Any tips on how I can get As on my exams?

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Buk Lau

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P1 here, and I'm tired of getting Bs on my tests. It seems like I study hard but I can't pass that threshold between a B and an A. It's like I don't know one concept and it costs me a few questions on exams and I'm a little frustrated on how I should get around this. So far I have 4 solid Bs and one A so I'm trying to fix this before it gets too far into the semester. Any study tips that worked for you guys?

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Study harder and pay more attention. If it helps, go over materials after lecture and study with friends... pharmacy school is not too different from undergrad.... if you were a B student in undergad, proly the trend continues.
 
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Does it matter? I figured out once you're in program of any nature you just need to make the min grade to kee going
Residencies might care.
 
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Thanks for the thoughtful advice. I think I'm gonna reassess the way I study and try to do the lecture before class rather than after it. Maybe that will make me more prepared. Stay tuned
 
Does it matter? I figured out once you're in program of any nature you just need to make the min grade to kee going
Trust me if I wanted to pass with a 2.5 gpa I could easily do that with minimal studying. I want to know the material so that I'm not useless in the workplace and because if I wanted to go into a residency, it would benefit me.
 
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Take advantage of your professor's office hours and talk to them. Ask questions. Study in small groups; processing concepts out loud with others helps you retain information better.
 
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Take advantage of your professor's office hours and talk to them. Ask questions. Study in small groups; processing concepts out loud with others helps you retain information better.

Begin wearing tight fitting business casual clothing.
Begin walking with a slouch while leaned over.
Begin balding.
Begin talking in a nasally noise.
List under your signature "DOCTOR of Pharmacy Class of XYZ," as well as any other accomplishments you have, like being the Hamster Guard of your fraternity and all the "research" positions you have. Add everything, even that associate of history you earned in community college.
Convince yourself that you will only consider a "clinical" pharmacy career. Practice scoffing in front of a mirror so you'll be ready when someone suggests retail or, "just a staffing," position.
Sabotage your classmates or destroy notes so others can't get to it. Better yet, help with class study guides by deliberately posting incorrect information.

Incorporate these in your life, and while I can't promise you will get straight A's in pharmacy school, I can guarantee you you will be accepted into the "elite," pharmacist society. If you can't join them, trick them!
 
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Begin wearing tight fitting business casual clothing.
Begin walking with a slouch while leaned over.
Begin balding.
Begin talking in a nasally noise.
List under your signature "DOCTOR of Pharmacy Class of XYZ," as well as any other accomplishments you have, like being the Hamster Guard of your fraternity and all the "research" positions you have. Add everything, even that associate of history you earned in community college.
Convince yourself that you will only consider a "clinical" pharmacy career. Practice scoffing in front of a mirror so you'll be ready when someone suggests retail or, "just a staffing," position.
Sabotage your classmates or destroy notes so others can't get to it. Better yet, help with class study guides by deliberately posting incorrect information.

Incorporate these in your life, and while I can't promise you will get straight A's in pharmacy school, I can guarantee you you will be accepted into the "elite," pharmacist society. If you can't join them, trick them!

Fake it till you make it has some validity to it.

Also, you get an A+(!) in snark.
 
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Begin wearing tight fitting business casual clothing.
Begin walking with a slouch while leaned over.
Begin balding.
Begin talking in a nasally noise.
List under your signature "DOCTOR of Pharmacy Class of XYZ," as well as any other accomplishments you have, like being the Hamster Guard of your fraternity and all the "research" positions you have. Add everything, even that associate of history you earned in community college.
Convince yourself that you will only consider a "clinical" pharmacy career. Practice scoffing in front of a mirror so you'll be ready when someone suggests retail or, "just a staffing," position.
Sabotage your classmates or destroy notes so others can't get to it. Better yet, help with class study guides by deliberately posting incorrect information.

Incorporate these in your life, and while I can't promise you will get straight A's in pharmacy school, I can guarantee you you will be accepted into the "elite," pharmacist society. If you can't join them, trick them!
Lol some of you are very bitter. Welcome to the real word buddy, there's competition out there. You know, at some point you guys have to stop farcing this profession and the people in it in order to maintain the self-peace that you thoroughly lack. A lot of us know what we're getting into and rather than succumb to nefarious actions (i.e. your post), we have the composure to steel ourselves from negative thoughts. I don't see professionals in other fields acting this childish, so grow up. I will continue my journey in pharmacy and have no problem being a beacon against people like you.
 
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I wouldn't say I was being nefarious, I would say I was trying to be humorous.
 
