What Makes The Neurology Shelf So Tough?

[Cpt.Hook Hamate]

I keep trying to come up with a good combo of books to use but I hear that Blueprints and pretest seems to not be enough but for a 1 month clerkship there are not too many options out there, it seems.

I have been searching for some good books to use for the Neuro shelf and I am seeing quite a few posts claiming that the neuro shelf is tough. My school just started using the shelf this year for our Neuro examinations so we don't know much about the Neuro shelf. Why is it so tough? Is there a lot dealing with meds on this shelf? Are the differential Diagnosis tough? I realy want to know because I am strongly considering Neuro as a career and want to really do well on the shelf.

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[Cpt.Hook Hamate]

Anyone?

 

[bigfrank]

The neuro shelf IS tough. I took it about 2 months ago. The reason it's so difficult is multifactorial. My take:

It has a tremendous amount of pre-clinical info. on it (neurology is based in neuroanatomy, as you know). Seriously, 40+ of my questions' final sentence was, "Where is the lesion in this patient?" I made the mistake of not adequately brushing up on my neuroanatomy (tracts, brachial plexus, brain, etc.)

IT IS WRITTEN BY NEUROLOGISTS!!! After your rotation, you'll have a better idea of what I'm talking about. Many esoteric and truly very difficult questions.

Because treatment/next-step options are fairly limited in many neurological conditions (in terms of question stems), most questions come down to "lesion-type" questions.

All in all, I thought pretest and blueprints were both at least moderately helpful, it's all I used and got >90th percentile.

Good luck to you.

 

[Cpt.Hook Hamate]

Thanks, Bigfrank, for stepping up to the plate once again. 😉

So do you recommend reading High-yield Neuroanatomy before the exam? From your experience, would that be "adequate" for the "where is the lesion" questions?

 

[bigfrank]

Yea, I should have reviewed the brainstem lesions chapter in HY Neuroanatomy. A brief review of that book would be a big help for anyone. Good luck