Describe your typical day as a pre-pharmacy candidate.

[ericbchoe]

Hi guys,

I'm going to be a freshmen in college next year.
Can anyone describe their typically day as a pre-pharmacy candidate? How many hours would you study for Biology, Chemistry, Math, History, etc.? Is there free time or is most of the day studying? And on days off, are you still reviewing and studying?

Thank you.

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[DH1987]

Well, a lot of that depends on the school you go to and how good your study habits are. I went to a community college for pre-pharmacy. For me, I needed to study/do homework roughly about an hour a day for each class I took. Sometimes I needed to increase it to 2 hours per day, depending on what I had to do. I usually didn't take more than 4 classes, so I spent about 20-30 hours a week working.

When I followed this plan, I maintained about a 3.7 GPA over 2 years. But if I were to just simply wing it (which is what I did the first year or two at college), a lot of procrastination resulted and my grades sucked. Maybe it's just me, but if I didn't ever write out plans for my entire week, procrastination was almost inevitable and my grades suffered. When I actually had specific plans laid out I was more inclined to follow them.

Universities are probably more demanding, but I've never had first-hand experience in a university. In high school, I was too poor of a student to ever think about going into one. But I still got into pharmacy school and I took on no debt for undergrad classes.

 

[smercer]

Well...this is completely subjective considering you have zero control on what times classes are offered and you have limited choices starting out.

-Are you planning on working a job/doing any extracirricular activities?
-What are your weaknesses/strengths in math/chem/bio?
-Did you take any AP Classes?
-Did you have A&P, Physics, or any other elective sciences?


First- as a Fresh your schedule will have 2 sciences (Gen. Chem and Bio I w/ labs for each.) Classes are usually 2-3 days a week. For 2 day classes 1hr 15min is the norm. For 3 day 50 min sessions is the norm. Then there will be a lab once a week for each. These labs are set at 3hrs, but Bio labs almost never take this long to complete. Chem lab on the other hand has a lot to do with how well you can follow directions(you will realize very quickly that most cannot do this well). Thus Chem lab will usually take 2+ hours to complete.

I would suggest putting space between your Chem and Bio classes. You never want to have a test in 2 science courses back to back...especially if the courses are covering such different material. Labs can be put back to back with no issues beyond being stuck on campus if you get out early.

Ideally you want to aim for not having class on Fridays. This is good because it gives you a day to work(if you plan to work) and/or a day to catch up on lab reports/research papers/HW. If you feel that you have trouble with taking in a lot of information in one sitting, then looking for 3 day classes may be a benefit to you.


Now I only spoke of taking 2 courses. That is 8 credit hours. A student will normally take 12-15 hours per semester. You will need to meet some basics, so I would assume your first semester will have a math(3hrs) and Eng. I(3hrs). This will give you 14 hours. I would stop here. Some will talk about running 18+ hour semesters, but that is a bad idea from the get go. You need to see how you function in college...it is different than HS.

How much to study?...Well I believe the phrase I always heard is that you should take the # of hours you spend in class (2.5hrs) per week and multiply that by the credit cost of the course(usually 3). Thus you get 2.5 x 3= 7.5 hours, which means you should be spending about 8 hours a week studying for each course.

The big thing here is that you take good notes for your sciences and save them for PCAT studying.

Go to class. This is not HS. You will do bad if you skip classes.

 

[Notecard]

It's different for everyone. To give another side to the story, I was pretty much opposite to DH1987. I hated studying (and still do). I realized early on that I do almost all of my studying during lectures. It didn't really matter how busy or dead my day was I still wouldn't study outside of class lol.

For me the busier I am the more focused I am at school so I worked 30-40 hours a week to stay busy. I still work around 30 a week because I know as soon I have free time my brain will turn to mush. I don't know why but this is just what works for me.

 

[Krnluve24]

I did my home work as soon as I got home from classes.

I studied before exams until I felt I could ace them.

There were no time limit on how much to study. It was eat, study, sleep. I had no life except on breaks.

 

[Buk Lau]

Good job for taking the initiative to find out what we do.

The weekends are spent working for me. I work all of friday, saturday, and sunday, but that is a lot, so don't work that much. How much I study for my classes depends on how hard the semester is. Always find your hardest class (probably a science class) and study that class every day for a little bit. Also, find your "easy" class and save studying for that class for the weekends or a little bit before tests. For example, the semester I was taking organic chem., I studying every single day for it. I would actually study for a few hours every day because it was so hard. The same semester, I was also taking psychology - this was my "easy" class since I had already taken AP psych. in high school. I left studying for this class for a few days before tests not JUST because I knew the subject - because I didn't know it well enough to study a few hours before tests. The psych professor had pretty easy tests. Therefore, this was my easy class. I never took that many hard classes a semester because I was working so many hours. So make sure you balance you class load. I usually save my harder classes for spring semester, in which I know that summer is on the other end and that motivates me.

 

[ericbchoe]

Good job for taking the initiative to find out what we do.

