Customer Reviews

Lange Pharmacology Flash Cards

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I bought these cards to review the step 1s and they did a good job covering most of the high yield topics. If you supplement these cards with the USMLE Qbank (which 99% of the people do) then you will be 100% ready for the boards. Other cards that I've tried are overly detailed and frankly too much for the boards.

Other reviewers have said that these cards are not 100% comprehensive and that is true. But honestly you don't need a deck that has everything for the boards. Time is limited and memorizing every minuscule fact about drugs is very low yield.

Update: I used these cards for about 5 days total to study for the boards (these cards + qbank were my main/sole source of info on pharm) and I ended up getting 245/99 on the exam. Pharm isn't my strong point and frankly the subject is like memorizing a phone book. However, these cards are great for boards and made studying slightly easier.

As a pharmacist, I find these flashcards highly relevant and succinct. For those studying for the pharmacy boards or USMLE, I suggest saving time by not making your own flashcards, but using a "base" set (I like LANGE Katzung's Pharmacology), then adding or deleting cards, highlighting and marking as necessary. In the end, it's all about the repetition and DOING CASES, not wasting time making flash cards and reading multiple sources to "guess" what's going to be on the exam. Just get the cards and memorize and repeat !

Disclaimer: I have only used these cards for learning anti-microbial agents so far

What I like:

- Each card has a clinical case on the back to put things in context

- Cards are well organized into "mechanism of action", "Clinical Uses", "Side Effects", and "Other".

- Overview cards organize drugs into classes. For example, Antibacterial Agents are separated into "beta lactams, protein synthesis inhibitors, antimycobacterial, and other antibacterial.

What I don't like:

- The cards often seem to be missing key elements that I have had to look up in other sources and write onto my cards. For example, there is no mention that aminoglycosides are not absorbed orally and must be given by IV. This kind of missing information has happened a couple times, but not too often, so I am content to write it in on my own...better for learning anyways...

- At times, I found that the cards were too wordy. For example, why say "macrolides are effective against gram-positive cocci" when you can just say "gram-positive cocci" and get the same message across? Isn't that the point of flash cards?

- I would have preferred thicker cards...these are slightly flimsy.

On the whole, pretty decent, althought I don't have a different set of cards to compare to.

PRO: The information contained on the cards is wonderful. Many courses (as well as the USMLE and PANCE) present questions in the clinical vignette form, the same format as these "flash cards." The 11 sections are divided into logical sets, providing pleasant continuity for studying.

CON: I have purchased cheap flash cards before. Really cheap Medical Terminology, Vis-Ed Cards (Set of 1000). None of these have, however, been of lower physical quality than Lange Pharmacology Flash Cards. Other reviewers have stated that McGraw-Hill essentially cut a textbook into smaller bits and called them flash cards. This is not entirely true. It is, in actuality, somewhere between single-ply toilet paper (Thetford MARINESOFT TISSUE-1PLY-4PAK 20804 (Image for Reference) and newspaper.

I have only looked at antimicrobials so far, but some things stick out right away. These cards are made of regular paper and not laminated card stock! Surprising, considering it comes in a nice, sturdy box to hold them. The cards are a little wordy with little to catch your eye for important points, except for some bold type, so I have taken to drawing arrows all over the back and highlighting. I really prefer the style of the Microcards: Review Cards for Medical Students, with diagrams, a picture code to quickly describe the mechanism, and an outlined format for the important points on the card.

The information seems solid. I have to supplement them a little, but that will happen with whatever card set you buy. They work for me fine, now that I have them, but I would try something else.

These are fantastic for USMLE studying. I currently own the Brenner cards and Lange cards. I tried the Brenner cards for about 10 hours total and found them generally worthless. The Lange ones are great specifically because they're vignette-based. In other words, when you're trying to remember what chloramphenicol does for example, you'll be like "oh yeah, that's the baby that presented with greyish skin." --> grey baby syndrome. That's just an example. I would use FA + Lange + online QBanks to prepare for pharm on step-1.

I bought these before starting medical school level pharmacology. They are well organized and have a good amount of info on them, although never into detail. They do a good job of outlining the general mechanisms, major adverse reactions and contraindications, and uses. Not much on metabolism. The matte finish on the cards makes them good for putting your own notes on, provided you can write small.

My only beef with their set up is they like to group certain types of drugs on the same card, which impairs your ability to memorize drugs separately (example, 8 different atypical antipsychotics on the same card). They do this because of the vignettes on the non-info side of the cards, I suppose. The vignettes are good for revieiwing and driving home important points, but not generally high yield and you can only use them once or twice at the most.

These cards are the only material you will need for pharm when studying for the boards. They're also great for reviewing year round.

These were really not that helpful for Step 1 or for pharm in med school. It was overly detailed and often cards combined drugs that we (at least) needed to know separately and differentiate between.

These cards are pretty much worthless. More often than not, the data side of the card is half empty. I have a *BIG* problem with that. Brand names are generally not included (the "similar drugs" heading is not the same thing), dosage information is not included, the listed side effects are painfully sparse, pregnancy category is not listed (A, B, C, D, X), class information is not on the card, drug-drug interactions are almost never included, etc, etc, etc... On the other side, there is a case study or story bout the drug (maybe so that you can use them like flashcards? Wouldn't it just have been easier to put the name on one side and not on the other?).

I really wish someone would just put the majority of the information from a drug guide onto a card. Is that so much to ask, considering they often-times take up the same amount of space?

These cards are a waste of money. Go with another brand.