Pharmacology threads through every category on the NCLEX — it is not a section you can skip and make up elsewhere. But candidates routinely try to learn it as a list of several hundred drugs, which does not fit in working memory and does not survive exam stress. Learn the endings instead. A suffix hands you the class, and the class hands you the mechanism, the priority assessment, and the adverse effect the question is fishing for.
Cardiovascular — where most of the marks are
| Suffix | Class | What the exam asks |
|---|---|---|
| -pril | ACE inhibitors | Dry persistent cough (the classic), hyperkalaemia, first-dose hypotension, angioedema — stop and report |
| -sartan | ARBs | Same job without the cough; still watch potassium |
| -olol | Beta blockers | Hold for bradycardia; masks hypoglycaemia symptoms in diabetes; never stop abruptly |
| -dipine | Calcium channel blockers | Peripheral oedema, headache, constipation; no grapefruit juice |
| -statin | Antilipemics | Muscle pain — think rhabdomyolysis; check liver enzymes; take at night |
| -osin | Alpha blockers | Orthostatic hypotension — rise slowly, first dose at bedtime |
Cheat sheets: ACE inhibitors · beta blockers.
Anti-infectives
| Suffix | Class | What the exam asks |
|---|---|---|
| -cillin | Penicillins | Allergy history before the first dose — and cross-sensitivity with cephalosporins |
| -cycline | Tetracyclines | Photosensitivity; avoid in children and pregnancy (teeth); not with dairy or antacids |
| -mycin / -micin | Aminoglycosides, macrolides | Ototoxicity and nephrotoxicity — trough levels, hearing, creatinine |
| -floxacin | Fluoroquinolones | Tendon rupture, especially in older adults and with corticosteroids |
| -azole | Antifungals, PPIs | Liver function; the PPIs (-prazole) are a separate group — read the whole word |
The rest, quickly
- -pam / -lam — benzodiazepines. Respiratory depression; reversal is flumazenil.
- -done / -phine — opioids. Respiratory rate before and after; reversal is naloxone.
- -ide — loop diuretics (furosemide). Potassium, hearing, hypotension.
- -zide — thiazides. Potassium again, plus glucose and uric acid.
- -tidine — H2 blockers. Confusion in older adults.
- -setron — antiemetics. QT prolongation.
- -ase — thrombolytics. Bleeding is the whole answer.
How to use this in a question
Read the stem, find the ending, name the class, then ask the three questions: what do I check before giving it, what do I teach, what makes me hold it? A stem about a client on lisinopril with a potassium of 5.8 is not testing whether you know lisinopril — it is testing whether "-pril" made you think potassium.
See digoxin toxicity and lab values by urgency, then run a pharmacology set.