Picmonic vs. SketchyPharm for Pharmacology - which is better?

[charger246]

For Microbiology's bacteria/viruses M1 year I used SketchyMicro and don't have one bad word to say about it. I owe my grade entirely to it.

For Pharmacology however I've heard that SketchyPharm isn't as good as SketchyMicro and the videos are too long/stories aren't quite as good.

Is this true from your experience and most importantly, if you had to pick one, which would you recommend I use - SketchyPharm or Picmonic?

Thanks

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[Taddy Mason]

For Microbiology's bacteria/viruses M1 year I used SketchyMicro and don't have one bad word to say about it. I owe my grade entirely to it.

For Pharmacology however I've heard that SketchyPharm isn't as good as SketchyMicro and the videos are too long/stories aren't quite as good.

Is this true from your experience and most importantly, if you had to pick one, which would you recommend I use - SketchyPharm or Picmonic?

Thanks

Sketchy Pharm is okay. There's a pretty broad range in quality of the videos (i.e., some are really good, some are awful, and everything in between). The biggest complaint people tend to have with SketchyPharm is the length, which I don't get because on 2X speed the longest videos end-up being ~15min on. Some of the videos are excellent for phys reviews. IMHO, the best aid for pharm are Kaplan videos with Raymon (I bootlegged them...) and FA. When I switched to using just those 2 sources the amount of time I spent studying pharm went down considerably, and the number of pharm questions I got correct on quizzes and exams went up considerably (from ~70% to >95%).

 

[MedNation907]

I can't speak for picmonic other than what I hear from colleagues, which are all great things. I love sketchy but I'd say it's inferior to picmonic if you haven't used sketchy for microbiology. Their pharm videos are very long ~20 minutes each, the upside is that they use recurring symbols. So for the avid user it's a great resource.


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[Lya]

I used both. There are pros and cons to both resources and I would consider investing in both if you are a visual learner like me.

Here's what I do: when I read about a drug, I first look into sketchy pharm and see how they describe it. If it's too long or has too much information that I already knew (thus making the picture unnecessarily complicated to remember), I relied on picmonic as a back up.

One of pros for picmonic is that I can pick or even add the information that I need to remember, excluding the information that I already knew, so pictures seemed a lot simpler and personalized. Another pro is that it also covers other pathology associations (lysosome/glycogen storage diseases, etc.) that I knew I would keep forgetting without any visual in my mind.

Otherwise, I used sketchy pharm for the rest of pharm.


If you decide to use sketchy pharm as the only resource, I would start watching it early in the process, so that when you re-watch them during your dedicated, hopefully a lot of info would be already in your long-term memory and things will be more manageable rather than being overwhelmed.

 

[charger246]

any other input appreciated. specifically for pharmacology only, since I used sketchy for micro and it was great but pharm is a little different I heard.

 

[MedNation907]

any other input appreciated. specifically for pharmacology only, since I used sketchy for micro and it was great but pharm is a little different I heard.

I recommend making that decision yourself. I used Sketchy for micro and think the pharm sections are baller. I wouldn't just assume it's bad and not try it.

 

[avgn]

Who are these people who complain that a 20 min video is too long...like wut. Do it while you're watching TV or brushing your teeth. I've been on the toilet sometimes for 20 min, really not that long to learn about cool mnemonics for pharm

 

[AlbinoHawk DO]

I have used both. Sketchy is okay if you want the superficial knowledge that FA gives, but if you need specific facts from drugs such as apriprazole being a partial D2 agonist, you'll only get it with Picmonic. It is disappointing that sketchy cheated by adding text into sketches to remember stuff. Some videos are incredibly long that they borderline garbage. 30 minutes for NSAIDs? Come on. If you want to know how drugs relate to physiology, sketchy wins there. If all you want to do is memorize the facts, go Picmonic. One win for sketchy is less total images. If you only buy one, go with Picmonic because you get more useful content from other subjects.

