advice for the OB/GYN shelf exam

This is an atypical post for me because I usually tend toward the narrative - and write for a non-medical audience. However, the only medical blogs I look at myself are ones that give advice on how to study for the NBME shelf exams or USMLE step exams. Until this point, I really didn't feel like I did well enough on anything to be worthy of giving advice, but considering on how often I look at this blog post about third year shelf exams, I wanted to put in my two cents about how to do well on the ob/gyn shelf exam - because for once this year, I did do well on a shelf exam!

Here are the resources I used: 

1. Blueprints Obstetrics and Gynecology - This book is great for the people who prefer to read text, and I believe this edition is considered to be the best in this series. I think the obstetrics chapters are more helpful/detailed than the gynecology ones. What I found really useful about reading this book is that I read the chapters in coordination with the 10 APGO questions on that topic. This is my favorite learning format (think back to ExamKrackers for the MCAT) so I liked doing it this way, although I think it might have been more time-consuming than necessary.

2. Case Files: Obstetrics and Gynecology - I was really glad I forced myself to finish this book during the last week of my rotation. It was more updated than Blueprints and I thought it explained certain differentials with more clarity. I wondered whether I should have read through Case Files during the first two weeks of my rotation (but I was on Gyn Onc, so this is really useless wondering). It did seem nice to have fresh in my brain right before the shelf, but I really think reading this first, then reading Blueprints (if you have time), is probably the better way to go.

3. APGO U Wise Question Bank - This is the indispensable resource in my mind. Unfortunately, I've read that not all schools pay for this question bank, but it was definitely the best resource I used. It contains ~580 questions grouped into 10 question quizzes by topic, as well as 50-question and 100-question comprehensive tests. A nice piece of trivia to know is that the 50 question tests are actually just randomly generated from the question bank. This means that you will recognize questions if you were able to go through the whole bank, but it also means that if you are studying at the last minute, just doing the 50 question test over a few times would expose you to a smattering of topics. I'm unsure whether or not the 100 question comprehensive test contains questions from the bank. Some of them seemed familiar to me, but by the time I was taking this my brain started to feel a little numb, so I'm not sure. Still worth taking to see how ready you are for the shelf.

4. UWorld Question Bank - I made the plunge and paid for this question bank for the whole year, and I always do the topical questions before each shelf. There are about 200 questions for ob/gyn. I did them all on tutor mode over the last couple days before my shelf. I would recommend going through them, although I did find that some were more nit-picky than I found the shelf and APGO questions to be. A usual recommendation is to then go through your incorrects, but I didn't have time to do this.

Summary: 

I was definitely glad I was thorough with my studying because the exam was harder than I expected. I had heard it was one of the easier exams to prepare for because it actually stays on-topic (unlike surgery, psych, neuro, oh yeah... all shelf exams), which was true, but I thought the questions were more complex than the questions in APGO and UWorld. So although the question banks were great prep, I was glad I read something in addition. Also, just a reminder that I really want to go into OB/GYN, so I was highly motivated to do well, and otherwise I definitely wouldn't have come home and studied two hours every night while working 80-hour weeks on L&D. I think you could still do pretty well with simply doing the APGO questions.

Hope this helps and good luck!