M.D. ON THE WAY

For all my wonderful rising MS3 followers, here’s the list of things I used for each shelf exam. I was completely clueless about what to study at the beginning of third year, so I hope this can be helpful! Third year is INFINITELY better than first/second year, so don’t stress. It is possible to get honors on shelf exams. Don’t let anybody tell you otherwise. 

Resources for Every Rotation:

Online Med Ed: didn’t get a chance to use all of it for internal, but used it for every other rotation. It is best to use these videos during the first few days of the rotation to get a nice foundation of knowledge.

Emma Ramahi powerpoints: just google her name and they will pop up. She has powerpoints on IM, peds, psych, and surgery. These are easy “gimme” points and are always amazingly helpful. Best to do these at the beginning and towards the end of the rotation (during the week before the shelf). Easily got me 10 extra questions on both IM and surgery shelves.

NBME practice exams: I always did at least 1-2 of these for every rotation (except family medicine…because they don’t have any for family med :( ). Best to do them the weekend or so before the shelf. Sometimes, the questions in the practice exams are eerily similar to the real shelf questions. 

Rotation-Specific Resources: 

Family Medicine: My Family medicine shelf was based off of CaseFiles…so this won’t be helpful for schools that use NBME’s version. 

CaseFiles: Literally every question from my shelf was pulled from these 43924890238 cases. So, memorize them as best you can if your shelf is set up this way.

AAFP has a set of practice questions. Just sign up for a free membership and you can access them.

Unfortunately, there are no practice shelf exams, no OME videos, and no Ramahi powerpoint :( This shelf can be tough. Focus a lot on health maintenance and screening stuff.

Internal Medicine: At my school, this rotation was SO SHORT for the amount of things you need to learn (only 6 weeks). Start studying early and stay on top of it.

I did not have time to do OME videos. At all. I don’t really regret it, but I hear they are good.

I did all the U World questions. There are like…1400? of them. It is a LOT for 6 weeks in addition to working from 6am-5pm. However, they are excellent prep.

Step Up to Medicine chapters on cardio and ambulatory medicine are da bomb and added to U World. This whole book would honestly be really great prep, but I just didn’t have enough time to read it all. I’m using it more during Step 2 study time, and I really love it.

Neurology: This was only a 3 week rotation for me, but the residents and attendings were amazing teachers and absolutely saved us for the shelf exam. 

U World questions

First Aid: around 40 pages. Good foundation along with OME.

Case Files: I thought this particular Case Files was super helpful.

OB/GYN: Gyn-Onc week was possibly the hardest week of third year as far as hours and work went, for me. Benign-Gyn and L&D were also super busy weeks. Basically, just try to plan your study schedule as best you can with the knowledge that this is an extremely busy rotation.

U World

First Aid: pretty long section (like 70 pages), but good foundational knowledge.

 APGO questions: 550 questions that are a little more “detailed.”  

Case Files if there is time.

Pediatrics: Wards and clinic weeks are super busy. Residents are amazing and very good teachers. You will learn a ton.  This shelf was a bit of a sleeper in that it was more difficult than people were expecting.

U world

First Aid: 50 pages of goodness

Case Files: honestly didn’t find this one as helpful as neuro or OB. 

Psychiatry: Residents and attendings are very nice and hours are great. Know the drugs really, really well. Supposedly, the shelf this year will now officially contain all the DSM-V diagnoses.

U World

First Aid for Psychiatry: This book is honestly all you need to get honors on the psych shelf. It is unequivocally the best study aid for this rotation. Its also pretty short and if you really want to, you can probably get through the whole thing in one weekend.

Relax during this rotation! 

Surgery: Long hours, rough days, but also very challenging and exciting cases (sometimes). 

U World

Dr. Pestana’s Surgery Notes: great review of high yield topics, but leaves out a lot of detail.

sayim:

“There were once three brothers who were traveling along a lonely, winding road at twilight. In time, the brothers reached a river too deep to wade through and too dangerous to swim across.. However, these brothers were learned in the magical arts, and so they simply waved their wands and made a bridge appear across the treacherous water. They were halfway across it when they found their path blocked by a hooded figure.

And Death spoke to them. He was angry that he had been cheated out of three new victims, for travelers usually drowned in the river. But Death was cunning. He pretended to congratulate the three brothers upon their magic and said that each had earned a prize for having been clever enough to evade him.

So the oldest brother, who was a combative man, asked for a wand more powerful than any in existence: a wand that must always win duels for its owner, a wand worthy of a wizard who had conquered Death! So Death crossed to an elder tree on the banks of the river, fashioned a wand from a branch that hung there, and gave it to the oldest brother.

Then the second brother, who was an arrogant man, decided that he wanted to humiliate Death still further, and asked for the power to recall others from Death. So Death picked up a stone from the riverbank and gave it to the second brother, and told him that the stone would have the power to bring back the dead.

And then Death asked the third and youngest brother what he would like. The youngest brother was the humblest and also the wisest of the brothers, and he did not trust Death. So he asked for something that would enable him to go forth from that place without being followed by Death. And death, most unwillingly, handed over his own Cloak of Invisibility.

