need to know Calculus to do well in PharmD program?

[gsinccom]

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Hi,

My calculus classes will have been 11 years old by the time I begin Pharm School Fall 2007. How important is my recollection of Calculus to do well in the pharm curriculum? I will be attending USN or Pacific University (3 year accelerated programs that don't require the PCAT) or Idaho State University. p.s. I've been told by the admissions lady at Pacific that Anatomy, Physiology, and Ochem are the most important pre-reqs to do well in Pharm School. What are your takes on this?

 

[genesis09]

Calculus is never used pharmacy period. It is unimportant to the program. As long as you are good in Algebra, you will have no problem with the math.
The admissions lady was right. Those are the most important prereq classes.

 

[gsinccom]

Genesis, thanks a bunch. When I told her it was already 10 years old she did though ask me, "how much Calculus do you remember"? I said, "I remember very little". And then she said, "I'd recommend you redo it". Interesting situation I'm in. I agree with you that I likely won't need to know it but I am unsure why she told me that. Anyone else have thoughts on this?

 

[pinkyrx]

I agree, Calculus isn't important in pharm. school! Thank goodness! It's been forever since I've had it too.

 

[Bananay]

Hi,

My calculus classes will have been 11 years old by the time I begin Pharm School Fall 2007. How important is my recollection of Calculus to do well in the pharm curriculum? I will be attending USN or Pacific University (3 year accelerated programs that don't require the PCAT) or Idaho State University. p.s. I've been told by the admissions lady at Pacific that Anatomy, Physiology, and Ochem are the most important pre-reqs to do well in Pharm School. What are your takes on this?

There was a thread on this website about Calculus. someone said Calculus will help you understand Pharmokinetics. if i were you i would just brush up on Calculus on my own using one of the most recent books. I hope this helps.
🙂

 

[alwaystired]

I go to USN and calculus knowledge really isn't needed. In pharmacokinetics, they do the derivations in class and i just took a little mental nap and memorized the formula that was produced from the derivations. that's the only time i have seen any calculus in pharm school so far.

 

[gsinccom]

thanks for the info everyone. I hope to start at either USN or Pacific or Idaho State Fall 2007. Any other insight from anyone else?

 

[pharmaz88]

Agree w/ the previous posters... if your 11 year old calculus class will still be accepted as a pre-req, don't waste your time retaking it. ...you'll get no benefit from it.

A&P is important, but most schools will have you re-take physiology as part of the curriculum anyway. O-chem is important, depending upon how much med-chem your chosen school has (ours has waaaay too much, IMO). Don't worry too much about remembering reactions though; just the basics. ...also, you'll need a good grasp of acid-base stuff from general chem, so you may wish to brush up on your pH, pKa, etc.

 

[SomeGuy]

if i were you i would just brush up on Calculus on my own using one of the most recent books.
🙂

Forget that, the subject hasn't changed in hundreds of years. Find a book that explains things well, regardless of how old it is. The only thing that might've changed over years is what is considered "important" material for a ___ year college student.

 

[Requiem]

We haven't used it yet, and I don't think we do - which is unfortunate, math is my strongest subject.

I notice most people in my class suck at problem solving related material and like someone said they take a "mental nap" at anything related to it and "memorized" the answer. To those people who got through calculus without the true understanding and relied solely on memorization of derivatives and integrals: you suck. Memorization is for parrots. It lacks challenge, intrigue and moments of true euphoria when concepts are finally pieced together.

I really think if you "memorizers" learned a critical thinking approach to life in general we'd have a lot less insurance problems and stupid things going on in pharmacy; I notice the same people who made up mnemonics for every tissue fibre and repeated it to themselves over and over, even as they were sitting down in their chair during the exams tend to be uncreative when it comes to solving problems. They'd take the same repetitive route to solving insurance complaints, get frustrated when it doesn't work and refused to actually apply some capacity of intelligence above a relative IQ level of 10 to the problem.

To the pure memorizers and people who cannot critically or creatively think to save their lives, or improve the lives of others for that matter:

You Ought to Understand, Science Urges Creativity and Ken.

Bonus points to: a) the person who picks out a mnemoic for the above phrase and b) knew the definition of ken before booting up dictionary.com

 

[dgroulx]

We haven't used it yet, and I don't think we do - which is unfortunate, math is my strongest subject.

