OB-Gyn Shelf Exam

[wegh]

Not good enough, but it does cover most of the important topics.

Really? I find firecracker has excess knowledge so far on every rotation. Which helps me with being pimped or pimping myself in front of attendings (yes that's a thing I made up)

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[Bancrofti]

not this one, but i've honored every other shelf so far with firecracker

Really? I find firecracker has excess knowledge so far on every rotation. Which helps me with being pimped or pimping myself in front of attendings (yes that's a thing I made up)

I honored every other shelf also. Typically I was using more resources besides FC. On OBGYN I used pretty much just FC and some Uworld and only did about 12 sets or so of Uwise, missed honoring by 2 points. I could have just had a bad guessing day though. The OB shelf is one where you need to "apply" knowledge in order to even start thinking about a question, which is why things could go the wrong way more than other shelf exams, i.e. If someone has been in labor for 3 hours, and it asks you what the next step is, you have to be cognizant of whether this would be considered arrest or not before even thinking about what your options are.

 

[Shams al Deen]

Is OnlineMedEd + UWise + UWorld enough to do great on this OB/GYN shelf? I would add a book like Case Files or BluePrints but they are all like 500 pages. Is that much reading necessary if you watch the OnlineMedEd vids?

 

[Jesus1]

Resources used/Found to be helpful-Casefiles OBGYN, UWorld, Kaplan OBGYN videos, all NBME practice exams (multiple repeats).
Resources used and not super helpful-few chapters in Blueprints, UWise (questions too specific with tons of minutiae, UWorld explanations and a close read of casefiles should help to capture relevant minutiae).
If I had to do it again-UWorld 2x, Casefiles 2-3 x, and thoroughly review all NBMEs. Focus extensively on risk factors, know how to differentiate similar clinical presentations by painful/painless, age range, etc. UWorld tables/diagnostic algorithms were also clutch. The VEAL CHOP mnemonic almost always pays off on the tests.
NBME 1-89
NBME 2-72
NBME 3-92
NBME 4-86
Raw Score-87.

 

[Dr Blue]

Hi All,

I have been studying for the OB/GYN shelf using Case Files, UWise, and UWorld. I've been through every resource about once. I took my first NBME practice test and my score was disappointing. How much can I expect to improve in 1 week time before my actual shelf exam? Please let me know any tips I can use to better my score in this short period.

 

[Unico]

Just for what it is worth, my OBGYN rotation was a sh*tshow with no time to study. I tried to keep up with OME and UWorld, but it was impossible.

I managed to get through all of UWise within a week (finished 2 days before the exam), used Anki to review all my missed Qs and got a scaled grade of a "B" (my school doesn't release our raw data).

Of note, I already sat for the surgery shelf so that information (postSx complications, etc.) was not new.

Good luck everyone


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[Unico]

Hi All,

I have been studying for the OB/GYN shelf using Case Files, UWise, and UWorld. I've been through every resource about once. I took my first NBME practice test and my score was disappointing. How much can I expect to improve in 1 week time before my actual shelf exam? Please let me know any tips I can use to better my score in this short period.

1. What were your areas of weakness on the NBME? Focus on those with your favorite resource.

2. What type of learner are you?
- If you are a reader, blueprints OBGYN is good.
- If you are visual, picmonic is good for last minute cramming.
- If you are a question person, try OME questions or ExamGuru.
- Lastly, if you are a auditory learner give Emma Holiday OBGYN a shot.

One NMBE IMHO is not enough to address your weak points, so doing two or three more would give you a more representative picture of your deficient areas (and give you more practice).

Good luck and let us know how it goes

EDIT: I am a huge Anki fan for last minute cramming. Dump all your missed Qs into some sort of flashcard system and review like hell. Or, have a "smartbook" that you review daily and mark *only* the topics that are not sticking in your brain (if you read a marked item and it's still not sticking, it gets another mark). The items with the most marks get extra reviews.


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[EMMILLY]

I used case files, and they are helpful for me!

 

[jpwsurf21]

I took the exam last week. My rotation was a pretty solid and enjoyable experience and I definitely learned a lot from the wards. The shelf was fairly straight forward if you do all the uWISE and uWorld questions with the several obligatory "Da F?" questions that show up on every single shelf exam. I had several images that I had to identify so i'd be a good idea to look up what these lesions look like before the test. Ended up at the 98th percentile.

