FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

The Master’s study of Pharmacy at the faculty typically takes 5 years. Each academic year has 2 semesters; thus, the standard study time is 10 semesters. You can exceed this time by up to 2 additional years.

During this time, student must complete a set of obligatory courses, a selected number of obligatory elective courses, and finally pass state exams which include the defence of diploma thesis. The Faculty also offers a number of elective courses.

Each of these courses is assigned a numerical credits value which is given to the student for each completed course.

Before each academic year, each student must set up his study plan, according to the instructions from and in cooperation with the Study department. The most straightforward way to choose courses is to follow the recommended study plan.

In this recommended plan, a set of obligatory courses is given for each semester of each academic year. The obligatory courses are courses that you must complete to graduate.

Furthermore, you need to take a number of obligatory elective courses to collect credits during your study. You can select any and all obligatory elective courses, but some of these courses may have prerequisites – previous courses which you need to complete before you can sign up for the course (the information on prerequisites can be found on the web page of the faculty or in the AIS). Finally, you can select any and all elective courses, based on your interest.

You will find the general scope and detailed information on each course in its course specification which can be found at the web page of each faculty department.

The progress of your study is controlled by the Study department at specified control time points. At each control point, the sum of credits you have gained by completing courses must reach a minimum value as given in the table below. If the student does not fulfill these minimal criteria, he/she will be expelled from the study at the Faculty of Pharmacy.

For the graduation of your study, you must gather 300 credits, complete all obligatory courses, and pass all state exams. You should plan your study beforehand to ensure that you meet these criteria.

Important: Please note that the credits for the elective courses do count towards the criteria at the control points, but do NOT count towards the 300 credits needed for study completion.

The studying at the Faculty of Pharmacy is performed in three principal ways: lectures, seminars, and laboratory practicals. However, just as important is the study from textbooks and discussion with lectors and fellow students.

Lectures typically take place in large lecture halls. The lecture halls of the faculty are the Assembly Hall, rooms 151, 419 (all at the Odbojarov street, the “green building”), and rooms 102, 105A and 105B (at the Kalinciakova street, the “red building”).

Seminars and lab practicals take place in rooms that are specified in the course syllabus and in the AIS2 system.

The syllabus is an important information on the organization of a specific course. Here you will find a detailed schedule of topics taught during each week, as well as necessary information about the course organisation and requirements for completing the course. You can find syllabi for each course at the web page of respective faculty departments or posted at the notice boards at the respective faculty departments.

To successfully obtain credits for a course, you need to complete the course itself and then pass the exam (examination) for that course.

To complete a course, you need to fulfill the requirements set for that particular course. These requirements are set for each course by the responsible lector. You will find them in the course syllabus, and you will be informed about them at the first lecture, seminar or practical. Typically, these requirements are (but are not limited to) the obligatory attendance at and satisfactory preparation for all seminars or practicals, sufficient score in any number of control tests during the semester, or a satisfactory preparation and presentation of a seminar work. It is important for you to familiarize yourselves with the requirements of each of your courses. If you do not meet these requirements, you will not complete the course and you will not be admitted for the final course exam. If you have problems meeting the requirements for a course, contact the lector to solve the situation as soon as possible.

An exam is the ultimate conclusion of each course that will test your mastery of the course. Exams can be in oral form, test form or combination thereof. Detailed information on exams from specific courses can be found on the web page of the respective faculty department.

Exams take place during the examination period of each semester which is specified in the time schedule for each academic year. Before the end of each semester, dates, times, and locations of exams from all active courses are posted in AIS2 system. To be admitted for an exam, you must first complete the course, i.e., fulfill all given criteria during the semester.

First, you must register for an exam in AIS2. This registration typically starts 2 weeks before the start of the examination period. You are registering for a specific date and time, and you can change this registration typically until up to 24 hours before the exam. Please note that you can register for an exam even if you have not completed the course; however, you still will not be admitted for the exam itself.

Once you are registered for the exam, you are required to take it. If you do not take an exam for which you have registered (for example, you will not attend the examination at a specified time and place), you will fail the exam automatically. If for important reasons you cannot take an exam and you cannot unregister in AIS2 anymore, immediately inform the examinator about your situation.

At the start of an exam, you must present yourself with your student ID card (ISIC). Without this identification, you cannot take the exam.

The results of an exam are typically posted immediately or on the same day. The result of an exam is a grade: A (best), B, C, D, E or Fx (fail).

You have the right to not accept the result of the exam, in which case you will be given the grade Fx. If you wish to use this approach, you must do so immediately after being given the result of your exam. In the case of written exams where the results are posted with a delay, you can refuse the result of your exam at most 48 hours after the results are posted.

Once you have accepted your exam grade A, B, C, D or E, you have passed the exam and the whole course.

