should i just forget about doing a residency?

[crazybob]

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After I started pharmacy school, I heard about all these options that we have with our PharmD degrees to do residencies and become clinical pharmacists, or get certified as nuclear pharmacists, or just work in a retail setting. And as I started thinking, I wanted to go into doing a residency since I like working with patients while educating them and meeting new people.

But pharmacy school has been getting so much more difficult than I thought. At first when the P2's and P3's told us that our first medical physiology test will be rough, but it wasn't that bad for me and I actually scored the highest on it out of 4 tests I've gotten back. In my biochemistry class, I thought I would ace the first test since it was easy and I've had biochemistry in college. It turns out that I made only few points higher than the class average. When I looked over the answers as they were posted, questions I missed were ones where I got confused and they were being tricky. Sometimes when I see those tricky and confusing questions on other tests it feels like they're trying to make us get bad scores or trying to make people fail. It gets so difficult and depressing.

Does all this studying and learning get better by the time you're doing a residency or is it even more depressing and frustrating and difficult? If this keeps going on, then I'm not sure if I want to do more schooling after I graduate.

 

[p-rog]

Pharmacy school can definitely wear you down over time. The tricky questions that don't test how well you actually know the material are especially frustrating. Don't worry, you'll adapt to it eventually. If you're a P1, it's probably too early to really be thinking about a residency right now. As many people have said on this forum time and time again, grades aren't everything when it comes to residency. By the way, biochem is really not a class that most residencies are going to care about too much. Focus on getting good grades in the clinical classes... oh wait, there are no real clinical classes in P1

 

[KARM12]

After I started pharmacy school, I heard about all these options that we have with our PharmD degrees to do residencies and become clinical pharmacists, or get certified as nuclear pharmacists, or just work in a retail setting. And as I started thinking, I wanted to go into doing a residency since I like working with patients while educating them and meeting new people.

But pharmacy school has been getting so much more difficult than I thought. At first when the P2's and P3's told us that our first medical physiology test will be rough, but it wasn't that bad for me and I actually scored the highest on it out of 4 tests I've gotten back. In my biochemistry class, I thought I would ace the first test since it was easy and I've had biochemistry in college. It turns out that I made only few points higher than the class average. When I looked over the answers as they were posted, questions I missed were ones where I got confused and they were being tricky. Sometimes when I see those tricky and confusing questions on other tests it feels like they're trying to make us get bad scores or trying to make people fail. It gets so difficult and depressing.

Does all this studying and learning get better by the time you're doing a residency or is it even more depressing and frustrating and difficult? If this keeps going on, then I'm not sure if I want to do more schooling after I graduate.

Don't give up...it is still early in your career. Grades aren't everything for getting a residency. Other factors like activities, research, rotations all play a factor. Do your best, work hard, and you will be fine. There are a lot of residency programs out there...some are very competitive, some not as much. As the other poster mentioned, grades in your clinical courses are more important...(does the residency director really care if you got a C+ in physiology? probably not!). They may look more poorly upon C grades in therapeuitcs. It is good you are thinking about this now as a P1. You have the opportunity to prepare yourself instead of deciding to do one last minute like many students. If you need help or have question, let me know!