Pharm Tech Prep

Good news. I received word last night that there might be an opening for a pharmacy technician nearby. When exactly? No idea. A position just possibly might open up in the near future. That just puts more pressure on me to finish studying even sooner, and hopefully the timing of it will all match.

Now for some short bullet points:

- My friend had taken the exam before, and she tells me it's easy. Not being able to retake the test for 90 days still makes me anxious, and I want to make sure I study pretty thoroughly.

- In the short time that I've been studying, I've come across a lot of abbreviations that I just have to get used to. The first one that tripped me up was the abbreviation for the exam! This is because it's referred to in two different ways. The PTCB Exam and PTCE. (Pharmacy Technician Certification Board Exam and Pharmacy Technician Certification Examination) The actual website where you sign up for it uses both and just assumes the reader knows the difference.

- While I want to study thoroughly, all you need a score of 650/900. That doesn't seem all that bad. Doesn't seem too bad at all.

- There are two sites nearby, and the website says continuous testing is available.

- The exam is $129.

- I've found a contradiction between my book and the PTCB website. The book says the exam is 100 multiple choice questions, the website says it's 90. It doesn't really make that much of a difference to me. Now I know there's a difference and won't be shocked when I see it.

- From the sounds of it, you fill out the online application, then you have 90 days to schedule and take the test, with the ability to reschedule at no charge as long as the rescheduling takes place at least 24 hours prior to the test. I will clarify that once I do that.

- The PTCB faq can be found here.

Weight Loss - Part 1

For most of my life, I can remember feeling overweight. It wasn't always physically true, but even after I lost my weight during my growth spurt, I still thought I was fat. It is something I've had to live with for a long time, and cannot simply be ignored in this blog, but I will relate it to pharmacy in what ways that I can.

After I came back from the UoP preview day, I was talking with my friend, and I joked that I thought it was a requirement to be hot to get into the school. The three presenters during the student panel were all very pretty, to the point that I stupidly became a little bit anxious when I went to go up to talk to them when my friend that went with me thought up a question that she wanted answered. And on the flip side, all the guys giving us the tour of the campus were all very fit.

Obviously, what I said was just a joke, but I think there may be some vague sense of truth to it.

First of all, I understand that everyone has a different metabolism, set point, etc, and when it comes to weight loss, there is a lot of variation. I will be talking in some generalities, but a lot of it may turn out to just specifically apply to myself.

But when it comes to being a pharmacy student, there is a certain level of discipline required. A common phrase when UoP students spoke was "time-management skills". While there is a whole different level of psychology when it comes to weight loss, as opposed to being studious, there is a level of discipline required when it comes to losing weight. And accomplishing my goal, which is very attainable and not at all unreasonable, is just another sign that I'm mentally prepared for pharmacy school.

I am one of those people that tend to eat more when I'm stressed out. The more hectic my life is, the more weight I gain. At my fittest, I weighed 185 in 2005. I now weight 220. I weighed even more during the summer. I didn't weight myself because I did not want to see the results until I lost some weight, which I did. I know because my clothes are looser.

I plan on taking control of my weight once again (I did so once before. I lost 30 pounds in a little over three months, and maintained that weight until I tore my ACL), and will be joining 24-Hour Fitness, while they have their "$0 Initiation Fee and $29.99 Monthly Dues on a Keep Fit All-Club Sport Membership" special. It lasts until 9/30/09.

While there is no way that looks are a requirement for the interview, losing weight will help me get accepted into whatever school I get into because I will feel better about myself. All the benefits of weight loss will help me get in, including more confidence in myself, more energy, and strengthened mental capabilities. All of those benefits will aid me as a student as well.

And while I can't give out any numbers, a fact of reality is that people respond better to better looking people. If that subconsciously aids me in the interview, then so be it. It is not the main reason why I will be working to lose weight, and probably won't affect the interview much at all, but if that benefit is there, I will take it. And once I become a pharmacist, and being physically fit helps when I have to interact with patients, then it's better for me and it is better for them.

There is no losing when it comes to becoming fit. I just have to keep in mind that losing weight and being fit are not equal. I have to have reasonable goals.

At this point, my goals are to reach 185 by the end of the year, to be able to do 50 push-ups, and 10 pull-ups and chin-ups. Those are numbers that I had been able to reach before. Although I will be happy if I still reach 190.

While I was down in LA for Macy's Passport, I took advantage of the hotel gym, and it felt good. It's time to keep up that momentum, and I'm off to the gym now.

Macy's Passport 2009

Macy's Passport is a fashion show, hosted by Macy's (obviously), and has taken up most of my time for the past two weeks when not studying the pharmacy technician books.

For the past 27 years Macy's Passport has featured unparalleled fashion and state of the art theatrics in its live events in San Francisco and Log Angeles, while raising funds to support local HIV/AIDS organizations.  To date, the event has raised $28 million for HIV/AIDS charities and research projects.

