NYCPA5 Posted April 5, 2011 Share Posted April 5, 2011 Hey All, I am currently in my second semester of PA school and everything is going well, with the exception of Pharm class. I was wondering if you guys and gals out there had some tips and ideas on how to remember MOA, receptors/enzymes, ADR, Contraindications, and so on. Any help would be great! Thanks, Kacs Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrator rev ronin Posted April 5, 2011 Administrator Share Posted April 5, 2011 How much are you being asked to remember of that, for how many drugs? You're in PA school, not a Pharm.D. program... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
acozadd Posted April 5, 2011 Share Posted April 5, 2011 It wasn't uncommon for us to have 200 drugs on an exam and we had 6 exams, each exam had up to a 33% comprehensive component to it... Ya pharm wasn't the most fun I've ever had but I would just make flashcards of the drugs with the info that I wanted to know and separate them into groups of 5ish. Keep adding a new 5 when you have the previous 5 mastered, and be sure to constantly mix them up. Eventually you will be left with a small pile of ones you don't know and a large pile of ones you have mastered. It really has to be done daily if you want to stay on top of it. Reading through those lectures did nothing for me, it is brute memorization. I should preface this with pharm was one of the courses we took with the med students, and that making flashcards will take FOREVER, but it really worked for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guthriesm Posted April 5, 2011 Share Posted April 5, 2011 I have a running excel sheet where i write the drug, MOA, uses, and major side effects, etc. I have it color coded. My exams have had about 300+ drugs each. Flash cards are what most of my classmates are using as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andersenpa Posted April 6, 2011 Share Posted April 6, 2011 How much are you being asked to remember of that, for how many drugs? You're in PA school, not a Pharm.D. program... The OP's list sounds straightforward. This is bread and butter for PAs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greenmood Posted August 19, 2011 Share Posted August 19, 2011 I started making flashcards last night, as suggested, but am not sure how useful they'll be. Right now we're still on ADME... I think maybe once I start memorizing drugs it might actually be easier, honestly. My pharmacology instructor talks about stuff I've never heard of (CYP... and I took biochem, so maybe it was just a **** biochem class?), so I'm having to do a lot of outside reading just to understand his lectures. We went through something like 400 slides in four days. This girl is a touch overwhelmed. I remember feeling this way about Anatomy at first, too, so I'm crossing my fingers the anxiety will subside. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mtg1111 Posted August 19, 2011 Share Posted August 19, 2011 I never made flash cards. I just tried to understand the MOA and what effect it had on the body. As far as the contraindications and interactions, I memorized them. Make pneumonics if you have to. Pharm was a hard class for the majority of my class, but I did fairly well in it; although I never ever felt prepared for any of my exams. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mtg1111 Posted August 19, 2011 Share Posted August 19, 2011 Also, it sometimes helped me to write out the contraindications by class per drug on my whiteboard that way I can see every drug in the class side by side and compare the differences. If you do that, you would then see why you would pick one drug over the other. Such as diabetes medications: Metformin contraindicated with elevated Creatine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joanna.nola Posted August 21, 2011 Share Posted August 21, 2011 Make tables so you can see the commonalities and exceptions for each class (our prof often provided us some tables). Also, try to figure out your best learning style. I learn through several modalities. I'm mostly a visual learner (thus why tables are great--I'll often think "that was in the upper right corner, so it must be this") But to better understand the material in a way that'll stick in my brain, I also need to explain things out loud. This bumped my Pharm grades up several points: I recorded myself and listened to it a bunch of times. I would record all the information, explaining in my own words the most important things, like the mechanism by which the drug worked. I recorded it right on my Iphone and would listen to it whenever I could: in the car, walking to school, at the gym, at the grocery store etc. I was amazed the studying I could pack into activities like shopping. Sometimes, on the test, I would think: oh, that is the drug I was thinking about while picking out broccoli. Leave some space in the recording to explain something (you can do this outloud or in your head--try to beat yourself, explaining it more quickly) and then your recorded self will confirm it to you. I often repeat throughout a section what section I'm on in case my mind wanders: "We are going over benzodiazepines right now, looking at X drug..." so that I don't think: "wait, what section am I on?" I don't know if this'll work for everyone, but several of my fellow students with long commutes tried it and really liked it. I used it in clinical medicine, too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mdebord Posted August 22, 2011 Share Posted August 22, 2011 I also had color-coded spreadsheets that I would keep on my desk at all times and read over and over (during "easy" classes, on the bus, etc). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
c0untingstars Posted August 23, 2011 Share Posted August 23, 2011 I tried flash cards in undergrad - couldn't keep up. I like the spreadsheet idea though, I could quickly do that and copy/paste during lecture. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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