OB-Gyn Shelf Exam

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Books Preferred for Ob-Gyn Shelf Exam

  • Blueprints

    Votes: 24 70.6%

  • NMS

    Votes: 2 5.9%

  • First Aid

    Votes: 2 5.9%

  • PreTest

    Votes: 4 11.8%

  • Boards and Wards

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Appleton and Lange

    Votes: 2 5.9%
  • Total voters
    34
  • Poll closed .
Yeah. I was told that if you learn by doing questions and reading explanations, and you're a good test taker, Casefiles and UWise should be enough. I'm a very good test taker. It was not enough.
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Missorleans said:
I thought there were a lot of questions that came out of nowhere. Not really covered in UWise or Casefiles. Harder than the practice NBMEs. Also had a harder time figuring out what they were getting at than on Step 1. I'll update when scores come out.
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You mentioned there were a lot of questions that came out of nowhere, any general examples? I've heard some people got some genetic questions, and some got some anatomy questions.
 
There was a picture of female genitals with probably lichen sclerosus, and then the answers were all treatments I had never heard of.
There was a question where it sounded like the woman had post partum depression, but then none of the answers were post partum depression, they were all other psych disorders, none of which seemed to fit.
There was a question about the genetics of cleft lip (maybe, or maybe this was on the NBME practice exam, they're kind of running together at this point)
 
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Missorleans said:
There was a picture of female genitals with probably lichen sclerosus, and then the answers were all treatments I had never heard of.
There was a question where it sounded like the woman had post partum depression, but then none of the answers were post partum depression, they were all other psych disorders, none of which seemed to fit.
There was a question about the genetics of cleft lip (maybe, or maybe this was on the NBME practice exam, they're kind of running together at this point)
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Thank you. Hopefully you did well anyways. Best of luck :)
 
Papist said:
I'm using Blueprints, Case Files, Uworld, and uwise. Hoping this will be a good recipe. Any thoughts?
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I used all those, minus the Blueprints. I also did both the NBME exams, which are great. Pretty good prep, although beware that there were still questions that I never saw before.
 
here was my study plan for the OBGYN shelf....I usually just do questions and make notes/ learn from reading solutions

In order of usefulness
1) UWISE: UWISE and shelf exam written by the same authors - some similar questions and question style is very similar. You could probably squeak by with just UWISE but I still think it would be best to use at least 2 more other resources
2) UWORLD: not really written in the style of the actual shelf exam
3) First Aid step 2 CK: OBGYN sections
4) Casefiles: useful for clinic and foundational material not really useful for answering shelf questions
5) Pretest: Uro-GYN chapter and some other chapters to practice questions where I felt weak.

Prior to the shelf there were other students telling me how identical UWISE was with the actual shelf...they were correct...

The popular textbooks that other people read - blueprints, BRS.....I didn't feel was an efficient use of my time so I never touched those books..they usually take too long to read

If I could do it all over again I probably would probably just focus more on UWISE since question style is very similar (written by same authors of shelf)
 
For UWise, do people do the self assessment questions by unit or just the comprehensive self assessment tests?
 
Has anyone studied for this shelf using the Kaplan Book/Bank?
 
just took the shelf.

basically everyone described as the same thing.

"WTF"

Weirdest test I've taken in med school so far. Very vague scenarios with like 2-3 good answers. Lots of "risk" questions with no clear answer (eg cervical cancer risk but multiple partners not in the answer choices). Lots of next step in management, but you can answer it 3 different ways depending on where you rotated and nothing you read will have a specific answer. Some epidemiology that was obscure (eg most common STI but both chlyamdia and gonorrhea in the answer choices).

just a weird test all around. uWise is definitely not enough, especially with respect to some of the risk/epidemiology/next management. uWise goes into too much detail in most cases and not enough in others. Uworld was better, but very narrow compared to how much material the shelf covered. I read Blueprints and that book was too vague on next steps to be useful for the shelf.

Overall, this is basically a gut test, not a test of knowledge. You'll read these questions, have a gut feeling and hopefully that gut feeling is in the answer choices. Often times it's not, so you got to be comfortable picking an answer choice that doesn't make you vomit.



Edit: 79 raw, good enough for honors, so works for me.
 
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notbobtrustme said:
just took the shelf.

basically everyone described as the same thing.

