I'm not learning anything in pharmacy school

[Starsintheskye]

It's the second week of pharmacy school and I still haven't learned a single thing. It's a repeat of college science courses, as well as some high school, and articles I read on my free time...


I feel like I am wasting my money. When does it get harder and I actually learn something new?

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[TheMission]

Relearning stuff from college is considered review. Once you hit pharmacokinetics, you'll want to go back to the first two weeks. And if you're not learning anything, then it probably means you just are well rounded enough. Some people need the review, some don't. Just go with it. And plus you go to pharm school to learn the clinical portion of things, which you are barely even in right now.

 

[RxMonkey]

**waiting for people to chime in and tell you that pharmacy school IS a waste of money**

 

[Starsintheskye]

blarg... every single lecture is boring and it feels like I am in elementary school. nothing the professors are saying sounds smart, because it's all very basic.

 

[Starsintheskye]

**waiting for people to chime in and tell you that pharmacy school IS a waste of money**

if I drop out now I have nowhere else to go.

 

[anewmanx]

Means to an end.

You need a license right? Then you need to graduate.

 

[Starsintheskye]

Means to an end.

You need a license right? Then you need to graduate.

Yeah, /big sigh...... I am honestly baffled that people have questions about what we are learning. Everything was literally brutally beated into us in undergrad years.....Should I have chosen a different career route?...I am disappointed at the lack of rigor in the curriculum.

 

[cnicolef08]

You mean second week as a P1??! Oh geez.... Lol! Just waiting young grasshopper. Better days are coming...

 

[anewmanx]

Yeah, /big sigh...... I am honestly baffled that people have questions about what we are learning. Everything was literally brutally beated into us in undergrad years.....Should I have chosen a different career route?...I am disappointed at the lack of rigor in the curriculum.

Become a doctor then, more specialization options.

 

[297point1]

Patience, young one...you will soon learn the ways of the Force

 

[anewmanx]

lol

 

[BMBiology]

You will only use 5-10% of what you learn in pharmacy school.

A lot of these professors don't get paid for the clinical services they provide because they can't bill for them. Medicare doesn't recognize pharmacists as "healthcare provider". So these professors work for free. They are volunteers. Your tuition is their salary. That is why the program is not practical. It is just about jumping through all of these hoops.

 

[Starsintheskye]

Become a doctor then, more specialization options.

well. the thing is, my GPA is only 3.39 over all, 3.3 science. so it's not high enough for med programs.. but I have retained almost everything I learned throughout undergrad, which is why pharmacy school is so easy. in undergrad I learned everything for the first time, so it was much harder.

 

[RxMonkey]

well. the thing is, my GPA is only 3.39 over all, 3.3 science. so it's not high enough for med programs.. but I have retained almost everything I learned throughout undergrad, which is why pharmacy school is so easy. in undergrad I learned everything for the first time, so it was much harder.

Well then, Congratulations! Kick your feet up for the next four years and wait to ace your NAPLEX.

 

[anewmanx]

well. the thing is, my GPA is only 3.39 over all, 3.3 science. so it's not high enough for med programs.. but I have retained almost everything I learned throughout undergrad, which is why pharmacy school is so easy. in undergrad I learned everything for the first time, so it was much harder.

Who told you that wasn't high enough for med school? Ace your MCAT and if you can't get into an MD program apply to a DO program. They both are practicing physicians with full access to competitive residencies, and the DO program has lower entrance requirements.

 

[Starsintheskye]

Who told you that wasn't high enough for med school? Ace your MCAT and if you can't get into an MD program apply to a DO program. They both are practicing physicians with full access to competitive residencies, and the DO program has lower entrance requirements.

I just paid 16k for the first semester of pharm school..should I just drop out after the first semester?...there are no jobs in this field anyways. If I get into D.O or med, I would go into one of those programs instead. at the same time i am intimidated by the responsibility and authority of docs

 

[anewmanx]

I just paid 16k for the first semester of pharm school..should I just drop out after the first semester?...there are no jobs in this field anyways. If I get into D.O or med, I would go into one of those programs instead. at the same time i am intimidated by the responsibility and authority of docs

You've done one semester and you're bored and think it's a joke. Do you really see yourself doing this for a living?