If you have failed an exam (Fx), either by presenting unsatisfactory knowledge or by refusing the result of an exam, you can retake the exam at a different time during the examination period. You have to register for the repeated exam as usually in AIS2. You can take any course exam 3 times. If you fail an exam on your third try, you have failed the whole course and you must repeat that course next academic year.

If you do not take an exam for a course until the end of the examination period, you will automatically get the grade Fx and you will have failed the course that semester.

If a student failed an obligatory, obligatory elective, or elective course, he/she must repeatedly sign in to the course at the next academic year.

In case of a failed obligatory course, student must enrol into the same obligatory course.

In the case of an obligatory elective course, student must choose a repeated enrolment into the same, or a different obligatory elective course. If the student already has enough credits to finish the studies, he/she may choose not to repeat a failed obligatory elective course.

In the case of an elective course, student must choose the same elective course, a different elective course, or a different obligatory elective course. If the student already has enough credits to finish the studies, he/she may choose not to repeat a failed elective course.

In either case, the course taken up this way is considered a repeatedly enrolled course. If a student fails repeatedly enrolled course, he/she is expelled from the study.

State exams are the final examinations where you need to demonstrate your mastery of the whole pharmacy knowledge. In the last year of your study, you need to pass state exams from 6 subjects which are divided into 3 separate examination segments:

• State exam from Pharmacology, Pharmaceutical chemistry and Pharmacognosy – in the winter semester
• State exam from Pharmaceutical technology and Social Pharmacy and Retail Pharmacy – in the summer semester
• State exam from Graduation thesis defence – in the summer semester

The individual state exams are 6 obligatory courses (with credit values) that you must take in the last (typically 5^th) year of your study. The dates of state exams are specified by the dean of the faculty in the time schedule for each academic year. Individual students are assigned individual dates and times of a state exam by the Study department.

Student can take his last state exam only if:

• after successfully completing it, he will fulfill all conditions for graduation, i.e., he/she will have passed all required courses and will have enough credits
• no disciplinary proceeding against the student is active
• the student has no outstanding debt towards the faculty

State exams take place before an examination commission consisting of 4 members of the faculty. The result of a state exam is a grade A-Fx for each subject, given by a consensus of the whole examination commission.

If a student for serious reasons cannot attend a state exam for which he is signed up, he/she must excuse and explain himself in a written form to the head of the examination commission, at latest 3 days after the date of the state exam. Without this explanation, or if the reasons for the absence are deemed unsatisfactory, the student is awarded grade Fx for each subject of the state exam.

If a student obtained grade Fx from a state exam, he/she can retake the state exam from that subject 2 more times – either at a date of repeated state exams the same academic year, or at a date of regular state exams the next academic year.

A diploma thesis is a scientific publication that you need to complete and defend during the state exam Graduation thesis defence. During your work on the thesis, you will perform a theoretical, clinical, or experimental research at one of the faculty departments under the guidance of your thesis supervisor.

You will start the work on your diploma thesis typically in the winter semester of your 4^th study year, when you take the obligatory course Diploma Thesis Preparation (1). You will continue your work in the following semesters with the obligatory courses Diploma Thesis Preparation (2) and Diploma Thesis Preparation (3).

When you start working on diploma thesis, you need to choose a topic and a supervisor either by choosing from the available diploma thesis topics posted in AIS2 at that time, or by personal consultation and agreement with a chosen supervisor.

Once you have the topic and supervisor of your thesis, the supervisor will guide you and organize the whole process up to the successful defence of your work.

As a student of the faculty, you are part of the academic community of Comenius University Bratislava. As such, you must uphold the principles of academic integrity and refrain from any behaviour that would break those principles.

In connection to your study, these particular points are unacceptable:

• plagiarism: pretending that the work of others (publications, internet articles, work of other students, etc.) is your own; using others’ work or its part in your own work without proper credit and reference to the original work; verbatim use of others’ work without proper citation of the original author
• turning in repeatedly the same or slightly modified work which already was turned in by a student to meet his/her study requirements, without the express agreement of the responsible lector of the course
• any form of unallowed cooperation or help (vernacularly cheating) during a written or oral form of test or exam, or during the preparation for such test or exam
• using electronic or other technical devices, or any information storage media in any other than allowed way during preparation for or during a test or an exam; especially if

a) student has a hidden device which allows communication with another person; turned-off cell phone is NOT considered to be such a device

b) student is using any unpermitted device allowing communication with another person during the testing

c) student has any information storage or has access to such storage media, which contains even in part information being tested during the test or exam

d) student is using any unpermitted information storage medium during the testing

• not following any instruction or breaking rules set up specifically for a given test or exam

Such behaviour will result in your work being evaluated as Fx in the best case, or it will start a disciplinary proceeding before the Disciplinary commission that can lead to expulsion of the student from the study at the faculty in the worst case.

Generally speaking, in any situation during your study you should present your opinions, your thinking and your knowledge. If you are unsure how to proceed in any given situation or how to correctly work with scientific publications or other sources of information, consult your lector or your diploma thesis supervisor.