[tiabest]

Salaam, plz can any1 doin a pharmacy degree tell me if you really need to luv chemistry and is there a lot of maths involved. also how r the practicals like and howz it like at aston university.

[YaNabi-Chemist]

ha ha ha

Lecturers actually laugh at people who say "we love chemistry and that is why we want to do pharmacy" - they know full well that this is untrue! So whatever you do, don't say this at an interview!

You do need a good understanding of chemistry, and if you get a B grade at A level you should do well.

Maths is important - however you do not need A level standard, a B grade GCSE standard should suffice. There are some mathematics modules that require a 70% pass rate, however the mathematics involved is simple (you cannot use a calculator in some modules).

It is just stuff like working out concentrations, and dilutions factors etc etc - and stuff you cover in A level chemistry. There is not ALLOT of Mathis involved, however it does play a significant part.

An important factor you missed out is Biology - if you do not have A level biology you will struggle!

Practicals are great - loads of fun!

 

Sorry - cant help your query on Aston uni.

[tiabest]

Thanks for the reply are the practicals difficult and is there alot of chemistry based theory or is there more biology because i prefer biology?

[Quran-Reciter]

The Pharmacy school in Aston was one of the best ones in the uk.

However Lately it has dropped for vaious reasons but the best thing about Aston is you will never struggle with placements InshALlah

[YaNabi-Chemist]

practicals are NOT difficult unless your stupid in which case you will not get a place to begin with. So if you get in, which inshallah you will, it will be fun!

You just need to concentrate and spend some time on the write-up.

Pharmacy itself deal with drugs, and their chemical construct and affect etc etc - so chemistry is more important than biology. Put it this way:

You will not be able to do the degree without a good understanding of chemistry.

You may be able to do the degree without biology, however you will find it difficult.

[Quran-Reciter]

Originally posted by: m b

Thanks for the reply are the practicals difficult and is there alot of chemistry based theory or is there more biology because i prefer biology?

I wouldnt say more but there is quite abit, i think around 2 or 3 core modules each semetester will be on biology such as cell and molecular biology, physiology etc are always in the 1st year.

Im sure others will help you on this

[Quran-Reciter]

Originally posted by: Faraz Hassan
Put it this way:You will not be able to do the degree without a good understanding of chemistry.You may be able to do the degree without biology, however you will find it difficult.

Well put. Thats why many universities do not put biology as essential as an A level. However  universities like Aston will put you down if you don't have A level Biology as you'll be copeting with dozens of entrants who will!

[qalam]

I studied chemistry for midicine and went onto major in this subject especially organic synthesis of natural products.

practicals are hard but enjoyable.

if you think its too hard dont do it.

dr aq

[bilal7869]

I did Pharmacy at Aston uni but I left a while back so things might have changed a little. At the time it was one of the top Schools of Pharmacy and they had very high standards which meant you had to work even harder.

In general the better the uni is the harder you will have to work to get good grades. A cousin of mine went to Portsmouth uni and he hardly attended any lectures but he still came out with a 2:1.

The good thing about Pharmacy is that it doesn't matter whether you get a 1st class or a 3rd (unless you want to do a PhD or something). All pharmacists are treated the same and no one ever asks what you got.

As Brother Faraz pointed out a good understanding of Chemistry is essential. But if you pass your A-level Chemistry then you should have no problems.

There is a fair bit of Biology and since you say you prefer Biology then I'm sure you will enjoy doing Pharmacy.

There is a lot of Maths involved but it's basic. I only had a grade C at GCSE (got a B after re-taking it) and I still got through it.

The practicals aren't that difficult either. They are quite fun and you don't have to hand them in straight away. You get a few days to hand in the write-up and you can work on them together with your friends.

I think you'll find that it is nowhere near as difficult as you are anticipating at the moment.

[Nbgirl]

this has helped me too so thanks

[tiabest]

Jazakallah to everyone's replies they have all been very useful

[Asfoor-ul-Madina]

assalaamu alaikum wa rehmatullah,

sister Nala you may also want to consider the timetables, pharmacy students usually tend to have a more full timetable than compared to optometry (they seem stressed whenever i see some Pharm students, may Allah help them, amin)

[nida87]

asslamm wailkumi am also doing pharmacy from pakistan practicals are no so diffucult and chemistry is lilltle bit different but once u get the whole concept clear u wont have any diffuculty so ask qs from teacher if u didint understand .