How I Got a FIRST CLASS Degree Studying PHARMACY in the UK
Summary
TLDRIn this educational video, Yasser, a senior lecturer and antimicrobial pharmacist, shares his journey to achieving a first-class honors in pharmacy. Despite not being naturally smart and initially struggling, Yasser emphasizes the importance of efficient studying methods over note-taking. He introduces active recall and spaced repetition as key strategies to combat the forgetting curve, which he credits for his academic success. The video is aimed at students who aspire to excel in their studies, offering practical tips and study techniques to improve exam performance.
Takeaways
- 😀 The speaker, Yasser, emphasizes that he is not naturally smart and had to work hard to understand topics, dispelling the myth of effortless academic success.
- 📚 Yasser discloses that he was not initially accepted into pharmacy school and had to retake assessments, highlighting the importance of perseverance.
- 🕒 He admits to being inefficient with study time, spending more time in the library than actually studying, which is a common struggle among students.
- 📈 During his first three years of study, Yasser was on track for a 2:1 degree, but he improved his study methods in the fourth year to achieve a first-class honors.
- 🚫 Yasser advises against the common practice of note-taking and highlighting, which research shows to be inefficient study methods.
- 📝 He recommends creating flashcards with potential exam questions based on lecture content instead of traditional note-taking.
- 🧠 Yasser stresses the importance of active recall and spaced repetition to combat the forgetting curve and solidify information in long-term memory.
- 📆 He suggests a study schedule that includes immediate self-testing, re-testing after one week, and again after one month to reinforce memory.
- 📊 Yasser shares that his final year performance was crucial as it contributed significantly to his overall degree classification.
- 🔗 The speaker provides additional resources for further study techniques and invites viewers to follow him on Instagram for more tips.
Q & A
What is the main focus of the video by Yasser, the senior lecturer?
-The main focus of the video is to provide tips on how to achieve a first-class honors in a pharmacy degree, particularly for students who struggle with studying.
What are the three disclaimers Yasser gives at the beginning of the video?
-The three disclaimers are: 1) He is not naturally smart and has to spend more time understanding topics. 2) He is not efficient with his studying, often spending more time in the library than actually studying. 3) He was on track for a 2:1 grade in his first three years of study before improving to a first-class honors in his final year.
Why does Yasser emphasize that he is not naturally smart?
-Yasser emphasizes that he is not naturally smart to inspire students who may feel overwhelmed, showing that hard work and study techniques can lead to academic success even without being naturally gifted.
What was Yasser's initial academic performance before pharmacy school?
-Yasser initially got three C's in his assessments and had to retake them to achieve three A's to get into pharmacy school.
What study technique does Yasser advise against in the video?
-Yasser advises against the traditional note-taking and highlighting method, stating that it is an inefficient way to study.
What alternative method does Yasser recommend for studying pharmacy topics?
-Yasser recommends creating flashcards with potential exam questions based on lecture slides and then practicing answering those questions as a method of studying.
How does Yasser suggest students should test themselves with the flashcards?
-Students should test themselves by trying to answer the flashcard questions without looking at the lecture slides, and if they can't answer, they should review and practice until they can.
What is the phenomenon that causes students to forget most of their newly acquired information within a week?
-The phenomenon is known as the forgetting curve, which indicates that students tend to forget a significant portion of information soon after learning it.
What two study techniques does Yasser use to combat the forgetting curve?
-Yasser uses active recall and spaced repetition to combat the forgetting curve, ensuring that information is retained in long-term memory.
How does Yasser suggest students should schedule their practice testing throughout the year?
-Yasser suggests that students should practice test themselves immediately after learning new material, then again after one week, and then after one month, with additional testing closer to the exam date if it's further away.
What was the impact of Yasser's study techniques on his final year and overall degree classification?
-Yasser's use of active recall and spaced repetition in his final year helped him achieve a first-class classification across all modules, which significantly pulled up his overall degree grade.
Outlines
🎓 Journey to First-Class Honors in Pharmacy
Yasser, a senior lecturer and antimicrobial pharmacist, shares his personal journey to achieving first-class honors in his pharmacy degree. He dispels the myth of being naturally smart, admitting to having retaken assessments to get into pharmacy school. Initially, he struggled with studying and was not efficient with his time. Despite working towards a 2:1 grade in his first three years, Yasser managed to elevate his performance to first-class honors by the end of his degree. He emphasizes the importance of exam techniques and aims to share meaningful tips on how to study effectively, particularly for students who find studying challenging.