Study Materials:
- Casefiles x1 + read important topics again - I don't particularly enjoy reading case file books but I believe that they help me learn in the end. I slowly plugged through case files but the important chapters are spread out throughout the book so I didn't get to them til the end. May want to consider going in order of what's most commonly asked about on the wards like diagnostic criteria and management of preeclampsia vs w/severe features early on. Best advice - read fast!
- uWISE x1 + incorrects - Do this EARLY and quickly in the clerkship and you'll do well on the wards, knowledge-wise. I saved it for the end and looking back, I saw how many pimping questions I got wrong that were essentially straight from uWISE.
- uWorld x2 - I thought these were pretty good for the Shelf
- 2 NBME's - in the high 80's and high 90's for each right before the shelf - not really a learning tool but good to track progress. I'd suggest at least doing one.
- Onlinemeded - didn't use this but I keep hear great things about it so if you have the time, why not?
- Blueprints - never used this
Overall, just power through as many questions as you can and you should be pretty set. Also make sure you know your risk factors for various conditions (e.g preeclampsia, placental abruption) because those questions are on there, unfortunately - case files is pretty good regarding this.

 

[sunealoneal]

I took the exam last week. My rotation was a pretty solid and enjoyable experience and I definitely learned a lot from the wards. The shelf was fairly straight forward if you do all the uWISE and uWorld questions with the several obligatory "Da F?" questions that show up on every single shelf exam. I had several images that I had to identify so i'd be a good idea to look up what these lesions look like before the test. Ended up at the 98th percentile.

Study Materials:
- Casefiles x1 + read important topics again - I don't particularly enjoy reading case file books but I believe that they help me learn in the end. I slowly plugged through case files but the important chapters are spread out throughout the book so I didn't get to them til the end. May want to consider going in order of what's most commonly asked about on the wards like diagnostic criteria and management of preeclampsia vs w/severe features early on. Best advice - read fast!
- uWISE x1 + incorrects - Do this EARLY and quickly in the clerkship and you'll do well on the wards, knowledge-wise. I saved it for the end and looking back, I saw how many pimping questions I got wrong that were essentially straight from uWISE.
- uWorld x2 - I thought these were pretty good for the Shelf
- 2 NBME's - in the high 80's and high 90's for each right before the shelf - not really a learning tool but good to track progress. I'd suggest at least doing one.
- Onlinemeded - didn't use this but I keep hear great things about it so if you have the time, why not?
- Blueprints - never used this
Overall, just power through as many questions as you can and you should be pretty set. Also make sure you know your risk factors for various conditions (e.g preeclampsia, placental abruption) because those questions are on there, unfortunately - case files is pretty good regarding this.

Just curious, how long was your rotation?

 

[jpwsurf21]

Just curious, how long was your rotation?

It was a 6 week rotation with weekends off except when your 24 hour call fell on the weekend (happened twice for me).

 

[wegh]

I honored every other shelf also. Typically I was using more resources besides FC. On OBGYN I used pretty much just FC and some Uworld and only did about 12 sets or so of Uwise, missed honoring by 2 points. I could have just had a bad guessing day though. The OB shelf is one where you need to "apply" knowledge in order to even start thinking about a question, which is why things could go the wrong way more than other shelf exams, i.e. If someone has been in labor for 3 hours, and it asks you what the next step is, you have to be cognizant of whether this would be considered arrest or not before even thinking about what your options are.

Ended up honoring the OB shelf. It had some weird questions for sure, but only about 5 of mine were "what stage of labor is this" kind of deal. It was mostly GYN stuff. Walked out feeling like I didn't do as well as I did, but that's medical school apparently. Did all the uWISE questions. I think they're very helpful, but not "must do".

 

[wegh]

Overall, just power through as many questions as you can and you should be pretty set. Also make sure you know your risk factors for various conditions (e.g preeclampsia, placental abruption) because those questions are on there, unfortunately - case files is pretty good regarding this.

Agreed!

 

[doyouhaveaflag]

So from what I understand, ACOG changed their definition of when the active phase of labor begins from a cutoff of 4cm dilation to starting at 6cm fairly recently (looks like maybe 2014 on their website). Does anyone know if the start of active labor used on shelf exams is 6cm? Or do they still use 4cm?

 

[wegh]

So from what I understand, ACOG changed their definition of when the active phase of labor begins from a cutoff of 4cm dilation to starting at 6cm fairly recently (looks like maybe 2014 on their website). Does anyone know if the start of active labor used on shelf exams is 6cm? Or do they still use 4cm?

took the exam a month ago and almost positive it was the old definitions. Luckily there was only 1 or 2 questions where I needed to make that call but hey, that can make or break your exam

There were also 2-3 questions on determining what stage of labor the person was in

 

[doyouhaveaflag]

took the exam a month ago and almost positive it was the old definitions. Luckily there was only 1 or 2 questions where I needed to make that call but hey, that can make or break your exam

There were also 2-3 questions on determining what stage of labor the person was in

Ugh, that's so annoying. I missed one on the FM shelf because it used a JNC 7 guideline instead of 8 (it was one of those twofers where you can see if you got the first question right when you go to the second question) and it was frustrating.

