Winter Break 2009

Another semester has gone by, in fact my last didactic fall semester has come to an end. Now I am on winter break for another 3 more weeks. Thankfully finals week wasn't too bad, since our pharmacokinetics and professional practice management course finals were noncumulative. There was a brief snow scare that would have made things more complicated if our exams would have had to be rescheduled but thankfully it didn't end up having an impact on our exams.

I recently found out that 3 of my fourth year rotations will be taking place at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, which is something that I am extremely excited about. The closer I get to fourth year rotations the more enthusiasm I have. I don't have much to say about school now that we are on break. So Happy Holidays to all!

Completion of P1 Fall Semester

Finally, I just finished my first semester in pharmacy school with my last final in Introduction to Pharmacy Practice. Overall, the finals weren’t so bad as I originally thought it would be. I thought Introduction to Pharmacy Practice was hard for me due to the specific details that I had to recall. I have a feeling that the final will be curved as it was for the midterm.

It feels like I just started school but I have already completed 1/8^th of my education. A long and rigorous journey still lies ahead. There will be more studying to look forward to as we hit more in-depth subjects. From pharmacogenomics (genetics and medication relationship) to individual organ systems, I will be expecting more interesting topics to absorb in the upcoming semester.

However, studying isn’t the only thing to look forward to next semester. I’m looking forward to the Phollies on April 29, which is a day to enjoy student made videos. Also, the Apple Blossom Festival is another activity that I look forward to experiencing for the first time. Unfortunately, the excitement will have to wait until we return from our month long break.

It is time for me to catch my flight back to California.

Have a happy holiday and new years everyone!

Nearing the end of Fall Semester

Cold and beautiful is the two words that I would use to describe the weather today. It snowed, and boy, was it cold! Unfortunately, I didn’t stay outside for too long because of the weather and I had to study for finals. Next week is officially finals week for us. The school is considerate because they provide us an extra day for those last minute studying. It actually begins on Tuesday for this semester.

I just finished taking our anatomy and physiology lab final yesterday. Therefore, I have another 5 finals and 1 presentation to worry about for finals week this upcoming week. The lab exam was composed of two parts, one part is done electronically and the other part is written. The written exam focused on identifying the parts of bones and the eye while the electronic portion of the exam was a mixture of multiple choices and matching. Overall, the exam was representative of what we have been learning for the semester in the course and wasn’t too hard.

As for the other finals, we have one for the IBHS course that I have talked about in my previous post. There will also be finals for Patient Counseling/Communication, Pharmaceutics I (math calculations), Psychosocial Aspects of Disease, and finally Introduction to Pharmacy Practice. Our presentation is for our service-learning course. BJD wants to provide us with an opportunity to learn and develop a sense of community involvement through service learning.

That’ll be all for now since I have to return to my studies.

Finals!

Again, this won't be a very long post - finals are right around the corner. This semester, I have 6 finals during finals week...a lot more than P1 year! We have finals from Tuesday to Friday, with Monday being a "study day". I have 2 finals Tuesday (Outpatient Pharmacy Lab and Pharmacology), one Wednesday (Pharmacokinetics), two Thursday (Outcomes and OTC), and one Friday (Biostats).

Because there are so many, I am having trouble figuring out where to start. I decided today that I would start with the first final and just go from there, even though the first finals are not necessarily the hardest ones. One thing that is very helpful though are the students in our class who make their own study guides for certain exams and then send them out to everyone to use. These are useful and I usually use them to compare to my own notes to make sure I didn't miss anything.

Immediately following my Friday final, me and 3 other girls in my class are driving to Charlotte, NC for a half-marathon. I have been training for the past couple months and am anticipating this race very much. It might be a little difficult after finals week (I'll be so exhausted!) but will feel good at the same time I'm sure. Then after that we have 4 weeks off for Christmas break! I will be spending half of the break in Winchester and half of the break at home in State College, PA.

Alright, time to study again.