UW: easier or harder than shelf questions

[PokerDoc]

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I have my first shelf (surgery) on friday.. I am doing alright on UW questions but not quite as good as I was doing on step 1 UW stuff.. granted i dont have any time to study like I had for step 1 but even so, I am very interested in surgery and want to do the best I can.. But given that the shelf experience is still an unknown for me i don't really know how to gauge myself right now.

Any advice would be appreciated

thanks all.. and good luck on your respective rotations

 

[MilkmanAl]

I thought the UW questions were fairly comparable, for the most part. I also thought the surgery shelf was freaking impossibly hard. Then again, I didn't exactly prepare my butt off for it. The section of the NMS casebook I read actually got me a few questions, so I'd suggest reading that in addition to UW.

 

[PokerDoc]

i actually just finished it.. unfortunately its the only book i've read lol.. they give us NO time except weekends to study and I got neurosurgery this week so I doubt itll get any better.

I do plan on reading specific chapters a second time though (particularly pre/post op care, trauma, and upper/lower GI)

 

[2012mdc]

I thought the UW questions were fairly comparable, for the most part. I also thought the surgery shelf was freaking impossibly hard. Then again, I didn't exactly prepare my butt off for it. The section of the NMS casebook I read actually got me a few questions, so I'd suggest reading that in addition to UW.

The shelf was pretty difficult. I agree that UW was comparable but I think the shelf was a little bit harder. There were just too many questions where it seemed like there was 2 right answers or no right answers. The shelf did have a good amount of straightforward questions though - lucid interval for epidural hematoma, check urine VMA for a obvious pheo and so on

IMO UW could be hard because it may ask stuff we haven't talked about (the ortho stuff was killing me) but the shelf was hard because of poorly written or purposely ambiguous questions.

I would definitely do the Kaplan Q book questions and realize that the NBME website ones are not representative.

 

[PokerDoc]

lol i wonder how people pass these things

 

[MilkmanAl]

The shelf was pretty difficult. I agree that UW was comparable but I think the shelf was a little bit harder. There were just too many questions where it seemed like there was 2 right answers or no right answers. The shelf did have a good amount of straightforward questions though - lucid interval for epidural hematoma, check urine VMA for a obvious pheo and so on

IMO UW could be hard because it may ask stuff we haven't talked about (the ortho stuff was killing me) but the shelf was hard because of poorly written or purposely ambiguous questions.

I would definitely do the Kaplan Q book questions and realize that the NBME website ones are not representative.

Yep, my thoughts, exactly. I don't actually remember the pheo question, but I hope I got that right.

 

[PokerDoc]

ok so if kaplan qbook is representative.. would you say the same for Uworld? I am noticing 5/8 questions are trauma related.. is the real test that heavy on trauma?

how bout pretest.. ive been doing questions in that book as well and my %s are about the asme as uw

 

[Jolie South]

ok so if kaplan qbook is representative.. would you say the same for Uworld? I am noticing 5/8 questions are trauma related.. is the real test that heavy on trauma?

how bout pretest.. ive been doing questions in that book as well and my %s are about the asme as uw

My shelf was pretty trauma heavy.

 

[Doctorverardoll]

I've been doing pretest. Anyone else think it was worth it? I hope to finish it, but I'm going to start UW now that I'm 1/2 through the rotation.
I really wish I had medicine under my belt, I think that is going to make the self so much harder.

 

[Jolie South]

I've been doing pretest. Anyone else think it was worth it? I hope to finish it, but I'm going to start UW now that I'm 1/2 through the rotation.
I really wish I had medicine under my belt, I think that is going to make the self so much harder.

PreTest wasn't representative of the shelf, but I do feel like those questions got me some extra points on the actual test. The explanations are pretty good.

 

[2012mdc]

ok so if kaplan qbook is representative.. would you say the same for Uworld? I am noticing 5/8 questions are trauma related.. is the real test that heavy on trauma?

how bout pretest.. ive been doing questions in that book as well and my %s are about the asme as uw

My shelf didn't seem too trauma heavy, it actually seemed pretty balanced as they found other ways to give people some trauma related stuff - like caths causing a pneumo

UW is not really representative based on content but in terms of style UW is similar just better written.

I didn't do pretest because I was advised by upperclassmen as well as residents that it wasn't that useful for the shelf. I did glance it at and the questions seemed too short and overly specific. Since I didn't use it I can;t comment on how effective doing the questions and reading the explanations is.

 

[PokerDoc]

well i just did kaplan test 1 for surgery, again it was pretty focused on trauma.. maybe im calling things trauma that dont really count as trauma but it seems like every other question is a MVA or fall.

 

[Dirt]

One thing you can say without fail is that the Shelf vignettes are wayyyyyy longer than Uworld.

 

[PokerDoc]

One thing you can say without fail is that the Shelf vignettes are wayyyyyy longer than Uworld.

yeah im hearing this loud and clear.. thanks for the reminder, I need to remember my red bull lol

 

[medstud2be]

I thought UW was comparable. I got 2-3 questions/topics that I had not seen anywhere else but in UW. I will say that the Pestana review was key to my success. (I ended up doing extremely well.)