How I Got a FIRST CLASS Degree Studying PHARMACY in the UK

Summary

In 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

00:00

🎓 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.

05:00

📚 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.

10:01

👋 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.

Keywords

💡First Class Honours

First Class Honours refers to the highest academic distinction awarded to students who achieve an exceptionally high level of performance in their degree program. In the context of the video, the lecturer emphasizes his achievement of First Class Honours despite not being 'naturally smart', which serves as a motivational point for students who may struggle with their studies. The lecturer's journey from retaking assessments to achieving this honor underscores the theme of perseverance and effective study techniques.

💡Pharmacy Practice

Pharmacy Practice is a field of pharmacy that focuses on the application of pharmaceutical knowledge to patient care. As a senior lecturer in pharmacy practice, the speaker's expertise in this area is central to the video's theme of academic success in pharmacy education. His insights into how to excel in this field are particularly relevant for students pursuing a degree in pharmacy.

💡Antimicrobial Pharmacist

An Antimicrobial Pharmacist is a specialist who focuses on the optimal use of antimicrobial agents to treat infections. The lecturer's role as an antimicrobial pharmacist in secondary care highlights his professional standing and the practical application of his academic knowledge. This keyword is significant as it positions the speaker as an authority on the subject matter, lending credibility to his advice on achieving academic excellence.

💡Studying Efficiency

Studying efficiency refers to the effectiveness and productivity of one's study habits. The lecturer admits to not being very efficient with his studying, which is a relatable admission for many students. He contrasts this with his later adoption of more efficient methods, such as active recall and spaced repetition, which are pivotal to the video's message on improving study habits and academic performance.

💡Forgetting Curve

The Forgetting Curve is a concept that describes the decline in memory retention over time. The lecturer mentions this to explain why students should not rely on last-minute cramming but instead use techniques like spaced repetition to combat forgetting. This concept is integral to the video's discussion on effective study strategies and the importance of regular review.

💡Active Recall

Active Recall is a study technique where learners actively attempt to retrieve information from memory rather than passively reading or rereading notes. The lecturer emphasizes the importance of this method by describing how he used it to test himself against his lecture slides, which is a key strategy he employed to achieve First Class Honours.

💡Spaced Repetition

Spaced Repetition is a learning technique that involves reviewing information at increasing intervals over time to enhance long-term memory retention. The lecturer recommends this method as a way to reinforce information and counteract the forgetting curve, which is a central theme in the video's advice on effective studying.

💡Flashcards

Flashcards are a study tool used to test one's knowledge on a particular topic, often by presenting a question on one side and the answer on the other. In the video, the lecturer describes creating flashcards not as a note-taking tool but as a means to formulate potential exam questions, which is a unique and effective approach to studying highlighted in the video.

💡Practice Testing

Practice Testing involves regularly testing oneself on learned material to gauge understanding and retention. The lecturer advocates for this method, suggesting that students should test themselves throughout the year rather than only at the end. This approach is central to the video's message on the importance of continuous assessment for effective learning.

💡Assessment

Assessment in an academic context refers to the evaluation of a student's performance, typically through exams or coursework. The video's focus on effective study techniques is aimed at preparing for assessments, which are critical for achieving high grades. The lecturer's tips are specifically geared towards excelling in assessments, which is the ultimate goal for most students.

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