Pharmacology and Micro Resources

[Darkskies]

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Hi again,

What are good resources for preparing oneself for the Pharm and Micro sections of the exam? I just started using the Kaplan videos for pharm(the pharm at my school is taught very poorly) but I was wondering if just going through the first 5 chapters of the book/videos(up until Autonomics) would be good enough before I switch over to memorizing all the drugs on the Lange Pharmacology Flashcards. Is just memorizing the flashcards + FA sufficient for the pharmacology on the USMLE?

With regards to micro, is it worth it to go through the Kaplan videos and lecture notes or is it sufficient to memorize the Lippincott flashcards and the FA material?

I also have Firecracker so I was curious to know if it would be a good idea to run through the Microbio module questions on FC(and maybe perhaps pharm as well)?

Studying for the boards seems kind of overwhelming with the amount of material available and the limited time so I'm trying to keep my studying focused and streamlined enough so that I can learn everything necessary to perform well on the boards without sacrificing time on irrelevant material or time consuming strategies that could have been put to better use.

I apologize for all the questions, but I really appreciate the advice! Thanks!

 

[001100010010011]

My exam is in early June. I am overwhelmed too, but feel that if there are quality questions to be done then it's worth the effort.

I like Kaplan's pharm lectures. I just started using them and they help material stick (I haven't done the first chapters but have done single ones here and there). I think Rx has a lot of pharm questions so that should help you get everything down. Do you even need the Lange cards if you have FC?

I'm interested to hear what people say regarding the FC questions. Their qbank has new HY USMLE type questions but I don't want to sink my time into them until I hear about what other people think.

 

[Ionian]

Finding good pharm resources/study method has sucked and cost a lot of $$

For pharm these are the resources I have used for the past year and a half:

Kaplan Videos 2010 Pharmacology
First aid
Katzung & trevor's pharmacology Examination and Board review, 10th edition (Esoteric/overkill)
Illustrated Pharmacology Memory cards: pharMneumonics (mehhh)
Pharmacology (lippincott's illustrated review series) (just awful)
Lippincotts illustrated Q&A review of pharmacology (1st edition, had high hopes, #poorquality #errorfilled #lowyield #omgwtf)
Pretest Pharmacology

What I recommend:
1. Watch the kaplan pharm video
2. Annotate into FA
3. Read the First aid section
4. Pretest pharm are the best quality questions; I had largely given up on pretests other than physiology 2002 edition. But this is a good source of quality questions!
5. Repeat 3-4. Boom done.

Your foundation will be reenforced with Qs from Q banks like Rx/Uworld.

You're welcome.

 

[Darkskies]

Thanks for the replies. So, no one recommends memorizing all the drugs on the Lange flashcards? I have 5 months or so remaining before my exam so I definitely don't have a year and a half to study pharm. Do you recommend going through all the kaplan pharm videos? What about micro? The reason I'm worried about using FC for pharm is because as you said, 0010000100, at this point FC will be too heavy to use, wouldn't it?

 

[Ionian]

Thanks for the replies. So, no one recommends memorizing all the drugs on the Lange flashcards? I have 5 months or so remaining before my exam so I definitely don't have a year and a half to study pharm. Do you recommend going through all the kaplan pharm videos? What about micro? The reason I'm worried about using FC for pharm is because as you said, 0010000100, at this point FC will be too heavy to use, wouldn't it?

I have 5 months till mine too... I am studying systems. I assume you are as well... Like I said bro
1. kaplan video, First aid. Pretest questions right after, this should take half your day /the whole day max. Has for me so far.

Learn it, reenforce it. Move on...

 

[Fatalis]

lange is good to see how a pharm question is asked.
Kaplan is good if you are weak in the area. I use picmonic for the bugs and drugs and it has worked very well.

 

[BlueArc]

Finding good pharm resources/study method has sucked and cost a lot of $$


4. Pretest pharm are the best quality questions; I had largely given up on pretests other than physiology 2002 edition. But this is a good source of quality questions!

what do u think about pathology and pathophysiology pretest ?

 

[Fatalis]

what do u think about pathology and pathophysiology pretest ?

both are trash!

 

[900829]

Hey,
Since u have 5 months, Kaplan pharm and micro are great sources (if u are weak). Once u are done with those, use FA to revise the drugs and bugs.
Kisspharm is also a great review for pharm (at least in my opinion).

 

[BlueArc]

both are trash!

Dude seriously? i was thinking about doing both of these. Their explanations seemed to look helpful.

 

[Fatalis]

for pathology you are better off doing UW, rx and kaplan. I did pre-test path during MS2 and it was such a waste of time.

 

[swoopyswoop]

I'm re-skimming through clinical micro made ridiculously simple alongside micro cards & lippincott pharm cards. The pharm cards are decent, but they sometimes randomly contain biochemical structures which i'm just ignoring. I get a lot of micro Qs / pharm Qs wrong on Rx... so I am thinking of using the pretest book as well to hammer in some clinical Qs.

 

[BlueArc]

for pathology you are better off doing UW, rx and kaplan. I did pre-test path during MS2 and it was such a waste of time.

Thank you for the input. I'll skip this then.

 

[Darkskies]

My exam is in early June. I am overwhelmed too, but feel that if there are quality questions to be done then it's worth the effort.

I like Kaplan's pharm lectures. I just started using them and they help material stick (I haven't done the first chapters but have done single ones here and there). I think Rx has a lot of pharm questions so that should help you get everything down. Do you even need the Lange cards if you have FC?

I'm interested to hear what people say regarding the FC questions. Their qbank has new HY USMLE type questions but I don't want to sink my time into them until I hear about what other people think.

Hi,

I started a conversation with you earlier(is this the new version of PMs?) but I never got a response and I'm wondering if that's because you never replied(which is perfectly fine) or if it's because it never went through/some sort of technical problem. The reason I'm curious is because I messaged someone else as well and I didn't receive a reply whereas before when they had the system of private messages, I wouldn't really have this problem. I'm probably just being paranoid but would anyone mind if I 'start a conversation' with them to test if this function works for me?

EDIT: Nevermind, the person I had contacted was transposony. Sorry about that. In any case, would anyone mind if I test the 'start a conversation' feature with them to make sure it's working for me?