First Year in Pre-Pharmacy Caitlyn Ruotanen

First Year Pre-Pharm Courses Semester One: CHM 122901 MA 23100 BIOL 11000 ENGL 10600 PHRM 10000 Semester Two: MCMP 20400 MA 23200 BIOL 11100 AGEC 21700

Some Personal Course Reviews: MA 23100 Instructor: You will never meet the course instructor. Your TA leads every class Grades: BlackBoard is never fully updated. It doesn’t include your homework scores, and doesn’t really give you a way to calculate your current grade. Exams: Questions are almost always harder than your homework, and many times include things you’ve never learned in class. Exam grades are curved by your class section, not the entire course. Can only find the curves on the course website. Class Time: TA’s can be different, but mine typically ended class a half hour early.

PHRM 1000 Lectures: Professor Krause: She is nice, but actually doesn’t lead much of class. Usually lead by guest pharmacists or TA’s. Homework: Rare assignments. Usually small projects that are very easy. Pass or fail grading. If you do what is asked, you should all the points. Lectures: ¾ of the time they are lead by different types of Pharmacists (Retail, Hospital, Clinical, Nuclear, etc.) explaining their typical day at work, who they interact with, difficulties to their job, and more. Helpful in deciding what branches of pharmacy you’re interested in. Can also help you network and find shadows. Somewhat boring when lead by TA’s.

CHM 12901 Professor Hercyna: Lecture: Very funny, references Breaking Bad a lot, tries to keep students interested in chemistry through her perverted sense of humor. She’s much better at explaining concepts than the TA’s. Homework: Homework #s- Start homework at beginning of the week because it can take awhile. Do as many questions as you can once you learn the concepts in each lecture. *There are cheats to get unlimited amount of tries on questions and Hercyna doesn’t care. Learn Smarts- They say they’re due Monday, but they’re really due at 11am that day, so you might as well finish them on Sunday night. *Almost all students agree the LS’s take hours to finish and that you learn nothing from them, plus they’re only worth 2 points. Lecture: She will give you note packets to fill in throughout lecture in each class, so you don’t have to write as much. Exams: Not so much multiple choice. About ¾ of tests are free response, but that’s good because it gives you chances for partial credit. There are 3 exams and you can drop one exam score. Labs: Pre lab questions are usually pretty hard because they don’t teach you the concepts before the pre labs are due. Some TA’s grade harder than others, but Hercyna will average the scores by each TA separately.

BIOL 11000 Dr. Bos: Good instructor. Can be boring in you’re not interested in the topic being studied, but very interesting if you are. Doesn’t care if you walk in late. Lectures: Print lecture PowerPoint slides before lecture; Bos can move too fast though slides for you to copy everything down. The lecture hall is very hot in the fall and very cold in the winter. Homework: LBLs- the only homework you’ll have. 10 questions in 20 minutes. Can be hard or easy. Suggest reading chapter and taking notes before starting them. *It’s vague what chapters each LBL is over, so check the Key Concepts on BlackBoard for what chapters are covered in each section before starting. Exams: If you study the notes, they typically aren’t that hard. Go to SI sessions the week of an exam; the TA’s have seen the exam and make study guides for you. Labs: Extremely simple, usually done within an hour. Recitation Quizzes: Pretty easy. The TA reviews before the quiz is given out and basically tells you every answer. Lab Practical Exams: Can be hard, they have very in-depth questions. Need to know procedures to labs, graphs, and IV/DV relationships.

Important Buildings Lily Hall of Life Sciences- BIOL 110 lecture, BIOL 111 lecture Beering Hall of Liberal Arts and Education- ENG 106 class Wetherill Laboratory of Chemistry- CHM 129 lecture, BIOL 110 lab, MA 232 lecture, BIOL 110 recitation, BIOL 111 recitation, BIOL 111 lab Heavilon Hall- ENG 106 class Brown Laboratory- CHM 129 lab Electrical Engineering Building- MCMP 204 lecture Physics Building- AGEC 217 lecture Heine Pharmacy Building- MCMP 204 lab Elliott Hall of Music- Nearly every exam you take will be here Recitation Building- MA 231 lecture (different per section)

Why Join Clubs? Want into the Professional Program? (If you want to be an actual pharmacist then you do) Need to be involved in extracurricular activities Need to show Leadership, Volunteer Work, and Career Exploration So, combine the two and join some clubs that help you show those three things…

Suggested Clubs Purdue Pre Pharmacy Club- Help you get acclimated to Pre Pharm; Explain how different professors write exams, give study suggestions, tips for more difficult classes like Organic Chemistry, help you prepare for shadows, professional speakers, give a few opportunities for community service, and more. Circle K Club- Worldwide volunteer work club. Give plenty of different options for types of community service to do, don’t care how much or how little you choose to volunteer, provide transportation to services, etc. These are the only clubs I can give a personal impression on because they’re the only ones I joined, however there is a Pharmacy Club Fair at the beginning of each year so you can learn about every pharmacy related club you might want to join. You could also join other extracurriculars that are not related to pharmacy such as a recreational sports team, a sorority/ fraternity, or other random clubs. However, having at least one pharmacy-related club looks better DO NOT join a ton of clubs! If you don’t have the time to be reasonably well involved in your clubs, it will not impress the application reviewers. Try to stay heavily involved in 1-3 clubs.

Staying Organized Being organized was my biggest problem when I got here- mainly making sure I got all my assignments online done on time. So, after I forgot to do 2 assignments, I came up with a way to stay organized that works for me. I don’t like planners, and I don’t always have my planner with me anyway, so instead I put everything I need to do on my phone’s calendar. Each week I go through every course website I have to use and type in every assignment that is due each day and at what time. Then each night I go through and make sure I’ve finished everything that’s due. I always have my phone with me and check it so this works for me, but this may not work for others.

Scheduling Classes When you schedule classes is a personal preference, but I have learned a few things from my past experiences… It’s hard for me to stay awake with three classes back to back, so I wouldn’t recommend scheduling more than that together. Getting out late on Fridays sucks, especially if you plan on leaving that weekend. Don’t schedule multiple early classes and then have an important lab with an hour gap- you’re tempted to go back and take a nap, and might oversleep (if you’re late you get kicked out of lab). My friends that get to sleep in really late, but have classes go later in the day are usually stressed because they don’t have much time to relax before doing homework at night. If you get with classes really early in the day, you have tons of time to study for exams.