Behavioral Sciences Shelf Exam
as mentioned last semester, the National Board of Medical Examiners provides a set of subject examinations to medical schools for standardized testing of Basic Science course material. the exams are basically made up of old USMLE Step 1 questions.
tomorrow we write the Behavioral Sciences portion. complete with epidemiology and biostatistics and psychologic health testing and human development and psychopharmacology and DSM IV and other fun stuff (nutrition, diabetes, drug compliance, and a TON of ethics).
so far i have diagnosed* just about everyone i know with a personality disorder. a recipe for me involves a couple of tablespoons of narcissistic and a dash of schizoid with some avoidant and obsessive-compulsive thrown in for good measure. my favourite defense mechanisms are humour and sublimation. the disorder i would least like to have is probably schizoaffective. the disorder i would probably most enjoy would have to be some sort of shared psychotic episode.
slowly going crazy am i. 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. switch.
what am i doing to prepare? reviewing and memorizing the relevant sections of USMLE World QBank questions, First Aid, and the Kaplan review series. our professors have done a great job of tailoring their course material to fit with what Step 1 expects, but even they admit we don’t have time to cover everything. there will probably be at least 20-30% new/foreign (or self-study) content on the shelf exams. as such, i haven’t even really looked at my class notes and am focusing more on Step 1 supplemental material. it may seem unfair that we are being tested on material we haven’t been taught, but the 15% exam tends to be appropriately curved before influencing our overall grade.
oh, and my training also involves drinking a lot of coffee and eating brownies** for breakfast.
two more shelf exams after this one (Physio on Thursday and Biochem on Friday) and then finals next week. whew! time is flying! you would think I was studying hard enough to get my masters in social work online!
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*most people that read this site realize i am joking and are wise enough to take just about every single thing i write here with tongue firmly in-cheek and/or rather large grains of salt. that said, you might be interested to know that wondering if you possibly maybe might have a personality disorder automatically excludes you from having one based on the ego-syntonic criteria. Glenn Close really thought she was perfectly normal and that the rest of the world had the problem.
**shaddup, Steve. ; ))
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April 7th, 2008 at 6:37 pm
It’s probably too late, but the BRS is EXCELLENT for the Behavioral Shelf. It worked like a charm for me. G’luck!
April 7th, 2008 at 9:32 pm
After reading your post in it’s entirety, performing my own personality test (the results of which have now been lost, mysteriously) and liberally smearing Vicks Vapo-Rub on me due to a wretched spring cold, I can confidently say that I am in complete agreement with you about the brownies and coffee.
Best of luck on the finals! :-)
April 8th, 2008 at 9:53 am
*thought for sure the title for this was ‘… self exam’
*wonders what personality disorders stalkers suffer from*
*shutting up*
April 8th, 2008 at 12:49 pm
Best of luck #3.
I know you can do it.
Rest is on the horizon, at least for a few weeks with your best friend.
Excuse me I have to finish my English muffin and coffee.
Joe
April 8th, 2008 at 2:06 pm
Amen. If you think you might be crazy, you’re almost certainly not.
Well, maybe a little, but isn’t everyone?
April 8th, 2008 at 5:56 pm
looking back, i can safely say i have never met a normal person. and i don’t think i want to.
April 8th, 2008 at 6:56 pm
wait. what if we know we have a personality disorder? how do we find out what it is? that base wasn’t covered.
also, I owe you stuff… still. will address that shortly.
June 8th, 2008 at 4:50 pm
[...] … which is definitely better than the 3 NBME exams (beh sciences, physio, and biochem) and 4 finals we wrote at the end of MED 2. [...]
July 12th, 2008 at 4:38 pm
Hi!
I am taking Behavioral shelf exam in less than 48 hrs. Did you have epidemiology and biostats on your exam? Was the test really hard? Do you have any suggestions on how to prepare for it. I am doing lots of Kaplan Q`s and using the BRS along with Kaplan videos.
Best of luck!
S.
August 7th, 2008 at 6:07 am
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