what should you expect when u get in?

[Zaboomafoo]

Hello all,
I was wondering on average how much time a pharmacy student puts into studying. I have two kiddies and was wondering how much help i should anticipate on having. Thank u much

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[WVUPharm2007]

Depends on how good you are at being a student.....and that's the honest answer. My best friend is a certifiable genius and he got a GPA around 3.9 studying only a few hours prior to exams. I usually studied one or two night prior to most exams. Others had to study 30+ hours a week to keep up.

 

[UES Girl]

Hello all,
I was wondering on average how much time a pharmacy student puts into studying. I have two kiddies and was wondering how much help i should anticipate on having. Thank u much

This may not help you as I am an undergrad myself, but I just went to a seminar to meet pharmacy students and someone asked the exact same question. What they said is that it really depends on your background and studying skills. If you are a biochemistry major for example and took a lot of upper division classes - you know pchem, biostatistics, biochem. They review a lot of those classes during their 1st year so people who took it as undergrad are able to test out of them and take less classes or just don't have to study as much because those classes are a review. But in general they said the pharm classes are not much harder than your upper division science classes, so people study for them the same way they did for those, it's just taking a whole lot together - the load is what can be challenging.

 

[Zaboomafoo]

how often are exams??

 

[shaun009]

We have exams every monday and average 1-2 quizzes a week. monday exams can be 1-2 exams.

 

[Rumplestiltazepam]

I am a P1...
So far classes are similar to undergrad in testing, midterms and Final. Some classes have 3 exams before the final, some have 2 exams before the final. Quizes once and a while but for the most part it is your responsiblity to keep up on the material. Labs have lots of busy work and learning objectives, but very interesting so far.

 

[omnione]

how often are exams??

It depends on the school. At my school, we have "breaks" of 2-3 weeks but then the exams roll in at a fast pace followed by another break. It's like a hurricane.

As for studying, I agree that is also person dependent. I'm a person who needs constant reminders of the material so I generally need about 25 hours to feel like I'm on track.

Right now, the difficulty is not much different than the last year of my undergraduate work where I took mainly upper-level and entry graduate-level courses. I do hear that my second year will be much more difficult however.

 

[cycloketocaine]

It depends on the school. At my school, we have "breaks" of 2-3 weeks but then the exams roll in at a fast pace followed by another break. It's like a hurricane.

As for studying, I agree that is also person dependent. I'm a person who needs constant reminders of the material so I generally need about 25 hours to feel like I'm on track.

Right now, the difficulty is not much different than the last year of my undergraduate work where I took mainly upper-level and entry graduate-level courses. I do hear that my second year will be much more difficult however.

It really does depend on the school. By Friday, I will have had 4 tests and 2 quizzes in 8 days. Woohoo.

 

[rxlynn]

how often are exams??

As the other posters noted, this is very school specific and something you will want to consider before you decide where to go. I also have two kids, so I can say from experience that you must have help - you will not be able to sustain the same level of doing everything as a mom that you did before and also do pharmacy school unless you are just an incredible student who doesn't need to study much.

I am in a school with a block schedule so I generally have a major test every Monday morning plus whatever other things go with my un-blocked classes and lab. So, midterm week was as follows: major test on Monday AM, calculations mid-term for lab on Monday PM, Midterm in my elective class on TU, Midterm on TH AM, and lab practical on Friday morning. That's a bad week! The next week was just the major test on Monday AM. However, as I mentioned above, I knew before I accepted the offer from this school that this was a typical exam schedule - be sure to ask around before you make a commitment.

 

[Zaboomafoo]

does anyone know what the exam schedule is like for creighton distance based?

 

[evilolive]

At my school the first year is ridiculously laid back with work ranging typically from 5-15 hours a week depending on how many courses you are taking. I'm mostly a procrastinator so I do everthing at the very last minute where the adrenaline is pumping and the ubiquitous "oh ****" moments are frequenting panic attacks. This is mostly a transition year, however - things will get much harder once therapeutics and pharmacology are integrated into the curriculum.

 

[ButlerPharm.D.]

At Butler we have what are called "Cluster exams". Essentially the college of pharmacy sets aside 3 three day periods throughout each semester during which we take all of our exams. During clusters all formal pharmacy classes are cancelled however students must still attend any general university course or professional elective if enrolled, i.e. nutrition support, pediatrics etc. For example, Friday we had our Therapeutics exam and our Therapeutics MDS (Multiple Disease State Careplan), Monday we had Drug Action and Pharmacokinetics, and earlier today we had Biostatistics/Research Design.

This may sound a little stressful but I actually enjoy it because outside of the weeks when we have exams, we are able to have lives and go out and enjoy ourselves. However that's not to say that we don't have to study in between; we have approximately 3 or more quizzes per week for which we must prepare.

I know a lot of people that go to other schools who are essentially jumping from exam to exam week to week without getting much down time in between.

Just in reference to what everyone else has said, P1 year is essentially the easy year where schools try to reiterate to you the importance of basic sciences as they apply to pharmacy, i.e. Pathophysiology, biochemistry etc. P2 year on the other hand was a wake up call in terms of time management-P2 year at Butler is the year where essentially you start to learn the bread and butter of being a pharmacist, it is during this year that we start therapeutics as well as self-care (OTC items/OTC treatment course) and so I quickly realized that I needed to make changes to how I studied in order to be successful in these types of courses (Disease state management/ Adverse effects/ Indications etc.)

You guys will all do really well, the one thing you must remember is, make changes to your study habits/time management skills as needed-what may have worked for you in the past may not work for you now simply due to the nature and volumes of material you will be presented with. If you are flexible in these areas you'll do great!!

Best of Luck!