Good pharm cards/book???

[kdburton]

My understanding, based on what I've heard and what I've experienced thus far, is that my school sucks at teaching pharm. I learn all the drugs for a test, but I couldn't tell you much about them the following week. Part of it is that we're on an organ-based module system so we get some drugs here and some there and there is really no structure in the way they are presented. Can anyone please recommend a good pharm book or set of pharm flashcards that will help throughout school AS WELL AS on step 1 (preferably someone who has actually taken Step 1 and/or knows their drugs really well)?

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[kdburton]

bump - are you serious? This happened last time I asked the same question a while back... Is there no one who has experience with this or what?

 

[TerpMD]

I love Katzung and Trevor- http://www.amazon.com/Katzung-Trevors-Pharmacology-Examination-Review/dp/0071422900
Less for boards, more for class but will work for either

Pharm cards http://www.amazon.com/Pharmcards-Re...d_bbs_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1211475782&sr=1-2 were recommended to me. They are ok in my opinion. Too much info on a notecard for me but the info on there is great.

 

[kdburton]

Thanks for the input. If anyone else has some recommendations let me know. I'm looking for something that is ideal for the boards, and will also help out in class if need be.

 

[diosa428]

Check out the Step I forum. Do a search for pharm cards, you should get some info.

 

[kdburton]

Check out the Step I forum. Do a search for pharm cards, you should get some info.

Ya I know I started a thread there a while back with hundreds of views and no response. Also I'm more interested in getting opinions from people who have taken Step 1 already and found whatever pharm cards/book they used to be particularly helpful (something I'm sure every company's website will say about their product ). With that said, please keep the pharm card/book reviews comin'

 

[jbrice1639]

Ya I know I started a thread there a while back with hundreds of views and no response. Also I'm more interested in getting opinions from people who have taken Step 1 already and found whatever pharm cards/book they used to be particularly helpful (something I'm sure every company's website will say about their product ). With that said, please keep the pharm card/book reviews comin'

i haven't taken step 1, but i'm taking it in 2 weeks and am well into my studying at this point.

i've been using these: http://www.amazon.com/Pharmacology-Flash-Cards-George-Brenner/dp/1416031863/

the nice thing about them is that they have a list of "similar" drugs on each card, so you don't have a card for every single cardio selective beta blocker, just one or two important ones, with a list of others so you can study the groups of drugs easier.

like all pharm cards, their are some drugs left off that i felt were important during our pharm course - and there are some drugs they include that i'd never even heard of, but overall, i've found them to be pretty useful.

and, as mentioned above, i really like the little katzung book - i used that with a lot of success during second year, and have found it very helpful now as well.

 

[Docster]

Check out Pharm Recall at a bookstore near you

The newest ed. is from 2007 and has all the latest drugs. it was a great way to review pharm before an exam, and if I thought watching a lecture wasn't worth the time, I would just read the 3-7 pages in pharm recall. The book had a knack for knowing what my profs would ask on the exam. I'm using it for Step I review now.

 

[pkbronco]

My understanding, based on what I've heard and what I've experienced thus far, is that my school sucks at teaching pharm. I learn all the drugs for a test, but I couldn't tell you much about them the following week. Part of it is that we're on an organ-based module system so we get some drugs here and some there and there is really no structure in the way they are presented. Can anyone please recommend a good pharm book or set of pharm flashcards that will help throughout school AS WELL AS on step 1 (preferably someone who has actually taken Step 1 and/or knows their drugs really well)?

Stringer's "Basic concepts in pharm" is great for an intro read and general topic. especially beginning/early topics in courses.

I agree that the Katzung & Trevor's "Pharm" is pretty sweet. nice short chapters with some good questions too. only think i don't really like is that each chapter's questions are specific for that chapter, so you know the answer basically has to be an agonist or antagonist depending on the chapter.

for that reason, i also use the "pre-test" for pharm. also good questions and answers. but only questions.

 

[gdk]

a great resource for the pharm you need to know for step 1:
first aid for usmle step 1

the drugs, mechanism of action, uses, side effects and interactions are all there. that's all you really need to know. that's all i studied for step 1 and i was usually happy when i saw a pharm question on the test b/c i usually knew the answer

seriously, don't get flash cards. too much detail, but make sure you know all the drugs in first aid, even if it's only mentioned once. i only had one drug on my step 1 stat wasn't in FA - enfuvirtide (or something like that), but you could still get the answer right if you knew the function of gp41 in HIV