The educational process is not a bed of roses and is not always an exciting discovery of new knowledge and adventurous research. The task sometimes can’t be performed even if it seems simple, which may be an unpleasant surprise for a student. You might have attended the lecture and worked through all the notes, but the solution still escapes your mind.
It’s understandable why pharmacy students experience stress and challenges during their first years of study. They need to master many science subjects, such as chemistry, biochemistry, physics, and the like, which are complicated and perplexing for many newbies.
Thus, the team of Educibly, an online paper writing service, has prepared a survival guide specifically for pharmacy students. This manual was compiled by experienced pharmacy pros working in the team, based on hands-on experiences and tested life hacks.
Develop a Learning Strategy
Without a clear learning strategy, you can’t cope with the learning hassle and stress. Develop an approach to studies early on after getting acquainted with the workload for this semester.
You’re likely to receive a roadmap for the coming months from your supervisors, so factoring in the homework, lecture attendance, home tasks, a part-time job, and some relaxation time is an excellent way to stay organized throughout the semester.
Besides, a learning strategy should consider your productivity peaks and study methods.
- Are you a visual learner? Then use books and flashcards.
- Are you an auditory learner? Take a smartphone to classes with you and listen to lectures later on.
- Do you study better in the evening?
Then do all the home chores and have a day nap, proceeding to studies later. Once you understand how and when you work the best, completing homework is no longer a hassle.
Use Flashcards
Flashcards are a universal study tool for students of all specialties, but they will also be of exceptional value for pharmacy students.
If you study new drugs, organize data about each on a separate card and cluster those cards by pharmacological categories. It will be much easier to memorize the information with a visual aid and a visual template of drug categorization.
Come to Grips with Drug Classes
Again, coming to the drug classes, you need to know them pretty well. Otherwise, you won’t become a good pharmacist able to recommend proper medications to clients based on their symptoms and complaints.
It’s also critical to know the potential complications and the undesirable combinations of drugs that can make people feel worse instead of curing them.
So, the best approach in pharmacology studies is not to approach all drugs in one go but to study each class separately, building links and relationships between classes later.
Make Links Between Concepts
Studying pharmacology alone doesn’t work, as you need to understand the broader perspective of drugs’ functioning.
Once you know how a drug affects a human organism, what reactions it causes, how its side effects can be manifested, and what type of medication suits different categories of patients.
For instance, people may treat a specific condition (e.g., inflammation) but possess some additional health issues (e.g., hypertension, diabetes), and not all drugs from the anti-inflammatory category will suit them.
Focus on the Goal
As soon as studies get tough, it’s easy for students to lose their end goal out of sight. You came to this college with a diploma and a great career.
However, the daily routines and hardships can make this goal fuzzy and unclear. You may lose motivation to study and complete tons of homework, thus risking dropping out of college.
A great solution, in this case, is to remind yourself of the initial motivation to study, which is a passion for helping people, a desire to become a pharmacy specialist, research and develop new drugs, etc.
Keeping this goal focused will help you overcome the darkest days of fatigue and disenchantment with your chosen career path.
Know Your Supervisor’s Expectations
A simple yet effective shortcut to efficient education is to focus on the supervisor’s requirements and expectations.
Students often misunderstand the task and go much farther than required them at a particular moment. Thus, overload or disappointment with poor grades is unavoidable.
But we have an excellent tip for you – the quicker you learn what your supervisor wants, the easier it will be for you to get straight A’s and achieve more with less effort.
The truth of study life is that professors grade the task based on the prompt they give. So, even if your work is brilliant, it won’t get a high grade as the task wasn’t completed according to the requirements.
Network with Peers
A universal tip for pharmacy students is to develop a solid network of peers and classmates ready to help each other during their studies’ hard times. You can share homework or ask another person to review your draft if you are unsure whether you’ve performed the task correctly.
There are tons of ways to help each other and distribute the workload, thus surviving the challenging periods of exam preparation or the submission season.
Reserve Time for Relaxation
Finally, it’s vital to mention the essential time for rest. You can’t work productively round the clock as stress accumulates and deteriorates your performance.
A great solution is to reserve time for relaxing, enjoyable activities and stick to that schedule even if something goes wrong. The more you care for your body and brain, the more resourceful they will be throughout the study semester.
Pharmacy Studies Are Doable
Indeed, pharmacy education can get tricky at times, which explains why only 10% of students make it to graduation on average.
But you can get to that 10% of lucky graduates if you follow all our tips and complete the tasks on time. Study what you like and know; delegate what you don’t understand or hate; thoroughly plan the day, week, and month to stay organized. These are the simple yet workable tips driving perseverant students to success.
