Pharmacy School question

This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.

konp

Full Member
15+ Year Member
Joined
Jan 7, 2008
Messages
55
Reaction score
11
hello all!
I have a few questions regarding to pharmacy school for those who are in pharmacy schools or are practicing pharmacists.

1. What was the hardest part about pharmacy school?
2. What was the easiest part about pharmacy school?
3. What prerequisite classes help you the most in pharmacy school ?

Thanks!

Members don't see this ad.
 
There is no one answer to your questions, since different people have different strengths. What I found to be easy may be a nightmare for you and vice versa. For me, the hardest part about pharmacy school is finding time for myself. I'm involved in leadership positions, research projects, professional projects on top of work and school, so they consume a significant portion of my time. This is a very normal schedule for a pharmacy student.

There is nothing easy in pharmacy school. With that said, I enjoy clinical care and pharmacy in general, so I do enjoy what I'm doing. Sometime it is extremely challenging. I used to have motivation issues at times, but I was able to pull myself together. Having a solid mental support system will definitely help. Pharmacy school is NOT the environment where you can go through it all by yourself like undergraduates. You need a strong group to study, and I'm grateful that I have that on my side.

The most helpful prerequisite classes for me are biochemistry and physiology. Don't expect any pre-pharmacy classes can help you be completely prepared for any classes in pharmacy school. Keep an opened mind and be ready to learn, you will be fine.
 
1. Everything is so competitive! You even have to apply to get into clubs at my school - and yes, I was rejected from a couple. I also approached 8-10 profs just to get one volunteer research position.

2. The material. It's not hard; there's just a lot of it.

3. Anatomy would've helped. :/
 
Members don't see this ad :)
1. Everything is so competitive! You even have to apply to get into clubs at my school - and yes, I was rejected from a couple. I also approached 8-10 profs just to get one volunteer research position.

2. The material. It's not hard; there's just a lot of it.

3. Anatomy would've helped. :/

thanks everyone! I will take every idea in consideration! and good luck in Pharm school!
 
1) Getting into pharmacy school
2) Landing a job or residency after you graduate
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
1. Everything is so competitive! You even have to apply to get into clubs at my school - and yes, I was rejected from a couple. I also approached 8-10 profs just to get one volunteer research position.

2. The material. It's not hard; there's just a lot of it.

3. Anatomy would've helped. :/
for the club thing...yes or no.

Yes, you do have to apply. But unless you are only aiming for the president or vice president of a club, then there are a lots of openings for you to choose. There are so many clubs in school, and there are so many different so called "leadership" positions such as secretary, treasurer, event organizer/planner / public relationship, so-and-so chairs (there are so many different chair positions available).

The problem with that is, mostly if you want to , you can get a "leadership" position. But then, there are the competition part---how do you set yourself apart from everyone else with the similar title? Everyone has a leadership title, everyone also work 1 or 2 job, everyone also have extra curriculum in volunteer, going to conference, "networking", doing poster presentation, etc. Everyone just look very similar in CV.

You try to set yourself apart, but everyone else is doing the same. I would imagine most students have very similar CV. Then at time to apply for job, I think it is more like who knows you and likes you can give you the job, not much about qualification. This would be even more true the longer in the future, when more student graduate, and less job available.
 
I am just finishing the first year, so I'm sure my answers will change along the way, but so far...

1. What was the hardest part about pharmacy school?

Working a stressful, non-pharmacy day job on top of school and family responsibilities is...tricky. Time management is key. If you are reasonably bright and don't have any responsibilities outside of school, it shouldn't be an issue, though.

2. What was the easiest part about pharmacy school?

The material itself has been pretty simple so far. I assume it will get more difficult as I go.


3. What prerequisite classes help you the most in pharmacy school ?

A decent math background and basic critical reasoning skills are all you really need. I had already taken physiology and biochem in undergrad, and those were a bonus.
 
Other than pharmacokinetics, Pharmacy school is easy. Even that might be easy for you if you’re good at math. I’m not a natural at math so this class is not easy for me.

Other than that, in general, I see most people struggling with time management.

I’m a P2.


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile app
 
hello all!
I have a few questions regarding to pharmacy school for those who are in pharmacy schools or are practicing pharmacists.

1. What was the hardest part about pharmacy school?
2. What was the easiest part about pharmacy school?
3. What prerequisite classes help you the most in pharmacy school ?

Thanks!