 

[jpwsurf21]

So from what I understand, ACOG changed their definition of when the active phase of labor begins from a cutoff of 4cm dilation to starting at 6cm fairly recently (looks like maybe 2014 on their website). Does anyone know if the start of active labor used on shelf exams is 6cm? Or do they still use 4cm?

Yeah I noticed that as well in the uWISE questions as not updated but on my shelf, there was only a single question where it was listed as 5cm dilated there was basically only one answer that made any sense whatsoever so it didn't matter in the end. IIRC, it still assumed a cutoff of 4cm as the threshold for active labor.

 

[wegh]

Ugh, that's so annoying. I missed one on the FM shelf because it used a JNC 7 guideline instead of 8 (it was one of those twofers where you can see if you got the first question right when you go to the second question) and it was frustrating.

bah, that's my next exam. it's really frustrating they don't at least make it clear what guidelines will be used on the exam. thank goodness for the internet

 

[doyouhaveaflag]

Update on the active labor cutoff situation: I took this beast today and there were 3 questions having me diagnose stage of labor and whether it was protracted or arrested with cervical dilations between 4 and 6cm in the vignettes.

I ended up using 4cm as my active labor cutoff because one of the questions asked about a woman going from 5 to 7cm in 2 hours. I figured they wouldn't ask a question that involved crossing a 6cm cutoff. However, if I made the wrong decision I just missed three questions because I assumed the test was out of date.

 

[wegh]

Update on the active labor cutoff situation: I took this beast today and there were 3 questions having me diagnose stage of labor and whether it was protracted or arrested with cervical dilations between 4 and 6cm in the vignettes.

I ended up using 4cm as my active labor cutoff because one of the questions asked about a woman going from 5 to 7cm in 2 hours. I figured they wouldn't ask a question that involved crossing a 6cm cutoff. However, if I made the wrong decision I just missed three questions because I assumed the test was out of date.

I think you made the right choice. That's what I went with and did well. Although who knows!

 

[ENTology]

So I just took this piece of crap of exam on Friday, and it was pretty difficult. Felt that I was very prepared did the standard but felt that almost nothing that I studied was blatantly tested. No gestational diabetes no pre-eclampsia. it just felt like a big mash of postpartum hemorrhage, and STDs .

what pisses me off most is that it appears that they did stick to the old guidelines for labor dilation and progression. My director assured us that everything would be up to date so as I approach those questions I decided to stick with the 6 cm versus four. This definitely affected several answers, so now I'm left wondering if these questions are going to be thrown out? Or if everyone is just going to get penalized for it. Only reason bring it up is because the fact that it's been mentioned in previous exams and still is happening to this day tells me that they clearly don't care to remove these questions. Normally I wouldn't care, but it would really suck if those missed questions could've been the difference between honors and pass or who knows pass and fail. any thoughts?

 

[wegh]

So I just took this piece of crap of exam on Friday, and it was pretty difficult. Felt that I was very prepared did the standard but felt that almost nothing that I studied was blatantly tested. No gestational diabetes no pre-eclampsia. it just felt like a big mash of postpartum hemorrhage, and STDs .

what pisses me off most is that it appears that they did stick to the old guidelines for labor dilation and progression. My director assured us that everything would be up to date so as I approach those questions I decided to stick with the 6 cm versus four. This definitely affected several answers, so now I'm left wondering if these questions are going to be thrown out? Or if everyone is just going to get penalized for it. Only reason bring it up is because the fact that it's been mentioned in previous exams and still is happening to this day tells me that they clearly don't care to remove these questions. Normally I wouldn't care, but it would really suck if those missed questions could've been the difference between honors and pass or who knows pass and fail. any thoughts?

My thought is that we warned you!!! But I know what you mean and that is frustrating. It seems ludicrous that we are expected to know the latest and greatest information yet potentially be tested on old, outdated information. It gives a slight edge to students who troll the internet (like me) to find out if anything is outdated and prepare accordingly

 

[ENTology]

My thought is that we warned you!!! But I know what you mean and that is frustrating. It seems ludicrous that we are expected to know the latest and greatest information yet potentially be tested on old, outdated information. It gives a slight edge to students who troll the internet (like me) to find out if anything is outdated and prepare accordingly

I hadn't seen the comment before, it wasnt until after the exam that I decided to look online. Is there any way to find out if nbme is aware of this? Obviously I'm being neurotic, but when it's over something this ****ty it just leaves you feeling as you have a right to be upset. It wasn't just some difficult question that you didn't know answer to.