--macys.com/passport

I met the coordinator of the event through another project that the two of us were helping to coordinate, and she asked if I wanted to help out with this event.  Prior to that, I had already volunteered for the event for three separate years (doing typical volunteer support stuff for events like these, such as coat check, serving food, etc.) and so of course I said yes.  At the time, I didn't realize she was the coordinator, and so I was pleasantly surprised when I learned I'd be getting some pay, be working in the back as one of the people that helps to cue the models/entertainment, and would not only be helping out in San Francisco, but be flown out to LA with hotel and food also covered.

It was most definitely a great experience when I did it for the first time last year (and got to watch the Jabbawokeez perform live, among other people), that I was ready to accept again this year when it was brought up.

This year, I got to see some old faces, and meet some new ones.  It's always interesting watching Sharon Stone do her thing in getting people to donate money to the causes the event supports.  She does a great job.  I also I took a picture with the Harajuku Girls, and missed it as Eddie Murphy walked right by me.

How does this relate to pharmacy?

Well, I didn't really mean for it to be related.  Even though pharmacy is my primary goal, there still are other things in my life that I have interest in.  I'm not doing it to get into pharmacy school.  But it is a small reflection of all the community service I've done over the years (an area that I'm sure will be very strong on my applications) and it is related in that it has to deal with fundraising for HIV/AIDS and there are plenty of medications that deal with that issue.  I got my first real life look at that (as talked about in my previous post [Edit: Which has now been removed due to my own privacy concerns]) because of this show.

In general, I enjoy participating in this event because it is so far removed from what my life is normally like and focused towards, as well as it supporting a good cause.  It's a short two week experience out of the year, and a short break is a good thing as long as I remain focused afterwards.  The admissions officers are always talking about how they're looking for well-rounded people, and I'd say this can help me in that category.  (Although this corner of my application is probably rounded enough.)

My goal is pharmacy, but it's important to still have some balance to my life.

Removed for Privacy

[Edit: While I'm not a pharmacist and the person was not my patient, even though I was being what I thought was discrete at the time, did not mention a name, and tried to not get into too many specifics, I feel like I should remove this post.  The good thing is that my blog is still fairly new, and I don't think anyone has even read this yet.  Privacy is important, and will be a law once I get further along my path, and it's better to respect it even now.]

Who am I? Part 3

So I'm looking at pharmacy schools, and studying to be a pharmacy technician, but who am I?  At what point am I at in getting into pharmacy school, and why am I at this point?

So I took a look at reality and saw that pharmacy might not be possible.  I didn't know what was going to happen anymore, but just knew that I needed to graduate, and so switched to Psychologyas within reach as I had wanted it to be at this point in my life.

As soon as I made the switch, I knew it was a good idea.  Part of that was simply because while my plan was derailed, I was taking control of what was happening.

For the next two semesters I loaded my schedule with as many psychology classes as I could take.  And while all the classes were interesting, a full load of psychology classes was most definitely much easier to handle than biology and chemistry classes.

Some of the classes that I took, I took simply because they were easy, and I wanted to fix my GPA.  But it turned out that the classes I loved the most were the ones that were the most challenging.  Psycholinguistics and Cognitive Psychology were my favorites by far.

If I couldn't do Pharmacy, I was considering applying for the masters program in psychology research at San Francisco State University as an alternative.  In my head, that as actually my new path, and not just an alternative.  Pharmacy was too just far away, and I needed my career now.

There were two major things that I took away from this.

First,  I need a challenge, and I need to keep things fresh.  I did the best in the classes that were hardest.  I shot to the top of those classes because they were new and interesting, and they captivated me.  I had to force myself to pay attention to those easy classes.  A similar result to this was when I tried to immediately retake a couple of my bio and chem classes.  It was just hard to focus when I was relearning the material.  I didn't do bad in those classes the first time because I didn't understand what was going on.  I did bad because I was a bad student and missed a lot of classes and didn't put in any effort.  If I was to redo it, and if I had to retake classes, I would not do it immediately.  I would have given myself a break so the classes wouldn't feel like such a chore.

Second, by taking this year away from biochemistry and pharmacy, I found that I really missed it.  It's something that I wanted to go back to.

I can't tell you just yet what it is about pharmacy that attracts me, I just know it's there.  I'm a very analytical person, but it takes me a while to understand my own feelings, and then be able to verbalize them.  That's something that I hope to be able to accomplish through writing about my experience through this blog.  It's something I'll need to be able to do to write my personal statement.

I took time away from biochemistry and rediscovered my passion for learning.  I took time away from the pharmacy path, and found the drive still within me.  The beginning's of this blog has shown you the first steps, and by the end I will be in pharmacy school and on my way to my career.