📚 Effective Study Techniques: Active Recall and Spaced Repetition
Yasser introduces two powerful study techniques: active recall and spaced repetition. He advises against the common practice of note-taking and highlighting, which research shows to be inefficient. Instead, he suggests creating flashcards with potential exam questions based on lecture content. Students should test themselves on these questions immediately after learning new material and then revisit them after one week and one month to combat the forgetting curve. This method helps move information from short-term to long-term memory. Yasser's strategy worked for him, resulting in a first-class classification across all modules in his final year, significantly impacting his degree outcome.
👋 Wrapping Up the Study Tips Video
In the final paragraph, Yasser concludes his video by inviting viewers to follow him on Instagram for more study tips and to access his free masterclass on effective studying. He also provides a Skillshare link in the comments for further learning resources. Yasser encourages viewers to like and subscribe if they found the video helpful, signaling the end of his presentation.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡First Class Honours
💡Pharmacy Practice
💡Antimicrobial Pharmacist
💡Studying Efficiency
💡Forgetting Curve
💡Active Recall
💡Spaced Repetition
💡Flashcards
💡Practice Testing
💡Assessment
Highlights
Yasser, a senior lecturer and antimicrobial pharmacist, shares his journey to achieving a first-class honours in pharmacy.
He dispels the myth of being naturally smart and emphasizes hard work over innate intelligence.
Yasser admits to initially struggling with his studies, having to retake assessments to get into pharmacy school.
He discusses the inefficiency of traditional note-taking and highlights as a study method.
Yasser introduces the concept of 'active recall' as a more effective study technique.
He explains the importance of 'spaced repetition' to combat the forgetting curve.
The video focuses on exam techniques as a key area for improvement in students' study habits.
Yasser recommends creating flashcards with potential exam questions rather than traditional notes.
He advises students to test themselves frequently to ensure information retention.
The讲师 shares his personal experience of improving from a 2:1 to a first-class honours in his final year.
Yasser emphasizes the significance of the final year in determining the overall degree classification.
He provides practical tips on how to study effectively for pharmacy exams.
The video aims to inspire students who struggle with studying and offer them a path to academic success.
Yasser invites viewers to follow him on Instagram for more study tips and access to a free masterclass.
He encourages viewers to like and subscribe for more content on effective studying.
Transcripts
my name is yasser i'm a senior lecturer
in pharmacy practice and a specialist
antimicrobial pharmacist in secondary
care today i want to go through a video
which i think a lot of pharmacy students
will find helpful
and it's how i got a first class honours
in my pharmacy degree i want to make a
short video where i go through some
meaningful tips on how
i achieved a first class honours
and how you can too before i start i
want to give you three massive
disclaimers and the first one is the
fact that i am not naturally smart i
don't know if
the fact of being naturally smart even
exists but i know if it does i'm not one
of them i spend a lot more time than a
lot of other students
trying to understand particular topics
and trying to
stick that into my brain and that's
something that i want you to hold on to
when you're watching this video i don't
want you to feel like i've always been
achieving far more i don't want you to
feel like i'm always outperforming the
students around me
and it's something that's just in my dna
absolutely not in fact one of the
stories that i often say to
provide some form of inspiration to the
students that i teach is the fact that i
didn't get into pharmacy school first
time i actually had to retake a lot of
my assessments in order to get into
pharmacy school i was grateful for the
fact that i did do really well when i
read to all of the assessments and i was
able to achieve three a's
but prior to that i actually achieved
three c's and no pharmacy school in the
uk would actually accept me so that's
one of the disclaimers
is the fact that i am not naturally
smart i am probably like a lot of you
and struggle with studying
the second point that i want to go
through is the fact that i'm not very
efficient with my studying so it's not
one of those things where i could go to
the library and say i'm going to spend
four hours and studying and i spend all
of those four hours studying and then i
have a well-deserved break
it's more of the fact that i will spend
about 10 hours in the library and i
realistically spend about three and a
half of those hours actually studying so
efficiency is something that i've always
struggled with as a student the third
and final disclaimer is the fact that i
actually was working on a 2-1
perfectly in the middle of a 2-1 in my
first three years of study for those of
you who do know
the course to study pharmacy in the uk
is four years at an undergraduate level
the first three years of those i was
actually working on a 2-1
so
something that i did in the fourth year
made me pull up my entire grade to a
first-class honors and i feel like i've
got some meaningful tips on how i did
that so if you are already great at
studying if you are already efficient at
studying if you're already working on a
fest
maybe this won't be massively helpful to
you but i still feel like i've got some
tips for you but this is for the people
that struggle with studying this is for
the students that want to do well but
despite all of their efforts you just
can't get that first class so hopefully
you find this video useful what i really
want to be focusing on in this video is
exam techniques
and this is something that the majority
of students that i teach
so i actually work as a lecturer in
pharmacy practice at the moment the
majority of the students i teach do not
