OBGYN Shelf

I finished my OBGYN rotation and took the shelf on Friday! Friday March 13th, pretty unlucky of a date. About a month before your rotation ends, the clinical department will send you an email saying they are registering you for a two week period to take the exam, a few days later you will receive a scheduling permit from prometric and you can then schedule. There were not times offered in Augusta over the weekends so I ended up choosing a Friday. The exam does cost $106. It is 100 questions and you are allotted 2 hours and 30 minutes without breaks (You can always get up and take a break but the time keeps ticking).

Prepping for the exam:

• Throughout the rotation I read Case Files, it's an excellent resource. I read it almost 2 times. 
• I also used Step 2 Uworld which mimicked the questions on the actual exam.
• NBME offers 2, 50 question exams for $20 each, but I didn't take them as I felt prepared with the Uworld questions that I did.
• I'm working on possibly getting UMHS to have a subscription to the Association of Professors of Gynecology and Obstetrics, as they have a killer qbank called uWISE which all of the U.S medical students use to prep for the exam, otherwise an individual subscription is over $200 which isn't worth it. More on that to come.

How the NBME shelf is used:

What you receive on the test has nothing to do with the grade you receive for the rotation in general. Your grade is determined solely on your evaluation from your preceptor. You must pass the NBME in order to pass the rotation. A passing grade is 50%. If you do not receive a passing grade the first time, you will have one more chance to take the exam and if you fail a second time, you must redo the entire rotation.

According to the clinical department, your scores from your NBME shelves will not be released to any schools or residencies programs in the future. So techinically there is no added benefit on scoring extremely high on a shelf in a area in which you want to gain a residency spot. Of course, you always want to score well as you are continually prepping for the USMLE Step 2.

When will you receive your score:

You should receive it 3-5 buisness days after the 2 week testing period ends but you will have to email Isabel at imonarca@umhs-sk.net to receive a copy of your report.

**Update: I passed!