pre uni reading!

[prettyseriousp]

Hi!
i'm Starting Uni at Huddersfield in september 2010 to study pharmacy after taking a gap year,
as ive got ages yet before i start, is there anything anyone would reccomend i read to keep me up to date.
i'm re-reading through my chemistry and maths notes as much as i can but is there anything mroe specific you could reccomend?
thanks!

[mr shush]

I may be going to Huddersfield in 2010 as well

I got, pharmacology at a glance !

[bleepholder]

usually unis send out a reading list with the books you need....although not sure how near your start date they do that....

i'd make the msot of your time off before starting uni..you'll ahve more than enough reading to do when you start the course!!

[johnep]

You would learn a lot more by working in a pharmacy if possible either paid or unpaid.
johnep

[prettyseriousp]

haha ye im sure i will have alot to read from what i've heard- all the more reason to try do some of it now!
although, as im on a year out, im very conscious that i'll get out of the habit of reading and revising and taking stuff in, if you know what i mean?
any websites
i do seak to the local community pharmasist as much as i can btu im trying to save up for travelling on my gap year, ive already got three jobs, so another wouldnt be ideal lol.
any books or websites just to give me a more subject specific head start woul dbe great!

[roper]

I think that the stuff I studied in the first year of my degree was so out of touch with what I do as a day job now I'm qualified (well getting old actually - I qualified in 1994) that I couldn't possibly work out the best books to go for! In the long run I value the common sense knowledge of illness/disease states and drug use most - but I seem to remember that there was a lot of chemistry etc in the 1st year. I couldn't tell you the chemical structure of a drug now and the emphasis on it never did seem justified. Maybe things have changed.

[Nik]

Very little of your a-level chemistry is relevant beyond the first year. The first year is basically a catch-up year where you'll probably learn physiology and cell biology (to get the non bio a-level students up to scratch), maybe a module on maths including pharm calcs, some pharmaceutical science and maybe some law and ethics. Pharmacology, clinical pharmacy etc is unlikley to be taught in the first year. Travel, see the world, ride and elephant, swim with dolphins, party in ibiza and then go into your course with a fresh approach.

And when you start your degree don't forget to look at this:

Students - please read

Much easier to find info (there is plenty regarding your question) on the forum without having to open a replica thread.

[Pharmanaut]

Travel, see the world, ride and elephant, swim with dolphins, party in ibiza and then go into your course with a fresh approach..

Good advice - you'll be studying hard enough once you start the course.

If you still can't resist, get the book on pharmaceutical calculations from the pharmaceutical press.
Its often the area where most folk struggle.
Don't worry if you don't understand the drug names etc

[kl06229]

Hey, pharmacy school isn't exactly interesting in the first year or two. However to prepare for Year 3 and 4 when things get interesting and you learn so much important and relevant stuff, books which I found useful were:

Counter Intelligence Plus (a small booklet published by Boots, good for OTC medicine studying, if you can find it or C and D Druggist equivalent)

Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics (by Walker and Whittlesea, one of the best textbooks I have ever used and arguably the thing that helped me pass pharmaceutical care)

[crit care]

and don't make the mistake of going out and spending over £100 on books and never opening them...i made that mistake in my first week of uni...bought a pile of text books because they were on the reading list, and i never opened half of them....i think one still remained in its wrapping until about my 3rd year, and i only took it off to see what it was all about lol...so absically don't rush inot buying books..suss them out first when you get to uni and see if they will be of use to you!