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Been lurking for a long time without posting, and since I recently finished third year I decided it is a good time to finally make a contribution. I know there are several posts concerning books for third year clerkships (since I read them before my rotations) and although I dont want to be redundant, here is what I used and my thoughts. Hope this helps.
General: Boards and Wards helpful on a lot of rotations, particularly medicine. Kaplan Step 2 Qbook secret weapon to third year! I used this book for every rotation and I thought it was the most representative of the shelf questions.
OB/GYN: First rotation, standard practice at my school is Blueprints and Case Files plus online questions my school subscribes to. Case files is great for everything, particularly OB/GYN a must. Not a fan of Blueprints series in general, but I did read it, although not sure what I actually gained from it. Online questions not sure what these are called, but if your school has these you are set! Absolute best resource for the shelf exam, do them at least twice or until you can get the majority of them correct.
Psych: First aid for psychiatry, pre-test, current clinical strategies (little green book). Although FA is flimsy, definitely the only text you need. Pre-test has pretty good questions, and so does the Kaplan Q book. I tried Appleton and Lange but didnt make it very far didnt seem representative of the shelf. Current clinical strategies actually a really handy little book to carry, and the drugs sections is great.
Medicine: I know everyone says MKSAP, MKSAP, MKSAP, but I honestly wasnt crazy about MKSAP and I definitely do NOT think it is enough for the shelf. I thought Boards and Wards was a great resource, particularly if read early in the rotation I found it to be really helpful for answering questions from attendings. Case files great as usual. Pre-test although not representative of the shelf questions, I thought it was a good learning tool. Kaplan Qbook best resource for medicine clerkship, I thought the shelf was strikingly similar to these questions. Used Step Up as a reference no way I would have ever been able to read the entire thing.
Pediatrics: Case files will again recommend. I had this rotation after medicine, so I decided to try a little different strategy. I started doing the questions from pre-test before I read Blueprints, and then I read blueprints after seeing what I didnt know. This method worked really well for me.
Surgery: I thought the surgery shelf was the hardest of them all, and I was glad I had it last. Many people say the surgery shelf is all medicine, I dont 100% agree with this, but I do think it has a lot of medicine on it. I think the best advice for this rotation is to try to read as much as possible, but to be efficient. You will be exhausted from work, and I think it is important to find something that you can actually read when you are literally holding your eyelids open. For me, this was Case Files, Kaplan Notes, and questions. I also skimmed the NMS casebook (the red book) in the last weeks before the shelf. Surgical recall kept this in my locker and would furiously read the necessary sections before cases.
General: Boards and Wards helpful on a lot of rotations, particularly medicine. Kaplan Step 2 Qbook secret weapon to third year! I used this book for every rotation and I thought it was the most representative of the shelf questions.
OB/GYN: First rotation, standard practice at my school is Blueprints and Case Files plus online questions my school subscribes to. Case files is great for everything, particularly OB/GYN a must. Not a fan of Blueprints series in general, but I did read it, although not sure what I actually gained from it. Online questions not sure what these are called, but if your school has these you are set! Absolute best resource for the shelf exam, do them at least twice or until you can get the majority of them correct.
Psych: First aid for psychiatry, pre-test, current clinical strategies (little green book). Although FA is flimsy, definitely the only text you need. Pre-test has pretty good questions, and so does the Kaplan Q book. I tried Appleton and Lange but didnt make it very far didnt seem representative of the shelf. Current clinical strategies actually a really handy little book to carry, and the drugs sections is great.
Medicine: I know everyone says MKSAP, MKSAP, MKSAP, but I honestly wasnt crazy about MKSAP and I definitely do NOT think it is enough for the shelf. I thought Boards and Wards was a great resource, particularly if read early in the rotation I found it to be really helpful for answering questions from attendings. Case files great as usual. Pre-test although not representative of the shelf questions, I thought it was a good learning tool. Kaplan Qbook best resource for medicine clerkship, I thought the shelf was strikingly similar to these questions. Used Step Up as a reference no way I would have ever been able to read the entire thing.
Pediatrics: Case files will again recommend. I had this rotation after medicine, so I decided to try a little different strategy. I started doing the questions from pre-test before I read Blueprints, and then I read blueprints after seeing what I didnt know. This method worked really well for me.
Surgery: I thought the surgery shelf was the hardest of them all, and I was glad I had it last. Many people say the surgery shelf is all medicine, I dont 100% agree with this, but I do think it has a lot of medicine on it. I think the best advice for this rotation is to try to read as much as possible, but to be efficient. You will be exhausted from work, and I think it is important to find something that you can actually read when you are literally holding your eyelids open. For me, this was Case Files, Kaplan Notes, and questions. I also skimmed the NMS casebook (the red book) in the last weeks before the shelf. Surgical recall kept this in my locker and would furiously read the necessary sections before cases.