"WTF"

Weirdest test I've taken in med school so far. Very vague scenarios with like 2-3 good answers. Lots of "risk" questions with no clear answer (eg cervical cancer risk but multiple partners not in the answer choices). Lots of next step in management, but you can answer it 3 different ways depending on where you rotated and nothing you read will have a specific answer. Some epidemiology that was obscure (eg most common STI but both chlyamdia and gonorrhea in the answer choices).

just a weird test all around. uWise is definitely not enough, especially with respect to some of the risk/epidemiology/next management. uWise goes into too much detail in most cases and not enough in others. Uworld was better, but very narrow compared to how much material the shelf covered. I read Blueprints and that book was too vague on next steps to be useful for the shelf.

Overall, this is basically a gut test, not a test of knowledge. You'll read these questions, have a gut feeling and hopefully that gut feeling is in the answer choices. Often times it's not, so you got to be comfortable picking an answer choice that doesn't make you vomit.
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Thanks for the update. Sounds rough, but I am sure you did fine. Any thoughts about using NBME subject text or Pretest questions? I heard pretest is pretty good with epidemiology.
 
Enzymes said:
Thanks for the update. Sounds rough, but I am sure you did fine. Any thoughts about using NBME subject text or Pretest questions? I heard pretest is pretty good with epidemiology.
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I actually didn't know about the NBME subject exams until I talked to some classmates, so I can't comment on that. I didn't look at Pretest, but the questions in the back of blueprints were similar to the shelf.
 
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How is the shelf now in terms of ACOG guidelines? For example I know they recently changed definitions of labor; should we be looking at the new definitions or the old ones? Or does it not matter in terms of the question style?
 
tartrate said:
How is the shelf now in terms of ACOG guidelines? For example I know they recently changed definitions of labor; should we be looking at the new definitions or the old ones? Or does it not matter in terms of the question style?
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truth be told, I never encountered a question in which I needed to know ACOG guidelines. That's more important for your rotation.
 
Why is it important to differentiate movement and tone under BPP?
 
tartrate said:
Why is it important to differentiate movement and tone under BPP?
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etiologically -> we don't know.

clinically -> so you can score it and predict the next 24 hours. someone did the research and found that tone and movement correlated separately, so that's why we do it that way.
 
Have any of you guys tried using First Aid for the OBGYN clerkship? I was thinking of doing that plus case files instead of blueprints since it seems quite dense...
 
Scaled Score 89
Percentile 97

UWorld (Great but incomplete)
UWise (Excellent)
Case Files (Excellent)
Blueprints (Questions only, Review test at the end is particularly good)
Pretest (Good)

Questions were short and felt relatively easy. Significant bias towards OB. Had time to review every question and I'm a fairly slow test taker. Curve is not very generous on this one though.
 
Take this with a grain of salt since my test is tomorrow...

The APGO/ACOG text by Beckmann, et al, is great. My school does 5 week rotations, and with planning, a 2.5 week read plan of the 450-ish pages was very doable.
Kaplan and U-Wise questions rounded it out, as well as the NBME self-assessments.
The nice thing about the Beckmann book is that it is what the test is on - all the most recent guidelines, etc. Also, the U-Wise questions directly correlate to the book. Makes studying a weak area really easy.
 
bypass123 said:
Scaled Score 89
Percentile 97

UWorld (Great but incomplete)
UWise (Excellent)
Case Files (Excellent)
Blueprints (Questions only, Review test at the end is particularly good)
Pretest (Good)

Questions were short and felt relatively easy. Significant bias towards OB. Had time to review every question and I'm a fairly slow test taker. Curve is not very generous on this one though.
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so did you read any text or just did questions the entire time?
 
wonderbread12 said:
so did you read any text or just did questions the entire time?
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Only read Casefiles. Felt that was more than good enough for the shelf. Covers all the high yield topics and you can fill in the blanks with whatever questions you choose to do.
 
Anyone know the difference between cervidil & cytotec in terms of when you would use one vs the other aside from cytotec being way cheaper?
 
wonderbread12 said:
Anyone know the difference between cervidil & cytotec in terms of when you would use one vs the other aside from cytotec being way cheaper?
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main advantage of cervidil is that you can yank it when the cervix is ripe so less risk of tachysystole.
 
Blueprints and Uwise are all you really need. I did Uworld as well and those questions were pretty representative of the test. I nailed some questions just from my prep but there were a lot I had to narrow down and guess on. For my test you would have scored some major points if you knew your infections (post partum, peds, STI's, +treatments) infertility workup, post menopause bleeding and post menopause adnexal issues.

Like most board exams a few questions were ridiculously straightforward and others were a simple questions made obtuse and given 6 answers that could be correct depending on how you interpreted the stem.
 
To get Uwise just go create an account on the website, if your school is in the drop down box its free. PM me otherwise.
 
Got around 70, did uwise, uworld and case files 1x only. I should have done pretest but didn't put in the time. My biggest mistake was not reading a textbook such as blueprints and not studying enough on this rotation. The knowledge base that you need is somewhat different from the rest of medicine and the information that carried over from step 1 did not help as much as I had hoped it would.
 
