You asked this on multiple other articles, and here is my response: “Hi Nima, I’m so sorry to hear about you not passing your IM Shelf by one point – I can imagine that must feel really frustrating and be the source of a lot of soul-searching. In my experience, these sorts of are typically very painful but if approached with the right attitude and honest self-appraisal, can be a great catalyst for change. Re: score recheck – you can certainly try. I’ve never heard of someone’s score changing in their favor after a re-check, but I assume it is an asymmetric risk – if you don’t get it, then I doubt you lose much in the way of time/effort. But on the off-chance it does work, it could save you a big headache of having to re-take/whatever other penalties there are for not passing your shelf.

Dr. P”

Thanks for such a great plan for rocking the clerkships! I’m definitely on board- I used the Step 1 Anki cards during M2 year, and just finished taking it (Step 1) last week. I felt really well-prepared and love using Anki to reinforce my knowledge every day! Hopefully my score is good 🙂

I start my 8-week Medicine clerkship next week and wanted to ask 2 quick questions-

1. Is there a role for a text like Step Up to Medicine in working through the block? I was already planning on doing UWorld and the Step 2 Anki deck, but a lot of my peers are buying other various books, too, with the one I mentioned above being the most popular. You know how it is with med students and peer pressure! Overkill?

2. Recommendations for what to stuff in my white coat pocket? I’ve heard that Pocket Medicine, for example, is very useful.

Thanks again!

Tracy

Hi Roshan,

I would mainly be doing questions at this point. As you go through them, focus on topics that you notice to be more commonly tested or topics that are weak points for you, and learn those by looking them up. This is a more difficult shelf namely because it covers so much material. Remember to cut down on careless errors by interpreting question stems correctly and applying what you know! Best of luck.

Melody

I have the FM shelf coming up next week and am wondering if you have any advice for this shelf specifically. Thanks.

Roshan