Rho Chi Delta Iota 2013-2014
Vol. 1
Rho Chi “SURVIVAL GUIDE”
Disclaimer: The Rho Chi Delta Iota Chapter is not liable for your academic
outcomes. This guide does not guarantee academic success. You determine that!
Introduction:
The Rho Chi Society Delta Iota Chapter is proud to present its first “Survival Guide.”
You may find some tips more helpful than others, because everyone has their own study
habits. Developing your own study habits is something we would like to emphasize. The
tips and words of wisdom found in this guide have been compiled from the DKICP Class
of 2015 Rho Chi members. They are tips that members have found helpful in their own
educational experiences, or that they wish they had done. You can trust us; we have been
there!
We hope that you find this guide helpful in fostering your academic success!
About Rho Chi: The Academic Honor Society in Pharmacy:
The Society's vision is to achieve universal recognition of its members as lifelong
intellectual leaders in pharmacy. As a community of scholars, the Society will instill the
desire to pursue intellectual excellence and critical inquiry to advance the profession.
The Mission of the Society is to encourage and recognize excellence in intellectual
achievement and foster fellowship among its members. Further, the Society encourages
high standards of conduct and character and advocates critical inquiry in all aspects of
pharmacy.
Rho Chi invites the top 20% of each class based on their cumulative GPA after
completing half of their didactic courses. Students are not required to accept the
invitation, but if they do, it is a life-time membership.
National Website: www.RhoChi.org
Chapter Website: www.rhochideltaiota.wordpress.com
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General/Random Study Habits:
1. GO TO CLASS
a. Listen to the lecturer and try to take notes. Retype all of the slides
including the notes taken down  Condense and rewrite these notes by
hand.
i. You can then retype these notes into word or excel to solidify them
even more. Then study these notes (you should have distilled the
information down to the core concepts).
2. Do not be afraid to try different ways of studying if something doesn’t work.
(Kinetics vs. auditory, etc.)
3. Plan your study schedule wisely. DO NOT CRAM.
4. One student’s absolute most important rule: Do not study when tired (I will do
busywork and assignments when tired, but NOT studying for exams). Study
when you are freshest, you will retain more and be more efficient!
5. Do not read lecture notes like a book (Focus on overview slides first), get the “big
picture” first, then re-read and incorporate finer details to what you already know
6. Try to learn the general concepts in class, and ask someone if you do not
understand anything. Learning the concepts early allows you to focus your later
efforts on memorizing the details.
7. Compare and contrast material
8. Professors are always willing to clarify something for you if you do not
understand. Send them an e-mail. But make sure to keep it professional.
9. Start studying early and study thoroughly!
a. Review at least one week ahead and review each lecture more than once!
10. Study a little bit each day, so the concepts will remain in your long-term memory.
11. After exams, go to review your exams to find out your mistakes, and to help with
long-term retention of the knowledge
12. Get exercise!!
13. Make time for yourself/reward yourself as a treat for studying hard. Do not
reward yourself before you study (i.e. “Just going to watch this show…then I will
start studying”)
14. Do not be discouraged or intimidated from the courses. You will have to study
hard, but you can always get help from your peers, or from our Rho Chi tutors.
Pre-Exam Prep Tips:
1. Wake up early enough to ascertain a normal mood via regular activities. You
should have already studied, and you will know this by low anxiety with the test.
Stay calm and realize you already made it to pharmacy school and just need to
make it through the next few years. Other people have done it so there is no
reason why you cannot.
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2. Have a ritual in which you use to distress. Rituals can be calming because they are
consistent and familiar (i.e. Your lucky giraffe eraser, wearing your lucky color,
etc.)
3. Divide up lecture notes or power points evenly into the number of days you have
before the exam, so you will not spend too much time on certain topics in the
beginning, and will not be able to get to some important teaching points at the
end.
4. Sleep!
a. Get enough sleep to be able to focus on exam day. Having all the
knowledge in the world will not help if you are too tired to fully process
the questions and answers on the exam.
b. Try to study early but do not stress out and make sure to get some sleep
because without sleep you will get answers wrong on exams without
realizing because lack of sleep.
