What resources to use for the NBME Microbiology shelf?

[LordVader89]

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I'm taking the shelf on Friday and I was wondering about which review book I should use. I have both First Aid and Deja Review. The only reason why I'm worried about using First Aid is the chance that it's not detailed enough. However Deja Review is like ~350 pages. I am definitely going to do U world in terms of practice questions but I just need a solid review book.

 

[Serous Demilune]

Uworld and FA should be fine if you memorize the crap out of both. Most of the review stuff out there is either too much or too little, like you said. You can try Microbiology Made Ridiculously Simple, but that probably won't cover everything either.

 

[notbobtrustme]

as with basically all of the basic sciences, class + FA + Uworld = gold.

 

[DermViser]

 

[Freddie Mercury]

FA was really good and covered like 80%+ of the material that was on the exam. When I took the Micro shelf I hadn't even started UWorld yet.

I'd know the FA tables cold, especially those tables with the information about virus structure, even the annoying details (double vs single stranded, circular vs linear etc). On my exam there were 2-3 questions specifically about those, and they were very picky.

 

[ravupadh]

Ok I guess I'll stick with FA then. In terms of questions, is Uworld or Pretest better?

 

[Freddie Mercury]

Ok I guess I'll stick with FA then. In terms of questions, is Uworld or Pretest better?

UWorld is, by far, the best QBank/study resource for Step1. Another underrated (IMO) qbank is USMLE-Rx.

 

[Serous Demilune]

UWorld is, by far, the best QBank/study resource for Step1. Another underrated (IMO) qbank is USMLE-Rx.

I find Rx to be much MUCH easier than Uworld in terms of topics being asked and the way they're asked. I'll do Rx for "fun" when I get bored reading or watching lectures, but UWorld is where I go to study.

 

[DermViser]

UWorld is, by far, the best QBank/study resource for Step1. Another underrated (IMO) qbank is USMLE-Rx.

I could be wrong but the only Qbanks on the market for Step 1 are: USMLEWorld, USMLERx, Kaplan Qbank, and ExamMaster (which is a complete joke - yet some medical schools actually buy this one for their students -- it's like they're not even paying attention to their students: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/threads/exam-master-online.766494/)

SDN consensus has agreed with using USMLERx throughout your basic science years and using USMLEWorld for Step 1 prep at least the last half of M-2.

I also believe OP is asking about what is best for the NBME shelf exam for Micro.

 

[ravupadh]

Ok thanks. One more question. Are there a lot of antimicrobial/antibiotic questions on the exam? I just looked through FA and the antimicrobial section is pretty dense and has a lot of antibioitics that I've never even heard of. We only had one lecture on the basic mechanisms of antibiotics and we were barely taught what the indications for each antimicrobial were. Plus we haven't even taken pharm yet....

 

[Robotman]

Ok thanks. One more question. Are there a lot of antimicrobial/antibiotic questions on the exam? I just looked through FA and the antimicrobial section is pretty dense and has a lot of antibioitics that I've never even heard of. We only had one lecture on the basic mechanisms of antibiotics and we were barely taught what the indications for each antimicrobial were. Plus we haven't even taken pharm yet....

Know what they taught you for antimicrobial, but pretty much know Metronidazole for anaerobes, The cell wall synthesis inhibitors such as B-lactams, vancomyocin, the b-lactamase inhibitors such as clauvonic acid. But I doubt you are expected to know that much more about it. The shelf will focus more on the bugs.