How did you study for the Internal Med Shelf?
Would like to get a 90+ on it. What should I do? What worked for you?
Posted Apr 27, 2014, 8:14 PM UTC
1719
Check out these "clerkship reviews" done by our Emma Ramahi (she also does Kaplan for Step 2 videos). The ppt slides have more info so don't forget to check those out too! So clutch!!!
http://som.uthscsa.edu/StudentAffairs/thirdyear.asp
EDIT: Oh yeah, and all of UWorld internal medicine.
5
Emma Ramahi's reviews were gold for subject shelves. I wish there was one for Ob/Gyn though.
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94th percentile nationally, 97th at my school.
USMLE World QBank is the most important. Go through the Internal Medicine questions, actually learning and taking notes from the responses as you go. Mark questions that have important points (even if you got them right) or ones that you got right by guessing. Then, review your notes. Now, go back and redo all the questions that you got wrote or you marked. USMLE world is gold for the Internal Medicine shelf. You can supplement a bit from some things like Step up to Medicine or First Aid, but this should be your primary focus. MKSAP question back is great for the wards (practical clinical knowledge that is up to date) but it's not anything like the questions on the shelf. I would not have it as a high priority.
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how many uworld questions are there for internal? how about just step 2 questions in general?
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There are about 1250 internal med questions and about 1800 step 2 questions overall. UWorld is without a doubt the most important prep tool for step 1 and 2. But not just for practice questions, it's a learning tool - you need to go in tutor mode and study the answers as you go. That's key for mastering the material.
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My internal med clerkship will be my very last clerkship in 3rd year--- do you think I should wait a while until starting uworld considering it's mostly internal?
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Umm... Where are you at right now in your training? Are you just finishing M2 or what? I would save UWorld internal med questions for when you're actually in internal med. Similarly, you can do surgery when in surgery, Ob/Gyn when in that clerkship etc. you can redo them all in M4 when preparing for step 2 ck.
1
MKSAP
Uworld step 2 ck
Case files internal medicine
Do case files first, then all mksap questions, then as much of uworld as possible, then do mksap again.
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MKSAP 5?
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Yes.
What is the deal with the down votes in this thread? The stuff I listed out worked: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/227657/06%20Medicine%20Shelf%20Score%20Report%20copy-2.pdf
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DV for complaining about being down-voted...
-2
Scored 95 raw, 99% percentile in Q2.
1
I got a 99. Read the NMS Medicine Casebook (really good and underrated) and did all the UWorld medicine questions.
Hated Step Up and didn't bother much with MKSAP since the questions aren't as difficult.
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[deleted]
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I used Step-Up to Medicine. 97 raw, 99th.
http://residentcafe.blogspot.com/2013/06/books-for-medical-school-clerkships.html
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I did about 1/3 of the chapters in MKSAP. Do more than that to honor it.
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97 percentile nationally. i did UWorld, MKSAP (questions only), and read Pocket Medicine (both for clinical competence and shelf knowledge). i decided against reading stuff like step 2 to medicine (too long) and went with something the residents use on a daily basis on the wards (and proved very helpful for the shelf too)
0
UWorld + MKSAP 5 questions.
Don't really need to do Step Up unless your basic science foundation is shaky.
0
This exam will test a wide breadth of medical knowledge from biostats to sjogrens disease. A big key is exposure to the common conditions while rotating and finding the time to study the more esoteric diseases, pathophysiology and treatments.
Uworld was an awesome resource and allows one to break the bank into medical subcategories. Step up to medicine is a great resource to quickly review those pesky details (translocations, antibodies, endocrine axes).
Shelf exams focus on testing practical application of medical knowledge. If I know x,y and z which lab test is most likely to male the dx? If you start studying and working on the ward with such a mindset you'll make studying and testing a lot easier.