How to study pharmacology in mbbs

How to study pharmacology in mbbs

Pharmacology is an important subject from exam point of view. It is also important in the sense that this subject will help you in your entire carrier. A doctor must have the knowledge of drugs used in various diseases. Even your relatives and friends can ask you about the drugs and may present to you with thier symptoms and ask you its treatment and it may be awkward for you if you are not able to tell them as a medical student. So, you must know how to study pharmacology in mbbs.

I found pharmacology quite interesting to study in mbbs. As it deals with the treatment of common diseases that we see in our daily life like tuberculosis, malaria, typhoid, diarrhoea etc. But, you may find it difficult also. This is because it is a conceptual subject. And also, its classifications are difficult to rattafy. Students generally feel problem in retaining the concepts while studying pharmacology in mbbs.

Are you also searching how to study pharmacology in mbbs? So, here are given some wonderful tips that will help you in understanding the subject in better way and even to retain it to longer time. These tips will make pharmacology interesting to study. I will share my personal experiences, how I used to study and also, I will explain with suitable examples wherever necessary.

1. Study pharmacology regularly

Pharmacology is a subject that requires regular study. If you are in MBBS 2nd year, then reading for half an hour everyday will be enough for you in initial months of the year. But in later months, you have to increase your daily study time. So, make a habit to study pharmacology everyday in mbbs unless you can't prepare this subject in exam times and hence, you will feel much difficulty during exams.

2. Develop good concepts

Focus on developing good concepts in pharmacology. Because by just rattafying it, you will forget it quickly. Especially the chapter ANS is very conceptual. The ideal strategy to study pharmacology in mbbs is that firstly read classifications, then pharmacological actions, mechanism of action and uses and then, ADR. No need to study the pharmacokinetics of individual drug. Nausea and vomiting are the ADRs that are applicable to most of the drugs. Try to correlate pharmacological actions with uses. For example, the uses of prostaglandins can be remembered from its actions. Even side effects of drugs can be remembered from its actions. Also, interlink the concepts of different topics.

3. YouTube and other sources

Take help of YouTube and other sources to understand the concepts. Many videos are available on YouTube that will explain the concept in easy way and even tell good mnemonics to remember it.

4. Make good mnemonics

How to remember the classification of drugs? This is the major question of students who study pharmacology in mbbs. This is because the names of drugs are alien to us. Even in the chapters like cephalosporins, the names of drugs are too much complicated that it becomes very difficult to remember it. So, the only and ideal solution to this is - make mnemonics. Use your imagination. You can also make mnemonics of pharmacological actions and ADRs. This helped me a lot to recaptulate during exams.

For example, I studied statins by mnemonic 'Simran loves roses at her father's (pita) garden'.
For simvastatin, lovastatin, rosuvastatin, atorvastatin, pitavastatin.

ADR of niacin can be remembered as 'GIVE PDF'  for Gout, Itching, Vomiting and diarrhoea, Peptic ulcer, Diabetes, Flushing

Aminoglycosides antibiotics can be remembered as ''No TAGS in CANada
For Neomycin, Tobramycin, Amikacin, Gentamicin, Streptomycin, Kanamycin

5. Read standard books

Though many books are available in market to study pharmacology, but you should always prefer standard books. The standard books that I will recommend you is KD Tripathi. It is very famous book and every indian medical student must have it. The classifications of drugs are given best in this book. The content is displayed in good manner and is exam friendly. All the topics are given in this book. So, for exams, it is a wonderful book.

The another book that you should follow to study pharmacology in mbbs is Sharma and Sharma. The advantage of this book is that its language is really very very simple. And also, language is just like that you will feel that a teacher is teaching you. So, it really makes the subject easy. In KDT, the language is somewhat difficult and in many places, it becomes very difficult to digest like in CVS. So, for that, prefer this book. The CVS part is presented very nicely in this book in simple language. Also, my suggestion will be to read alpha and beta receptors from this book as these are explained in such a way that you will never forget it once you understand the basic concept.

Other books are Lippincott and Shanbag. These are good reference books. Shanbag is your exam saviour. It is a concise book and the concepts are written in point wise manner and upto the point. So, it is student friendly book. Katzung is useless for university exam preparation.

Must read - Detailed comparative review of various books of pharmacology

6. Just study important topics

Only focus on the topics that are important from exam point of view. Don't focus on irrelevant content ( KD Tripathi is full of irrelevant content). If you study any topic, let's say, cephalosporins or general anaesthesia etc., then you will see that the topic is given in big paragraphs in KDT with a lot of content. You have to read it and then, point out the Important points from it and underline it. This is the ideal way to study pharmacology in mbbs. You don't have to study each and every line. During your exams, you will only read the underlined points.

