B.Pharmacy - Tell Me About It (1 Viewer)

[bayan92]

Hey,

I am currently in Year 12 and considering doing B.Pharmacy at either Sydney or CSU. I have a few questions, I am hoping you can help me with.

How full is your timetable?? Attach if possible.
Workload?
Uni on weekends?
Easy, medium, hard, super hard?
First year, similar to Year 12 Bio and Chem?
Work placement?
Types of classes?

Thanks

 

[anonymus2003]

Hi, im a second year pharmacy student. at sydney uni.

1. timetable is very full - atleast 26-28 hours per week.
2. workload is alot, in 1st year its ok, second year its significantly alot more 9-6 usually 5 days/pw. except you do have some breaks 2-3 hours in between somedays.
3. no uni weekends.
4. quite hard, its not easy to pass after second year, you will hve to work hard to pass. its quite alot of biochemistry work, and some mathematics. there is more biology than chemistry.
5. 1st year is pretty similar to year 12, but alot more attached. you have more organic chemistry, and more protein chemistry, and in bio you have more depth in everything u learnt in year 12 bio.
6. you dont have workplacement until i think you are third or fourth year. correct me if im wrong someone. but so far ive not had any work placement.
7. you have 14 hours of lectures per week, you have 2-3 hours of tutorials, 2-3 hours of workshops, up to 10 hours of labs and practicals.

have fun.

 

[bayan92]

Hi, im a second year pharmacy student. at sydney uni.

1. timetable is very full - atleast 26-28 hours per week.
2. workload is alot, in 1st year its ok, second year its significantly alot more 9-6 usually 5 days/pw. except you do have some breaks 2-3 hours in between somedays.
3. no uni weekends.
4. quite hard, its not easy to pass after second year, you will hve to work hard to pass. its quite alot of biochemistry work, and some mathematics. there is more biology than chemistry.
5. 1st year is pretty similar to year 12, but alot more attached. you have more organic chemistry, and more protein chemistry, and in bio you have more depth in everything u learnt in year 12 bio.
6. you dont have workplacement until i think you are third or fourth year. correct me if im wrong someone. but so far ive not had any work placement.
7. you have 14 hours of lectures per week, you have 2-3 hours of tutorials, 2-3 hours of workshops, up to 10 hours of labs and practicals.

have fun.

Sorry what do you mean by "no uni weekends."
Also what breaks/holidays are there?

 

[anonymus2003]

i mean to say, there is no uni on weekends. you only do weekdays.

breaks vary between unis, sydney uni you have a mid sem break for 1 week, this can be anytime during the 15 week semester (including exams). i had a mid sem break in week 11 last year..so that wasnt really "mid". umm this year it was in week 6. you then have no breaks until week 13, you get week 14 off which is a study vacation of 1 week. and den you do exams. then you have 1 month off in between semesters. and then you restart a new semester.

sydney uni goes from around 2-3 march-->around end of june. july off and den from august-->november.

there have also been major changes to the syllabus to how pharmacy is taught, and i am among the first cohort to go through that syllabus, so asking anybody higher than 2nd year sydney uni students, just be mindful it may not apply to you. for example, right now i am second year i am doing a subject called "therapeutic principles" which is taught to both 2nd years and 3rd year students. and the 3rd year and 4th year syllabus for us has yet to be completed. so there have been some very drastic changes.

hope that helps.

 

[danz90]

I'm 1st year BPharm.

My timetable is fairly full - but I'm lucky and only have a 4-day week with fridays as my day off.

The latest class you'll probably have during 1st semester will finish at 6pm, and earliest start is 8am.

The chemistry starts to stream away from year 12 type chem after the first few weeks, but it's not that bad. The bio subject (BIOL1003) has the most content out of all subjects we have - you basically learn every about every part of the body and all the systems of the body - it's VERY FULL on content.

The Pharmacy units (PHAR1811 and PHAR1812) are actually pretty interesting and directly relate to pharmacy, whereas the chem and bio don't really. Some concepts may be tricky at first, but you'll get the hang of it.

There is definitely heaps of work, and I'd say im a little bit more busy than I was during year 12.

In terms of workplacement, all we do in 1st year is a 4hour fieldwork in a community pharmacy which you arrange yourself.

I've got around 24 hours per week at uni.

