enough to do alright?
 
I found the Kaplan Surgery notes very helpful for the surgery shelf. Surgical recall is ok. I also reviewed the surgery section in Boards and Wards. Good luck, hope this helps.
 
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CaptKirk said:
How to prepare, what should I "try" to read? So far I've read very little in surgery. I have Surg Recall from a friend and Surgery Case Files. Would reading through both of those be enough to do alright?
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I think most people only use recall before going into the OR on the specific case they are working on, it has a lot of the popular pimp questions in there. I used case files and didnt think it was extremely HY. I wouldnt rely on it. I happened to do 1.5 chapters of questions in A&L the day before my shelf because I was bored. I got 2 questions almost verbatim from there. I wish I had read the whole thing. But there is a lot of non-sense questions in that book i will tell you that.
 
CaptKirk said:
How to prepare, what should I "try" to read? So far I've read very little in surgery. I have Surg Recall from a friend and Surgery Case Files. Would reading through both of those be enough to do alright?
Click to expand...

If your school makes you do an oral exam, that is excellent prep for the shelf exam. There's no one thing that's going to help you with this test as there's a TON of IM questions on it which I'm assuming you haven't had. I also think that if you know surg recall cold you will do well on the shelf IMHO.
 
I thought that Kaplan step 2 notes were awesome. after taking the shelf I felt like somone at Kaplan had definatley jacked a copy of a surgery shelf, it was so on the money.

I also liked platinum vingettes.

Basically focus on knowing "what to do next" and what imaging tests to order.

good luck
 
In general, I think the Kaplan notes for any clerkship is money. Combine that with doing as many practice questions you can do, and the shelf is manageable.
 
This is my plan, shelf in 1 month:

I have Lawrence, general and specialty, recall, NMS, Mont-reid, and pre-test

I've been doin 30 q from pre-test a day and I'm a little over half-way done with NMS...I read Lawrence when I can (mostly because we have our lectures over the material...)

Qbank is required for our school now and I have about 150 q's left...

My main concern is that I will have NO time to study once general starts (I had CT specialty surgery my first 4 weeks)...

I'm really really worried about the shelf...being that its my first and that I'm partially interested in surgery.

Any advice?
 
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