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I wouldn't say I was being nefarious, I would say I was trying to be humorous.
I can take humor, but there's so much negativity on these forums it just gets mundane you know
 
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Lol some of you are very bitter. Welcome to the real word buddy, there's competition out there. You know, at some point you guys have to stop farcing this profession and the people in it in order to maintain the self-peace that you thoroughly lack. A lot of us know what we're getting into and rather than succumb to nefarious actions (i.e. your post), we have the composure to steel ourselves from negative thoughts. I don't see professionals in other fields acting this childish, so grow up. I will continue my journey in pharmacy and have no problem being a beacon against people like you.

Uhhh...I am pretty sure medicine protected being a gunner?
 
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I can take humor, but there's so much negativity on these forums it just gets mundane you know

Would you prefer to read that there will be 8 job offers and a 10k sign on bonus when you graduate waiting for you? Just go see a dean of a newly opened school if you need optimism...
 
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If possible, do whatever you can to get old exams from your elder students, it can make all the difference.
 
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Would you prefer to read that there will be 8 job offers and a 10k sign on bonus when you graduate waiting for you? Just go see a dean of a newly opened school if you need optimism...
I'd prefer to have this be a constructive forum. I think it's been drilled into our heads enough that the job market sucks. We should be at least coming up with productive discussions, if not discussing how the field got to this point and what we could do to change it. Trust me, I understand this isn't a field for everyone and there's diploma mill schools, etc. But at some point we should also acknowledge that there are people that actually want to go into pharmacy and have the drive, background, etc. to show for it. Surely, not everyone doesn't belong in pharmacy. I genuinely like this field and is it a sin if I'm trying to improve myself so that I can be a better professional and stand out in the job market?
 
Here's actual helpful advice from an academician. Improving your grades from a straight B average is probably not productive. Sure, we CAN lecture you about study tips, flash cards, and other undergraduate tricks, but at some level, it's a tradeoff in investment. If we have to do so, we're insulting your intelligence and wasting our time. That's why we (and I'm going to count myself among them) don't view the question with the same level of serious, because I don't give a (*)$ about your grades even for residency selection if you can't write a good sentence, talk convincingly that you know something, and don't look the part (helps to be handsome or pretty but what really helps is whether I trust you).

I had nearly straight A+'s going into my third professional year, but some well-meaning preceptor who really cared about me told me to take the stick out of my a$$, get my hands dirty and mix some drugs, and get drunk with the pharmacists and know the nurses. I would have never gotten as far as I did in my career if I stuck to the ridiculous egomaniac image.

At this point, I would say that you should get a hospital intern job and work on your contacts. Your grades are fine and are satisfactory for getting into residency. You need to work on the other aspects where possible.

And definitely, you do need to work on reading between the lines. Yes, I do read some of the above as negative, but more of these are obviously our primitive sense of humor. I see a future patsy in you when we need to sacrifice a pharmacist to the quality management gods for being overly singleminded. Loosen up.

Maybe the one thing I would say to help you get started is that when you're reading your handouts and cases, imagine what sort of questions and scenarios you'd be asked about if your professors were huge a$$holes with a pimping complex. The better you are at predicting what sort of questions they'd cook up, the better your grades would be and in the sense of learning how to read people, the better off you'd be when dealing with that smarmy Pharmacist Supervisor or Director of Pharmacy or someone like me.
 
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I'd prefer to have this be a constructive forum. I think it's been drilled into our heads enough that the job market sucks. We should be at least coming up with productive discussions, if not discussing how the field got to this point and what we could do to change it.

Just like you original question having been discussed here to ad nauseum; so has the the state and outlook of the profession. I was going to make another joke about the consensus, but I don't think you'd understand and could potentially get butt hurt.
 
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Here's actual helpful advice from an academician. Improving your grades from a straight B average is probably not productive. Sure, we CAN lecture you about study tips, flash cards, and other undergraduate tricks, but at some level, it's a tradeoff in investment. If we have to do so, we're insulting your intelligence and wasting our time. That's why we (and I'm going to count myself among them) don't view the question with the same level of serious, because I don't give a (*)$ about your grades even for residency selection if you can't write a good sentence, talk convincingly that you know something, and don't look the part (helps to be handsome or pretty but what really helps is whether I trust you).

I had nearly straight A+'s going into my third professional year, but some well-meaning preceptor who really cared about me told me to take the stick out of my a$$, get my hands dirty and mix some drugs, and get drunk with the pharmacists and know the nurses. I would have never gotten as far as I did in my career if I stuck to the ridiculous egomaniac image.