 

[krayzie_]

Sorry what do you mean by "no uni weekends."
Also what breaks/holidays are there?

If you didn't understand that - you shouldn't do B.Pharmacy

 

[bayan92]

If you didn't understand that - you shouldn't do B.Pharmacy

Sorry smartass. I was asking did the person mean:

• no uni on weekends OR
• no weekends for uni aka you can have classes all through 7 days coz I have heard off people going to uni on weekends.

 

[bayan92]

Thanks for all your help guys!

 

[anonymus2003]

there you go buddy, this is my current timetable. not the best start i suppose, but i had to work thursdays so i had to take that off. umm not to discourage you or anything but, i thought its a good idea for you to see what u will be doing =). have fun. overall if you enjoy biochemistry, mathematics and enjoy talking to people you should do it.

 

[bayan92]

there you go buddy, this is my current timetable. not the best start i suppose, but i had to work thursdays so i had to take that off. umm not to discourage you or anything but, i thought its a good idea for you to see what u will be doing =). have fun. overall if you enjoy biochemistry, mathematics and enjoy talking to people you should do it.

Thanks. People say its heaps, but it is good to visualise it!

 

[undalay]

your timetable lols

 

[Deltan]

there you go buddy, this is my current timetable. not the best start i suppose, but i had to work thursdays so i had to take that off. umm not to discourage you or anything but, i thought its a good idea for you to see what u will be doing =). have fun. overall if you enjoy biochemistry, mathematics and enjoy talking to people you should do it.

That's alot of prac for 2nd yr, which is better than 1st yr where there's mainly theory in workshops and not enough prac

anonymus2003, would you have any idea if 3rd and 4th yr is similar to your timetable?

 

[anonymus2003]

That's alot of prac for 2nd yr, which is better than 1st yr where there's mainly theory in workshops and not enough prac

anonymus2003, would you have any idea if 3rd and 4th yr is similar to your timetable?

hey,

umm well the 3rd and 4th year course has not been fully devised yet so its meaningless to ask seniors from what i know is there will be quite a bit of PBL from 3rd year onward and a few labs on dispensing and stuff. but in general the trend is that the timetables tend to be less crowded as you go into senior years. hope that helps.

 

[kevda1st]

Would it be correct if i say that i am pursuing a career in pharmaceuticals because i love chemistry? or is it more biology than chem?

 

[lala2]

anonymous2003, that's a horrible gap on Thursdays! Do you come in then? Also, where's Retzius Lab, just out of interest? I bet it's like some obscure lab in the Blackburn building.

OP, I think the first and second years have answered everything that will be relevant to you. As a fourth year, I'm fast becoming obsolete. Though I can tell you 3rd and 4th year you apply your "hard science" knowledge, e.g. physiology and pharmacology, to clinical cases, so it does become a lot more clinical and it consolidates all your knowledge.

Also, for the first and second years, is it true your majors in your final sem of uni is based on competitive entry? so you actually have to compete for the international major, the industrial major, etc? What happens to those who miss out? What do they do in their final sem?

kevda1st, pharmaceuticals I would say there's more biology. Yes, you'll learn the chem as well, but what you'll really remember is all the biological and medical science stuff.

 

[anonymus2003]

anonymous2003, that's a horrible gap on Thursdays! Do you come in then? Also, where's Retzius Lab, just out of interest? I bet it's like some obscure lab in the Blackburn building.

OP, I think the first and second years have answered everything that will be relevant to you. As a fourth year, I'm fast becoming obsolete. Though I can tell you 3rd and 4th year you apply your "hard science" knowledge, e.g. physiology and pharmacology, to clinical cases, so it does become a lot more clinical and it consolidates all your knowledge.

Also, for the first and second years, is it true your majors in your final sem of uni is based on competitive entry? so you actually have to compete for the international major, the industrial major, etc? What happens to those who miss out? What do they do in their final sem?

kevda1st, pharmaceuticals I would say there's more biology. Yes, you'll learn the chem as well, but what you'll really remember is all the biological and medical science stuff.

hahaz yeah the gap is bad i put it there actually since i have to work thursdays, i dont bother going those days to uni. Retzius N201 is in Anderson Stuart building, dept. of physiology.

as for the competitive entry, this is new to me, not heard of that yet. i thought it was just you chose to go to do rural if u wanted to, otherwise u just come out with a normal b pharm degree?.