Well, I never thought this day would come so fast… but I’m all done with OB/GYN. It was such a great experience overall. Of course, working long hours was pretty exhausting. I managed to gain 5 pounds, put off cleaning my house, put off doing laundry, and my hair is a hot mess. I really loved the material and the experience, but I can’t help but think can I hang for a 4 year residency, let alone the rest of my life, if it was so disruptive for just 6 weeks? I guess it’s hard to really know, but that’s why I’m writing this, so I can look back on it all at the end of this year.
As far as the Shelf Exam was concerned, I didn’t feel that it was too bad. Out of the 100 questions, I only had question marks next to 7 of the questions. I’m usually pretty good at predicting the questions that I’m unsure of. For boards, on each section of 50 I would try to get to the point of marking 10 or less questions, giving a minimum score of 80% and I was pretty good at doing that and happy with my Step 1 score. So… since the NBME puts out this shelf as well, I feel pretty good about it. The only thing is that you have to be in the 85th%ile in order to get the only “honors” that my school offers. The chief resident let me know that she would be giving me a superb eval cause I was a great asset to the team, and my performance improved. So that in combo with a good shelf score equals success. It will be like 8 weeks before I get it all back though! Wish me luck…
