title: Relationship of Prepharmacy Repeat Course History to Students' Early Academic Difficulty in a Pharmacy Curriculum.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To examine the relationship between students' prepharmacy repeat course history and their academic difficulties early in a professional pharmacy program in conjunction with other prerequisite success variables known to predict academic difficulty.
  
  
  METHODS
  For students admitted to a pharmacy program in 2010 and 2011 (n=160), admission variables [eg, prepharmacy coursework, grade point average (GPA)] and pharmacy program academic difficulty data (ie, academic difficulty defined as a pharmacy GPA in the bottom quartile of the class after 3 semesters of pharmacy course work) were extracted. Regression analysis was employed to examine the relationship between admission variables and academic difficulty.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Twenty-six percent of the students (n=42) repeated a course, and 50% of these students (n=21) repeated more than one course. All of the admissions variables studied were found to individually increase the odds of a student having academic difficulty early in the pharmacy program. Specifically, repeat of a prepharmacy course increased the odds of academic difficulty threefold.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Repeating prepharmacy coursework appears to be a strong indicator of future academic difficulties early in a professional pharmacy program.
authors.affiliation: South Dakota State University, Brookings, South Dakota.
authors.forename: Daniel J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Hansen
authors.affiliation: South Dakota State University, Brookings, South Dakota.
authors.forename: Jane R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Mort
authors.affiliation: South Dakota State University, Brookings, South Dakota.
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Brandenburger
authors.affiliation: South Dakota State University, Brookings, South Dakota.
authors.forename: Allison
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lempola
mesh_terms: D032882:Comprehension; D003479:Curriculum; D004512:Education, Pharmacy / Q000379:methods*; D004521:Educational Measurement; D004522:Educational Status; D006801:Humans; D007858:Learning; D016015:Logistic Models; D016017:Odds Ratio; D012570:School Admission Criteria; D012580:Schools, Pharmacy; D013339:Students, Pharmacy / Q000523:psychology; D013663:Teaching / Q000379:methods*
keywords: academic success; admissions; early intervention; repeat courses; student success