Visual Mnemonics for Pharmacology

Rating:
Summary: I found this book very helpful
Review: I have found this book and the others in the series very helpful. I am a very visual learner and have found the illustrations easy to recall if I put the time and effort into memorizing them. The pictures are linked together in a thoughtful and logical manner. For example, an entire class of antibiotics is placed on one page which makes them very easy to remember. There is also a notes page opposite the illustrations for anything additional that I want to add. This is a very different method of learning as far having all the details placed on one illustration for memorization. The problem that I had with the Micro Made Ridiculously Simple is that there were not enough illustrations and the ones that were there were not detailed enough so that I still had to memorize the text.
I am now into my third year of medical school and can still recall the illustrations quickly when I am getting pimped on the floor. I can honestly say that this book and the others is an excellent way of memorizing and longer lasting recall. I don't understand why anyone would not find this series useful and easy to use.

Rating:
Summary: a VERY disappointing purchase
Review: I made the mistake of purchasing this book along with the pathology and microbiology books in this series.

The concept of having a mnemonics book for a subject such as pharmacology is an excellent one. In my opinion, mnemonics are an amazing way to learn subjects that typically require great memorization (e.g. microbiology and pharmacology). Anyone who has read Microbiology Made Ridiculously Simple probably knows how helpful visual mnemonics can be. The problem with this book and the others in this series that I purchased is that the visual cues are very poorly linked together. For a mnemonic illustration to be useful, it is CRUCIAL that the student can recall the illustration in its entirety; to do this, the objects in the diagram must be properly linked in some clever, memorable way. Simply drawing several drug attributes for a given drug class and throwing them onto an already-cluttered illustration is NOT an effective method of facilitating recall. In fact, I found that I could hardly recall the little images at all considering how haphazardly they were all thrown onto a given page. I cannot imagine ANYONE finding this book useful, save for whomever devised the mnemonics.

A FAR better mnemonics book for pharmacology that I found is called The Phunny Pharm. It actually manages to LINK the material together with humorous anecdotes and logical picture associations (similar to micro made simple) so that the information can actually be recalled. In contrast, this book and the other two in this series that I purchased fail to link most drawings at all. This book has very minimal text to accompany the pictures and several of the mnemonics are left completely unexplained. Although the objective of this book makes sense, the manner in which the illustrations are meshed together with little supporting text makes the book a terrible disappointment. I would suggest you save your money and look elsewhere; virtually every friend whom I have shown my visual mnemonics books to has been unimpressed.

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Rating:
Summary: Great way to remember pharm facts
Review: I think this book is for the visual learner, like me, who hates to sit and memorize facts off a sheet of paper. Others who are not visual learners may find the cartoons useful at all, but I would certainly say they were very helpful to me.

Rating:
Summary: Great way to remember pharm facts
Review: I think this book is for the visual learner, like me, who hates to sit and memorize facts off a sheet of paper. Others who are not visual learners may find the cartoons useful at all, but I would certainly say they were very helpful to me.