5. Reserve “cramming” for finer details (i.e. dosing ranges) only.
6. Be sure to eat healthy too! Do not crash & burn out on fast food and energy
drinks.
7. Get something to eat before your exam to make sure you’re not going to get
hungry during the exam.
8. Check your work before turning in the exam.
9. Pick an “I-am-going-to-kill-this-exam” pre-exam song and listen to it right before.
10. Try not to study during the hour before an exam.
11. Show up to the exam early and put away your notes at least 10 minutes before
starting to just relax and breathe.
1st Year Pharmacy Student Classes:
Biochemistry
1. Draw the amino acids every day starting from a blank piece of paper. Repetition
is key to remembering the structures!
a. You can also make flashcards for the amino acids.
b. Keep these flashcards in your pocket. Whenever there is down time (i.e.
standing in line) review them.
2. Make maps/flowcharts to see how things connect, memorization does not work
well in this class
a. Try to find multiple ways to get to the same conclusion. This way, if you
forget one way to get to the answer, you can still reason your way to the
right answer.
b. Start with “the bigger picture” then look at the details
3. Use flow charts and draw out the cycles to understand functions of the enzymes.
4. Memorize those key enzymes, products, reactants, and things that affect each
point in the pathway
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5. When dealing with metabolic processestry to make a 1-2 picture review of the
whole chapter
6. Pay attention to structural similarities in order to recognize patterns of
functionality
Introduction to Pharmaceutical Sciences
1. Many materials will be review of chemistry and organic chemistry.
2. Focus your study on functional group structures and chemical reactions
3. Go to the review sessions. They will at least help point you to ideas you need to
focus on.
4. Follow study guides if provided by a professor.
5. Memorize the key functional groups found in pharmaceutical sciences; this will
definitely help you in medicinal chemistry throughout IT courses.
Immunology
1. Know pathways and rationale for each action of the immune system.
2. Try to keep the bigger picture. (i.e. Why do these cells release IL now?)
a. Grasp the overall concept 1st, then add in the details.
b. Try to make a 1-2 picture review of the whole chapter.
c. Notes go into very high detail, but exam is mostly on overarching general
topics (so know the general information before you start sweating the
minute details!)
3. Make flash cards or tables for the cytokines that are covered, including what
produces the cytokines and what does each cytokine do.
4. Immunology is a lot of memorization, so the more times you see it, the more
likely you are to recognize the correct answer.
5. Everything you need to know is on the slides. If something does not quite make
sense, the book is always helpful (it matches the course content very well).
6. Be sure to study all the diagrams that she includes and know all small details.
7. Make study guides that answer the objectives and understand them.
8. Learn from the weekly quizzes!
9. Memorize what each type of immunological cell is responsible for.
Pharmaceutical Calculations:
1. Do all of the practice problems in the back of the book!
a. Multiple times if necessary.
b. Helps to do them in groups to compare answers and steps taken to get to
that answer (since the exam requires you to show your work).
2. During the exam, read the questions carefully.
3. Read the chapters before class.
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4. Ask questions about things that do not make sense. The instructors are very
willing to help.
5. Memorize unit conversions, Sig. language, roman numerals, and abbreviations
early so that you have them in your mind for the exams.
a. You can make flashcards for these topics to help.
6. Make sure your work is clear and organized, in order to limit calculation errors
(especially on exams).
7. This class is very important for real life pharmacy practice and you only get one
semester of it. Take advantage of it!
Pharmaceutics
1. Go to/participate in lab to get the most benefit out of lectures! Utilize the
compounding lab activities as a supplemental activity to the topics learned in
lecture
2. Concepts, concepts, concepts! Understanding concepts is much more important
than what is on the slides (i.e. some questions will not come from the slides, but
the principle was covered). Be able to apply this knowledge to each topic.
3. Be familiar with how particular formulations or physical structures affect the
Pharmacokinetics and Pharmacodynamics.
4. The lecture videos are really helpful resources for students to go back and review
what was covered in class.