 

[DocWinter]

Sketchy pharm gets a bad rap for the length. But when you learn about heparin, LMWH, factor X inhibitors and two other classes of similar drugs and can pick them apart in an exam it's really not that bad. Run in on 1.7 then 2x speed and you'll not need to go back to it.

 

[avgn]

Are there ever discounts for Picmonic? So expensive compared to Pathoma/Sketchy...

 

[TiredOfBeingAnIntrovert]

I think if price isn't an issue, Picmonic is better for Pharm and Sketchy is way better for Micro.
SketchyPharm is too long and the simplest things you know really complicated with their drawings. See the calcium channel blocker video. Also, there's something off about it.

I think the trick to Pharm is in the details and Picmonic is better there. Most USMLE pharm questions test a specific aspect of a drug like MOA/Indication/Side effect. There are exceptions like succinylcholine but then I watched that SketchyPharm video and it did nothing to cover the complexity of it's mechanism of action. I was really disappointed in SketchyPharm.

There are some good ones out there though on SketchyPharm. The Adrenergic drugs and anti-arrhytmics were pretty nice.

 

[charger246]

Mixed reviews.... whatever, I'll just buy both and pick from each one.

 

[chillaxbro]

Used sketchypharm not for learning pharmacology but for drug names and side effects

 

[charger246]

Bought and tried both and good God is Picmonic utter garbage. Don't know how anyone can prefer this program to SketchyMedical, which is probably the best resource I ever bought. Nailed the first pharmacology exam purely due to SketchyPharm and over half the questions I got right were solely because of the scenery of Sketchy being implanted in my head.

Unless Picmonic is better for board-specific studying or some other reason (which I haven't gotten to yet, as I'm still focused on just classes/grades), save your money and go with Sketchy.

 

[avgn]

Bought and tried both and good God is Picmonic utter garbage. Don't know how anyone can prefer this program to SketchyMedical, which is probably the best resource I ever bought. Nailed the first pharmacology exam purely due to SketchyPharm and over half the questions I got right were solely because of the scenery of Sketchy being implanted in my head.

Unless Picmonic is better for board-specific studying or some other reason (which I haven't gotten to yet, as I'm still focused on just classes/grades), save your money and go with Sketchy.

Well, one reason to get Picmonic would be to get all the non-micro/pharm topics that aren't covered by Sketchy. Also it updates constantly, always new stuff being added in

 

[ortnakas]

My love for SketchyMicro is deep and everlasting. I didn't love Sketchy Pharm as much as Micro because they sometimes cram a lot of drugs into one video and it gets a bit busy. And because it's not narrated by the same guy. I actually don't have any complaints about the length-- BECAUSE they cram a lot of drugs into one video. All cholinomimetics in half an hour, or fifteen minutes if you get yourself used to 2X speed, isn't half bad. At the end of the day, I did reasonably all right on the USMLE and very well on the COMLEX, and for both pharm ended up one of my best subjects-- largely thanks to Sketchy.

 

[Redpancreas]

SketchyMicro is the bomb. SketchyPharm is another story...videos are too long, and they really make unneeded caricatures of things that make logical sense (see the muscarinic videos)...I prefer DIT if you need someone to lecture to you or just straight up finding the PDF of FA, printing out all the Pharm squares and rote memorizing. DIT is only $99 if you want Pharm...Yes they go through FA but they say stuff to help you remember.

 

[Bobcat18]

I did Sketchy Pharm and I was happy with the decision. Prior to studying for Step 1 pharm was one of my weakest if not the weakest subjects of mine (memorizing random facts isn't my strong-suit)- it soon became my best subject thanks to Sketchy Pharm. Yeah Sketchy Micro is better that's undeniable but Sketchy Pharm is memorable and they did a great job at picking out high yield information to present. I ended up with a Step 1 score of 249 with pharm being my best subject. Good luck!