Having to commute really far for shelves

[RotationsSoFar]

Hey, so I have a question I'm wondering about. My school has a series of rotation sites ranging from 20 minutes to 4 hours from campus. Majority of my class (~100 students) got home rotation sites that are within 20-45 minutes of campus. Ten students are 3 hours away, and four students are 4 hours away.

The school's new policy is to make everyone come back to campus for the shelf every month. Now I'm in the 3 hour commute group for the whole year (3 hours each away, total of 6 hours!!)

So I'm considering my options:
-Make the commute the night before and get a hotel room (it's really pricey in the city and i'd lose that night of reviewing the material)
or
-Commute at 4 am the morning of (I like sleep before exams, I dont want to do this either)

Which one seems like the wisest to salvage the situation and get the best scores?

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[grapefruit17]

Hey, so I have a question I'm wondering about. My school has a series of rotation sites ranging from 20 minutes to 4 hours from campus. Majority of my class (~100 students) got home rotation sites that are within 20-45 minutes of campus. Ten students are 3 hours away, and four students are 4 hours away.

The school's new policy is to make everyone come back to campus for the shelf every month. Now I'm in the 3 hour commute group for the whole year (3 hours each away, total of 6 hours!!)

So I'm considering my options:
-Make the commute the night before and get a hotel room (it's really pricey in the city and i'd lose that night of reviewing the material)
or
-Commute at 4 am the morning of (I like sleep before exams, I dont want to do this either)

Which one seems like the wisest to salvage the situation and get the best scores?

This sounds like a ridiculous policy. I was 3 hours from my school during rotations and was able to take the test with the other students in an assigned site in that city. Forcing students to make that drive every month..wow.

I don't even think shelf exams matter that much in the DO world. At least they didnt for our dean's letter. They were impossible to fail and impossible to get honors on because we competed against each other and only 5-10% of the class would honor a shelf exam. So not surprisingly, it was the same 5-10 percent that would consecutively get honors.

Personally, if it was me, i would just pay for a hotel room the night before and relax and chill with minimal to no studying. And enjoy the room as much as possible since you're paying for it+gas. Getting up at 4 am to drive 3 hours, then spend more hours taking a shelf, and driving back. Thats a rough day.

 

[RotationsSoFar]

This sounds like a ridiculous policy. I was 3 hours from my school during rotations and was able to take the test with the other students in an assigned site in that city. Forcing students to make that drive every month..wow.

I don't even think shelf exams matter that much in the DO world. At least they didnt for our dean's letter. They were impossible to fail and impossible to get honors on because we competed against each other and only 5-10% of the class would honor a shelf exam. So not surprisingly, it was the same 5-10 percent that would consecutively get honors.

Personally, if it was me, i would just pay for a hotel room the night before and relax and chill with minimal to no studying. And enjoy the room as much as possible since you're paying for it+gas. Getting up at 4 am to drive 3 hours, then spend more hours taking a shelf, and driving back. Thats a rough day.

Thanks for your input! The policy is due to our new Clinical Dean. He gives a short professionalism talk after each shelf and we have to be present for that.

My dilemma is that our shelf scores determine the rotation grades. And rotation grades are #2 for consideration right after step 1 for residencies!

I'm trying to figure out how to do the best I can! The 3-4 hours of review the night before always help me get a lot of random minutiae questions on tests. That's always been a lot of points. Doing that review two nights before the shelf wont be as good.

 

[grapefruit17]

Thanks for your input! The policy is due to our new Clinical Dean. He gives a short professionalism talk after each shelf and we have to be present for that.

My dilemma is that our shelf scores determine the rotation grades. And rotation grades are #2 for consideration right after step 1 for residencies!

I'm trying to figure out how to do the best I can! The 3-4 hours of review the night before always help me get a lot of random minutiae questions on tests. That's always been a lot of points. Doing that review two nights before the shelf wont be as good.

In that case you should for sure just do a hotel. If your shelf scores matter a lot for your rotation grades then yea, pay the money so you can wake up at a reasonable hour the day of your test. I was kind of lucky that our shelf scores were such a small part of our grades compared to the eval.

 

[ortnakas]

See if paying extra to take them at prometric is an option. My school does that, and the prometric fee would be cheaper than the hotel room.

If that doesn't pan out, I vote for the hotel room. Try to team up with people from your site to save money. Buy the OnlineMedEd audio and listen to Dustyn tell you things for the 3 hour drive.

 

[RotationsSoFar]

See if paying extra to take them at prometric is an option. My school does that, and the prometric fee would be cheaper than the hotel room.

If that doesn't pan out, I vote for the hotel room. Try to team up with people from your site to save money. Buy the OnlineMedEd audio and listen to Dustyn tell you things for the 3 hour drive.

I didnt know onlinemeded comes in audio, thanks!

And about the prometric thing.. the hospital will still administer the shelf for the rotating students from the other DO school. We're just being called back because our new Dean wants us back on campus