How to Study Pharmacology in MBBS Second Year

MBBS is one of the toughest courses in the world and those who are into it, know better what life gives when you pursue it. Many students ask-“How to study pharmacology in MBBS second year to pass?”. Today I am going to share my personal experience in MBBS Second Year in this blog.

When I cleared my First-year MBBS, I was pretty excited about reaching the next level. For I consulted my seniors on what I was going to face in the second year, Pharmacology was something that quickly interested me apart from Pathology and the “scary”- Microbiology.

For once and quite a long, I stayed in fantasy, “C’mon, I will be prescribing medicines to people soon”. That indeed is the feeling of becoming a Doctor. But as I got into it, I realized that things were getting worse than I expected.

My First Aim: Get the Recommended books for Pharmacology

As soon as I started to wonder more, I researched quite a bit from Google and my seniors, for what books should I study in pharmacology, and what books I should consider if I planning to pass in pharmacology. Following were the books I found interesting and quite good for Second year MBBS students:-

1. K.D Tripathi- The bible of Pharmacology
2. Shanbagh- My personal savior
3. Gomes- Pharmacology

(You can also read MBBS Second year Books and Syllabus if you wish to)

These three books are sequentially in order of priority on getting them. It’s up to you which one you prefer, though K.D Tripathi is a must-have book.

Follow up: Confused and confusions

To be honest, I started with doing 10-year question papers first. I took out the notebook, and the papers, and started solving questions. I looked up the drug, and into the book, and WHOOSH, I was messed up badly because the same drug was given in around 5-20 pages. What I am supposed to do now?

Should I just write down everything from every page or should I lie down and pray? None I chose, I preferred to learn over time. As soon as I got into pharmacology, what I found was quite interesting.

It’s not that I have to get every word out from the pages in the index; I have to choose the chapter, and then take out what I need and pen it down. Yeah, that’s what I did. Things may be 10X tougher in Top Medical Colleges.

Shanbagh: My personal 5-star Savior

When exams came overhead, it brought a lot of prayers to make. I was still not prepared, or perhaps everything was getting mixed! Yeah, precisely, everything was banging in my head and the drugs, their names were getting scarier than I expected them to be.

I started making simpler and shorter notes, cutting and pasting them all over in my hostel room, yet the stress was not going to reduce.

This was the time when I discovered this new book: Shanbagh Pharmacology. Well, I just found it, don’t ask me how. But as soon as I started reading it, I didn’t have to make notes (If you try to make notes from it, you will end up with barely anything to write in exams).

The next moment, I was finding mnemonics and tricks to learn from the same book. In no time, I was having fun around with pharmacology (Though the names were still scary).

I would strongly recommend Shanbagh Pharmacology book for Second year Mbbs. Some may think that you are not making the base with these books. For those, I have clearly mentioned K.D Tripathi as the bible of Pharmacology, but one always ends up requiring quick revision notes. This is where Shanbagh book can come in a lot of handy with inbuilt mnemonics and tricks.

Winding up

Pharmacology was fun indeed later. We used to talk about medicines for common diseases. Zantac aka Ranitidine H-2 blocker is still the favorite med of all time in hostels (no wonder why :p). The more you discuss it, the more you learn. Practical knowledge is indeed the most useful tool for a Doctor.

The pharmacology base is very important since you are going to learn prescriptions for diseases in further years of MBBS, especially the medicine subject. The Third year of Mbbs will also time-to-time check your pharmacology skills, while after mbbs you are certainly going to need it, especially in MD.