1.) The day we all had to eat 20 atomic spicy wings from Lava Joe's Wing Emporium before a kinetics exam.

2.) The day the principal took us on a field trip to Chik FilA

3.) Molecular Biology
 
  • Like
Reactions: 2 users
Pharmacy school is not easy. It is just as difficult as medical school. I can guarantee the people who say it is easy are good with memorization and regurgitation but do not understand the true concepts. Sure you can do well with good memorization but to be a good pharmacist you need to have a deep understanding of physiology and chemistry/biochemistry
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
Pharmacy school is not easy. It is just as difficult as medical school. I can guarantee the people who say it is easy are good with memorization and regurgitation but do not understand the true concepts. Sure you can do well with good memorization but to be a good pharmacist you need to have a deep understanding of physiology and chemistry/biochemistry

Yeah, I feel most people who say pharmacy school is easy belong with the /r/iamverysmart crowd
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 users
Pharmacy school is not easy. It is just as difficult as medical school.
So...you've been to both?

I can guarantee the people who say it is easy are good with memorization and regurgitation but do not understand the true concepts.
Why do you believe memorization and understanding are mutually exclusive? To be a top pharmacy student you need to be good at both, anyway.

Sure you can do well with good memorization but to be a good pharmacist you need to have a deep understanding of physiology and chemistry/biochemistry
Nope.
 
So...you've been to both?


Why do you believe memorization and understanding are mutually exclusive? To be a top pharmacy student you need to be good at both, anyway.


Nope.

Mfw you probably couldn't tell me what amines have to do with drug delivery
 
Members don't see this ad :)
1. What was the hardest part about pharmacy school?

The hardest part about pharmacy school will have nothing to do with the material.

2. What was the easiest part about pharmacy school?

There is nothing easy. It's either annoying or challenging.

3. What prerequisite classes help you the most in pharmacy school ?

Bio 1
A&P 1&2
Chemistry math

I will say this though... be weary of gathering too many resources to help you study (e.g. old exams, various sets of well-written notes, etc.). Often too many resources will actually hamper how quickly you study and at times may even give you a false sense of security.
 
hello all!
I have a few questions regarding to pharmacy school for those who are in pharmacy schools or are practicing pharmacists.

1. What was the hardest part about pharmacy school?
2. What was the easiest part about pharmacy school?
3. What prerequisite classes help you the most in pharmacy school ?

Thanks!

(Not sarcastic)
1. Getting in - Seriously, nothing was harder. For my first choice school (which I never got in), I still hold a deep professional grudge there over having someone who was administrative and not faculty basically deciding on her own initiative to deny admission because I was "too young" though I was already given conditional acceptance. 15 years later and with tenure, I still make that university pay for that arbitration mistake (and they certainly know it every time they see the numbers and the returned notes). How's that for maturity :)? (I did get actual compensation later for it as it was patently unfair, but it is a story for another day and was professionally irrelevant by the time that came.)

Staying motivated - I despised the pretentious clinical and just wanted to be a basement institutional or a chain pharmacist. Also did not help that the entire class had more experience than some of the clinical professors (no one in my class had less than 3 full time year equivalent's worth of pharmacy tech or other healthcare provider (EMT, RN, RD) experience and the average was around 7).

2. Academics. All the drama and pain were at the internship and life. Class was by and large routinized.

3. For me, Physiology as it really helped deal with the patho and pharmacology classes. I still don't understand why Calculus was required at the undergraduate level even for Pharmacokinetics (no one does the DiffEq component anymore and it's specifically struck from NAPLEX). The most useful classes I had in later practice were the Nonprescription (OTC) class which used the Pray book (still find it handy even though I'm not line anymore) and Drug Information (because the professor at the time made it a point to say that everything we've learned in class is going to be outdated and that memorization was futile or even counterproductive, and taught us really good Lexi, F&C, Micromedex and other lookup skills that are still relevant today).
 
  • Like
Reactions: 2 users
This is off-topic but since we are talking about schooling, I feel that it is redundant to enforce attendance in pharmacy school in this day and age. They are not training little kids. Many classes you can just read the handouts and pretty much understand the whole thing. For classes that you need to pay attention to word-by-word, you most likely will have to rewatch the lectures online anyway. No I didn't get my degree from the University of Phoenix but I am pretty sure one of its grads will boss me around in the near future.

