Which ONE book is best for the surgery shelf?

[bbpiano1]

Which 1 book is best for the shelf? I have Recall for pimping and am looking for a text to read for the shelf. Would Kaplan Surgery notes be enough?

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[EternalMD]

No, Kaplan surgery is definitely not enough. Unfortunately for surgery there is no consensus for which one resource is the best. The material they test comes from just about every specialty which makes it a very difficult test to study for. Ideally you want to have had medicine prior because most of the time you can diagnose the patient and your only job is to figure out whether they need surgery or medical management.

The best combination that i have heard is NMS surgery with Kaplan notes and if you want to be an all-star, the 3rd addition is Lawrence's text. This is not the answer for "which one book" and im sure thats not what you wanted to hear but unfortunately, thats the sad truth about the exam. You may not feel prepared no matter what you study

oh one last thing, UW surgery questions are helpful also but some can be ortho heavy unlike the actual test. Good luck

 

[futuredo32]

What about First Aid for Surgery- just to pass the shelf exam? I really like the FA Series, but it didn't seem to popular on the surgery shelf threads.

 

[Thievery Corp.]

I agree that there is no one text. I used Case Files Surgery with the Kaplan Surgery with very good success. If you are just down to a few days though my vote would be to get through at least Kaplan.

 

[diosa428]

Go through Pestana Review. Just do a google search for it. It's key, and you can get through it in a couple of hours.

 

[EternalMD]

Just so you know, Pestana's Review is a watered down version of Kaplan surgery's clinical vignettes. You'd be better off just reading the vignettes from Kaplan because the explanations are better rather than the pestana notes

 

[joe6102]

UsmleWorld surgery questions are terrible (there's only like 100 of them anyway). The one book you need is Casefiles. Once you've finished that, read it again.

 

[avhart]

BRS Surgery, without a doubt.

 

[AK_MD2BE]

1. Has anybody relied solely upon Surgical Recall for the shelf? It seems great for pimping, but not that great for patient management.

2. What about NMS Surgery Casebook or CaseFiles?

3. Which Qbook is better: Appleton and Lange or Pre-Test?

I realize that a lot of this is personal preference, so just throw out whatever advice you have. Thanks for your time and knowledge.

 

[diosa428]

1. Has anybody relied solely upon Surgical Recall for the shelf? It seems great for pimping, but not that great for patient management.

2. What about NMS Surgery Casebook or CaseFiles?

3. Which Qbook is better: Appleton and Lange or Pre-Test?

I realize that a lot of this is personal preference, so just throw out whatever advice you have. Thanks for your time and knowledge.

I used NMS casebook and thought it was good. I didn't use casefiles though, so I can't compare them.

 

[vtucci]

I had case files, A&L, NMS. I thought Case files was the best of the lot.

 

[AK_MD2BE]

bump...Thanks.

 

[RussianJoo]

So is First Aid for the clerckship Surgery a waste of time? Also what about Blueprint Surgery?

 

[thedrjojo]

everyone at my school swears by NMS Casebook... I'm trying to pick between NMS and the new Step-Up Surgery (Step-Up medicine is suppose to be the best, maybe surgery is good too...) any experience?

 

[EternalMD]

NMS surgery is good because itll give you a scenario and then run through the different decision trees you could make while going back and changing the original scenario a bit. I think it's very helpful because both on the shelf and step 2, you're likely to see a lot of "what is your next step in management questions". But IMHO, NMS should be supplemented with Kaplan Surgery

 

[cookiedough123]

i can't decide between pretest and A and L.....they both have their negatives. What is more helpful in terms of the shelf?

thanks!

 

[lord_jeebus]

Lawrence

 

[njbmd]

Lawrence

Second this, Lawrence by far. The review and question books are nice to have but Lawrence is complete.

 

[Tsutsugamushi]

I haven't taken surgery yet, but i heard that kaplan q bank questions for surgery were very good. I also heard that the q book was overall good for questions except for neuro.

In terms of text, most of my classmates used case files....

Does anyone have any insight on surgical recall and/or Blueprints for surgery?

 

[lemonade02]

3rd years learn this now once and for all..case files alone is enough to honor every 3rd year clerkship. just read it multiple times

 

[docholliday2010]

I took my surgery shelf yesterday and thought that it was not too terrible a test. Surgery was my first block, so there was much to learn and definitely not much time to learn it.
The books I used to prepare were surgery recall (read throughout the day), HY surgery, Pestana's review of surgery, and the trauma, shock, fluid and electrolyte chapters form Lawrence.
Overall, I felt that I was adequately prepared to answer all of the questions using these sources.

 

[TexasPhysician]

NMS Casebook was my favorite.
FA was not very useful in my opinion