5. If you do not understand something, go to talk to your instructor! The same goes
for if you do not understand why you got a question wrong on the exam. If you
have good reasons for an answer that was marked wrong, they will work through
it with you and sometimes even reassure you that your points are valid.
6. The textbooks are great references if something on the slide is not explained well.
Over-The-Counter Medication/Culture
1. OTC is what you will experience most in retail pharmacy. Actually do the SOAPs
for each condition. This will help on tests and in your career.
2. Pay attention to adverse effects, counseling points, and contraindications, since it
is practical knowledge that you should know for your career
a. Try to counsel your fake patients to practice application of knowledge.
3. Make flashcards for the top 200 drugs, and review them during your spare time
a. Flashcards are your friend.
b. There are always questions for the top 200!
c. Learn common brand names of OTC products
d. Focus on the brand/generics and use FIRST, then study doses.
4. Create pneumonics for memorizing top 200 drugs
a. They really do pop up frequently after P1 year, such as in IPPE.
5. Form study groups and quiz each other with your friends.
6. For medrug classes and MOA are the most important thing to
understandtells you so much and helps you compartmentalize all the
medications
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7. This is the only time you will get OTC in pharmacy schoolstudy the subjects
well!
8. Questions from previous exams can pop up on future exams; so if you miss
something, learn the correct answer so you do not make the same mistake twice.
9. Do not ignore the details. Even if you do not think it is important, it can still be
tested on.
10. Be sure to study the pictures of products & know their names. The names of the
products may not be typed out for you, so you might to look closely at the picture.
11. Before exams, visit the pharmacy OTC section at a local pharmacy. Study
products off the shelf. You can even test yourself on the active ingredients by
looking at the brands.
12. Whether you work in a pharmacy or not, familiarize yourself with the typical setup of the OTC section in a pharmacy. It will help you with grouping OTC
medications in your head by action, and will help you easily make
recommendations to patients.
Pathophysiology
1. Start with how the body works, and then understand how the disease works. This
will be good when you get to IT.
2. Try to retain the physiology knowledge, since it is the background as to how
medication works to treat different things in the human body
3. Study the medical terminology.
4. Make sure you are familiar with A&P.
5. This is a really interesting class; majority of the materials will be reviews of
physiology. Know how to answer all the objectives.
6. Pathophysiology portions are pretty straight forward, get familiar with your terms
7. Instructors may test on their objectives and have summary tables addressing each
one. Familiarize yourself with those tables, you will do well.
8. Make your own charts and tables to organize important information
9. Follow lecture objectives when studying normal physiology portions.
10. Here is a resource for medical abbreviations used in SOAPs:
http://www.med.upenn.edu/student/documents/2010GuidetotheClinics_Jan2011_.
pdf
Biostatistics
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Pathways and mathematics. Process of elimination.
Redo examples over and over again!
Make a table of statistical tests and know how to use them.
The practices questions are really helpful, be sure to do these before the exam.
Very conceptual, often difficultget help early if you do not understandyou
will use it all again throughout life and in EBM!
6. Google other resources if a topic does not make sense
7. Know how to classify data and know what test is used when.
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8. Read the exam questions carefully!
9. Definitions go a long way.
10. Be sure to memorize concepts, but be able to apply them as well. Do as many
practice problems as possible (provided in lecture slides)
11. The instructor sometimes uses the projector to draw as they explain concepts.
Take pictures of these and refer to them as you read through the slideset.
12. Make sure you really understand the basic concepts (P-values, T-tests, , ,
delta)! Do not push it to the side after the exam is done, these concepts will follow
you throughout your pharmacy education (EBM: cumulative, IPPE), and career.
13. Think about the literature evaluations as a flow chart. Start with looking at the pvalue, and then continue as a checklist to make sure it has each of the specific
values you need to evaluate it.
Words of Wisdom for P1’s
1. Figure out your study habits, not someone else’s.
2. You have the most exams this year and most stressful final exam schedule. Try to
explore the island, form friendships and adjust to the lifestyle. I studied all day
every day, but that does not mean you have to. Looking back at it now, I wish I
had more fun my first year because the sustenance of pharmacy comes in the
following years.
