Jay Dinovitser's Free 14 Page Pharmacology Review
The most concise and shortest pharmacology Review in existence!
Memorize these 14 pages and get at least 70% of the USMLE or COMLEX Pharmacology Questions correct!
- NEW VERSION RELEASED 1.5 BETA! I'M CURRENTLY WORKING ON VERSION 1.5 which concentrates on improving the antibiotic section of the review which up until this point has been lacking some key information necessary for a complete review. It will also update and complete the oral hypoglycemic section which I noticed is missing some key side effect information. It also will make a few corrections and additions in other places. A BETA OF THE NEW VERSION 1.5 IS ONLINE. Again, the main improvement will be an improved antibiotic section and oral hypoglycemic section. The Beta version is a mostly completed version of the final 1.5.
I am a 4th year medical student from NYCOM who tried studying for the boards and was completely horrible and Pharmacology. I fell asleep after 10 minutes of Pharmacology lectures since they were so boring. I tried many pharmacology books and I simply could not absorb the boring laundry lists of drugs and endless tables of side effects mechanisms and boring details about thousands of drugs. The only thing that came close was Kaplan's review course which was good for short term retention, but still too long and too hard to retain for more than 2 weeks and too long to study for the wards when my primary focus is studying other things. I decided that there had to be an easier way to learn Pharmacology, a book that only lists the most common drugs asked on the boards and used in the wards, a book that lists only the side effects and mechanisms that are most frequently asked on the boards. I studied a lot of USMLE and COMLEX Pharm questions and had the following revelation: 70-80% of the questions was only based on like 20% of the entire Pharmacology material. The other 20-30% of the questions was on the other 80% of the Pharmacology material. There was a few high yield drugs mechanisms and certain high yield side effects that were constantly being asked over and over again. So using this information, I put together a 14 page easy memorizable review for Pharmacology listing what I uncovered to be the most high yield information asked on the Boards. It simplifies long classes of drugs to only the most common drugs asked on the boards. It only tells you what you have to know and leaves out any unnecessary information. I put together this review, memorized it and found out that when I was practicing questions, I was getting 70 to 80 percent of the board questions correct! Before, I was getting like 20 percent correct! When I took the COMLEX, I was amazed in that I felt very comfortable with the Pharm questions and I was easily getting 70% of them correct, if not more. In fact, even the ones I did not know the answer, I was familiar with some of the answer choices so that I could eliminate some of them and make a better guess.
Now in the 4th year of Medical school, I find this review useful for the wards as well since it contains all the necessary information you need to know about the most commonly prescribed drugs they use in the wards. If you do the math, you will end up getting the same score studying this 14 page review for 2 weeks as a stupid gunner trying to memorize a 400 page pharmacology text over 2 years. This is due to the fact that the most that gunner will memorize is 75% of the massive amount material getting a 75% on the USMLE or COMLEX while you will memorize 20% of the material completely which compromises at least 70% of the USMLE or COMLEX so the lowest you will get is 70% correct, plus you will be able to guess right another 10% based on answer elimination getting about the same score as the gunner, while you only spent 2 weeks on Pharmacology. I like to laugh at the gunners and instead devise easy strategies to do well without killing yourself. See for yourself how this is the best pharmacology review for the boards hands down. The only thing missing in the review that you have to read yourself is a chapter on the introduction to pharmacology (half lives, pregnancy categories, trials, charts and similar stuff) and another few pages on those tricky sympathetic drug experiments they ask on the USMLE.
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Disclaimer: For educational purposes only. I do not guarantee the accuracy of the material or assume any responsibility for any errors. Free for personal use and not permitted to be modified or sold. Care has been taken for the review to be unique and not contain material from other sources without citing the original source. If a mistake has been made please contact me and I will remove or modify any uncited material if present.
Contact: shortestpharmreview@yahoo.com