 

[BMBiology]

I just paid 16k for the first semester of pharm school..should I just drop out after the first semester?...there are no jobs in this field anyways. If I get into D.O or med, I would go into one of those programs instead. at the same time i am intimidated by the responsibility and authority of docs

Did you just realize that there is a lack of job?

 

[gwarm01]

First semester of P1 year? You are just reviewing your basic science and mathematics to make sure everyone is on the same page. For a lot of programs, things like biochemistry and genetics aren't required for admission. I remember thinking the pharmacy A&P class was ridiculously easy since I had just taken a graduate level mammalian physiology course the prior semester. It gets harder, and there is much more to learn. Pharmacology, pharmaceutics, and therapeutics will all be full of things you have never been exposed to before. However, if you really think the field isn't right for you then do yourself a favor and get out before you are too deep.

 

[Starsintheskye]

Did you just realize that there is a lack of job?

yeah, isn't the field saturated? that's what you have been preaching on these forums for a number of years.

 

[BMBiology]

Have you done your own research?

 

[trailerpark]

It's the second week of pharmacy school and I still haven't learned a single thing. It's a repeat of college science courses, as well as some high school, and articles I read on my free time...


I feel like I am wasting my money. When does it get harder and I actually learn something new?

I graduated and currently working as a grad intern and not learning anything. Pretty sure when I become a licensed pharmacist I wont know **** either. It just doesn't matter. Do what your doing to get a pharmD, not learn pharmacy. That will start in Therapeutics and on your own with RxPrep, internships, some APPEs (most you wont learn ****) and then after you graduate. Just absorb 1 stupid fact per day at least.

 

[anewmanx]

The field is experiencing a mild saturation, extreme for a healthcare profession, but mild compared to say... construction work, other blue collar jobs, etc...

Medicine is still a better bet unless you're absolutely tied to the pharmacist lifestyle. I'd set my sights on medicine myself, but there's no way I could handle residency.

 

[Digsbe]

Don't judge it by the first two weeks. Many programs have the first semester/year focusing on sciences which some may have had exposure to before. Trust me, eventually it will feel like you are drinking from a fire hose when you get into some therapeutics courses and pharmacology sections.

 

[zelman]

Right now you are among a group of peers with drastically different preparedness levels. Once you are doing clinically relevant things toward the end of P2, things will be different. Also, you probably are being taught by teachers right now. In 2-3 years that will stop. You will be taught by clinicians (aka you will be learning everything on your own after the world's most confusing lectures).

Also, when you're at the top of your class everything is super boring. It's 1000x worse if you don't participate. When teachers ask questions in big scary lecture halls ANSWER THEM. It keeps class moving along. When they ask rhetorical questions ANSWER THEM. I couldn't have sat through every lecture where the teacher said "Does everyone understand? Do you need me to go over that again?" And started to give the whole goddamn lecture again without pausing, if I hadn't learned to scream "YES WE GOT IT" at them.

 

[Pharmgrlnxdor]

Deciding how hard pharmacy school is based on the first two weeks of school is like judging a book by its front cover and maybe the table of contents. If you stick around come see us in three years when you have literally a few thousand pages worth of material to review for your weekly (med chem, therapeutics, pharmacology) exams.

 

[IndustryPharmD]

Wow, 20+ responses to a post that can be answered with a single smiley?

 

[anewmanx]

and a yoda, don't forget the yoda

 

[Wheresmyaricept]

Because they totally taught you how to diagnose and treat cancer in the first week of med school. You're being ridiculous. In a year or two you'll be wishing you had these classes because of how easy they are.

Do us all a favor and switch because it sounds like you're not in this for the right reasons and we don't need anymore competition with this "saturation", even though mostly all the pharmacy grads I know have a full time job...

 

[cnicolef08]

Damn... lol

 

[WhiteSnows]

You may fail out next month. Don't under estimate it. You should be thankful to have some time to socialize.

 

[Jibby321]

Just quit now.

