How to Memorize the Top 200 Drugs for the PTCE

Two hundred drugs sounds like a lot, and it is. But you don't need a special talent for it. You need a system you'll actually stick with for a few weeks.

What worked for me was simple: flashcards, and saying the brand name, the generic name and what the drug is for out loud, every single time. Here's that method step by step, plus a four-week plan and the look-alike names worth extra attention.

How many PTCE questions are about drugs?

Medications is the biggest of the four sections on the PTCE, at 35% of the exam. Only 80 of the 90 questions count toward your score, so that's roughly 28 scored questions about drugs.

The first item PTCB lists for that section is generic names, brand names and drug classes. It also lists what each drug is used for, side effects, interactions, duplicate therapy, strengths and dosage forms, and storage. All of that builds on the basics. You can't answer a question about Eliquis interactions if you don't know Eliquis is apixaban, a blood thinner.

PTCB doesn't publish an official drug list, so most people study a Top 200 list of the most-prescribed drugs. You can use Gutta's free Top 200 list, which shows the brand, generic, class and use for each one.

Step 1: Put three things on every card

Each card should hold the brand name, the generic name and what the drug is for. Add the class when you know it.

Front: Eliquis

Back: apixaban. Blood thinner (factor Xa inhibitor). Prevents blood clots and stroke.

Then make the reverse card, with the generic on the front. The exam goes both ways. As I said in my passing score post, a question would name a drug by its brand and the answer choices would all be generics. If you only know one direction, you're stuck before you even get to the real question.

A few drugs don't have a brand name people use anymore, like amitriptyline and baclofen. For those, the card is just the generic and what it's for.

Step 2: Say it out loud, every card

This is the part most people skip, and it's a big part of what worked for me. Don't just flip the card and nod. Say the whole thing: "Eliquis. Apixaban. Blood thinner."

There's research behind it. Memory researchers call it the production effect: words you say out loud are remembered better than words you only read silently. Saying it also gets the pronunciation into your head, which helps when you hear a drug name for the first time at work.

Step 3: Let the name ending do half the work

A lot of generic names end in a few letters that tell you the class. Learn the ending once and you've learned the class for every drug that shares it.

Endings aren't perfect. Diltiazem and verapamil are calcium channel blockers without the -dipine ending, and carvedilol is a beta blocker that ends in -lol instead of -olol. Put the exceptions on their own cards.

The drug class guide has every class with its ending, what it treats and how it works, in plain words.

Step 4: Study by class, not alphabetically

Don't go down the list from A to Z, or from #1 to #200. Split your cards into decks by what the drugs treat: blood pressure, cholesterol, blood thinners, diabetes, stomach, lungs and allergies, mental health, pain, infections.

When lisinopril, benazepril and enalapril sit in the same deck, one rule (-pril means ACE inhibitor, for blood pressure) covers all three. It also sets you up for duplicate therapy questions. Two ACE inhibitors on the same patient's profile should jump out at you.

Step 5: Space it out over four weeks

Two study habits come out on top in the research: testing yourself and spreading your practice out over time. Rereading and highlighting rated low. Flashcards are self-testing, so you're already doing the first one. A schedule takes care of the second.

Here's a plan for about 50 drugs a week. That's 10 new drugs a day, five days a week, in about 15 to 20 minutes a day.

For the review, bring a card back 1 day after you miss it, then after 3 days, then a week, then two weeks. Cards you know cold drop out. Cards you keep missing stay in the rotation until they stick.

Cramming 200 drugs into one weekend feels productive, but spread-out practice sticks much better.

Step 6: Give the look-alikes their own deck

Some drug names look or sound almost the same, and look-alike, sound-alike drugs are part of the PTCE's patient safety section. The Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP) keeps a list of pairs that cause real mix-ups. These are on it:

You may also see these written as hydrOXYzine and hydrALAZINE. That's Tall Man lettering, capital letters that point out the part of the name that's different. PTCB lists it as an error prevention strategy, so know what it is.

Make a deck of just these pairs and drill them side by side, out loud: "Celebrex, celecoxib, arthritis. Celexa, citalopram, depression."

Mistakes that waste study time

• Only going one direction. Brand to generic isn't enough. Practice generic to brand too.
• Skipping "what it's for." Knowing Norvasc is amlodipine doesn't help much if you don't know it treats blood pressure.
• Rereading the list. It feels like studying, but testing yourself with cards works better.
• Studying in rank order. Nobody asks for drug #47. Classes are what tie drugs together.

The short version

• Medications is 35% of the PTCE, and it starts with brand names, generic names and classes.
• Each card gets the brand, generic and what it's for. Make it in both directions.
• Say it out loud every time.
• Learn the name endings and study by class.
• About 10 new drugs a day for four weeks, bringing misses back after 1, 3, 7 and 14 days.
• Give the look-alike pairs their own deck.

If you'd rather not make 400 cards by hand, Gutta's drills do the same thing on your phone: brand to generic, generic to brand, class and look-alikes, with tap-to-hear pronunciation, and they bring back the ones you miss. The top 25 drugs are free. You can also browse the full Top 200 list for free anytime.

Insulin and GLP-1s like Ozempic show up on the math side too. That's covered in PTCE math: every formula you need.

Good luck. You've got this.

Sources: PTCB's PTCE content outline, effective January 2026 (section weights and topics) and its candidate guidebook (90 questions, 80 scored). Saying words out loud: Ozubko and MacLeod, "The production effect in memory," Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 2010. Study techniques that work: Dunlosky and colleagues, 2013, summarized by the Association for Psychological Science. Look-alike names: the ISMP List of Confused Drug Names. This post is for exam study. At work, follow your pharmacy's procedures and your pharmacist.