3. Pharmacy school is often a stamina game; you have to be able to keep yourself
motivated. Find what motivates you and use it!
4. For the most part, studying lecture slides are sufficient for exams. The hardest
part (for me) is OTC, since it is cumulative. So be sure to constantly review the
materials that were taught and the top 200 drugs.
5. Main challenge of the year: the 7 classes (more than any other year)…Time
management needs to be your friend.
6. Study hard, but make time for yourself, for fun, to get involved. It’s not as bad as
people make it out to be
7. Talk to the P2’s and P3’s if you have any questions.
a. If you are struggling now, talk to someone and find help. Classes do not
get easier, so it is better to work out your problems now than to wait until
they overwhelm you.
8. Do not stress too much. There are a lot of exams, but as long as you manage your
time, you will be fine.
9. Try to experiment with different study styles now! Once IT starts next year, you
should definitely know what works for you (study times, location, group vs.
individual, etc.)
10. Recording lectures helps you focus as you’re reading through the slideset, a way
of reinforcement, extra way to study in bed right before you fall asleep.
11. Get a good night’s sleep, wake up early and study (P1-P2 year)
12. Do not go too crazy with the energy drinks, 1 Rockstar QOD PRN
13. Study Buddies – after you learn the material on your own, go over the lecture
slides with 2-3 classmates—take turns reading out loud.
14. Try not to get overwhelmed; everyone in your class is in the same situation.
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15. Remain open-minded to new ways of studying, because what you have done in
the past may not work for you with this new type of curriculum.
16. Start improving your time-management skills; this is crucial to your success.
17. Prioritize! Figure out which classes you need to spend more time on and allocate
your time wisely to study each topic.
2nd Year Pharmacy Student Classes:
Evidence-Based-Medicine
1. Have a solid foundation of biostatics, especially definitions and types of statistical
tests.
2. Review your old Biostatistics information. This lays out the basic fundamentals
that this course builds upon.
3. Practice by reading and doing literature evaluations
4. This class is cumulative, and the concepts you learn are vital to your career as a
pharmacist. Put in the time to commit the information to your long-term memory.
5. Know the core concepts of this class and know how to use the tests. Critical
thinking is key in this class, not memorization.
6. Redo examples over and over again!
7. Know how to apply the knowledge of biostatics to analyze articles
8. Harness your inner Supakit! 
9. First thing to determine in each question is the DV (will lead you to the statistical
test you will use)
10. Try to figure out the appropriate statistical test BEFORE you look at the answer
choices (They will just confuse you....)
11. For article questions, only choose “cannot determine” if you CAN NOT Literally
circle a sentence or graph in the article that tells you the answer (in our year,
“cannot determine” was not a common answer…So if you have like 10 cannot
determines…You may be doing something wrong…)
12. Go to class!! Teachers are more willing to provide extra help to students who go
to class!
13. Memorize/create a table with all the statistical tests (based on DV, type/amount of
groups, amount if IV’s)do this before you start studying…It will make
everything easier to understand.
14. Know how to classify data and know what test is used when.
15. Read the exam questions carefully!
16. Pay attention to the example papers in class, it will help you learn how you need
to think through the questions on the exam.
17. First exam is very similar to the Biostatistics final. Know your definitions, and
concepts. If you do not understand, ask a classmate. If that does not help, ask the
instructor.
a. Going to visit the instructor at their office as a group is encouraged.
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18. Definitely review the articles (that are on the exam) before the exam! Mark up
important points & follow study guide provided by the instructor.
19. Instructors sometimes use the projector to draw and explain concepts. Take
pictures of these and refer to them as you read through the slideset.
Pharmacokinetics
1. Give yourself adequate time to complete the excel worksheet on your own.
2. Be familiar with what the numbers mean. (i.e. “k” is not just a small number,
what does this number actually mean?)
