Knowing the brand & generic name, along with the therapeutic class, indication and schedule will save you so much time before starting school. Depending on which program you ultimately decide to attend,  you'll be expected to memorize the top 100-200 prescribed drugs in America.  If you're currently a pharm tech, this will come easily to you. Unfortunately, I had NO pharmacy experience prior to school so I found it overwhelming to say the least.  Knowing this will already put you ahead of the game - you'll understand cases just by knowing the drug names and you'll be able to walk into  both your OSCE's and exams with more confidence! My Pharmacy Practice Final this coming June is cumulative so I am starting to brush up on all the drugs from the beginning of Fall Quarter up until now!

One of the requirements of pharmacy school is public speaking. Despite hating it at the time, I am so glad I enrolled in a class that forced me to speak during each class session. Improvising was definitely one of my weakest areas but I have since improved - it helps immensely during your OSCE's. As I am finishing up my last quarter of my  P1 year, I've come to realize how important this skill is and mastering it takes effort. Not to worry though, if your communication skills aren't as exceptional as you would like it to be, you'll get loads of practice since a majority of your classes force you to speak in front of your peers via projects and group presentations. 

STUDYING HABITS

I'll dive deeper into this topic in a later post but I'm hoping you all developed some sort of study routine or habit during undergrad. All throughout my academic career, I found that I studied more efficiently in solitude. On my own schedule. Without any distractions. Without any communication. It worked for me up until pharmacy school. If you were like me before entering pharmacy school, you're probably thinking "studying in a group sucks because everyone just procrastinates, gets off topic and never gets anything done." That was my mentality because it occurred to me more than once.  But scratch that. Everyone you meet in pharmacy school has an ultimate end goal: to pass and/or get honors. There are some classes where studying alone is just impossible - the workload starts to consume you rapidly and there's just  no way you can take on everything by yourself (histology and gross anatomy). Sometimes it's better to study with someone else since you can quiz each other to see where your expertise lies and what areas need improvement. 

AGENDA

You might think you can keep everything straight in your head but you really can't in pharmacy school. I just barely figured out what class was what and it's already the 7th week of school. Many of your courses have similar names: Drug Information vs. Drug Informatics, and there are so many deadlines! I'm WAYYYY old school so I need to write things down in a hardcopy agenda. Although I love technology, I cannot deal with an electronic calendar. Keep yourself organized and on top of everything by investing in a good agenda/planner!

SLEEP