Remember that the drugs that are more commonly used in clinical practice, are more important from exam point of view and drugs less used are less important. This implies to most of the chapters. Like atypical antidepressants are rarely used nowadays in clinical practice, so these are not important for exams. Whereas atypical antipsychotics are widely used, so these are important.

7. Make proper notes

We usually don't get much time to make notes as the syllabus is huge and also, we have to study other subjects also like pathology. My suggestion is that prepare notes of topics that you find most difficult. Because after making notes, that topic will become easier for you to study in pharmacology.

8. Relate to your daily life

This is a very nice strategy to study pharmacology in mbbs and this will help you to clinically correlate the concepts. Just take any random prescriptions or medicines of your family or any patient in the hospital and try to correlate it with your theoritical knowledge. NSAIDS can be easily correlated as it includes drugs that we all had definitely taken in our life like paracetamol, aspirin etc. Personally, my father is a pharmacist. So, I used to see the chemical name of drugs in shop and recaptulate them. I found this quite interesting. This even helped me to retain it for a longer time.

9. Study by diagrams and flowcharts

You can remember the mechanism of action of drugs by diagrams and flowcharts. Example, MOA of cholinergic drugs, insulin, antiepileptic, various diuretics and antidiuretics. Practice them again and again to retain it. Also, making summary tables of drugs can be very helpful to study pharmacology like that of actions of prostaglandins, histamine receptors etc. KDT provides very good tables and diagrams.

10. Relate to physiology

To understand many concepts of pharmacology, you require the basic knowledge of physiology. Like the chapters of endocrine system like androgen, estrogens, insulin, thyroid hormone, corticosteroids. Remember that if you know normal, only then you can go to abnormal. So, whenever you study these chapters, firstly read thier physiology from your physiology books and then study pharmacology

11. Multiple revisions

You require to revise the topics multiple times in order to learn pharmacology in mbbs. In your first reading, you will underline the important points and get basic idea. But when you will read it again, your concepts will improve and with further readings, you will observe that the points that you previously found very difficult, now it had become very easy and you will add on more points also. So, revision is must.

12. Make class notes

Most students usually ignore the class lectures as they are boring. But I used a strategy with which I took maximum benefit of my classes and this really helped me to study pharmacology in mbbs. What I did was that I used to sit on first bench and listen everything the teacher is saying. I try to understand it and note down everything I was able to understand in my language. Remember that you don't have to write everything shown on projector unless it will become just copy pasting and will be boring. So, this provides me notes that helps a lot in preparing later. The teacher tells the most important points. So, you get a basic idea that how to study the topic in pharmacology.

13. See previous year questions

Keep the previous year questions of your university exam with you while studying pharmacology. This will help you to know that which topic should you stress more.

14. Practice MCQs

You can practice MCQs also along with theory. The benefit will be that it will help you to clear your concepts and will improve your understanding regarding the subject. The famous mcq books to study for pharmacology are Ranjan patel, Gobind rai and sparsh, Arvind arora. You can also start preparing for your pg entrance exam. You can subscribe the individual apps like that of Dr. Gobind rai etc. But my suggestion is that MBBS 2nd year is not the ideal time to prepare for pg exam. This is because you have come out of the bad phase of anatomy. So, now you need relaxation. The ideal time to start pg exam preperation in my opinion is MBBS 3rd year or in internship.

15. Practicals are important

In your pharmacology practicals, you will perform experiments on computer as animal based experiments are not done now. So, take interest in these experiments as this will help you to boost your concepts. Listen to your teacher carefully. Pharmacy experiments will not be much helpful.

16. Antimicrobials

The antimicrobial part, I found it somewhat difficult. This is because the various antimicrobials are liable to be mixed with each other. So, study the chapters separately and prepare this part properly.

17. Group discussion

If you read a topic from a book and after that, you discuss that topic with anyone, then it retains for a longer time. So, discuss the topics more and more. This will boost your knowledge and clear your concepts and also, it will make it interesting for you to study pharmacology in mbbs.

18. Don't forget to enjoy

At last, don't forget that you are currently in the honeymoon period of MBBS. So, don't forget to enjoy this time. Complete your interests or desires. Because after this period, you will get less time to enjoy and you will be more busy in studies and pg entrance exam preparation. And never take much worry. Pharmacology is an interesting subject. So, enjoy your study.

At last, I would like to say thanks for reading my post and all the best for your studies. So now you know the tips of how to study pharmacology in mbbs.

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