I put cervical cancer and got it incorrect...idk why it is cervical dysplasia? Does anyone know the distinction clinically between cancer and dysplasia?
 

rcdamania said:
I put cervical cancer and got it incorrect...idk why it is cervical dysplasia? Does anyone know the distinction clinically between cancer and dysplasia?
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Quick google search showed the other answer choices, one of which was Pregnancy. This fits the clinical picture much better: LMP 6 wks. ago, condom use occasionally, friable cervix, slightly enlarged uterus, increasing urinary symptoms, and thin, clear vaginal discharge (which is normal).

In contrast, cervical cancer would have presented w/ postcoital bleeding or irregular vaginal bleeding - this is a key feature of cervical cancer. I think given the choice between cervical cancer or dysplasia the better choice would've been cancer given the reasons I cited in my original response, but OP failed to include the other answer choices which fit the picture much better. Good reminder for all of us not to jump to conclusions without analyzing all of the options. As a side note, I found the OB-GYN shelf exam to be similar in this regard - you're always looking for the best answer, or the one that fits the question stem the best even though other choices share some similarities with the presentation.
 
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Vexare said:
Quick google search showed the other answer choices, one of which was Pregnancy. This fits the clinical picture much better: LMP 6 wks. ago, condom use occasionally, friable cervix, slightly enlarged uterus, increasing urinary symptoms, and thin, clear vaginal discharge (which is normal).

In contrast, cervical cancer would have presented w/ postcoital bleeding or irregular vaginal bleeding - this is a key feature of cervical cancer. I think given the choice between cervical cancer or dysplasia the better choice would've been cancer given the reasons I cited in my original response, but OP failed to include the other answer choices which fit the picture much better. Good reminder for all of us not to jump to conclusions without analyzing all of the options. As a side note, I found the OB-GYN shelf exam to be similar in this regard - you're always looking for the best answer, or the one that fits the question stem the best even though other choices share some similarities with the presentation.
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Thanks for your help!
 
AlmostAnMD said:
No idea about this question.

A 30-year-old woman comes to the physician for a routine examination. Her Last office visit was 5 years ago. Her mother had breast cancer at the age of 58 years. Her father died of a myocardial infarction at the age of 39 years. Her 36-year-old brother has type 2 diabetes mellitus. She has smoked one pack of cigarettes daily for 6 years. She uses an oral contraceptive. She is 157 cm (5 ft 2 in) tall and weighs 95 kg (210 lb); BMI is 38 kg/m2.

What is the most appropriate screening test???

ECG
mammography
measure CA 125
measure cholesterol
measure FSH
Test for occult blood
test for chlamydia
test thyroid function--wrong answer
ultrasonography of pelvis
X-ray of chest

Was it cholesterol???
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Measure cholesterol. She has multiple risk factors for coronary disease, and getting LDL levels would inform treatment and concerns for future adverse events. There doesn't seem to be any indication for any of the other tests.

Although this type of question made up a tiny minority of the questions on the OB GYN shelf exam, and although it has little to do with OB GYN other than the fact that she's a woman, stuff like this did show up on my test. Try to think about it generally as women's health and go from there. Generally they want you to know which screens are most appropriate for certain presentations so come up with scenarios in which mammography or FSH might be an appropriate answer for example, and you'll know what to look for if they re-structured the question.
 
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Raw score 94
Studied with the following:
Case files x1
onlinemed.orgx1
uworldx1
MTBII/IIIx1
Kaplan videosx1
Uwisex1
Took the exam this past friday , everything was in those sources pretty straightforward diagnosis , risks factors and next step in management. HIgh yield would be case files , ACOG and uworld as the top priority.
 
Also forgot i did both nbmes , one was 80 the other i got an 82. Very important as some questions repeated in the exam
 
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Hey guys,

I take this test Friday. My school doesn't have access to the uWise questions. Does someone want to be a life saver and hook me up with a screen name?

Thanks and stay the course!
 
84 raw score, don't know the percentile

Uwise x1
Uworld x1
Case files 1/2

Felt like Uwise was probably the best source
 
UWorld: ~70% on Ob/Gyn section
NBME 1: 77 (5 days before)
NBME 2: 69 (2 days before)
Actual score: 77

I used UWorld (1x) + Case Files. UWorld helped me more, but both were very solid resources. I really agree with what some earlier users said in that this shelf draws on a slightly tangential knowledge base compared to the rest of medical school. Obstetrics is unlike anything I've learned before, and I really struggled with it. For those whose rotation is weak in obstetrical experience, you may have difficulty remembering and conceptualizing the material.

