Memorizing Pharmacology: A Relaxed Approach, Second Edition

by Tony Guerra

Can you learn pharmacology in a day? Yes.

Whether you're studying for the PTCB, ExCPT, NCLEX, NAPLEX, USMLE Step-1, PANCE, or just want to pass a pharmacology exam tomorrow, it is a subject you need to, but don't want to deal with. As a working parent of 7-year-old triplet daughters, I understand time management presents one of the greatest barriers to my pharmacology students' success. Many students feel cold overwhelm and information overload.

After this book. This easy-to-read guide organizes pharmacology into manageable, logical steps you can fit in short pockets of time. The proven system helps you memorize medications quickly and form immediate connections. With mnemonics from students and instructors, you'll see how both sides approach learning.

After you've finished the 300 Top Drugs in this book, reading pharmacology exam questions will seem like reading plain English. You'll have a new understanding of pharmacology to do better in class, clinical and your board exam. You'll feel the confidence you'd hoped for as a future health professional.

The secret is that if you learn drugs in a certain order, you can remember them for as long as you like.

Genres: Audiobook, Science, Medicine, Nonfiction, Medical

600 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 17, 2021

About the author

Non-Fiction Reviewer for audiobookreviewer.com Tony Guerra, Pharm.D, originally from the Baltimore-Washington corridor, has combined creative writing work from with his knowledge of pharmacology to author the Audiobooks Memorizing Pharmacology: A Relaxed Approach, a guide to help students more easily learn drug names and How to Pronounce Drug Names: A Visual Approach to Preventing Medication Errors. He currently teaches at Des Moines Area Community College. He lives in Ankeny, Iowa with his wife Mindy and triplet daughters Brielle, Rianne, and Teagan. He received his High School's reunion award for attending the most 2 and 4 year colleges, currently holding at 14.

Reviews

[Dani Donnell]

Will be listening multiple times before my pharm final and before I sit for my Boards!

**Update! Passed my Advanced Pharm Final!
I will say that this book didn't take a deep dive into each drug, but it did help me memorize the drugs that I was having a hard time with and helped me remember the mechanism of action - which played in my favor when I took my exam.

Thank you so much to this invaluable resource :)

[Terra Weston · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a pretty digestible approach, my only complaint is that the level of detail is slightly superficial. It's probably perfect for advanced undergraduates but you'll need more than this for med school. That's not a true flaw of the book, of course, just something to note if you're not sure if it's at the right level of depth for your needs.

[Gregory Eakins · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the best ways to make yourself a less helpless human being is to gain a basic understanding of the medicines we use today. In Memorizing Pharmacology, Tony Guerra touches on the top 200 drugs in use today and tries to provide some tips on how you can memorize the names and functions of each.

Though the focus is on memorization, presumably for a medical school exam, Guerra provides additional context to each drug, often contrasting them with similar drugs and giving examples of why it might be prescribed. He not only goes over the primary chemicals, but he also touches on common multi-compound formulations such as Tylenol PM (acetaminophen/diphenhydramine) and Excedrin Migraine (acetaminophen/aspirin/caffeine), making this book useful even for the casual reader.

I loved the sample exam and discussion given towards the end of the book. The discussions there help greatly to understand the decisions medical doctors make. Here's a sample question given:

Contrast one over-the-counter anti-diarrheal and one prescription antidiarrheal and the reason for choosing one over the other.

Even if you never plan on becoming a pharmacist or doctor, you're likely to encounter a great number of these medications within your lifetime. Having a baseline knowledge of them will not only help you understand your treatments, but it will help you make educated decisions next time you find yourself in the medicine aisle.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can’t believe I listened to this.

[Heidi · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book and the related audiobook Goodnight Pharm by the same author have been invaluable. It’s hard to distinguish what I picked up from each, but both are great accompaniments to a hectic schedule. I listen to Goodnight Pharm before bed, and read Memorizing Pharmacology as as an ebook on my phone when I have 5-10 minutes. Both are well organized into digestible learning sections, while remaining fairly easy to use as resources, even in non-traditional formats.

Disclosure: I received this as an Ebook through Goodreads Giveaway program

[Tony Guerra · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well written.

[Yousenel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I recommend it

Great book. It helped me tremendously! The stories and the pneumonic made sense in my brain. I also like the brief indications for these drugs.

[Sabrina · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this audiobook.

This book is a great primer to get me familiar with common medications before taking advanced pharmacology.

I took the NCLEX almost 20 years ago and am in school again with an advanced pharm class coming up. I have retained zero information about the meds I learned in nursing school because they don’t come up in my practice.

Although I’m sure this book will not be enough to pass the class, it presents a well-organized methodology for memorizing generic drugs/brand names, what classification they are/what they do. The familiarity will be immensely useful in helping me to succeed in my class. It’s also been useful and validating to practice memorization again, something I haven’t done much of in a very long time. I still got it ;)

[Jeanie Kenkel · Rating 1 out of 5]

I took a chance on this book, and it was a disappointment. It only links drug names to their purpose, which does not help with my graduate-level pharmacology class (nursing). The focus in my class is on patient education, side effects, etc.

[Zahraa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I should've picked this up prior to summer training back in college cause now it just works as a pretty superficial mind refreshment

[Ahmed Sayed · Rating 1 out of 5]

Bad book for studying and memorizing pharmacology. I don’t recommend it to anyone.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really basic.

[Sara Madden · Rating 4 out of 5]

Listened on Audible