3. Get help on excel if you are not very good with it
4. Have a cheat sheet of all the equations, and know how to use them.
5. Practice, Practice, Practice!  Try to be able to do it fast, because it is easy to
lose track of time during the exam!
a. Prior to the exam, practice timing yourself while re-doing problem sets to
gauge how long it will take for you to complete each problem during the
exam.
6. Make sure you know what you are doing on the problem sets, because the same
types of questions will show up on exams.
a. Redo the practice sets multiple times before exams
7. If you are not completely comfortable with one kind of question, find or make
practice problems to give yourself more opportunities to become comfortable with
doing the math.
8. Highlight the most commonly used equations on your equation sheet. That way,
you will end up memorizing the equations and eventually will not even need your
equation sheet.
9. Memorize the basic dosing information for the drugs that are taught in the clinical
section. (Vancomycin troughs, for example).
10. Make sure your work is neat, clear, and organized to limit errors.
Integrated Therapeutics
1. Be able to tell someone how drugs and therapeutics are different.
2. Know the major studies.
3. KNOW YOUR LAB VALUES!!! Memorize them yesterday. As soon as
humanly possible.
a. Once you memorize them, test yourself every 2 weeks to keep them fresh!
a. Be able to look at a set of labs and determine what is normal, high, or low.
4. Study every day. Review the lectures slides/notes as early as possible (if not the
day of the lecture).
5. Makes tables of the drugs, indications, side effects, etc., especially when there are
many drug classes for certain topics.
6. There is a huge amount of information, realize that most “normal” humans will
only be able to remember 15-20% of what you learn (i.e. during rotations or next
year)make priorities of what you want to put into long-term memory.
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a. i.e. it is great if you can remember dose adjustments, but do not sweat it if
you cannot, that will come with more experience. It is more important to
know what drug needs to be renal dosed vs. the actual renal dose
adjustment. You can always look it up!
7. Memorize CYP3A4 (most common CYP) and maybe 2C9 (important for
warfarin) inducers and inhibitorsyou will see them over and over again
8. Compare and contrast
a. Even if it is a topic from another exam
i. i.e. Beta-blockers come up many times. Compare and contrast how
they are used for hypertension (what line are they?) vs heart
failure, etc., etc.
9. Start with a general overview, and add more details to your knowledge as you go
through a second and third time
10. Start studying early.
a. Often, the hardest part of IT is the overwhelming amount of information,
so try to give yourself enough time to go over all the information
thoroughly.
b. Review everything as much you can. Especially example cases given in
class / workshops / quizzes
c. There is a lot of memorization, so seeing it multiple times helps.
11. Record lectures. It really helps you learn the important concepts. Most professors
also test on the important stuff, which they normally highlight during class.
12. Pathways and memorization are useful. If you have no experience in pharmacy try
learning the physiology, then pathophysiology then the drug names.
a. This way you will know what is supposed to happen, what is affecting it
and how to treat it.
13. The med chem section is best studied with drawing out each structure by hand.
14. For med chem and pharmacology, use the study guides, as they are a fairly good
representation of what questions will be asked on the exam.
15. Get a good handle on basic organic chemistry structures (ie. Quinolone, lactam,
pyrimidine, pyrazine, etc.)
a. Be able to point them out in a large structure. These types of questions
will continue to show up on exams through your IT curriculum.
16. Learn brand/generics for medications.
17. Pay attention to things that are specific/unique to a certain drug/drug class
18. Study and keep thinking about when would you use a certain drug over another
a. i.e. Want to avoid certain beta-blockers in asthmatics, etc.
b. Start to think about things in a case-based fashion. Get used to
medical abbreviations!
19. For case-based questions, make sure you understand who can be treated, why they
should be treated, what to monitor, and adverse effects
20. Pay close attention to contraindications.
21. Always check creatinine clearance in patient cases!
22. When you study a drug/drug class, think about what are the key points you would
make sure to tell your patient about during a consultation.
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a. Be able to talk about both the common and the rare, but serious, adverse
effects of each drug class.
23. Determine which professor has the most questions for the exam and focus on
those lectures.
