Question:
Hi, this is a 2017 here. I was wondering if some of my classmates could provide some tips on how to succeed in IPFC. Despite devoting the entire two weeks to study for each midterm, I just never seem to consistently do well in the course and I am always in fear of failing the course after every final exam. What study habits have worked for some people if you do not mind sharing?
Response 1:
The material in IPFC moves very quickly and the amount of content can be overwhelming at times. Everyone learns differently, but from my experience as well as advice from some professors, you may find the following suggestions helpful:
Pay close attention to the information that is highlighted by the professor during the lecture as this will help guide your studying. Some students find it helpful to record the lecture and listen to it again later to see if there is anything you missed or to review a particular concept that you found confusing. Just be sure to ask for permission first!
Don’t be afraid to approach your professors and peers with any questions you may have. Group studying often leads to valuable discussions that help improve therapeutic decision-making as it forces you to consider a variety of opinions and helps identify areas you may be struggling with.
Work up all the minicases on your own and see if the presenting group came to the same conclusion. Ask questions about their reasoning and share your opinion to promote discussion of the material.
Always review your exams. This will help you identify the areas where you struggled with the content, but also helps identify the types of questions you struggle with (ex. select all that apply). Be sure to ask for clarification when you don’t understand why an answer is correct and ask for strategies to approaching certain types of questions.
Take advantage of the Study Skills Workshops (https://uwaterloo.ca/student-success/resources/workshops/study-skills-workshops) that you think would benefit you.
Do your best to relax! Anxiety can make it difficult to reason through your options and choose the best answer. Do the questions you know first and come back to the more difficult ones.
Finally, get a good night’s sleep before the exam. Being well rested will help you recall information more easily and will improve your decision-making.
I hope you find some of these suggestions helpful and I wish you the best of luck on your upcoming exams!
Response 2:
I think all of the points mentioned above are excellent and are definitely worth doing. There’s not much I can add to that however I will say that since you have finished IPFC 4, it should start to get a little bit easier for future IPFCs. With that being said, I don’t want you to just focus on the marks. The marks will come as long as you focus on actually learning the material instead of memorizing it. What I mean by that is when you go through the material the first time, ask yourself questions to see if you really understand the pathophysiology and how the drugs work to alter the factors involved. For example instead of just memorizing which drugs affect afterload/preload, you can reason it out if you think about their mechanisms and how they affect the heart. I will admit, there are some things you just have to memorize, which is fine but usually most of the therapeutic questions involve reasoning. This is a big change especially if you are not used to studying this way but I believe it is better even for the long term when you eventually go out and work as a pharmacist.
There are a couple of ways you can do this. First, if you don’t already do the readings from Applied Therapeutics, you should start. The book does an excellent job of explaining things for the most part. I think it would have helped a lot for IPFC 4. I know the chapters can get long and there’s not much time but even if you just read over things you don’t quite understand from the lectures, it will be helpful. They even have case questions in the book which they use as examples to teach.
Second way is that at the end of the day you go over what you learned in class today, what notes you made and see if everything makes sense. It’s better to keep up and ask questions about things you don’t understand sooner rather than leaving it till the last minute where you start panicking and end up not having enough time.
I hope this somewhat changes your outlook on studying and help you become a better learner! :D