Who am I? Part 2

So I'm looking at pharmacy schools, and studying to be a pharmacy technician, but who am I?  At what point am I at in getting into pharmacy school, and why am I at this point?

So I finally had a goal in life, more than go to school because it's expected of me.  So what happened?

Well, first things first.  I came back to school with pharmacy in mind, yet I said I'll be graduating with a degree in Psychology?  Why did I choose that?  The answer is: I didn't.

I came back to school pursuing a degree in biochemistry.  The much more obvious choice.  It's a very logical choice when it comes to relating my major with my career goal, and chemistry was the flip side of the coin when I originally chose my major.

But I wasn't happy just coming back to school with a new major.  Taking physics without a career goal isn't the only reason that I lost interest in what I was doing.  I lived in the East Bay for the San Francisco Bay Area, and I was commuting to San Francisco State University.  The commute was enough of a hassle that all I did was commute to school, take my physics classes, commute home.  All the other physics students (who were all much older than me), all would stay on campus for all kinds of hours.

I just couldn't do it.

And so I had no connection to the present.  I was solely working for my future, a future that was as vague as can be.  Life was pretty dull and lifeless at this point, and if I was going to go back to school, that also had to change.

So I joined a school organization.  I liked it.  I joined another.  I took on more and more leadership roles, and took on more tasks, never saying no whenever anyone asked for help.  I was doing community service and helping to develop the campus, and it felt good.  I was doing something that had immediate results.

Not only did it feel good helping out others, but I saw changes in myself.  I was becoming a lot less shy, and seeing how easy it was to do one task or another.

Almost all of that is a good thing.  Developing myself is a good thing.  Getting enjoyment for helping others and developing the community around me is a good thing.  Never saying no is not.

I took on too many tasks, all at the same time, and during my later semesters this was on top of taking 100% biology and chemistry classes.  That wasn't a smart thing.  Even worse, the organizations that I was in were taking a higher priority over my school work.  I felt worse letting other people down, rather than letting myself down, so my schooling was the first to give in under all that weight.

And so when people would ask me when I was going to graduate, my answer would be "Maybe in a year."  And it would be that answer semester after semester.

Eventually, I finally took a real look at what my transcripts looked like, and I knew there was no chance that I would get into pharmacy with that record.  I saw that I had taken a few psychology classes just for fun, and saw that I could graduate within a year if I switched majors.

Pharmacy was something I couldn't trick myself with anymore.  I needed to give it up, and just find a way to graduate.  At 27 I should have been in graduate school by now, or at the very least close to it.  At this point I knew I just needed to get some kind of degree after all this time, and I'd figure things out during the switch.

At the time, my pursuit of pharmacy was over.

Who am I? Part 1

So I'm looking at pharmacy schools, and studying to be a pharmacy technician, but who am I?  At what point am I at in getting into pharmacy school, and why am I at this point?

First, let's go into what sparked my interest in pharmacy.

My name is Gerry, and I live in the San Francisco Bay Area.  I'm 28 years old, and am only just about to get my bachelor's degree.  It'll be a degree in Psychology.  Although I wasn't always a Psychology major.

I was one of the top 5 students in my high school, and did excellent in most of my classes.  I could have gotten all A's if I wanted to, but I didn't particularly worry if I got an occasional B.  When it came time to choosing my major, I knew my parents wanted me to go into science, and I wasn't against that, so I took a look at my grades, and I got an A in Physics, and A in Chemistry, and a B in Biology.  I scratched Biology off the list, and flipped a coin.  It came up Physics.

That's a big problem with pressuring kids to choose their majors early, and being constantly told "You can be whatever you want to be."  Supposedly I could be anything, but with so many options, I had no idea how to decide.  I was good at physics, and I found the subject interesting, but did I know what I was going to do with it?  No.

As the semesters past, I really lost interest in what I was doing.  School was simply a chore, and eventually I realized that physics wasn't for me.

I took a semester off, and simply worked construction for my dad.  Getting away from the academic world and just using my body was a very nice change of pace.

During this time I went and stopped by the Air Force recruiter at the nearby mall.  He gave me his spiel and a pamphlet that contained all the jobs they could train me in.  It was a pretty long list, but I scanned through it quickly, because nothing seemed at all interesting to me.  Then near the end of the list was the word "Pharmacist".  I finished looked through the rest of the vocations simply to be thorough, but I knew that was the one.  It just clicked.

I ended up not joining the Air Force, but for the first time in my life I found a possible career that I could actually work towards.  I actually had a goal in mind, rather than simply going through the motions of high education.

Becoming a Pharmacy Technician

There are courses to take to become a certified pharmacy technician, but I'm not taking that route.  I've been given the advice multiple times to just buy some books to help study for the exam, and work on it on my own.

