To be completely honest, Pharmacology is a content area that no one ever becomes fluent in until you start using it in practice; in the meantime, you just have to focus on the main ideas about the drugs. Some tips you can use when your making flash cards is to keep it simple and do a little bit everyday- essentially like you are building your knowledge base. Here’s some tips:
As I’m sure you know, there are a TON of drugs! Instead of trying to memorize a whole bunch at one time, focus on a few each day. Putting drugs into groups (like by their class or their effect) helps you to remember them much better. You can even make flashcards or use concept mapping (I’m personally more keen to concept mapping); these tools not only help in basic memorizing, but actually in understanding. Some students find that making acronyms or funny hints help them remember medications work well. For example, I have a few Instagram posts on how to remember blood pressure medications- take a look at those and see if that’s helpful to you! An acronym can be something like this –> Trying to remember common drugs for Alzheimer’s?, think CARE… Cognex, Aricept, Razadyne, and Exelon 🙂 Finally, what text book do you use? Many publishers have a companion website. These websites can be so, so helpful! With something like Pharmacology, you may find that they have fun, interactive learning tools for you.
If you like games, try these sites to help you prep:
http://www.
http://nursing–pharmacology.