what is pharmacy like?

Hi I have some questions about pharmacy course at uni?

What would the chemistry difficulty be like for someone who usually gets C's and B's at a-level?
how much chem is there?
do you have to be confident in organic chem?
what is the workload like?

what is the actual job like- is it as boring as everyone says it to be ?
what do you do in the placements?
do you do a lot of lab work?
is the maths fairly simple?

Thanks Everyone

Hello Pharmacy student here,

I am currently in second year and there is a chemistry module in both first and second year, however I find this is quite repetitive of A-level for now with the minority of content being new.
As long as you are willing to study hard to keep on top of the chemistry achieving a grade B or C wouldn't be too much of a problem.
There is organic chemistry content too so as long as you go over it then you will be okay.

At Portsmouth Uni we have visits to community pharmacy in first and second year and a hospital placement for a week in third year.
However, you can apply for your own summer placements with other providers.

There is not too many labs from my experience so far, but they are fun!
The maths is okay for me but it depends on the person, but if there is anything you find particularly hard you can always use YouTube videos to help

Hope this helps! - Eloise - Official University Rep

Hello Pharmacy student here,

I am currently in second year and there is a chemistry module in both first and second year, however I find this is quite repetitive of A-level for now with the minority of content being new.
As long as you are willing to study hard to keep on top of the chemistry achieving a grade B or C wouldn't be too much of a problem.
There is organic chemistry content too so as long as you go over it then you will be okay.

At Portsmouth Uni we have visits to community pharmacy in first and second year and a hospital placement for a week in third year.
However, you can apply for your own summer placements with other providers.

There is not too many labs from my experience so far, but they are fun!
The maths is okay for me but it depends on the person, but if there is anything you find particularly hard you can always use YouTube videos to help

Hope this helps! - Eloise - Official University Rep

Thank you so much! This really has cleared up my doubts! I'm also thinking of applying to portsmouth too, if you don't mind could you tell me how the uni is overall and how the course here is and what attracted you to it! Thanks again!

Hi I have some questions about pharmacy course at uni?

What would the chemistry difficulty be like for someone who usually gets C's and B's at a-level?
how much chem is there?
do you have to be confident in organic chem?
what is the workload like?

what is the actual job like- is it as boring as everyone says it to be ?
what do you do in the placements?
do you do a lot of lab work?
is the maths fairly simple?

Thanks Everyone

Hi there!

I'm a pre-registration Pharmacist having completed my degree last year

I think the chemisry aspect really differs depending on the uni you go to, but by no means do you need to be an expert! My course wasn't very chemistry intense, we had chemistry modules in the first 2 years and then after that the chemistry was incorporated into the more clinical Pharmacy modules. For example - we learnt about a drug and then looked into the chemistry behind how it was designed / works in the body. I acheieved a B in my chemistry A level and found the Chemistry in the degree totally manageable!

The workload is pretty intense compared to most other degrees, but if you are motivated and organised it is fine. I found first year the hardest as it was difficult finding the work - life balance but you will figure it out soon enough

Im in my first year of working and its good! I'm based in a hospital and would 100% recommend going into this sector. It's so varied and you can apply a lot of your degree into practice and see the benefit you make to patients. University placements were definitely the biggest help for preparing me to work!! I started placement as soon as I began uni. We rotated around community, hospital, GP surgeries, industry and even aspetics. In first year, you mainly shadow Pharmacists to get an understanding of the role but by final year I was given my own bay of patients to look after and report back to the supervising pharmacist.

In terms of lab work, my uni did a lot in the first 2 years. We would make tablets, creams, suspensions and other different medications which was really fun and good for those who are interested in industrial pharmacy. The maths is simple once you have got your head around the basis of the type of math questions in pharmaceutical calcs.

If you have any other questions feel free to ask!!

Thank you so much! This has really helped! Yeah the lab work actually seems pretty fun from the sound of it.
what uni did you go to?