How to pass calculations

[amersidd]

Seems like a lot of people are gettin bullied by the unfair Gphc examiners on the calcs (with the the random questions and that) - so how do we knock these guys down??! What is the key? Which are the essential SOURCES you have use to jizz the calcs?

[Asterix]

i would like to know what the best way to learn the 'concepts' behind calculations as uni hardly teaches you this.

[JayEm]

Some people may not agree with me but there is absolutely nothing difficult about the pre-reg calculations; it is basic GCSE maths. What you need to do is get your head around the numbers, make sure you've got all your tools sharpened - times tables, how to do long division, multiplication, working with decimals etc.

In this year's exam there were a couple of types of questions I hadn't seen before in sample papers like the one on working out the cost of a treatment per person if it was only 70% successful or the one where you had to work out how much dressing you'd need to supply to a patient with 30% burns for a week. Even though these types of questions may not have come up before, they're not exactly difficult but I'm sure they threw a load of people off. You need to be able to think logically and be able to come up with a quick plan on how you're going to tackle the problem.

If you're rubbish with numbers, check out Khan Academy, or doing a load of sample papers is your other option but you'll still be rubbish if you just memorise the route through each type of question....

[hibernia]

Some people may not agree with me but there is absolutely nothing difficult about the pre-reg calculations; it is basic GCSE maths. What you need to do is get your head around the numbers, make sure you've got all your tools sharpened - times tables, how to do long division, multiplication, working with decimals etc.
....

I do agree with you and it is there the problem lies. If you don't know your times tables and how many places to move the decimal point when you multiply by 100 then you can't do the calculations and no amount of sample questions will solve your problem.
It isn't your fault if that you managed to get into college and get your degree without this sort of basic knowledge. Blame your teachers, your school or 'the system' but you won't get over this hurdle until you acquire the basics.

Sample questions are examples of the type of question to expect but a major part of pharmacy is dealing with situations you haven't encountered before so you have to be able to cope when things aren't just as you expect. It is also a test of your accuracy under pressure. They have to pile on the pressure to find those who aren't yet able to handle it. It may not seem fair but life isn't fair. A misplaced decimal point in the exam is unfortunate but in the real world misplaced decimal points have cost lives.

[OPIOID]

I do agree with you and it is there the problem lies. If you don't know your times tables and how many places to move the decimal point when you multiply by 100 then you can't do the calculations and no amount of sample questions will solve your problem.
It isn't your fault if that you managed to get into college and get your degree without this sort of basic knowledge. Blame your teachers, your school or 'the system' but you won't get over this hurdle until you acquire the basics.

Sample questions are examples of the type of question to expect but a major part of pharmacy is dealing with situations you haven't encountered before so you have to be able to cope when things aren't just as you expect. It is also a test of your accuracy under pressure. They have to pile on the pressure to find those who aren't yet able to handle it. It may not seem fair but life isn't fair. A misplaced decimal point in the exam is unfortunate but in the real world misplaced decimal points have cost lives.

totally agree! i sat the paper in june and found maybe 2 questions which were challenging, the remaining questions required common sense and basic maths. A lot of pre-regs panicked when they saw unfamiliar questions in the paper that had not come up in past papers. I advise future pre-regs to use past paper calculations just to get used to the layout and timing of the paper and nothing more. if you rely heavily on past-papers you will be in for a shock as the GPhC can put any random question into the paper. this years paper was nothing like past paper calculations, but some of the questions were really easy marks which could be worked out in less than a minute, however people who panicked messed up badly!

if you want to pass the calculations then my advise would be to;
1. sharpen up on basic maths such as long division and multiplication
2. learn to round-up especially if the options given in a question are far apart (easier to work with full numbers and less likely to make mistakes)
3. always read questions at least twice even if they sound easy (last thing you want to do is get an easy question wrong)
4. double check as you go along (rather than coming back to it, saves a lot of time)
5. do all working-outs on paper (less likely to make mistakes)
6. do not panic if you have never seen a certain question before
7. keep an eyes on the time, some questions may take you 5 mins or longer to answer whereas others will take you less than a minute, so it all balances out
8. mark the answers on the marking sheet as you answer each question

Hope you all pass! Good luck!

[Asterix]

but this is the problem you see, how do you develop that common sense when you see calculations which are different to the ones you see on practice papers

[Asterix]

so none of the calcs in this years paper were like sample papers?!!!

[Nik]

how do you develop that common sense

Good question - how do you develop common sense ??

The calculations on the whole I thought were actually quite good and there was certainly enough time to do each one. Going in to uni, having done at least GCSE maths means the basics should already be there. Things like ratio calculations and dilutions shouldn't really be new concepts to you. And the co-trimoxazole PCP calcs in the exam was based mainly on information retrieval, ie can you find the relevant bits of info in the BNF. The actual calcs, working the dose based on weight, was itself relatively straightforward.

[JayEm]

so none of the calcs in this years paper were like sample papers?!!!

there was a mix of old and new

[Asterix]

apart from that average cost per patient calculation, I am assuming the rest of them were on sample papers from years in the past no?