Fall 2026

Consumer Self-care and Over-the-counter Drugs

Consumer Self-Care and Over-the-Counter Drugs teaches self-care for minor health conditions, including illness prevention and OTC product safety.

offering recorded2 credits
Recorded instructors · Fall 2026 Barry GidalBeth MartinDenise Walbrandt Pigarelli +2 more

Summary

1 / 6

Students report spending more time on this two-credit class than on heavier courses due to the need to memorize slides and perform well on three major exams.

Grade history

↗
average GPA
letter grades
A
AB
B
BC
C
D
F

All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors

Prerequisites

Course map

Not open to students declared in the Nursing, Physician Assistant, or Doctor of Pharmacy programs

      • Nursing
      • Physician Assistant
      • Doctor of Pharmacy
      take one
    not eligible with
PHMPRAC 305

This is a best-effort interpretation; check the catalog requirements above.

Prerequisite text tree
  • Not eligible with
    • Any of
      • Nursing
      • Physician Assistant
      • Doctor of Pharmacy

Professors

Fall 2026

Recent recorded grades — Fall 2021: 3.06 GPA, 50.6% A/AB (n=79 letter grades); Fall 2024: 2.85 GPA, 30.7% A/AB (n=75 letter grades); Fall 2025: 2.79 GPA, 32.6% A/AB (n=46 letter grades). Includes jointly taught sections.

Recent recorded grades — Fall 2021: 3.06 GPA, 50.6% A/AB (n=79 letter grades); Fall 2024: 2.85 GPA, 30.7% A/AB (n=75 letter grades); Fall 2025: 2.79 GPA, 32.6% A/AB (n=46 letter grades). Includes jointly taught sections.

Denise Walbrandt Pigarelli is described as kind, sweet, and accessible during office hours. Reviewers appreciate her availability for support outside of class, noting her approachable nature despite her strictness in the classroom.

Students report that the course is exam-heavy, with exams comprising 84% of the grade. Reviewers note that success requires memorizing hundreds of facts and spending significant time studying, often more than for higher-credit courses.

Recent recorded grades — Fall 2021: 3.06 GPA, 50.6% A/AB (n=79 letter grades); Fall 2024: 2.85 GPA, 30.7% A/AB (n=75 letter grades); Fall 2025: 2.79 GPA, 32.6% A/AB (n=46 letter grades). Includes jointly taught sections.

No course-specific feedback yet.

Recent recorded grades — Fall 2024: 2.85 GPA, 30.7% A/AB (n=75 letter grades); Fall 2025: 2.79 GPA, 32.6% A/AB (n=46 letter grades). Includes jointly taught sections.

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

BARRY GIDAL is recorded teaching in Fall 2011, Fall 2018, Fall 2019, Fall 2020, Fall 2021, Fall 2024, Fall 2025. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

BETH MARTIN is recorded teaching in Fall 2019, Fall 2020, Fall 2021, Fall 2024, Fall 2025. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

DENISE WALBRANDT PIGARELLI is recorded teaching in Fall 2011, Fall 2012, Spring 2013, Fall 2013, Spring 2014, Fall 2014, Spring 2015, Fall 2015, Spring 2016, Fall 2016, Spring 2017, Fall 2017, Fall 2018, Fall 2019, Fall 2020, Fall 2021, Fall 2024, Fall 2025. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

MARINA MAES is recorded teaching in Fall 2024, Fall 2025. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Calendar & sections

Fall 2026

Schedule loads here as you scroll.

SectionModeEnrolled / capacityWaitlist
LEC 001Classroom Instruction30 / 800

Times are Central. Select a meeting for details; export includes recorded dates for the selected sections. Enrollment reflects scan time.

Meeting source records
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Student experience

the class

Denise Pigarelli teaches a practical but demanding course where students must memorize hundreds of facts for exams worth 84% of the grade. While the workload is heavy, the content is considered useful for pharmacy students.