I hear the curve is ridiculous, any thought as to how many you thought you missed vs how you did? Any comforting words/motivation would be nice lol

 

[doyouhaveaflag]

I hadn't seen the comment before, it wasnt until after the exam that I decided to look online. Is there any way to find out if nbme is aware of this? Obviously I'm being neurotic, but when it's over something this ****ty it just leaves you feeling as you have a right to be upset. It wasn't just some difficult question that you didn't know answer to.

I hear the curve is ridiculous, any thought as to how many you thought you missed vs how you did? Any comforting words/motivation would be nice lol

Can I ask what you mean by a ridiculous curve? I was under the impression that the "equated percent correct score" wasn't necessarily curved but was calculated by some magic algorithm, but my understanding of the scoring is very low.

I ended up scoring in the low 90's equated percent correct on the OB/gyn shelf. My school doesn't give us info on percentile though, so I have no idea if that's good compared to the rest of the country.

I used the old criteria for the OB shelf, but I can understand how you'd be upset about missing questions because of not knowing which criteria they use. As I said in a post above, I missed one on family medicine because it used JNC 7. I ended up getting mid-90s on that shelf, so it all turned out fine in the end.

 

[wegh]

I hear the curve is ridiculous, any thought as to how many you thought you missed vs how you did? Any comforting words/motivation would be nice lol

I honestly have no clue. I walked out thinking I just passed. I guess my motivation would be that even if you felt like you didn't kill it, you still may have honored. Also, I'm pretty sure I got like all 3 of those labor specific questions wrong. Part of me doing well came down to the fact that on some of the question I was absolutely clueless on, I actually reasoned/guessed the correct answer. There were about 2-3 where I had no idea because I had not learned about those specific scenarios, but still got them right (looked up after exam).

 

[ENTology]

Can I ask what you mean by a ridiculous curve? I was under the impression that the "equated percent correct score" wasn't necessarily curved but was calculated by some magic algorithm, but my understanding of the scoring is very low.

I ended up scoring in the low 90's equated percent correct on the OB/gyn shelf. My school doesn't give us info on percentile though, so I have no idea if that's good compared to the rest of the country.

I used the old criteria for the OB shelf, but I can understand how you'd be upset about missing questions because of not knowing which criteria they use. As I said in a post above, I missed one on family medicine because it used JNC 7. I ended up getting mid-90s on that shelf, so it all turned out fine in the end.

Thanks for response. Just refereeing that the scaled and percentile are supposedly vastly different. Have heard that scales 80 was 50th, leading me to believe this test is very unforgiving

 

[wegh]

I ended up scoring in the low 90's equated percent correct on the OB/gyn shelf. My school doesn't give us info on percentile though, so I have no idea if that's good compared to the rest of the country.
.

Around the second half of the year, mid 80's and up is usually 80th percentile and higher. So anything in the 90's is an honors (80th percentile) for sure, most likely 90th+ percentile

 

[ENTology]

Random question, if someone lost 2 L of blood during labor and 6 weeks later did not have a any milk or menses .. but otherwise we're totally fine, and their BP was normal (115/70s) does that still point towards Sheehan?

 

[wegh]

Random question, if someone lost 2 L of blood during labor and 6 weeks later did not have a any milk or menses .. but otherwise we're totally fine, and their BP was normal (115/70s) does that still point towards Sheehan?

Hard to say without the full question, but I would say so. Any time they mention lots of blood loss during labor, it's likely a sheehan question

 

[W19]

Scaled score high 80s... Only used Uworld and read the ObGyn section once in FA step 2 CK.

 

[Saxappeal1]

So I'm halfway done with my studying and I took a practice NBME and I got 61 percent of the questions right, which translates to not passing at my school. Ugh. I mean I know I'm halfway through and still have half of case files left, but come on. Passing at my school is around a 66 percent. :/

 

[Saxappeal1]

Hey guys, so I'm going to take my OBGYN shelf Friday. Wish me luck!

 

[JingleChips]

Is memorizing the details found in uWISE really necessary? Some of that content was extremely extremely specific e.g.
"what volume of fetal RBCs is neutralized with a 300microgram dose of RhoGAM?"

