Short answer: learn pharmacology by drug group, not by drug. One prototype per group, the side effects that matter, and a daily 20-minute self-test. Students who try to memorize every drug name in order drown. Students who learn groups finish the subject.
Learn the group, then the exception
Every group has a pattern. Beta blockers slow the heart. ACE inhibitors drop blood pressure and cause a dry cough. Benzodiazepines sedate. Learn the pattern once and you already know 80% of every drug in that group. Then learn one prototype drug properly, say propranolol for beta blockers or enalapril for ACE inhibitors, with its uses and side effects.
After the prototype, learn only the exceptions: the drug in the group that does something different. Atenolol is cardioselective while propranolol is not. That kind of contrast is exactly what examiners ask. If you study drug by drug in a flat list, none of these patterns show up, and everything feels like random memorization.
The table method
For each group, make one small table with four columns: drug, mechanism in one line, main uses, and side effects plus contraindications. One page per group, no more. If a table runs past a page, you are copying the textbook instead of condensing it. The act of choosing what goes in the table is half the learning.
Side effects deserve their own attention. That is where the marks are. Examiners ask about the dry cough of ACE inhibitors, the hypokalemia of thiazides, and the ototoxicity of loop diuretics far more than they ask about doses. When you revise a group, cover the drug column and try to recall the side effects column from memory before you peek.
The daily 20-minute drill
Pharmacology dies without daily testing. Spend 20 minutes a day on MCQs from the groups you covered that week, and keep a running list of the ones you got wrong. Wrong answers are the real syllabus: they show you exactly which groups are still weak. Practice drug-name MCQs on Ominsol to keep the drill going without hunting for question banks. The same drill works for every subject, so read our guide to MBBS notes you actually revise for the table habit, and our spaced repetition method for the review schedule that stops the forgetting.