The two greatest benefits would be the time and money saved, in taking this approach.  Admittedly though, I did not really do all that much research before deciding to just study on my own.  A quick google search shows me that CSU East Bay offers a course for $1,825, and the the course is self-paced.  So it looks like only one of my assumptions was right, although right by a large margin.

What book to buy?  I went to amazon.com and looked at some reviews, and settled on

- The Pharmacy Technician, 3rd Edition

- The Pharmacy Technician: Workbook & Certification Review, 3rd Edition.

Total cost was about $82.

The books are clearly approved of by the APhA, and have all excellent reviews of 4 and 5 stars.  The other book I considered buying was, Mostby's Review for the PTCB Certification Examination, for $36 dollars, but while the average score was 4 stars, the scores were across all levels.

Here's a quote from one of the 2 star reviews (source):

2). The biggest problem is the abundance of typographical errors. There was contradictory information (eg: a class a balance has a minimum accuracy at 6mg...then, a few dozen pages later it says it is accurate at 120mg.....then a few dozen pages after that it is explained that there are several types of class A balances with different accuracy ranges). Forget about scoring yourself on the practice tests.....answers are coded improperly (you selected B, the answer guide says C is correct but the explanation clearly indicates that B is the right choice). Well, if you only double check the answers you got wrong and found these errors, how do you know if you actually got all of the other ones correct without verifying all of them (there are apprx. 1200 questions in the book - pay me and I'll edit the answers). There were even questions asked in the practice tests that did not match the answers given at all (which drug would you use to treat chronic pain? the choices were all hypertension drugs). There was also a question on a practice test that in no way, shape or form matched these answer - it was an entirely different question.

That scared me away a bit, although there are enough good reviews that I may consider it later.  But first I'll finish going through the ones that I have before considering getting a second book to study from.

The books contain 17 chapters with the standard problem types of matching, multiple choice, true/false, and short answer for use in studying, as well as a practice exam.  I've only just gotten started with the book, but it seems pretty decent so far.

We'll see how fast I can get through this, because I want to be certified as soon as possible, which I have in my head at about a month.  Without knowing the material in the books, that's a very tentative date.

University of the Pacific Preview Day

It's time I make a real first post, so details are still fresh in my mind.

I went to the UoP Preview Day last Saturday, in Stockton, California. (The next is on October 24th for those who want to go.) I have to say that it's a very well run event. Here's a run down of what the schedule was like:

10:00-10:30 - Check-in

10:30-12:00 - Welcome Session, Admission Session, and Financial Aid (Half hour segments)

12:00-12:30 - Lunch

12:30-04:30 - Faculty Presentations, Student Panel, Campus Tour, Admissions (Hour long segments)

Note: The first sessions were presented to two large groups, with the presenters traveling to each room. We split to even smaller groups for the hour long sessions. The first Admission Session was a presentation to a giant group of us with some Q&A. The hour long session was a short presentation to a smaller group of us followed by a sit down, one-on-one, with the admissions person.

For the most part, everything was on time and on schedule, and pretty much everything was informative.

In general, they accept about 200 students into their program, with about half coming from their own undergrad population.

They presented a break-down of the cost as compared to other California schools (which ranged from 90k to 151k), with UoP costing 141k, not counting housing. Then of course the follow up to that is the average salary of a pharmacist in California is 110k a year, and UoP's program is only three years long, as opposed to the four years of the other schools.

Then they address the obvious question of how cramming a four year program into three years affects the quality of education. Their answer? It doesn't. The program fits into three years because they teach year round, and do not have a break for summer.  The information isn't crammed into fewer school sessions, the vacation time is just shorter.

Another important topic discussed was the recent changes to their program. A big change includes gaining actual experience in a pharmacy setting, and switching up the setting each semester (from a hospital, to community pharmacy, to long-term care, etc.)

Then of course they had to present some statistics and awards they've received. In the past four years, they've received 1st, 2nd (x2), and 3rd place for the APhA Student Chapter Awards out of 100 schools. (I don't really have a good understanding of what that award entails, but it does sound impressive. Something I'll have to look up later.)  And last year, they had 99.3% of their students pass the NAPLEX* board exam, and 86.9% pass the CPJE** board exam. (With the average being 97.6% and 81.6% respectively.)

Overall, the campus was nice, the people were great, and their presentation was convincing. The only hiccups were easily finding the right place to park, because the graduate side of the campus is separated from the undergraduate side by a river, with no obvious way to get around, and the lightning storm that shut off electricity for a few minutes. UoP is certainly a school that I would love to get into. Where I actually end up remains to be seen.

Next Stop: UCSF on October 2nd

UoP website - Thomas J. Long School of Pharmacy and Health Sciences
* North American Pharmacist License Exam
** California Practice Standards and Jurisprudence Examination for Pharmacists

Work in progress

Newly created, will blog about my journey to getting into pharmacy school. Still need to figure out all the settings before I get started.