I'm noticing that each shelf seems to have a focus on the type of question. The Ob/Gyn shelf was heavier on management questions than the other shelfs I took, which is a weakness of mine. They even asked me 2nd/3rd steps of management (leaving the 1st and/or 2nd steps out of the answer choices). For this reason and for other qualities of the questions on this exam as well, it's really important to be able to rule out answer choices.

They tested me on some nitty-gritty stuff in obstetrics (gynecology was pretty fair/easy), such as needing to know definitions of things and boundaries of pathology vs. physiology to a fine level of detail. Examples: Severe vs. regular pre-eclampsia, arrested vs. protracted labor. Knowing obstetrics at a detailed level will help to be able to rule out answer choices as well, as mentioned above. It just generally felt like there was no such thing as "minutiae" when it came to obstetrics (I'm exaggerating, but you get the point).

Good luck to everyone.
 
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Took it a couple of weeks ago...

Case Files
Uwise
Uworld
Blueprints- select chapters
Select Onelinemeded videos

NBME 1: 88
NBME 2: 88

Shelf: 99

Big believer in the first three resources as I strongly feel they were high yield for the real deal. Definitely think they are more than enough to do well on the shelf. If I had more time I would have tried First Aid or something but I don't feel that it's necessary. Nothing earth-shattering, just wanted to re-affirm that you don't have to have a ton of detail with Blueprints to do well.
 
This was an NBME question, on one of the psych NBMEs wasn't it? I feel like I've seen it really recently, and I put menarche is imminent.
 
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Missorleans said:
This was an NBME question, on one of the psych NBMEs wasn't it? I feel like I've seen it really recently, and I put menarche is imminent.
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This is paraphrased from one of the ob/gyn self-assessment exams.
I appreciate you giving your thoughts on it!
 
Thoughts of the questions below would be appreciated. Reassurance sounds right, but I recall being told that in that age group STD testing maybe appropriate.

18 y/o nulligravid woman, health maintenance exam. c/o sharp brief pain in one of the adnexal regions, occurs days 13 and 14 of menstrual cycle. Menarche @ 13 y/o, menese occur @ 28 day interval, w/ normal flow. never been sexually active. PE & pelvic exam are normal. Most appropriate next step in management.

Reassurance, testing for N. gonorrhoeae and chlamydia, pelvic u/s, leuprolide therapy,
 
crashohverload said:
Thoughts of the questions below would be appreciated. Reassurance sounds right, but I recall being told that in that age group STD testing maybe appropriate.

18 y/o nulligravid woman, health maintenance exam. c/o sharp brief pain in one of the adnexal regions, occurs days 13 and 14 of menstrual cycle. Menarche @ 13 y/o, menese occur @ 28 day interval, w/ normal flow. never been sexually active. PE & pelvic exam are normal. Most appropriate next step in management.

Reassurance, testing for N. gonorrhoeae and chlamydia, pelvic u/s, leuprolide therapy,
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Reassurance seems right. Pain is likely mittelschmerz (mid-cycle pain due to ovulation) which is entirely normal. Obviously leuprolide therapy is wrong, doesn't seem to be any indication for pelvic US at this time, and there's no need to test for STDs if she's never been sexually active, has a normal PE and pelvic exam and has no symptoms you'd expect from those bugs.
 
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crashohverload said:
Thoughts of the questions below would be appreciated. Reassurance sounds right, but I recall being told that in that age group STD testing maybe appropriate.

18 y/o nulligravid woman, health maintenance exam. c/o sharp brief pain in one of the adnexal regions, occurs days 13 and 14 of menstrual cycle. Menarche @ 13 y/o, menese occur @ 28 day interval, w/ normal flow. never been sexually active. PE & pelvic exam are normal. Most appropriate next step in management.

Reassurance, testing for N. gonorrhoeae and chlamydia, pelvic u/s, leuprolide therapy,
Click to expand...

Yeah, like Vexare said, reassurance because it's mittelshmertz. Btw, there's a thread dedicated to the Ob/Gyn NBME's if you want to check if any other Q's you have are already answered there.
 
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Vexare said:
Reassurance seems right. Pain is likely mittelschmerz (mid-cycle pain due to ovulation) which is entirely normal. Obviously leuprolide therapy is wrong, doesn't seem to be any indication for pelvic US at this time, and there's no need to test for STDs if she's never been sexually active, has a normal PE and pelvic exam and has no symptoms you'd expect from those bugs.
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Thank you.
 
Do we have to know the staging for cervical, endometrial, and vulvar cancers for the shelf?
 
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