The questions in Lawrence (surgery text)

[UCLAstudent]

I've only done the questions in chapters 3/4, but I'm getting my butt kicked! 😱 Are these representative of the shelf? Maybe it'll get better when I move into the actual surgery sections. 😕

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[dentate_gyrus]

I've only done the questions in chapters 3/4, but I'm getting my butt kicked! 😱 Are these representative of the shelf? Maybe it'll get better when I move into the actual surgery sections. 😕

Yes.
They were much better than A&L, Pretest.

 

[aesop]

For those who've taken the shelf, are these questions worth doing? I've done USMLEWORLD, Qbank, Qbook, Blueprints Q & A, Case Files. Currently about 150 questions through pretest and now I remember why I hate this series. I seriously want to launch this book off my balcony due to its poor explanations and irrelevant questions (i.e. how many mm an hour does a severed axon grow or what is the Cl concentration of pancreatic secretions). Any other recommendations for questions? Please help.

 

[DrDre311]

For those who've taken the shelf, are these questions worth doing? I've done USMLEWORLD, Qbank, Qbook, Blueprints Q & A, Case Files. Currently about 150 questions through pretest and now I remember why I hate this series. I seriously want to launch this book off my balcony due to its poor explanations and irrelevant questions (i.e. how many mm an hour does a severed axon grow or what is the Cl concentration of pancreatic secretions). Any other recommendations for questions? Please help.

NMS Surgery. It's all you need.

 

[DancingFajitas]

Is the Pestana review pretty much the same as NMS?

 

[DrDre311]

Is the Pestana review pretty much the same as NMS?

I didn't use Pestana, so I don't know. I think I've seen it posted that Pestana is associated with the Kaplan notes for surgery. All I did for that shelf was to read high-yield sections of NMS (GI, trauma, fluids/lytes, perioperative medicine, endo) and I did every question in the book 2-3 times (it comes with a CD, so you can repeat questions without having to physically mark on anything). I crushed that shelf.

As I have posted before, I think it's easy to try to get a million books to cover all your bases, and instead get bogged down trying to evaluate which book is right when it comes to minute differences. The best strategy is to pick one main source and stick with it, with the foreknowledge that no book is perfect and it's better to know your one source well despite its shortcomings than to spread yourself too thin by speeding through a bunch of different books.

 

[Blade28]

As I have posted before, I think it's easy to try to get a million books to cover all your bases, and instead get bogged down trying to evaluate which book is right when it comes to minute differences. The best strategy is to pick one main source and stick with it, with the foreknowledge that no book is perfect and it's better to know your one source well despite its shortcomings than to spread yourself too thin by speeding through a bunch of different books.

Exactly.

Many med students get stuck in the mode of "more books are better," when instead at most you need 1-2 books per subject - a textbook and boards review book.

 

[aesop]

Does anyone have an opinion on how helfpul for the shelf the questions in the Lawrence textbook are specifically? UCLAstudent (if you're still around) how did they work for you?

Also for Dre and Blade with the limited book approach r u guys recommending doing the same MCQs multiple times? I think your approach works well in with textbooks or casebooks, but not sure about questions. U really think doing say NMS questions twice are better then doing NMS + USMLEWORLD or some other resource?

 

[UCLAstudent]

Does anyone have an opinion on how helfpul for the shelf the questions in the Lawrence textbook are specifically? UCLAstudent (if you're still around) how did they work for you?

It turns out that my test was in-house, not a shelf.

 

[Blade28]

Does anyone have an opinion on how helfpul for the shelf the questions in the Lawrence textbook are specifically? UCLAstudent (if you're still around) how did they work for you?

Also for Dre and Blade with the limited book approach r u guys recommending doing the same MCQs multiple times? I think your approach works well in with textbooks or casebooks, but not sure about questions. U really think doing say NMS questions twice are better then doing NMS + USMLEWORLD or some other resource?

I can't say how helpful those particular questions are because when I took the shelf, (1) I did Appleton & Lange questions, and (2) USMLEWorld was barely in existencec.

 

[overthebars]

1. Read Lawrence cover to cover, did questions which were pretty accurate
2. Read Pestana, great resource, very well organized & highest per page yield of any resource during 3rd year
3. Shelf was a breeze

USMLE World was kind of crappy, poorly written & inaccurate when I used it ~1year ago, did not reflect StepII at all.

 

[njbmd]

I've only done the questions in chapters 3/4, but I'm getting my butt kicked! 😱 Are these representative of the shelf? Maybe it'll get better when I move into the actual surgery sections. 😕

I answered every single question in Lawrence and can say that it was overkill. While I honored Surgery and aced the shelf and in-house exam, I did spend far more time than I needed doing those questions. Turns out that those questions came in handy when I was studying for ABSITE as an intern so getting them done wasn't a total waste of time for me.

NMS Surgery is enough to get you past the shelf if you are doing your reading. You can also read and review Lawrence but you don't have to answer every question.

 

[DrDre311]

Does anyone have an opinion on how helfpul for the shelf the questions in the Lawrence textbook are specifically? UCLAstudent (if you're still around) how did they work for you?

Also for Dre and Blade with the limited book approach r u guys recommending doing the same MCQs multiple times? I think your approach works well in with textbooks or casebooks, but not sure about questions. U really think doing say NMS questions twice are better then doing NMS + USMLEWORLD or some other resource?

I would recommend focusing on the NMS questions--I essentially did them enough times to memorize them (I think there's about 300, all told). When I did USMLEWorld, I thought the surgery questions (of which there weren't that many) were extremely ortho-heavy and not representative of the shelf. But if you've got time and you're satisfied with how you did on the NMS questions then by all means do some more questions.

As an aside, I did use USMLEWorld (basically my only source) for Step II and improved on my Step I score (for which I used Kaplan) and despite the fact that I didn't like USMLEWorld for the surgery shelf I think it's a much better question bank for the USMLE Steps than Kaplan.

 

[lipofuscin232]

Are you guys referring to NMS surgery or NMS surgery casebook?

 

[DrDre311]

Are you guys referring to NMS surgery or NMS surgery casebook?

NMS Surgery.