The weekends are spent working for me. I work all of friday, saturday, and sunday, but that is a lot, so don't work that much. How much I study for my classes depends on how hard the semester is. Always find your hardest class (probably a science class) and study that class every day for a little bit. Also, find your "easy" class and save studying for that class for the weekends or a little bit before tests. For example, the semester I was taking organic chem., I studying every single day for it. I would actually study for a few hours every day because it was so hard. The same semester, I was also taking psychology - this was my "easy" class since I had already taken AP psych. in high school. I left studying for this class for a few days before tests not JUST because I knew the subject - because I didn't know it well enough to study a few hours before tests. The psych professor had pretty easy tests. Therefore, this was my easy class. I never took that many hard classes a semester because I was working so many hours. So make sure you balance you class load. I usually save my harder classes for spring semester, in which I know that summer is on the other end and that motivates me.

Thank you for the response.

 

[Doulos]

Wake up, work out, go to class, go to work, come home and do whatever homework/study needs to be done, go to sleep. Work in eating whenever possible.

Wash, rinse, repeat.

 

[ScarletKnight24]

Wake up, work out, go to class, go to work, come home and do whatever homework/study needs to be done, go to sleep. Work in eating whenever possible.

Wash, rinse, repeat.

LMAO. Exactly What I did for 3 years and got me a 4.0 so far. I literally had close to zero social life. Maybe went out to club activities, smoke a few hookah, and drank a few times lol.

 

[smercer]

Don't forget to live a little. You are a kid...go have fun and enjoy the years where responsibility is still at a minimum. No one says you have to spend the next 6-8 years(depending on how fast you get into pharm. school) stuck in a book. Take SOME light semesters or a summer off and just chill. That way when you are 24-26ish and getting done with school you will have enjoyed your childhood. Instead of looking at your friends, who are now settling down with their families, and wondering why you wasted your childhood studying. Yes, you can go have fun after you graduate, but it is a lot harder when you have a real job to go to 5 days a week...or even worse are still looking for that real job.

Trust me schools would like to know that you took time to find out about yourself and what you really wanted to do with your life. Not "Hi I'm 20 and Pharmacy is so my dream...I know cause I read about it and stuff." Really? How bout "Hi, I'm 21/22/etc and I took time to find what career I wanted to purse. Pharmacy seemed like a good fit and after a few thousand hours working in the field I know it is something I want to do with my life."(not to mention the whole part where you actually know it is something you want to do and not some pipe dream someone talked you into)

How many 18 year olds really know what they want to do? Cause I sure as hell did not. I took the time to find out what pharmacy was really like and I am still stuck at exactly what I want to do. I would definately like to do pharmacy, but I have found that I could enjoy other things, such as going to graduate school in a science field. Many of the sciences become fascinating as you progress in studies. I am sorry, but all you learn from Gen. Chem/ Gen Bio./O.Chem are mostly general topics and theories that you need to know/understand. These are foundation building classes...not career defining classes. Thus it is as you progress into the specific fields of study in science that you can truly see what you like, or even more importantly, dislike. How do you think you will do in Pharm. School if you cannot stand Bio. Chem and Microbiology? Kind of major courses used in the profession, yet most seem to be content just completing pre-reqs and going on without these courses.

Turns out, that what you want when you are 18 is a feeling that you will be successful in life. Thus people are looking for something to shoot for, but all it can be at that time is just an idea. Maybe you have done some research or worked in the field. I commend you for taking the time(assuming you actually did), but you should also invest the same effort looking at other options.

The best analogy I can think of is buying a car.
It is a multi-year investment that will define you both literally and figuratively. You do not just go to the nearest dealship and buy the first car on the lot. No, you take your time, comparing gas milage, utility, cost, etc. Most importantly after doing research, you take the time to go test drive it. You do not just buy a car and assume you will like the way it will drive because Car & Driver did an article about its handling and that it was an amazing car to drive. Thus take the time to go test drive pharmacy, but more importantly take the time to look at your other options. I am sure pharmacy is not the first possible career ever to be mentioned to you, but do not make it your last just because it looks good in the parking lot.

 

[Twentytwelve2]

Hi guys,

I'm going to be a freshmen in college next year.
Can anyone describe their typically day as a pre-pharmacy candidate? How many hours would you study for Biology, Chemistry, Math, History, etc.? Is there free time or is most of the day studying? And on days off, are you still reviewing and studying?

Thank you.

Can anyone describe their typically day as a pre-pharmacy candidate?
Plenty of free time to do your hobbies/hang out. The only times I studied were 1-2 days before an exam. Cramming worked for me.

How many hours would you study for Biology, Chemistry, Math, History, etc.?
It would make sense to dedicate more effort into the science courses over humanities. Too general to say how many hours to study "biology" since there are different biology courses. I study about 7 hours per day, two days before an exam so 14 hours total.

Is there free time or is most of the day studying? And on days off, are you still reviewing and studying?
PLENTY of free time! But please be smart and don't be influenced by party-goers or drunkaholics in college. These people will ruin your life. I know it happened to a guy from my CC when he xferred to university.