Surgery test in three weeks - how to quickly prepare

[loveumms]

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Hey all - I'm a third year and would like some guidance in how to get down and dirty studying for my surgery test (its in three weeks). We don't take the shelf exam ... and to be honest no one is really sure exactly where our test comes from or whats contained in it so I'm hoping that it will be similar to the shelf. Basically, we were told that the questions were written by the surgeons in our department (but word from the upper classman is that most of the questions are so old that the professors who wrote them are no longer with the department).

I have been reading here and there (NMS, a small bit of Lawrence and Blueprints with some Recall thrown in) but have not REALLY done any hard core studying yet. I have always done well with studying hard core the week or so before an exam but feel like I don't even know where to really begin with this type of test. I have two "easy" electives the last two weeks so anticipating being able to study at least 6 hours each day.

Any suggestions are greatly appreciated!

Thanks 😉

 

[Mike59]

Study surgical recall and know it COLD. That's all I focused on and I did fine on my school's exam (which sounds similar to yours, non-shelf).

Don't forget about subspecialties and ortho cause a surprising number of questions could be about thyroid/peds/ortho injuries etc. Recall gives the highest yield info from each so I think it's your best bet. Recall helped me a ton cause it also taught about stuff like fluids, anticoagulation, post-op complications and other topics that aren't emphasized heavily in long textbooks.

If you have time after memorizing what you can from recall, just go through common cases and think through diagnosis and treatment step by step or do lots of practice questions.

Hope that helps...

 

[djipopo]

what he said 😉

honestly though, recall is golden.