nuprin
Forum Elite
Topics: 16
Posts: 338
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are you doing poorly in remembering drug names, side effects, mechanisms, or all? i really felt fa was enough for the boards in terms of drugs, and i've heard the same from almost everyone.
1) make sure you really understand the mechanisms and concepts, bc they will test you on those more than ask you about some random drug.
2) make sure you know the two pages of side effects and interactions in fa like the back of your hand.
3) make sure you know all the prototype drugs in first aid.
remember, the exam is only like 15%–25% principles of therapeutics (from usmle.org). know the basic stuff well and that will be good enough. they're not gonna waste a whole lotta qs on stupid details, they're gonna make sure you understand what we're capable of treating and how we're able to treat it and whether or not you understand the pathophys of the disease.
i told ahdy that i found it really useful to copy the fa pharm section onto notecards, and also make a stack of side effects. i didn't have time to really review the notecards (which you should keep in stacks acc to classes to help you get to what you need quickly), but the rote copying and inherent organization that goes with fitting info onto one notecard really helped me memorize these drugs. i did have time to refer to the side effects ones a couple of times, and that was really helpful. at least do that if you've got the time (and add to the cards as you see info in qbank/nbme and the other parts of first aid that aren't listed on those last two pages).
good luck!!!!
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| bm
Forum Elite
Topics: 37
Posts: 421
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thanks nuprin, i'll do that. you really are an inspiration!  i do remember the mechanisms and the side effects. i keep forgetting the class it belonged to (the "family names" of drugs). so one drug gets confused with another drug, oh silly me :cry:
another thing. do they really test us on the computations ie. loading dose, maintenance dose, clearance, etc? does that mean i'm bringing a calculator? if they do ask those in usmle, how do they go about the questions without asking me to compute?
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| nuprin
Forum Elite
Topics: 16
Posts: 338
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thanks! glad i can be of some help.
that's one way notecards can help--make "macro cards" with all the drugs of one class on 1 card.
no calc allowed, but calcs are pretty easy (round #s, etc). just memorize the formulas in fa--that's enough, but make sure you really understand them. play with the formulas mathematically so you truly understand them, bc usmle rarely asks straightforward qs. for example, half life = .7 * Vd/CL. this means half life = .7 * amt of drug/elimination rate (don't need to know [drug]), etc.
practice some qs (not sure where to find these practice qs, tho--perhaps in pharm texts like katzung or lippincott. i think the goljan qbank has some, too) so you can do these calcs quickly.
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