Rebuilding numeracy confidence across pharmacy
Each year, dedicated students begin their degree in pharmacy, often driven by a passion for medicine and improving patient health. Yet many encounter an unexpected obstacle: maths anxiety. The transition to university-level study involves applying numerical skills within complex, calculation-heavy contexts, where accuracy feels high-stakes and mistakes can seem consequential. In these moments, anxiety can quickly overshadow enthusiasm for the subject.
Across disciplines, educators are recognising this challenge and finding that the issue is often not a lack of mathematical knowledge, but difficulty applying familiar skills within new, disciplinary-specific contexts. By embedding numeracy within real-world pharmacy scenarios, they are helping students move from abstract calculation to practical understanding.
The confidence gap in pharmacy
In pharmacy, maths anxiety often surfaces when students are required to apply foundational numerical skills within unfamiliar pharmaceutical contexts. Even students who meet entry requirements may find it challenging to transfer mathematical knowledge into discipline-specific calculations, particularly when problems require combining several steps under assessment conditions.
This creates what can appear to be a confidence gap. Students may understand the underlying mathematical principles, yet feel uncertain when asked to apply them within authentic pharmacy scenarios. The difficulty lies not in the maths itself, but in knowing how and when to apply it appropriately, which can lead to hesitation, avoidance, or heightened anxiety during assessments.
Many pharmacy educators report that this distinction is important for understanding the student experience: the difference between lacking confidence in maths and difficulty applying mathematical knowledge within pharmaceutical contexts. What may initially appear as low confidence is often a signal that students have not yet had sufficient opportunities to practise using familiar mathematical ideas in applied pharmacy settings. Without this contextual practice, students can find it difficult to recognise how what they already know fits into real-world situations.
“I don't think that students lack confidence - their problems with calculations probably are more linked to their ability to apply what they know of maths in pharmaceutical calculations. We have worked at including pharmaceutical calculations in every module where it is appropriate and to always have them work on their skills in the context of the applied field - this seems to have improved the outcome and abilities of our students - also then their confidence.”
Professor Sarel Malan, Professor and Director of the School of Pharmacy at the University of the Western Cape
Making maths relevant in pharmacy
Across pharmacy departments, educators are finding that students engage more effectively with numeracy when calculations are embedded within authentic pharmaceutical scenarios that require students to interpret information and decide how to approach a problem. Rather than treating maths as a standalone skill, effective teaching integrates numerical reasoning into the same contexts students will encounter in their studies, where interpretation matters as much as accuracy.
This principle underpins the design of our Quantitative Skills Smart Worksheets for Pharmacy, co-developed with academics to reflect the types of calculations and reasoning students are expected to apply throughout their degree. By situating numeracy within realistic pharmacy scenarios, the resources support students in understanding not just how to calculate, but why a calculation matters and what a sensible result should look like.
For example, a core challenge for pharmacy students is mastering pharmacokinetics (PK), the study of how the body interacts with administered substances. In the Smart Worksheets, instead of performing abstract area-under-the-curve (AUC) calculations, students use these values to determine a drug’s bioavailability (F). They must evaluate whether a dose is the same across different routes of administration (IV vs. oral) and select the appropriate formula to adjust their calculation.
Similarly, students practise calculating the volume of distribution (Vd). This requires them to not only manipulate the formula Vd=CpDose but also to interpret what the resulting number actually means for a patient. By asking questions like “What does a high Vd value suggest?”, the resource shifts the focus from purely numerical output to clinical intuition - helping students understand that a high value indicates a drug is widely distributed throughout the body’s tissues rather than remaining concentrated in the plasma.
By situating numeracy within these realistic scenarios, the resources support students in understanding not just how to calculate, but why a calculation matters and what a sensible result should look like. Structured, contextualised practice helps students become more familiar with applying numerical skills across different situations, reducing the cognitive load that often accompanies unfamiliar or high-stakes calculations.
Safe practice builds confidence
Building confidence in quantitative skills requires more than exposure to content; students need space to try, reflect, and try again. When students practise without fear of judgement, their understanding deepens and their confidence begins to grow. This is the value of a genuinely low-stakes environment; it turns practice into exploration rather than performance.
Our Quantitative Skills Smart Worksheets support this by offering interactive, repeatable practice with immediate, structured feedback. Students can work through calculations at their own pace, check their reasoning, and learn from errors in real time, much like the learning cycle that underpins long-term conceptual understanding.
Since their launch in 2024, the Quantitative Skills resources have seen more than 6,000 attempts by 3,000 learners, generating approximately 181,000 answers. Each attempt represents a moment of practice that helps students build both competence and trust in their own work.
Collaboration, context and confidence
Addressing maths anxiety in pharmacy isn’t about simplifying the content, it’s about making learning feel meaningful. That’s why each Quantitative Skills resource is created in close collaboration with academics who understand the nuances of numeracy in their discipline. Their insight ensures the support isn’t generic, but reflects the real challenges students encounter in their lectures, labs, and assessments.
Working alongside many educators like Prof. Malan means the resources carry the same principle that guides their teaching: confidence grows when students can see how maths fits into the story of their science, not as something separate from it.
As more departments embed contextualised numeracy into their teaching, the message becomes clear: when students are supported to make sense of the numbers, they begin to trust themselves, and that confidence transforms how they learn.
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