Gen & Org Chem in Pharmacy school

[MuraRX]

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How important is chemistry in your classes? Obviously, chemistry is a big part of pharmaceuticals, but how big of a part does general chemistry and organic chemistry play in helping to learn all the new material that you are learning (or have learned) since you became a pharmacy student? Just curious.

 

[Requiem]

How important is chemistry in your classes? Obviously, chemistry is a big part of pharmaceuticals, but how big of a part does general chemistry and organic chemistry play in helping to learn all the new material that you are learning (or have learned) since you became a pharmacy student? Just curious.

General Chemistry helped a lot more than organic, we have done barely anything related to organic (even though we do organic while we're actually in pharmacy school, nothing has applied to other courses).

Gen chem helped with acid/base stuff and pka's of drugs, still wasn't that prevalent. We do a course entitled "medicinal chemistry" but basically that's just memorizing drug structures and important functional groups, so it's yet again on its own with no carry over from the previous chemistries.

I was really disappointed to be honest with the amount of chemistry (or math for that matter) in the program, it's basically absent. I thought you'd be studying interesting reactions that occured once a drug was in the body etc, it's just all memorization.

If chemistry isn't your fortay, I wouldn't be worried. Pharmacy courses are their own style of material, just as biology is separate from chemistry. That style unfortunately just involves an assload of memorization and little problem solving, ironically.

 

[MuraRX]

General Chemistry helped a lot more than organic, we have done barely anything related to organic (even though we do organic while we're actually in pharmacy school, nothing has applied to other courses).

Gen chem helped with acid/base stuff and pka's of drugs, still wasn't that prevalent. We do a course entitled "medicinal chemistry" but basically that's just memorizing drug structures and important functional groups, so it's yet again on its own with no carry over from the previous chemistries.

I was really disappointed to be honest with the amount of chemistry (or math for that matter) in the program, it's basically absent. I thought you'd be studying interesting reactions that occured once a drug was in the body etc, it's just all memorization.

If chemistry isn't your fortay, I wouldn't be worried. Pharmacy courses are their own style of material, just as biology is separate from chemistry. That style unfortunately just involves an assload of memorization and little problem solving, ironically.

LOL....well that's a relief for me. I'd much rather deal with, to quote "an assload," of memorization than with having to remember everything I ever learned in general or even organic chem. I'm much more into the physiology of the human body and how it reacts when medicated. Not necessarily the reactions themselves that cause the results. But, I digress. Can I ask, which school are you in, and what year are you? Do you like your curriculum so far?

 

[twester]

It looks like a breakneck recap of general, organic and biochem is in store for me this semester at my school. It must be important if they're going to spend a whole semester getting everybody on the same page.

 

[Requiem]

It looks like a breakneck recap of general, organic and biochem is in store for me this semester at my school. It must be important if they're going to spend a whole semester getting everybody on the same page.

They get everyone on the same page for essentially that reason, to have an equally qualified group of students.

To assume about what 'must' be going to occur is falliable; you haven't even started school yet.

You can listen to others echo my sentiments if you need hear another voice say it, however the bottom line is there's not much general or organic chemistry in pharmacy school. Your arguably most important classes are therapeutics, pharmacology, a&p, pathophys and med chem. As I stated, these don't involve those chemistry courses.

 

[Requiem]

Can I ask, which school are you in, and what year are you? Do you like your curriculum so far?

I go to school in Canada, MUN to be exact. Going into my 2nd year.

I am not entirely content with my curriculum; it encourages sheer amounts of rote memorization and less application of said knowledge and understanding.
The fact you do more courses/semester than any other faculty (7) and some of which you'll discover aren't exactly inspiring to say the least. School is school.

Pharmacy school is a lot different than undergrad in my opinion; I felt undergrad was a lot more independent and you were in charge of a lot more aspects involving your education. Now if you don't attend a class a prof notices, you're around the same classmates 40 hours a week - half of which are anal as hell and basically the biggest nerds you'll find. There's a solid core group of people that actually socialize and don't study 24/7 though, they're awesome people.

I find people lack a global perspective on the entire experience; they get so muddled and consumed by every little detail and freaking out over this assignment then this exam that they lose sight of true 'education'. Education to me encompasses the academics as well as social networking, learning about others and how to interact etc.

Most students i've spoken with from other universities as well as my own agree that the entire facade of "professional school" is a crock.

 

[sdn1977]

I go to school in Canada, MUN to be exact. Going into my 2nd year.

I am not entirely content with my curriculum; it encourages sheer amounts of rote memorization and less application of said knowledge and understanding.
The fact you do more courses/semester than any other faculty (7) and some of which you'll discover aren't exactly inspiring to say the least. School is school.

Pharmacy school is a lot different than undergrad in my opinion; I felt undergrad was a lot more independent and you were in charge of a lot more aspects involving your education. Now if you don't attend a class a prof notices, you're around the same classmates 40 hours a week - half of which are anal as hell and basically the biggest nerds you'll find. There's a solid core group of people that actually socialize and don't study 24/7 though, they're awesome people.

I find people lack a global perspective on the entire experience; they get so muddled and consumed by every little detail and freaking out over this assignment then this exam that they lose sight of true 'education'. Education to me encompasses the academics as well as social networking, learning about others and how to interact etc.

Most students i've spoken with from other universities as well as my own agree that the entire facade of "professional school" is a crock.

Requiem - some of your opinions, I'd agree with completely - generally pharmacy students & pharmacists are nerdy & aren't much fun. (Zpack even called me a nerd & I was a very fun person in pharmacy school!!!😉 )

I'd also agree - these folks are a bit anal - they have to get & read EVERY article & citation.....not realizing they are supposed to be learning how to actually learn to evaluate & put the information into some perspective & in a manner & fashion which can be related to a a lay person or other health professional. (Can you believe that was one sentence!!!!!) They were not supposed to read every article (I'm not even sure they did!)

