How Do I Prepare for the Pharmacy Technicians Exam?
When you have considered and decided to become a pharmacy technician, the following are the steps you need to take into consideration in order to achieve your goal:
Step 1: You need to decide whether you want to enroll yourself in the program through online or offline study.
Step 2: Sit for Pharmacy Technician Certification Exam and make sure you pass it.
Step 3: Once you have passed the examination, you are required to take 20 hours of certified courses every 2 years when you are already a pharmacy technician.
Step 4: You may further your study in niche areas after you have passed the
examination.
Before going further, let’s learn more about Pharmacy Technicians Exam in order for you to have sufficient information on hand during your preparation for pursuing this course. It is a must for you to meet the qualifying standard before you are employed as pharmacy technicians.
Pharmacy Technician Certification Board (PTCB) is the pioneer and industry leader in pharmacy technician certification. It was founded in 1995 and to-date, PTCB has certified more than 300,000 pharmacy technicians. It is very well recognized and wide accepted either in public or private sector.
Pharmacy Technician Certification Examination is offered by Pharmacy Technician Certification Board (PTCB). This examination is the only pharmacy technician examination endorsed by American Pharmacists Association, American Society for Health-System Pharmacists and National Association of Boards of Pharmacy.
It can be said as a must for those candidates who pursue pharmacy technician courses to pass this particular examination in order to be Certified Pharmacy Technicians. It is a basic assessment to assess the level of knowledge and skills of a candidate on performing daily activities as a pharmacy technician.
Once he or she obtains this certification, then only he or she will obtain a job position as pharmacy technician in pharmaceutical sector.
Next, let’s take a closer look at the examination. The content framework of the entire examination is supported by a nationwide study of the daily work a pharmacy technician performs.
A set of standard practices and operating procedures has been identified and candidates will be assessed according to framework. The structure of the examination scores consists for the following parts:
- Assisting pharmacists in serving patients – 66%
- Maintaining medication and inventory control systems – 22%
- Participating in administration and management of pharmacy practice – 12%
The duration of the test is 3 hours as the examination contains 125 multiple choice questions. Additionally there are another 15 pre-test questions which are not included in the total score. The final score is based on the total number of questions answered correctly.
Before taking the examination, many employers require the candidates to go through necessary training fixed by the employers together with lab experience and a “coaching”, i.e. externship in order to enable the candidates to gain real pharmacy experience. They must at least have some real experience with them as the questions in the examination are related. Without the real experience, the candidates are not able to pass the exam successfully.
It is not difficult to pass the pharmacy technicians exam if you have a systematic approach. If you are still uncertain with the information obtain, go direct to the consultants of the colleges or universities to get clear picture.