Calculus in pharmacy school

[RLK]

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I took 8 credits of calculus in college a few years ago, but never had the need to use it after the classes were over. Do you actually use it in pharmacy school or is it just a pre-req like it was for my undergrad degree? I did well in both of them, but it's been a while so I might take one of the courses over if so.

 

[dgroulx]

I took 8 credits of calculus in college a few years ago, but never had the need to use it after the classes were over. Do you actually use it in pharmacy school or is it just a pre-req like it was for my undergrad degree? I did well in both of them, but it's been a while so I might take one of the courses over if so.

I can only speak for UF, other COP may be different.

Generally, all the equations have already been derived for you in kinetics. They go through the motions, but you only use the final equation. We did have some homework problems where you needed some basic calculus. It's not enough to worry about.

 

[RLK]

I can only speak for UF, other COP may be different.

Generally, all the equations have already been derived for you in kinetics. They go through the motions, but you only use the final equation. We did have some homework problems where you needed some basic calculus. It's not enough to worry about.

That figures. I've talked to a pharmacist that I know and she said the same thing. I'm not sure I understand the significance of spending so much time learning calculus when it's hardly ever used. I took 8 credits of calculus for my computer science degree and after the last day of class I never had to use it again. It seems kind of pointless.

 

[PharmD4Me]

I think you may need it for statistics, but I'm not sure.

 

[pharmaz88]

I'm not sure I understand the significance of spending so much time learning calculus when it's hardly ever used.

...probably the same reason we need a year of physics also: helps to weed-out some of the less-motivated, gives you a good general background in the sciences, and most importantly, these classes help to strenthen your analytical thinking and problem solving skills.

 

[aubieRx]

I think you may need it for statistics, but I'm not sure.

not in my stats class. that was some easy math ..the only hard part was it was boring boring boring.

 

[UTstdnt]

You can use calculus for a lot of things in statistics, however, I don't think it's necessary to apply calculus to the basic principles we need to use in statistics as pharmacy students. The statistics class I took wasn't calculus based.

 

[dgroulx]

I'm taking biostatistics next semester. I don't think it has calculus. Regular stats in college was stupidly easy.

 

[RLK]

I took a probability and statistics course that was for math majors and we didn't even use calculus. I remember seeing an equation or two already derived in my physics lab in an example. That's too bad actually though that you learn how to use calculus which is pretty complicated, then never really have the chance to apply it after the class is over.