Question 2:
It is sometimes so hard to let go of the concept of grades being in pharmacy school. The mind can go on a slippery slope when making a decision between good grades and self care. What advice do you have?
Answer 1:
Hey there, I wanted to begin by saying that this is a common dilemma for many students (including myself!) and that it is actually great that you are acknowledging this as a concern and trying to balance grades with self care. I understand that for many of us, striving to achieve the best is just something that we have ingrained within ourselves and we feel uneasy when we are unable to do so. However, unlike undergrad, the course load for pharmacy school (especially IPFC) can be very overwhelming and often there is little time to perfect every detail when studying. When I came to this realization, it had me thinking that I needed a change in mindset and strategy in order to survive pharmacy school. Over the past couple of years, something that has helped me with this dilemma is to shift my focus on understanding the main concepts for each topic rather than trying to know everything in detail. I found that this caused me less stress when studying while still allowing me to learn and became familiar with the content. However, one thing that I always made sure to do was to manage my time more efficiently, especially during rough patches of midterms and assessments (such as creating a weekly schedule and jotting down deadlines and general things I wanted to get done each day). By scheduling/managing my time, I was also able to schedule in time for self-care and do things that were not school-related, which in turn helped me remain motivated and focused for when I had to study.
At the end of the day, I believe that grades are not an accurate reflection of your ‘worth’ as a student, but is rather a very general marker of where you might be at in terms of content understanding and is also not always reflective of what you actually know. In terms of IPFC, learning a whole disease condition in one week and becoming an expert is not expected from students. Rather, pharmacy is a continuous learning process and we should strive to learn more from readings, other drug information sources, and co-ops to really solidify our knowledge. Understanding this has allowed me to put less pressure on myself and achieve a better school-life balance. Hopefully this was able to provide even a little bit of help and feel free to reach out if you have any more questions!
Answer 2:
It can be extremely difficult to find the balance between self-care and school work while in pharmacy school. This is an issue so many of us struggle with as high achieving people, and I still struggle with it on a daily basis. It can be hard to let go of the need to keep working and worrying about grades, but it’s something that we have to do. There will always be more you can do, so it's up to you to decide when you have done enough. A good saying I've heard is that the first 75% is easy and the last 25% is hard. You probably know more than you are giving yourself credit for and might find that adding in a little self care won't actually change your marks very much. Some good tips to working in self-care are;
Choose a regular self-care activity and make it part of your weekly schedule. This allows you to choose a time that may be the lowest stress point of the week or time of day. Try to schedule your studying around this and make it part of the work you need to do every week. It could be anything from a weekley TV show, exercise, or cooking that you enjoy.
Listen to your body. If it's a long day of studying and you feel tired you might want to listen to that. A lot of times we try to work through long hours and don't get enough sleep but this can actually lead to unproductive studying during these times. Create a sleep schedule for yourself and stick to it! Your body will thank you and you will feel more energized when working.
Schedule self-care with friends. This will hold you accountable to participate in self-care and will give scheduled breaks. It could be anything from dinner, to the gym, or movie night. It will also help keep in touch with classmates or friends and family outside of school which can really help boost morale.
Answer 3:
Thank you for reaching out regarding this topic. What you are experiencing is very common and is something I personally struggled with during the first full year of school. I’ve always associated myself with my grades. I would tell myself, “If my grades are bad, then I must be a bad student”. But I couldn’t achieve the way I wanted when I was struggling mentally. This was a difficult adjustment since I didn’t really feel this much pressure in high school or university. Pharmacy school is way more demanding. What helped me the most was starting to value myself just as much as my grades. I felt that it was equally a great accomplishment to complete a hard course while still being able to maintain a healthy sleep schedule, for example. Other personal accomplishments were things like exercising frequently, eating well, and allowing time to socialize. I would rather have slightly lower grades, but be happy that I took care of myself than expend all my energy on school and still be potentially unsatisfied with my grades. As much as you are in school, you are also living 4 years of life throughout this process. It’s important to invest in life too. I hope you are able to find your balance and enjoy your time in pharmacy school.
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