Was thinking of just doing it x1 but focusing on memorizing the stuff in uworld

 

[Soccer171983]

I did pretty well on my shelfs back in the day. I used pre-test books, blueprints, and case files for most of my subjects and did well. I did this to avoid burning up my u world and used that exclusively when studying for my steps...

 

[Saxappeal1]

I actually really like case files. for OB. Shouldn't Case Files+Uworld be enough?

 

[Saxappeal1]

Took this exam Friday. Felt like I was Zebra Poaching. Why were there so many zebras on that test?

 

[Saxappeal1]

Zebra= abstract and rare disorders that are almost never seen

 

[Hyahh15]

Hi all, can anyone attest to how well the practice OBGYN NMBEs correlated with their actual shelf score?

 

[W19]

@Hyahh15 Good correlation

 

[Hyahh15]

Does anyone understand the difference between a urethrocele and a urethral prolapse? I just had a practice NBME question where both of those were answer choices and I thought they were the same thing, plus the internet seems to back me up that they're the same thing.

Also, would downward mobility of the urethral vesical junction with Valsalva make you think stress incontinence or urethral prolapse?

 

[turica]

Has anyone taken NBME practice shelfs and have a raw and scaled score?
From my understanding the raw score isn't your scaled score on the practice NBMEs? e.g. 10 wrong is 80% but isn't 80 scaled when you get your score doing it online

 

[DivineInterventionPod]

I made a free OBGYN shelf review video (with accompanying slides). Feedback/suggestions welcome.
www.divineinterventionpodcasts.com

 

[DivineInterventionPod]

Also added a bunch of free, high yield, relatively comprehensive review videos for the different clerkships with slides (medicine, psych, surgery, peds, and OBGYN). Thoughts/feedback welcome. The website is www.divineinterventionpodcasts.com

 

[DrFizition]

is anyone else getting rekt by uwise? i feel like i know the material very well, watched OME, but still do poorly on uwise sections. Not sure where the disconnect is.

 

[doyouhaveaflag]

is anyone else getting rekt by uwise? i feel like i know the material very well, watched OME, but still do poorly on uwise sections. Not sure where the disconnect is.

Online MedEd is definitely not as helpful for this shelf as it is for others. It's fairly superficial and the questions on the exam will look almost identical to the UWise questions. Keep doing the questions and try to learn everything you can from the ones you get incorrect. If you're a flashcard person, make flashcards of incorrects (or ones you guessed correctly on). I'd actually recommend doing the UWise questions twice. You can do UWorld as well, but those questions were way easier and less detailed than the shelf questions that I encountered.

If you learn well from reading, you could toss in Case Files. If you prefer videos, the ones that accompany the UWise questions were pretty good I thought (and some are pretty amusing): https://www.apgo.org/educational-re...ectives/objectives-videos-and-teaching-cases/

 

[Clopidogrhelin]

Honored this shelf (don't know my raw score as my school doesn't tell us). Used MTB as a quick read before anything else to frame the information. Pretty good for Ob, terrible for Gyn - I would say you could skip this section. Then just did Case Files and uworld until my shelf. I didn't utilize my study time as well as I shouldve and didn't get to finish uworld nor take a single NBME, but I would say Case Files is absolute gold for this rotation and should definitely not be overlooked.

 

[bceagle411]

Has anyone taken NBME practice shelfs and have a raw and scaled score?
From my understanding the raw score isn't your scaled score on the practice NBMEs? e.g. 10 wrong is 80% but isn't 80 scaled when you get your score doing it online

bump

 

[turica]

Hey,

It's been a while since I've taken the shelf but I remember getting about the same raw score that I got on practice tests to be the scaled score I got on the OBGYN.. .. Or actually on second thought I might've scored higher on the real thing by a few %

I got an 84 on the final thing.. and I think I was scoring 80-84 on the practice tests

 

[ciestar]

Soo how do I do well on this shelf? I already have Case Files and I was doing Zanki while on long plane rides over break.. but my school is all “you’ll fail if you don’t use Beckmann and only use review materials”

Sooo, tips since there aren’t many recent posts?
Like I said, I have Case Files, UWise and UWorld ready to go. Five week rotation.

 

[Jesus1]

Soo how do I do well on this shelf? I already have Case Files and I was doing Zanki while on long plane rides over break.. but my school is all “you’ll fail if you don’t use Beckmann and only use review materials”

Sooo, tips since there aren’t many recent posts?
Like I said, I have Case Files, UWise and UWorld ready to go. Five week rotation.

Screw your school. Memorize casefiles, UWise, and UWorld and you should be able to crush the test.
Source: Did the following and crushed the shelf.