At this point, I would say that you should get a hospital intern job and work on your contacts. Your grades are fine and are satisfactory for getting into residency. You need to work on the other aspects where possible.

And definitely, you do need to work on reading between the lines. Yes, I do read some of the above as negative, but more of these are obviously our primitive sense of humor. I see a future patsy in you when we need to sacrifice a pharmacist to the quality management gods for being overly singleminded. Loosen up.

Maybe the one thing I would say to help you get started is that when you're reading your handouts and cases, imagine what sort of questions and scenarios you'd be asked about if your professors were huge a$$holes with a pimping complex. The better you are at predicting what sort of questions they'd cook up, the better your grades would be and in the sense of learning how to read people, the better off you'd be when dealing with that smarmy Pharmacist Supervisor or Director of Pharmacy or someone like me.
This is helpful, thanks
 
P1 here, and I'm tired of getting Bs on my tests. It seems like I study hard but I can't pass that threshold between a B and an A. It's like I don't know one concept and it costs me a few questions on exams and I'm a little frustrated on how I should get around this. So far I have 4 solid Bs and one A so I'm trying to fix this before it gets too far into the semester. Any study tips that worked for you guys?
Better a 4.0 GPA in people/social skills + 3.0 GPA in academics than vice-versa. The former is a consistent game changer. Trust me, I'm a Pharmacist.
 
We should be at least coming up with productive discussions, if not discussing how the field got to this point and what we could do to change it.

Famous last words of anyone as they get laughed off the forum.
 
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as long as you understand the material it doesn't matter what your grade is. your grade is simply a number on a piece of paper that no one gives a crap about. the only purpose of your grade is to have it above the minimum threshold so that you can continue through the bull**** that is higher education. it's like the vultures waiting for you at the gate and if the number on your forehead isn't above a 70% they're going to send you away so you better make sure you avoid that.

in the workplace no one cares about your grades. they care about whether you're competent, driven, do work, can function in a team/workplace, etc. achieving high grades is of little value to employers. achieving high revenue though is of excellent value so maybe you should try to work on that
 
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as long as you understand the material it doesn't matter what your grade is. your grade is simply a number on a piece of paper that no one gives a crap about. the only purpose of your grade is to have it above the minimum threshold so that you can continue through the bull**** that is higher education. it's like the vultures waiting for you at the gate and if the number on your forehead isn't above a 70% they're going to send you away so you better make sure you avoid that.

in the workplace no one cares about your grades. they care about whether you're competent, driven, do work, can function in a team/workplace, etc. achieving high grades is of little value to employers. achieving high revenue though is of excellent value so maybe you should try to work on that
I understand that, as I've worked as a tech for 5 years. There's so many things my pharmacists forgot after working at the retail setting for so long because they never used it. I was thinking more on the line of residency if I chose to do one, I want to have that gpa so that I get matched somewhere decent. Otherwise, of course all you need to do is get that minimum gpa and pass the NAPLEX.
 
Using/trying different study techniques to find out how best you personally learn/retain information and concepts. I use to think highlighting and using color was a bit stupid & overkill (highlighting so much it defeats the point of focusing on what's important or worth memorizing); however, I do combine this technique with my favorite/traditional way of rearranging and reorganizing things to make them relevant/linked.

It doesn't hurt to at least try some different techniques focusing on different senses & combining them (speaking notes - auditory, chart organizing/flash cards, etc. - visual, transcription (very time consuming but my favorite) - tactile).
 
Trust me if I wanted to pass with a 2.5 gpa I could easily do that with minimal studying. I want to know the material so that I'm not useless in the workplace and because if I wanted to go into a residency, it would benefit me.

Working and networking are way more important than the difference between 3.5 and 4.0.
 
Trust me if I wanted to pass with a 2.5 gpa I could easily do that with minimal studying. I want to know the material so that I'm not useless in the workplace and because if I wanted to go into a residency, it would benefit me.
That is nothing to be proud about. Talk about having low standards. A 2.5 GPA is something you should only get if you didn't study at all.
 
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That is nothing to be proud about. Talk about having low standards. A 2.5 GPA is something you should only get if you didn't study at all.

To be fair, at some schools a 75% is average. It's just depends on the school; some are far more difficult than others even when we are talking about pharmacy. I used to beat myself up because my GPA in undergrad was low, but there are students who had 4.0s in undergrad, study 6 hours every day in pharmacy school, and barely pass, meanwhile I am scoring fine with far less study time. If the difficulty between undergraduate programs is so extremely variable, I can only assume that the same is true with pharmacy programs, even if it is to a lesser extent.
 
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