How should I do my schedule?!

[Lancerboy17]

I'm a senior in high school interested in going to my community for the pre-pharm reqs and I have a few questions.
I have to take the PCAT a year before I plan to enroll in pharmacy school so I was wondering if I should take all the bios: (1 and2), Chem: (1 and 2), Organic Chem: (1 and 2) and calculus and maybe physics: (1 and 2). I was wondering if I should take all the 1 classes in the fall semester and the 2 classes in the spring semester so I would be better prepared for the PCAT, or will taking all those classes make my schedule hard and clustered or will it help me on the PCAT?

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[bw6]

I'm a senior in high school interested in going to my community for the pre-pharm reqs and I have a few questions.
I have to take the PCAT a year before I plan to enroll in pharmacy school so I was wondering if I should take all the bios: (1 and2), Chem: (1 and 2), Organic Chem: (1 and 2) and calculus and maybe physics: (1 and 2). I was wondering if I should take all the 1 classes in the fall semester and the 2 classes in the spring semester so I would be better prepared for the PCAT, or will taking all those classes make my schedule hard and clustered or will it help me on the PCAT?

They are all freshman and sophomore level undergraduate classes. They shouldn't be difficult. Take them all ASAP and if you struggle taking those classes together than you should rethink going to pharmacy school.

 

[bacillus1]

General chem should be taken before organic chem.

 

[Lancerboy17]

General chem should be taken before organic chem.

I took chem 1 and 2 in high school so should I still take them both at same time? will organic chem 1 and 2 help me with the PCAT or will there be a lot of organic chem questions on the PCAT? And if not then should I just do organic chem 1 spring semester and chem 1 in fall?

 

[bw6]

I took chem 1 and 2 in high school so should I still take them both at same time? will organic chem 1 and 2 help me with the PCAT or will there be a lot of organic chem questions on the PCAT? And if not then should I just do organic chem 1 spring semester and chem 1 in fall?

Ochem is covered on the PCAT big time. Like I said, take all the classes ASAP. They will help with the PCAT and you should really be able to handle the coursework.

 

[Lancerboy17]

Ochem is covered on the PCAT big time. Like I said, take all the classes ASAP. They will help with the PCAT and you should really be able to handle the coursework.

So you think I should do all the first parts of the classes in the fall term and then the second pars of the classes in the spring term? And then my second year just do all my other classes that are necessary to go to pharm school but not on the PCAT?

 

[bw6]

So you think I should do all the first parts of the classes in the fall term and then the second pars of the classes in the spring term? And then my second year just do all my other classes that are necessary to go to pharm school but not on the PCAT?

Honestly, the order in which you take the classes won't matter. I am 23 and going to ohio state COP in the fall. I got my BS in BMB at Penn State since OSU requires a degree and took the PCAT last summer after my senior year. Most of the info on the PCAT I had covered 3 years before taking the test because at that point I was taking all 400 level classes and it made the info for the PCAT look easy. Despite being 2-3 years removed from ochem and 4 years removed from gen chem and gen bio, I was 90th percentile on PCAT.

Don't over think this. Just get your prerequisites done and take the PCAT however suites you best. You will be fine, none of the prereqs are that difficult and I honestly believe if you spend a little time studying for the PCAT then you will be shocked at how easy it is.

Good luck

 

[Lancerboy17]

Good luck

Thank you!
Im worried about not doing good on the PCAT or not getting into the college first because they accept about 80 out of 400 people and that kind of worries me but it only pushes me harder. How often do you think I should study for the PCAT? I plan to study for it starting summer and then all thtough college and I also need job experience so I'll be doing all that if I can find a place this summer. I have 2 PCAT books so should I just start from page 1 and spend like an hour a day and go page by page or skip around? I need more work on the English and analogy part of it because I haven't really been exposed to college level words yet lol. How did you study for the PCAT?

 

[bw6]

Thank you!
Im worried about not doing good on the PCAT or not getting into the college first because they accept about 80 out of 400 people and that kind of worries me but it only pushes me harder. How often do you think I should study for the PCAT? I plan to study for it starting summer and then all thtough college and I also need job experience so I'll be doing all that if I can find a place this summer. I have 2 PCAT books so should I just start from page 1 and spend like an hour a day and go page by page or skip around? I need more work on the English and analogy part of it because I haven't really been exposed to college level words yet lol. How did you study for the PCAT?

I took the PCAT in september and started studying in June. Probably about 1 hour per day. I bought a kaplan book froom 2007 (because it was soooo cheap and still just as good) and Barons practice tests. Read kaplan cover to cover and went back over my problem sections afterwards.