The time you have to spend in class, you can work more and doing additional readings. Or buying and selling shoes in case the job market is not what the school promised you.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 4 users
This is off-topic but since we are talking about schooling, I feel that it is redundant to enforce attendance in pharmacy school in this day and age. They are not training little kids. Many classes you can just read the handouts and pretty much understand the whole thing. For classes that you need to pay attention to word-by-word, you most likely will have to rewatch the lectures online anyway. No I didn't get my degree from the University of Phoenix but I am pretty sure one of its grads will boss me around in the near future.

The time you have to spend in class, you can work more and doing additional readings. Or buying and selling shoes in case the job market is not what the school promised you.

Completely agree!
 
1. The busy work, on top of studying for classes that actually matter.

2. Pharmacy school wasn’t easy... it was pretty hellish. Some classes are a joke, but the majority of it is hell. Being sleep deprived, putting up with idiotic class mates, jumping through hoops and rotations, cramming for exams constantly... it is hell.

3. Immunology and Genetics were the two that helped me. I took them both as electives though.


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
This is off-topic but since we are talking about schooling, I feel that it is redundant to enforce attendance in pharmacy school in this day and age. They are not training little kids. Many classes you can just read the handouts and pretty much understand the whole thing. For classes that you need to pay attention to word-by-word, you most likely will have to rewatch the lectures online anyway. No I didn't get my degree from the University of Phoenix but I am pretty sure one of its grads will boss me around in the near future.

The time you have to spend in class, you can work more and doing additional readings. Or buying and selling shoes in case the job market is not what the school promised you.

It depends. I do think attendance should be required for performance classes (laboratories and experiential), but the class setup should be obvious enough that not showing up has consequences. I'd actually prefer the system to use the University testing/examination center such that exams are not on class time (or need to be proctored), but too many people cheat at it which sets up failing Boards (FL and IA attempted this with those results).

As far as classes that get taped, I'd personally like it if we didn't have to come in to lecture ourselves. I'd rather be the impersonal voice on the end of a phone line. It'll happen soon enough once the University administration and ACPE relax the standards for contact hour rules (because we can save more $ by not providing offices or other infrastructure to our nonproductive teaching faculty and we can allocate the space for additional laboratories and center space to our productive research faculty).

I just came back to my alma mater a week ago to deal with a contract, and popped in one of the lectures for nostalgic reasons. Amazingly, that professor gave pretty much the same lecture as she did 15 years ago when I had her (and still as dull). We can save money and everyone's grief by paying her once and just keep circulating the tapes. (And I see that no one repaired the scrawl under the table in Cholla B).
 
This is off-topic but since we are talking about schooling, I feel that it is redundant to enforce attendance in pharmacy school in this day and age. They are not training little kids. Many classes you can just read the handouts and pretty much understand the whole thing. For classes that you need to pay attention to word-by-word, you most likely will have to rewatch the lectures online anyway. No I didn't get my degree from the University of Phoenix but I am pretty sure one of its grads will boss me around in the near future.

The time you have to spend in class, you can work more and doing additional readings. Or buying and selling shoes in case the job market is not what the school promised you.

I wouldve had a 4.0 if I could've skipped every class where the prof rushed through reading 297 slides word for word and just studied instead
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 users
I wouldve had a 4.0 if I could've skipped every class where the prof rushed through reading 297 slides word for word and just studied instead

100%

But I would've probably spent 80% of that free time hitting the gym, drinking beer watching ESPN, etc. and still end up cramming the night before for exams. Such is life.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 users
100%

But I would've probably spent 80% of that free time hitting the gym, drinking beer watching ESPN, etc. and still end up cramming the night before for exams. Such is life.

Don't forget the post-docs who would guest lecture despite barely speaking English
 
  • Like
Reactions: 3 users
Don't forget the post-docs who would guest lecture despite barely speaking English

Almost as bad as the PGY2s that come in and guest lecture about ridiculous things that will probably never matter in any real life circumstance.


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 users
What’s an anime again? Is that like a Japanese cartoon for adults?

Anime is Japanese animation designed for Japanese children but bc most American adult's intellect is on level with Japanese teenagers it is also popular with America adults.

t. based Japanese. Please make Gundam and Pokemon real using fossilized dino DNA.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 users
So...you've been to both?


Why do you believe memorization and understanding are mutually exclusive? To be a top pharmacy student you need to be good at both, anyway.


Nope.

Sorry for the late response. Yes, I have been to both.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 users
Top