I notice most people in my class suck at problem solving related material and like someone said they take a "mental nap" at anything related to it and "memorized" the answer. To those people who got through calculus without the true understanding and relied solely on memorization of derivatives and integrals: you suck. Memorization is for parrots. It lacks challenge, intrigue and moments of true euphoria when concepts are finally pieced together.

I really think if you "memorizers" learned a critical thinking approach to life in general we'd have a lot less insurance problems and stupid things going on in pharmacy; I notice the same people who made up mnemonics for every tissue fibre and repeated it to themselves over and over, even as they were sitting down in their chair during the exams tend to be uncreative when it comes to solving problems. They'd take the same repetitive route to solving insurance complaints, get frustrated when it doesn't work and refused to actually apply some capacity of intelligence above a relative IQ level of 10 to the problem.

To the pure memorizers and people who cannot critically or creatively think to save their lives, or improve the lives of others for that matter:

You Ought to Understand, Science Urges Creativity and Ken.

Bonus points to: a) the person who picks out a mnemoic for the above phrase and b) knew the definition of ken before booting up dictionary.com

I totally agree.

Also, memorizing didn't help much in our kinetics classes. They gave us formula sheets - 4 pages worth of formulas. The trick was knowing which one to use. You had to read the problem, then choose the correct formula, then solve the equation. If you picked the wrong formula, you'd get an answer, albeit the wrong answer. If you missed more than 2 problems then you couldn't get an A. All the formulas look very similar. You have to understand what you are solving for.

Love the mnemonic!

 

[alwaystired]

i'm not saying memorize everything. but you DO NOT need to know how to derive an equation for PK. i am just saying that is how i avoided not having a strong background in calculus to get through PK . before calc, math was my fav subject, but calc is dead to me and i like 99% of the class, found a way around the derivation. if you really had to know how to do a derivation, it would be on the test.

 

[ZpackSux]

Pharmacokinetics require you to work with Ln(natural log) because drug elimination follows Ln function.

 

[ForcedEntry]

I had mnemonic plague in A&P

 

[ttran01]

since organic is one of the most important pre-reqs, is taking this class during my sophomore year undergrad a bad idea if i plan to get my BS. im afraid i might forget everything during the rest of my undergrad years.

 

[pharmwannebe2]

Calculus is never used pharmacy period. It is unimportant to the program. As long as you are good in Algebra, you will have no problem with the math.
The admissions lady was right. Those are the most important prereq classes.

thank god you said that my mom has been bitching at me about how shouldn't transfer my calc credit cause she says i will need calculus in pharm. school so i should take it for the 3rd time.

 

[genesis09]

My PK professors gave us formula sheets too. They wanted us to understand the use of PK, and not memorize a bunch of formulas which you could look up any way.
Honestly, they only time you may see calc in pharm school is if the prof want to show you how to derive something.

 

[cdpiano27]

I wonder why PK is so simple in pharm school. In my PhD program in statistics there is a course about nonlinear models related to PK and it is one of the most complicated classes mathematically in the world.

I sat in PK in the vet school for the first few weeks before I dropped without penalty (I was taking undergrad genetics which counted for graduate credit at the same time and I thought too much memorization) and it was a ton of anatomy and physiology in a few different animals and some biochemistry and VERY LITTLE MATH. So is this what it is like in pharm school, the same way it is taught in vet school and not in statistics graduate school?

 

[cdpiano27]

Furthermore, in the vet school, the professor gave NO PRACTICE PROBLEMS. YOU HAD TO READ NOTES AND UNDERSTAND WHAT YOU WERE DOING.

People puruse the PhD in pharmaceutics with a PK emphasis.

YOu should know the following in great depth to be a research in a pharm company:

1. biochemistry
2. anatomy and physiology (ESPECIALLY PHYSIOLOGY)
3. differential equations (which is calculus, by the way)

 

[genesis09]

PK is very math oriented. What you were talking about in that vet class, sounds more like PD (pharmacodynamics). In pharmacy, application of PK is more important than deriving. If you do the research end of PK, you would know that there are computer programs which would help you with the math.
We talked about a couple examples of non-linear drugs like phenytoin, but the goal of the class was to talk about more normal arrangements. The advance class might talk about more non-linear examples.

 

[cdpiano27]

Yes, the class in the stat PhD program that I am registered for next semester is called "Non-linear models for univariate response" which is related to examples from PK. This is a very difficult class.