 

[BMBiology]

yeah you may end up in Barrow, Alaska if you are not careful.....I kid I kid!

 

[Sparda29]

My class spent the whole of an entire month in the 1st semester of P1 year going over pH vs pKA because some ****'s couldn't understand that and kept asking questions about it.

 

[waiter]

no it's all easily digestible, and I kept hoping it would be difficult, but it never was and I graduated with a 4.0

 

[rxsurf23]

Yeah, /big sigh...... I am honestly baffled that people have questions about what we are learning. Everything was literally brutally beated into us in undergrad years.....Should I have chosen a different career route?...I am disappointed at the lack of rigor in the curriculum.

You'd be surprised at the quality of education at some undergrad portions. The school I went to was **** and when I transferred into Pharm School I felt everyone knew a whole lot more than I did.

Hang in there, it gets better.

 

[Tom Applewood]

Same. Exact. Thing.... for me, way back when. I came into pharmacy school with 2 previous degrees in research and 10 years on all my classmates.

Suck it up. It's a hoop to jump through. Get used to regulations, buereacracy, glass ceilings, politics, NOW, before it's too late when something bad has happened to you because you didn't fall in line and march with the rest of the 'kids' like a sheep for the professors. It's a hoop. Jump. Perform. Earn your PharmD, then go be your own person again.

 

[Got Em]

This is such a dumb thread. You're in your SECOND week; many medical schools go over basic, undergraduate-like, sciences courses in the first 1-2 weeks of blocks as well. There are people that go a different route, but dropping out after a few weeks is not an option. Finish pharm school and see if you want to go to med school. The grass is not always greener bud.

 

[pharmacy7424]

The whole pharmacy school thing is a big waste of time to get a degree at the end, the study of which isn't even actually pertinent to the job you will do. Oh well, suck it up, go study, and make that phat stack of c$sh when you get done.

 

[BidingMyTime]

Hmmmm, not sure of the motivation of your question, 3 common possibilities

1) you are a gunner/show-off....Answer: move along, nobody here is impressed, we all already have our degree and been there/done that. Go ahead & buy next year's textbooks and start studying them if you are that bored.

2) you are OCD or have some other anxiety issues......Answer: take a deep breath & relax, 1st month is often refresher, the classes will get harder. You aren't doing anything wrong, just go with the flow.

3) you are truly worried about getting your money's worth.....Answer: you are paying for a degree in order to be able to get a license, not an education. Most of what you will learn about pharmacy you will learn on your own from reading & from your rotations & work experience. You will understand this more after your first exam when you learn that 90% of the questions had nothing to do with the teacher's lecture. You will know you got your money's worth when you got your diploma.

4) if you wanted "hard" for a career option, you should have gotten into research (still can after you get your Pharm.D.) Anyone with a high normal-high IQ can do rote memorization. Nothing is more difficult than the creativity & unique thinking required to get a Ph.D. But really, instead of whining about your classes not being hard enough, use the extra time to develop some "harder" interests, talk to your professors about assisting with research (or if they aren't doing any, come up with your own research ideas and ask them if they will mentor your research project), come up with some kind of social plan to improve your community, or just read up & learn about something you are interested in.

 

[spacecowgirl]

Yeah, /big sigh...... I am honestly baffled that people have questions about what we are learning. Everything was literally brutally beated into us in undergrad years.....Should I have chosen a different career route?...I am disappointed at the lack of rigor in the curriculum.

Gosh, all those smarts and you can't use the word literally correctly.

You sound like a fun person.

 

[sosoo]

this person seems to be the type of ppl who get bored easily and jump ship. while he/she is talented and well rounded, but after wasting so much time going round about they end up wasting more and more time and accomplish nothing, as they never intended to finish anything that they started.

 

[WhiteSnows]

1) Pharmacy school never gets harder
2) If you did learn anything, you probably won't use it
3) If you need to know something, you probably didn't learn it
4) When you become licensed, you will get a job, you will make a decent living
.
.
.
5) You can definitely get into med school w/ your GPA

Troll?

 

[zelman]

Troll?

cynic

 

[rxlea]

As a resident looking back, pharmacy school definitely taught me some important things. A lot was fluff but a lot was useful too.