As far as pharmacy experience, I had 0. I did some shadowing but my PCAT score other credentials were enough that it didn't matter.

And what school are you talking about? It doesn't sound very selective. Honestly, I know UB and OSU said they get about 1200-1300 applicants and have a class size of 125 and 130 respectively. So keep your head up because 80 of 400 is not bad at all! I only took the PCAT once but i would recommend taking it early so you can try a 2nd time if you don't do well.

As a general note, schools do give preference to people with bachelors degrees so my BS probably helped my application quite a bit (to the other schools I was accepted to - ohio state requires that every applicant have a bachelors degree).

 

[Lancerboy17]

And what school are you talking about? It doesn't sound very selective.

As a general note, schools do give preference to people with bachelors degrees so my BS probably helped my application quite a bit (to the other schools I was accepted to - ohio state requires that every applicant have a bachelors degree).

Its SIUE in Illinois. And they never said anything about a BS to get looked at, they just said they look at GPA and PCAT scores and healthcare experience would be good. But they did say that if it came down to me and someone who took pre-pharm at their school and me then they would choose them. I just didn't choose them because its an extra 3 thousand for the same classes and about 20 min extra drive and I didn't think that was worth the extra maybe percent or two. I'll just have to hopefully get 3.5-4.0 and stand out.

 

[bw6]

Its SIUE in Illinois. And they never said anything about a BS to get looked at, they just said they look at GPA and PCAT scores and healthcare experience would be good. But they did say that if it came down to me and someone who took pre-pharm at their school and me then they would choose them. I just didn't choose them because its an extra 3 thousand for the same classes and about 20 min extra drive and I didn't think that was worth the extra maybe percent or two. I'll just have to hopefully get 3.5-4.0 and stand out.

Don't stress man, you will be fine. I didn't decide to do pharmacy until last year and still got into a top 10 school. You know your path already so you have a great head start on me.

 

[Lancerboy17]

Don't stress man, you will be fine. I didn't decide to do pharmacy until last year and still got into a top 10 school. You know your path already so you have a great head start on me.

Thanks!
If I ever have any more questions then I'll just come ask you.

 

[triguitarpharm]

I was accepted to SIUE. They really care about gpa's. If I were you I wouldn't worry too much, a 3.5 and 80% on pcat will pretty much guarantee you a spot unless you have hard times with interviews. Pay attention to your core classes and the pcat will be easy. I studied maybe a total of 20hrs and scored 97%. Good luck, your already ahead of the game since your thinking about it now.

 

[Lancerboy17]

I was accepted to SIUE. They really care about gpa's. If I were you I wouldn't worry too much, a 3.5 and 80% on pcat will pretty much guarantee you a spot unless you have hard times with interviews. Pay attention to your core classes and the pcat will be easy. I studied maybe a total of 20hrs and scored 97%. Good luck, your already ahead of the game since your thinking about it now.

What kind of stuff do they ask you at the interview?

 

[bw6]

What kind of stuff do they ask you at the interview?

Please just search this elsewhere in the SDN forums. This is one of the most common questions and plenty of threads with hundreds of posts already exist with this information.

 

[owlegrad]

Please just search this elsewhere in the SDN forums. This is one of the most common questions and plenty of threads with hundreds of posts already exist with this information.

Well said. We also have the "interview feedback" section.

 

[Lancerboy17]

Im trying to get some experience and I was wanting to get maybe like a tech job for experience and money but I was wondering if I would need to get a license and go through all the schooling for it or if a place would just put me on. Should I try the little pharmacy in our town or maybe a big one like Walgreens or CVS?
If I had to get a license for the tech then thats an extra few months-years of schooling and more money to be paying.

 

[bw6]

Im trying to get some experience and I was wanting to get maybe like a tech job for experience and money but I was wondering if I would need to get a license and go through all the schooling for it or if a place would just put me on. Should I try the little pharmacy in our town or maybe a big one like Walgreens or CVS?
If I had to get a license for the tech then thats an extra few months-years of schooling and more money to be paying.

Ha.. certainly not YEARS for a pharm tech. Pharm techs do what every layman thinks pharmacists do.. count pills (over simplified but, yeah). You do need a license but unless you really want to do it, I wouldn't bother. It isn't necessary.

My only experience was shadowing and I did fine. I would recommend doing more than myself but you don't need to be a tech. Just volunteer some, shadow some, and get to know a pharmacist to write a LOR. That would be more than enough.

FYI - my shadowing was for about a week and I used my BMB research director, BMB professor, and a former employer for LORs. Like I said, you don't need that much experience

 

[Lancerboy17]

Is there any where that I could get a start on learning the top 200 or so drugs and leanr side effects and all that good stuff about them?