study well i didn't study well and
that's something that i figured out in
my fourth year so in the first three
years of studying there's one thing that
i did that almost all students do which
is very inefficient and that's making
notes that's rewriting your entire
lecture notes with fancy colors
highlighting your lecture notes and
spending the majority of your year
note-taking this is an extremely bad and
very inefficient
way to study i don't want to go through
the evidence base behind why it's so bad
but i will tell you that definitively
there are several studies
that show you that note taking and
highlighting are a low utility study
method i will link a video in the
description box below where i go through
the evidence base behind this so the
main thing i wanted to do is scrap note
taking scrap highlighting they were not
efficient way to study
so how did i study instead
so it's doing the one thing that you
almost never want to do when you're
studying for an exam and that's practice
testing everyone thinks that they don't
have a problem with testing themselves
they feel like well i do it at the end i
do all of my note taking throughout the
year and then i'll practice with
questions at the end that's something
that's a big waste of time what you
should be doing is going through a
particular topic so what i used to do is
if i had my lecture notes in front of me
i would work through the first three
slides of those lecture slides
i will
look up any
words that i do not understand i will
make sure i understand all of the
definitions i will try to understand the
content once you have grasped the
content of the first three slides
then i would make flash cards but these
flash cards were not the same way that
you're taking notes these flash cards
were essentially writing down questions
that could be asked in the assessment so
that's something that's really important
if you have sample questions look at the
way sample questions are written and you
have to develop your own questions with
the first three slides that you go
through for example so
if you have lecture notes on pneumonia
the first question you're going to ask
yourself
is what is the definition of pneumonia
the next slide says
what are the causative organisms
of pneumonia which bacteria can cause
pneumonia for example your next slide
will have the question name three
causative organisms of pneumonia let's
say it differentiates between hospital
acquired and community acquired
pneumonia
name three causative organisms of
community acquired pneumonia name three
causative organisms of hospital acquired
pneumonia so you can have two separate
flashcards once you've gone through and
developed questions for those first
three slides try and answer them if you
can't answer them you have not fully
absorbed the first page of your notes
one thing that often occurs is you will
write notes on the first three slides
you will know that if someone tested you
you wouldn't be able to answer those
questions yet you still continue don't
do that anymore the next thing that you
want to do is
test yourself until you can answer those
questions so what is the definition of
pneumonia you're thinking of the
definition try to define it if your
definition is wrong correct yourself
until you get it right
and then move on move on until you can
correctly answer those questions
without any help from the lecture slides
and then you continue to do this for the
entirety of the lecture slides and you
have done the first thing you have
tested yourself against
all of the lecture slides and then you
would assume that it's instilled in your
brain and you're ready for the exam when
it's three months away six months away
and the truth is absolutely not what
will then happen
is you will forget 90
of your newly acquired information
within the first week this is a
phenomenon that is well known and is
known as the forgetting curve you're
going to forget 90 of your newly
acquired information and you have to
embrace that so what do you do next
the next week
you go back to those questions that you
had and you try to answer them again if
you can't answer them look into your
lecture slides for help and then try to
answer it without the assistance of your
lecture side so keep going through it
until you can answer it without the
assistance of your lecture slides
and then you do that same thing
after
three further weeks so after a month in
total so you've got your initial test
you've got your test at week one
and then you've got your test after one
month
and if your exam is three months away
then re-test yourself closer to that
exam that way you're
less likely to forget that information
and it's more likely to store itself in
your long-term memory i'm mindful that
this is
a short video but that's one of the most
meaningful ways
to study four assessments and that's
something that i did throughout the
fourth year i was very keen on practice
testing throughout the year so what i
was doing there is using a study
technique called active recall and then
the second thing that you're doing is
something called spaced repetition and
that's the way in which you're trying to
combat the forgetting curve
work against the forgetting curve these
are two of the most effective study
methods that i use
in the final year of my pharmacy degree
i got a first class classification
across all of my modules
to the point that it pulled up the
entirety of the other years the way in
which this works is because my final
year contributes to the large majority
of your degree so the finally i
contributed to 70
of your marks in the degree
so that way
the fact that i got 74 as an average in
the final year meant i pulled up the
entirety of my las hopefully you found
this video useful if you did find it
useful and you want other study
techniques follow me on instagram if you
want access to my free masterclass on
how to study more effectively i will
leave my skillshare link in the comment
section below hopefully this gives you
some tips and tricks on how to study
better for exams if you found this video
useful please like it please subscribe
and i'll see you in the next one
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