How to Prepare for Pharmacy Certification
To become a pharmacy technician you must first pass a certification exam. This exam tests a person's knowledge and skill base for activities performed as a pharmacy tech. It contains 80 multiple-choice questions plus ten pre-test questions which do not count in the score but are used to design future tests. These pre-test questions are sprinkled throughout the exam and are not identified as such, so all questions must be answered.
The exam takes two hours to complete and consists of three sections: assisting the pharmacist in serving patients, maintaining medication and inventory control systems, and participating in the administration and management of pharmacy practice.
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Instructions
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How to Prepare for Pharmacy Certification
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Familiarize yourself with the exam format. Your school may have study-preparation guides and the Pharmacy Technician Certification Board has practice tests available. Those taking the exam should be aware that it is to their advantage to answer all questions since the score is determined by the total of correct answers.
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Enlist your supervising pharmacist in developing a study plan. Supervising pharmacists are familiar with the exam and the information covered. Another option is to ask new pharmacy technicians for help. Since they have recently taken the exam, the overall structure and content type is fresh in their minds.
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Study for questions involving assisting the pharmacist in serving patients as these questions make up 66 percent of the exam. Broad topics under this heading include helping to provide patients with relevant information on medications, helping the pharmacist compound the medications, helping patients with payment options including assistance programs, updating patient information and processing the prescription in the system.
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Prepare for the other two sections of the exam. The section on maintaining medication and inventory control systems counts for 22 percent of the exam while the part on administration and management comprises 12 percent of the exam. Of course while it's important to study for all sections, it's important to note that these make up the minority of the test.
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Review texts recommended by supervising pharmacists, check the current listing offered by the PTCB and review the practice test provided by the PTCB. The PTCB does not endorse any specific study guides or courses, however.
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References
- Photo Credit préparatrices en pharmacie image by cédric chabal from Fotolia.com
