Ok, therapeutics
.its rough, very rough. Not to brag, but I have always been a fast-learner and have a great memory, but this class is totally kicking my ass. I dont say this to discourage you, but just to warn you of what lies aheadI wish I had known. Its not the material so much as the shear volume of it and the lack of time. For example, we have class next Tuesday when we return (therapeutics is 4 days a week for 2 hours each)the topic is hypertension. We have several patient cases to complete before we come to class. This involves reading a book chapter and perhaps some other articles (some profs assign extra articles or chapters from other books), learning the material well enough to discuss it in class, analyzing the patient cases, and then answering all the case questions. Its important to have everything complete because they will just call on individuals (I seem to get called every single day, and I know people who have never been called!) or learning groups to come down and answer the question.
So once Tuesdays HTN lecture is done, we go home and prepare for the next days lecture on an entirely different topic. This vicious cycle never ends and almost every day is a brand new topic (occasionally, there will be 2 days for 1 topic). Trying to learn everything about a single disease state and how to treat it in 2 hours? Not gonna happen. Its ridiculous.
It takes hours and hours to complete the material for a single lecture. Even if this was the only class we had, I still dont think I would have enough time. All my other classes seem to fall by the wayside until the weekend when I can play catch-up. Were supposed to work in our learning groups to complete the material, and we sit with our group in class because sometimes we get called on as a group. I dont know of anyone who actually works with their learning group, but it is essential to know people to split the work with. I work with some friends and we divide it up so we each only have to answer 1/3 or 1/4 of the questions. Its important to have people you trust, though, because you dont want to get called on and give a really wacky answer.
I dont know
maybe this is how therapeutics is taught at other schoolsI dont really have a basis for comparison, but it definitely sucks. I also wonder if its worse at a 3-year school. I have a sharp memory, but Im barely hanging on to stuff I learned 4 weeks ago. At this point, I definitely wonder about my future abilities as a pharmacist because I feel like Im not learning/retaining anything. Maybe students everywhere feel this way.
Hopefully it will be better for you because you know what youre facing.