Recent recorded grades — Fall 2021: 3.06 GPA, 50.6% A/AB (n=79 letter grades); Fall 2024: 2.85 GPA, 30.7% A/AB (n=75 letter grades); Fall 2025: 2.79 GPA, 32.6% A/AB (n=46 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Students report spending more time on this two-credit class than on heavier courses due to the need to memorize slides and perform well on three major exams.

Reviewers describe Pigarelli as kind and available during office hours, recommending the course for pharmacy students despite the high exam weight.

Topics

  • Illness prevention
  • Health condition symptoms
  • Adverse effects and drug interactions

Skills

  • Guidelines for OTC product use
  • Assessing adverse effects and interactions
  • Determining need for professional care

Grades

Historical instructor

Fall 2026 · Projected

Before grades are released

– average GPA

Approximate 80% prediction interval

About this estimate

The course’s semester-average GPA, not an individual student’s grade. The center uses 3 same-season terms, weighted toward recent results.

The range uses the finite-sample 80th-percentile rank of absolute errors from earlier same-season forecasts. Each forecast uses only records from earlier terms. At least four forecasts are required; bounds are rounded outward and limited to 0–4. This is an empirical estimate: changing instructors or grading policies can reduce its coverage.

8 earlier forecasts · 0.12 GPA average error.

Grades over time

Through Fall 2026

More grade details Grade mix, volume & source data

Where this course fits relative to

Latest available grades · Fall 2025 · all course levels

GPA

Higher than % of other courses in this group.

Course GPAs · red marks this course’s range

letter grades

More recorded grades than % of other courses in this group.

Typical course in this group: letter grades.

About this comparison

1320 courses over the same term, each with at least 30 recorded letter grades. Cross-listed courses count once. GPA is not a measure of difficulty or teaching quality. The typical course is the median by recorded grade count; tied values are not counted as lower. Grade counts describe course scale, not unique students or typical section size.

Descriptions compare GPA with this group’s average: at least 0.20 higher or lower; otherwise close to average. Section size uses median recorded enrollment: small up to 30, mid-sized 31–99, large 100+. Lectures and discussion/lab sections are described separately.

Sources & history

UW–Madison

Catalog & offerings

Descriptions, prerequisites, and recorded course offerings.

Catalog observation history

Observations at scan time; dates do not imply when a catalog change took effect.

Download part 1
Selected offering source records
PHMPRAC 305 · Fall 2026

Consumer Self-Care and Over-the-Counter Drugs

Recorded 2026-09-07
Raw records 
[
  {
    "run_id": "20260907T155543-ce3781c4",
    "semester": "1272",
    "observed_at": "2026-09-07 15:55:43.033547+00:00",
    "offering_id": "1272:728:023600",
    "course_id": "PHMPRAC 305",
    "course_uid": "course_63fc93f378c26c78e2b0a625",
    "term_id": "1272",
    "source_course_id": "023600",
    "source_subject_id": "728",
    "title": "Consumer Self-Care and Over-the-Counter Drugs",
    "credits_min": 2,
    "credits_max": 2,
    "typically_offered": "Fall"
  }
]
Rate My Professors

Student reviews

Original comments behind the course and instructor summaries.

Read original reviews
Download part 1
Madgrades

Grade history

Recorded grade distributions by term, section, and instructor.

Explore recorded grades
Dataset & model

Recorded 2026-09-07

View the dataset on Hugging Face
Model outputs & technical records
nvidia/Qwen3.6-35B-A3B-NVFP4
LLM outputs across runs
Download part 1
Full model traces

Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.

Download part 1
Model & dataset provenance 
{
  "model": "nvidia/Qwen3.6-35B-A3B-NVFP4",
  "model_revision": "1355db6a052410cfd62085d94b58866fd0f2c3c5",
  "task_version": "14",
  "output_id": "262acbe151c1a4fa8a721d41d7ad6bac1695ac0e825b2379ed93223cd83dca3e",
  "requirements_status": "valid",
  "dataset_revision": "e243353dcb7d79b7247ced91d69443ef4c2a6349",
  "observed_at": "2026-09-07 15:55:43.033547+00:00"
}