Pharmacology

This class is business as usual. The tests are mostly very reasonable and the faculty hold a test review after where they teach you why you missed what you missed (wish more classes would do this) and even rescore some questions when students give a good reason for their answer.

Traditionally the faculty give out a list of all the drugs on the test a week or so before the exam. In a way this is a shame because it keeps us from studying the few important drugs that don't make it onto the exam as much as we should. It would be ideal to study as you go and not to fall behind, but of course you'll find yourself trying harder not to fall behind in other classes sometimes.

Don't bother with the course textbook. The faculty's notes tell you everything you need to know. Some students like Lippincott's pharm review book as a supplement to class notes. A successful strategy that has been used by many students is to make drug flashcards during class instead of taking notes in the usual way. Make sure the cards are complete with drug, mechanism of action, indications, important side effects (those that are unique to the drug or particularly potent so as to limit its use), important contraindications and unique aspects of kinetics (eg, drugs that upregulate or inhibit P450 activity). Now when the list comes out, you just sort your deck instead of making cards for the whole list with only a few days. Alternatively you can buy a commercial flash card sets. There are exactly 2 commercial sets that are worth a damn. 1) Lippincott "PharmCards" (not to be confused with the other Lippincott pharmacology flash cards). These are comprehensive and include some high yield illustrations, making these cards adequate to do well in the class. These cards are also popular for Step 1 review. 2) Lange "Pharmacology Flash Cards." These cards are geared to step 1 and less comprehensive than PharmCards. They will only be adequate for the class if you annotate them with some additional info from course notes. They are, however, nice for Step 1 because they have exactly what you need to know and no more (PharmCards are a bit of overkill for Step 1).

However you organize pharm, keep in mind that you'll need to review it for Step 1. Having a deck of cards that you're already familiar with will be extremely valuable when summer comes around.

Finally, keep in mind that this is a really important subject not only for Step 1 but also for M3 and beyond. Learning pharm well now will be the gift that keeps on giving.

Teachers
Taj's exams emphasize kinetics of the drugs a little more than the others. Eg, he likes to ask about drugs that inhibit P450, prodrugs, whether a drug is renally or hepatically cleared, etc. For the oncology exam he not only tests drugs but also is heavy on general concepts of how each catagories of drugs can be applied. His questions can also focus on subtle differences between drugs.

Kemper's antiobiotics exam is a beast. Make sure you know all the mechanisms of action (precisely) and indications for everything on the list. He generally won't require you to know what specific drug goes with what specific bacteria, but more general indications (eg, TMP-SMX for a UTI, which generation of cephalosporins for g-'s, etc.). Conversely, in the smaller antifungal, viral and parasite groups you will need to keep the drugs straight with their specific organisms.

Cox's exams are straightforward. Indications are most important, but don't neglect the other stuff completely.

Wang's lectures slides are great. Many of them could be cut up into 6 pieces and used as the flash cards. Averages on her tests are high because she teaches you exactly what she wants you to know. For the 2nd exam, although there are alot of drugs, she seemed to focus on a couple important drugs (e.g. digitoxin) in multiple questions with other less important drugs as distractors (Fall 2011).

''Note added in proof: If you desire big picture and integrative pharm for this course and the Step, there are some videos in the "my documents" folder of the Forum B computer. You're welcome ;-)''