Pharmacology Review Books?

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For those who have taken the step, what did you use to review pharmacology? Class notes? HY? Lippincot? Something else?

Also do you all suggest review books for subjects like immunology and cell/molecular biology or is FA enough for these subjects? Thanks.

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I would not recommend a review book beyond FA for Pharm for anybody.

As for the other subjects, you'll have to define "enough." FA isn't enough to answer 90% of the questions, but they don't make up a huge proportion of the test. If you're shooting for the highest score you can achieve, I recommend the old edition of the HY book for cell & molecular, and the Levinson review book (micro/immuno) for the immuno chapters only.
 
I would not recommend a review book beyond FA for Pharm for anybody.

I would NOT recommend that you just depend on FA for pharm. My roommate knew FA cold, and got smoked on pharm on Step 1. He still regrets listening to the "FA is enough for pharm" advice which he had gotten.

I do NOT believe there is such a thing as over-prepared, so if you have the time and money to invest in a pharm review book then go for it. I used my class notes and the pharm sections in Kaplan Home Study review books, and felt very confident when tackling pharm questions on the NBMEs and Step 1. I’ve also seen great reviews of Lippincot.
 
For those who have taken the step, what did you use to review pharmacology? Class notes? HY? Lippincot? Something else?

Also do you all suggest review books for subjects like immunology and cell/molecular biology or is FA enough for these subjects? Thanks.

FA pharm is definately not sufficient enough for the boards.

Pharm is really a tricky subject. I've reviewed almost all the pharm books out there and haven't found ONE good book to bring it all together.

My take on pharm:

FA: ok but need another source.

Class notes: didn't take too many notes in pharm. And if I did there is always the possiblity I missed a crucial point. So I don't rely on them.

HY: Not detailed enough.

Lippincott: Too detailed and long for USMLE preparation. Only if you have the time.

What I use right now for pharm is the Kaplan book on pharmacology. In a way its very detailed too but I like that it because it has nice charts and chapter summaries to bring the topics together.


And for Immuno and Cell/Molec Bio....

For some people FA is enough. But if you are weak in these areas, like I am, I also recommend Levinson micro/immuno book for the immuno and one of the old HY editions of Cell/Molec Bio.
 
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Interesting.

What sorts of non-FA pharm questions are these -- obscure drugs, obscure details about mechanisms, pharmacokinetics/pharmacodynamics?

I ask because the only drug I got that wasn't in FA wasn't even in Goodman and Gilman, nor is it used in the United States. Besides that, FA was perfect. I could see someone with a poor conceptual understanding of the formulas in FA needing supplemental review, but I'm trying to imagine the obscurities they'd need to draw on to "beat" First Aid in this subject.

Baby Katzung also has a drug list, which does not overlap completely with FA, but I think it's shorter. I think reading the whole thing would be overkill, but perhaps times have changed.
 
What sorts of non-FA pharm questions are these -- obscure drugs, obscure details about mechanisms, pharmacokinetics/pharmacodynamics?

Well some are obscure and some were not...

For one thing...I hate...and that FA lacks is a good index. When I am looking up specific drugs, they are not in the index and I have to go flipping through the pages in order to find them and then sometimes they are not even in the book.

Second, I don't like how FA talks about each drug seperately. I like how other review books put the drugs in tabular format and you can see the difference easily between different drugs.

The organization in the FA is just lacking for me....:thumbdown:

Information wise...its good:thumbup:....if you can find it.:thumbdown:

Here are just some examples of information I ran into on some practice questions in which I needed to know, but could not find in FA:
1.Spironolactone causes hirsutism.
2.Sirolimus causes hyperlipidemia.
3.Metoprolol casues dyslipidemia.
4.Rituximab acts on CD20(+) cells.

Just to name a few. There are more, but I can't think of the other questions. Now my pharm maybe weak:confused: but I could not find this info in FA with the exception of number 1. I had to go to lipincott or other sources to find it.

And none of the drugs are listed in the index. NONE. How do you explain that?? I have a 2004 FA. Maybe its because I have an old version....

Who knows.....???
 
When prepared for the boards,
I used FA pharm sections as a main source.
Of course, filled in the gaps with Kaplan Q bank & UW explanations.

When I want to make sure MOAs/indications etc, I used wiki (or big kazung on rare occasions).

:luck:
 
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