I'd say the stuff I'm using the most everyday is infectious disease, kinetics, pain management, emergency response, and anticoagulation.

Make the most out of your education. Learning is your responsibility.

 

[Starsintheskye]

Hmmmm, not sure of the motivation of your question, 3 common possibilities

1) you are a gunner/show-off....Answer: move along, nobody here is impressed, we all already have our degree and been there/done that. Go ahead & buy next year's textbooks and start studying them if you are that bored.

2) you are OCD or have some other anxiety issues......Answer: take a deep breath & relax, 1st month is often refresher, the classes will get harder. You aren't doing anything wrong, just go with the flow.

3) you are truly worried about getting your money's worth.....Answer: you are paying for a degree in order to be able to get a license, not an education. Most of what you will learn about pharmacy you will learn on your own from reading & from your rotations & work experience. You will understand this more after your first exam when you learn that 90% of the questions had nothing to do with the teacher's lecture. You will know you got your money's worth when you got your diploma.

4) if you wanted "hard" for a career option, you should have gotten into research (still can after you get your Pharm.D.) Anyone with a high normal-high IQ can do rote memorization. Nothing is more difficult than the creativity & unique thinking required to get a Ph.D. But really, instead of whining about your classes not being hard enough, use the extra time to develop some "harder" interests, talk to your professors about assisting with research (or if they aren't doing any, come up with your own research ideas and ask them if they will mentor your research project), come up with some kind of social plan to improve your community, or just read up & learn about something you are interested in.

Honestly I did do research in my undergrad and it was MUCH harder than anything I've done in pharmacy school. there was way more critical thinking involved. whereas here, everything is spoon fed into us at an extremely slow pace.

i liked the thinking part of research, but i don't want to work in a lab for the rest of my life... i want to work with people. that's why i chose pharmacy.

 

[Starsintheskye]

Same. Exact. Thing.... for me, way back when. I came into pharmacy school with 2 previous degrees in research and 10 years on all my classmates.

Suck it up. It's a hoop to jump through. Get used to regulations, buereacracy, glass ceilings, politics, NOW, before it's too late when something bad has happened to you because you didn't fall in line and march with the rest of the 'kids' like a sheep for the professors. It's a hoop. Jump. Perform. Earn your PharmD, then go be your own person again.

no it's all easily digestible, and I kept hoping it would be difficult, but it never was and I graduated with a 4.0

yep.. i have no problems with any lectures so far.

 

[KARM12]

YOU ARE IN THE FIRST TWO WEEKS!

If you know everything already then you have nothing to worry about. You need the PharmD to get the license. So relax... Being a pharmacist isn't always very exciting. I learned a lot of new stuff once we got into the actual pharmacy stuff towards the end of 1st year.

 

[Farcus]

well damn you must be the savior of pharmacy, bored with the content already after the first two weeks. Bro let it put it bluntly, the first week is orientation and a lot of bs, so you really had 1 week and the first day is class syallabus, so you had 4 day of school. When you're in P2, let me know if its still easy. I also find it hard to believe someone that remember everything from undergrad as you postulated yet your gpa is 3.3 or 3.4? i applied to pharmacy school with a 3.82 from a large research university and i can tell you i definitely did not remember 50% all that was taught to me from ochem/physiology/biology/biochem although the fundamental concepts I have grasped from my undergrad class i did retain. Worst you can do is quit but spare us your i'm too smart/pharmacy school is so easy. Actually I take it back, pharmacy school is relatively not too difficult but to do extremely well that's a different story.

 

[Rockinacoustic]

Honestly I did do research in my undergrad and it was MUCH harder than anything I've done in pharmacy school. there was way more critical thinking involved. whereas here, everything is spoon fed into us at an extremely slow pace.

i liked the thinking part of research, but i don't want to work in a lab for the rest of my life... i want to work with people. that's why i chose pharmacy.

Then you should get your PhD so you can teach students the thoughtful and stimulating intricacies of your research.

You're going to be providing a commodity as a pharmacist in 99% of the settings you work in- If that's a problem then get out now.