Then Death stood aside and allowed the three brothers to continue on their way, and they did so, talking with wonder of the adventure they had had, and admiring Death’s gifts. In due course the brothers separated, each for his own destination.

The first brother traveled on for a week or more, and reaching a distant village, sought out a fellow wizard with whom he had a quarrel. Naturally with the Elder Wand as his weapon, he could not fail to win the duel that followed. Leaving his enemy dead upon the floor, the oldest brother proceeded to an inn, where he boasted loudly of the powerful wand he had snatched from Death himself, and of how it made him invincible.

That very night, another wizard crept upon the oldest brother as he lay, wine-sodden, upon his bed. The theif took the wand and, for good measure, slit the oldest brother’s throat.

And so Death took the first brother for his own.

Meanwhile, the second brother journeyed to his own home, where he lived alone. Here he took out the stone that had the power to recall the dead, and turned it thrice in his hand. To his amazement and his delight, the figure of the girl he had once hoped to marry, before her untimely death, appeared at once before him.

Yet she was sad and cold, separated from him as by a veil. Though she had returned to the mortal world, she did not truly belong there and suffered. Finally the second brother, driven mad with hopeless longing, killed himself so as truly to join her.

And so Death took the second brother for his own.

But though Death searched for the third brother for many years, he was never able to find him. It was only when he had attained a great age that the youngest brother finally took off the Cloak of Invisibility and gave it to his son. And then he greeted Death as an old friend, and went with him gladly, and, equals, they departed this life.”

Hi everyone, I just recently received an ask from an anon which prompted me to make this PSA, because it’s something I really care about.

So i’m a senior in highschool in france, and my finals are 6 months away and i have quizzes every week. But i always can’t study and have a problem concentrating and sticking to the chair and study + i have major math problems. I’m afraid i’ll fail because i just CAN’t study. Please help me?

A lot of studyblrs like to make it out that students like you just aren’t motivated/disciplined enough but before I make such an assumption about you; 

I’d actually like to ask a few more questions. Since when have you been having trouble concentrating and studying? How long you can usually concentrate before you find that you can’t study anymore? 15 minutes? 30 minutes? Do you have any glasses that you wear?

Symptoms of Eye Coordination and Accommodation Problems?

I’ve learned from my studies in optometry that perhaps there’s a possibility that you could have problems with your vision or eye coordination. Have you ever had your binocular vision and accommodation tested by an optometrist? You already seem to have trouble sustaining near work like studying, but do you ever get symptoms like eyestrain, frontal headaches (forehead, in between the eyes, etc.), fatigue at the end of the day, adding/multiplying numbers in the wrong columns?

Poor function leads to Poor academic results

Young students like us should be able to at least concentrate on something for a few hours. For many students out there (students who might have been always considered the ‘non-academic types’) it’s not as if they’re lazy or they aren’t studying, they’re studying the most that their visual system allows them to study. 

This might lead you to believe that you just “aren’t good at studying” or that you “just can’t study”, which eventually makes you think that you “just aren’t good at maths" or that you “just aren’t interested in that topic". And the funny thing is, that this might only turn up when you enter senior year when the workload becomes heavier and the concepts more complex, when your visual system starts to break down under the strain of consistent near work and increased mental load. And this could possibly be remedied using just spectacle correction.

What’s so frustrating for optometrists(-to-be) like me is that there are students out there who may not be able to achieve their maximum potential, just because nobody knows about this! When we study we need to be physically sound > emotionally sound > mentally sound > spiritually sound (thanks @hexaneandheels​). And considering that 65% of people are visual learners, and that 90% of all information transmitted to the brain(x) is visual, our visual system is really important!

So consider a trip to the optometrist to help yourself out!

Since there’s a chance that you might need a little helping hand in the form of spectacles, I’d like to suggest that you get a check with the optometrist. If all that’s sound, then we can try and identify other issues that might be stopping you from studying, like motivation, bodily fatigue/sickness, discipline, distractions, etc. (which I’ve got plenty of advice for :D) I’d really like to hear back from you and try and help you out, so please please get back to me!! It’s honestly a passion to help students :) 

I’d be grateful if people could reblog this just so that other students out there know as well - if you feel like you can’t study, it might not be that you’re lazy or unmotivated, but that your visual system just needs a little help!

My Study Tips

The What I Wish I’d Known Before University Series: Part 1 Administration , Part 2 Getting to Class , Part 3 Studying , Part 4 Extra-Curriculars , Part 5 Exams , Part 6 Social Life

See also Catching Up with Your Studies , Dealing with Bad Results , Sleeping and Waking Up Early , Studying and your Visual System

My 2017 Planner and Bullet Journal, and My new study space set-up for 2017!

In honor of the new year, here is my simple tutorial for setting up and maintaining a language journal. I’ve made 3 so far using this method for spanish, french, and italian because it’s so simple. Disfruta y espero que logres sus metas de lengua este año! <3

What You’ll Need:

composition book

highlighters

flashcard(s)

black ink pen

Day 3: Your favorite motivational quote

so, this isn’t a poetic and insightful motivational quote. it’s more like the goddamned mantra that kept me alive last year thru all the bullshit.

(via studywithinterruptions)