The hardest part of studying pharmacology And how I am handling it

When I first got into pharmacology I thought it would just be about memorizing drug names and what they do. But I figured if I went over them enough time they will stick. But I will realize that it is way more than that. There are so many details of drugs and how they work. The side effects how they interact with other drugs and when they shouldn't be used. It is a whole lot to take in. And sometimes even after studying I find myself struggling to recall or remember things at the right time.

One of my biggest challenges about pharmacology is too much information. It doesn't end about learning drug names but understanding the categories mechanism of actions and differences between similar drugs. Sometimes I will spend hours trying to remember which diuretics work in the kidney. Only to mix them up later. And don't even get me started on drugs with similar sounding names but completely different effects. It makes me feels like my brain has a limited storage and pharmacology is constantly trying to overload it.

Another important thing that makes pharmacology too complex for me is the mechanism of action of drugs. For instance you know that a drug helps lower blood pressure but understanding how it does that is a different story on its own . Some explanations I see make me feel like I'm reading a different language, especially when , receptors or second messengers. Yes definitely I will go over the concept and feel like I have gotten it already and then the next day it's like I never saw it before.

Also there is this issue of actually membrane everything over time. I might feel confident about a topic in a day but after a week I struggle to recall some key points. Unlike other subjects where things are built up on each other naturally, but in pharmacology, I feel like it requires consistency hence if you don't go over it regularly it feeds fast and that can be frustrating.

At times during mechanical postings I have seen that just knowing drug facts isn't enough. When dealing with real patients I need to connect with what I have read to actual cases. A patient might be on multiple drugs and I have to think about how those drugs interact or what side effects to watch out for. So I'm just saying that it is one thing to recognize a drug name but to make sense of it in a clinical situation is another challenging thing entirely.

Well when I want to make my study easier I have to use tricks that help me with recalling some important points. Mnemonics and stories work well because they make information stick. For example, to remember some drugs for diuretics, I think of them as a different type of workers in a factory each handling a specific job in the kidney.

Another thing that helps me is using practice questions. Instead of just reading my notes I test myself and try to recover information without looking at the answers immediately. I have also tried flash cards and they are useful to me also. I do go through past questions and this has made me realize where I need to focus more, which is better than just re-reading the same notes over and over.

One thing I have recognized so far in the study of pharmacology is that cramming doesn't work most times. If I do not review topics at regular intervals I will end up forgetting most of them fast. But I do space out my revision going over a topic after a day then a few days later and again after a week. I also keep small quick review notes where I just down trick concepts and look at them whenever I have a few minutes.

I am going to tell you this for free. Pharmacology is definitely one of the more demanding subjects I have come across in my years at this university but I'm figuring out ways to make it work. I still struggle sometimes but I have accepted the progress in this subject which will take time.