24. For infectious disease and antibiotic module
a. Start with the therapeutics lectures first
b. The pharmacology offer details that do not necessarily pertain to real life
or has drugs no one uses)…it makes more sense and is more applicable to
real life.
c. Start with the table comparing Pseudomonas vs MRSA coverage.
Pharmacy Law and Ethics
1. Know the law! You must use it as a guide through practice. It is not hard to
decipher what is right and what is wrong, but it is difficult to know what is legally
required.
2. Do not get discouraged when you first read law, it takes a few times before your
brain begins to understand “legalese.”
3. Print out hard copies of State Laws, highlight important points that are covered in
class.
4. Become a retail intern!
5. This is ½ of becoming a pharmacist (the other half being passing the
NAPLEX)…If you want to become a pharmacist in the future…Take this class
seriously and study hard. Do not study for an “exam score”…Study for life…Not
a class to cram…Because you NEED to pass the law test if you want to practice
pharmacy!
6. Questions from previous exams can pop up on future exams.
a. If you miss something, learn the correct answer so you do not make the
same mistake twice.
7. Follow the lecture slides closely.
8. Be sure to read the book & statutes multiple times.
9. Know differences between state and federal laws!
a. Distinguish the differences
b. You never know where you will be working in the future career.
10. Create a group study guide by splitting up the topics and creating a Google doc.
This will save a lot of time.
11. Make flashcards of the different laws and their major points. Also, it is helpful to
make flashcards of the controlled substances!
12. Definitely pay close attention to what needs to be on a written prescription for it
to be a legally valid prescription.
13. Pay attention to what you as a pharmacist are allowed to add to an rx, and what
needs to be written by the doctor’s office.
Words of Wisdom for P2’s
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1. Study alone first. Then find a group and study with them with conversation. It
does not help to have a group of people studying separate sections looking at
computers. When a group is ready to converse on topics, the flow of knowledge
will be released and you will learn more. This education style works best because
you find yourself teaching another person and when this happens it’s proof that
you know your stuff.
2. Do not memorize. Know why something is right or wrong.
3. Study, study, and study, especially for IT.
4. Ask questions in class, in e-mails, in person, etc. Do not ever assume anything is
right because it sounds right.
5. Do whatever makes you feel better for an exam even if it is slightly superstitious.
Do not be afraid of getting help from your lucky pencil/watch/giraffe/color (or all
of the above!). The important thing is to feel comfortable and confident.
6. Study IT at least a little everyday (even if just 30 minutes reviewing your
notes)…Even if you have another test coming up. IT IS THAT IMPORTANT!
7. Get help early if you are struggling, this year can be tough if you get really
behind.
8. See if you can make a review sheet of the “most important things to
know/overview” that can fit on a few pages…Something that can be read in 5-10
minutes (this can be difficult for an IT subject/test with over 1,000 slides)…And
review it time to time…And look up stuff that you “totally forgot”
9. P2 year can be very challenging. If you do not do well on an exam, do not get
disheartened. Instead, review your exam so you can learn from your mistakes and
use that exam grade as motivation to study harder for your next exam.
10. First year is done. There are less exams. Don’t stress too much. Once you get into
your “groove” studying therapeutics, you will be fine.
11. Re-writing & re-organizing lecture notes (especially in IT) can help integrate
concepts together.
12. Try not to miss class unless you have to and manage your time wisely.
13. Recording lectures helps you focus as you’re reading through the slideset, a way
of reinforcement, extra way to study in bed right before you fall asleep
14. Get a good night’s sleep, wake up early and study (P1-P2 year)
15. Do not go too crazy with the energy drinks, 1 Rockstar QOD PRN
16. Study Buddies – After you learn the material on your own, go over the lecture
slides with 2-3 classmates—take turns reading out loud
17. Although it is a big change from P1 year, do not stress out too much. Everything
is doable, and the professors are here to help you learn and succeed.
Rho Chi: Delta Iota Chapter Tutoring Information:
Email: UHHrhochitutoring@gmail.com
 Information to write in email:
- Name
- Subject
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