I'm a firm believer in the importance of understanding organic chemistry. Without that....you won't have a complete understanding of biochemistry or molecular biology. Now...inorganic...well....ok - get to understand how electrons move....but, really - you won't have a reason to ever light Na on fire - ever!

It all depends on what you want to do with what is being presented to you. And.....for those of you who have already gone on...its not to late to relearn it! You really can understand the biochemical & physiologic mechanisms of how new drugs work. Patients really want to know. They can google the same information you can....but, if you can put it into some rational perspective....you have done your job well!

Mura - you won't have to remember an a**load of random chemistry formulas - you'll just need to UNDERSTAND where the ones came from which are important for medications & how they are useful to you. Understanding & memorization are two different things, as I think Requiem was pointing out.

 

[dgroulx]

We have quite a bit of Med Chem at UF. There are 2 introductory med chem courses in the P1 year and 2 semesters of actual med chem in the P2 year. Our classes were not about memorizing structures, although each exam had one structure to draw. There were many more mechanisms to learn. You may have to show all the binding sites on an ACE inhibitor. You may have to draw a mechanism showing where bonds break and how an antibiotic works. You'll go through every class of drug, look at the structures and learn how that class of drug works in the body.

The acid/base equations are in the P1 year, but pKAs are on every exam. You never get rid of those, or else how will you know where the drug is activated?

 

[tartaufraise]

This thread is very helpful. I often wonder how much of actual, real chemistry is actually involved in the curriculum of Pharmacy school. I'd be sorely dissapointed if the curriculum does not involve any type of problem solving/understanding the basic chemical mechanism/pathways and rely heavily on memorization and spoon-fed information. Don't get me wrong, I think memorization has its value, but I'm much more inclined to remember something better if I know the reasoning behind it.

 

[Requiem]

This thread is very helpful. I often wonder how much of actual, real chemistry is actually involved in the curriculum of Pharmacy school. I'd be sorely dissapointed if the curriculum does not involve any type of problem solving/understanding the basic chemical mechanism/pathways and rely heavily on memorization and spoon-fed information. Don't get me wrong, I think memorization has its value, but I'm much more inclined to remember something better if I know the reasoning behind it.

You should do a quick search through some of my posts on "studying tips for pharmacy", i've done a few.

You do pathways a la le biochimie, and some mechanisms in med chem but that's about it; and yeah, you will be sorely disappointed.

 

[SpirivaSunrise]

How important is chemistry in your classes? Obviously, chemistry is a big part of pharmaceuticals, but how big of a part does general chemistry and organic chemistry play in helping to learn all the new material that you are learning (or have learned) since you became a pharmacy student? Just curious.

I think if you're interested in knowing how much chem you'll need, you should look into the programs of the schools you're interested in...and what type of school it is (i.e. what their main focus is).

What I've come to realize is...there are quite a few types of colleges of pharmacy and they can be quite different. My college is very much clinical-based...so almost everything we do is focused on the patient. I can tell you that I didn't have to memorize a single structure/formula throughout my years in pharmacy school, let alone have a class called Med Chem. 😉

 

[twester]

They get everyone on the same page for essentially that reason, to have an equally qualified group of students.

To assume about what 'must' be going to occur is falliable; you haven't even started school yet.

You can listen to others echo my sentiments if you need hear another voice say it, however the bottom line is there's not much general or organic chemistry in pharmacy school. Your arguably most important classes are therapeutics, pharmacology, a&p, pathophys and med chem. As I stated, these don't involve those chemistry courses.

You're right. I know nothing - haven't a brain cell to spare and no life experience whatsoever.

Since I don't move on if I don't pass the class, I think I'll call it important and give it the attention it deserves. And it was explained to us that the material from the class will come back later on. I'm more inclined to listen to that information.

Thanks for pointing out the fallibility of my reasoning though. 🙂

 

[Requiem]

You're right. I know nothing - haven't a brain cell to spare and no life experience whatsoever.

Since I don't move on if I don't pass the class, I think I'll call it important and give it the attention it deserves. And it was explained to us that the material from the class will come back later on. I'm more inclined to listen to that information.

Thanks for pointing out the fallibility of my reasoning though. 🙂

Stop taking an internet message board so personal. I didn't suggest blowing off the class and failing it. The original question is how important is chemistry in your pharmacy courses, the answer is not much. I forced myself to get an A in physics II, which I viewed as important at the time. Still doesn't change the fact it's not in pharmacy school.

One thing you'll quickly learn: you're going to have to sift through a lot of casuistical comments from professors, the school and your classmates to determine what material is priority. You will never hear a professor say "This subject I am speaking to you about is actually unimportant and irrelevant to your career as a pharmacist, cheerio!" Conversly, most feel quite strongly about the subject they teach, no matter the weightiness of the material.

Best of luck.

 

[twester]

Stop taking an internet message board so personal. I didn't suggest blowing off the class and failing it. The original question is how important is chemistry in your pharmacy courses, the answer is not much. I forced myself to get an A in physics II, which I viewed as important at the time. Still doesn't change the fact it's not in pharmacy school.

One thing you'll quickly learn: you're going to have to sift through a lot of casuistical comments from professors, the school and your classmates to determine what material is priority. You will never hear a professor say "This subject I am speaking to you about is actually unimportant and irrelevant to your career as a pharmacist, cheerio!" Conversly, most feel quite strongly about the subject they teach, no matter the weightiness of the material.

🙄

Best of luck.

And to you. 🙂