CPH Exam

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DrJosephKim

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I'm curious - how many people are planning on taking the CPH exam this year?

http://www.publichealthexam.org/

This is the very first year this exam is being offered. So, there are pros/cons associated with this. There is no defined passing rate. The online study guide is incomplete. Exam registration ends this month.

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Likely not very man from this board; if you scroll around you will notice most of us are in the application process or have just matriculated and will not have a relevant graduate degree from a CEPH program by the time of the exam. Good luck to you, and be sure to visit back to let us know how it goes!
 
I'm bumping an old thread here...

I'm taking the CPH exam in a few months. Did anyone here take it last year? What was it like, and please, how did you study for it? The practice test that I have that was given as prep for last year is ...awful really. I mean, the questions are all over the place

Any information would be very helpful!!
 
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Anyone know the advantage of this certification yet? When I was graduating BU last year, they didn't make any recommendations as to the purpose of taking this test because it's not widely utilized as a basis of employment yet.
 
It's not used for employment yet, but that doesn't mean it won't be used in the future. Might as well get it out of the way now!
 
It's not used for employment yet, but that doesn't mean it won't be used in the future. Might as well get it out of the way now!

Just my thoughts...

It also might never become necessary for true certification... I only argue this because unlike certification for other professions (MD, RN, RD, etc.), the PH field is FAR too broad to require such a certification.

Now if there were separate certifications to become an Epidemiologist or a Program Health Director, that might make more sense. But why do you need a comprehensive exam to say you know all 5 areas of public health (when you possess a MPH?).
 
I keep weighing the benefits of taking it now or waiting. Personally, I think the probability that the CPH exam will be used for anything practical in the next 10 years is pretty much zero. I think the public health field is different in that pretty much everybody already has a graduate degree, which is different than other fields with certification exams (i.e. project management or hospital executives).

Also, the CPH exam is designed to be general across all the major public health disciplines, but almost no jobs in public health really care if you have knowledge across all those fields -> they care if you have a deep insight/comprehension into their specific field (i.e. biostats jobs don't care if you can apply the social ecological framework and health behavior jobs don't care if you can run a tobit and interpret the coefficients).

My vote: don't take the CPH exam.
 
Hello everyone,

I've been getting a lot of private messages about my experience with the CPH exam so I thought I'd just post a response here for everyone to read.

Like most people who took the exam, I passed. My concentration was biostats, and that and epi were my strong points. The categories that each student is graded on are Biostatistics, Environmental Health Science, Epidemiology, Health Policy and Management, Social and Behavioral Sciences, and Cross-cutting Competencies. There is no minimum score within each section.

I bought the 'study' material from the NBPHE or whatever their abbreviation is. Basically, it's a bunch of practice questions that may or may not be the sort of stuff that's on the exam. The test itself is pretty random. "Find the outbreak" (was it the chicken or the egg salad?) using basic epi was on there, as well as defining pearson and spearman correlations, eg some technical biostats terms. Then there was "what's the best way to preheat chicken?" which really through me through a loop. It was an odd mix to be sure. But really, I think it mirrors the MPH degree pretty well (I did learn some pretty random stuff in school!)

...the PH field is FAR too broad to require such a certification..

What makes an accredited school accredited is that they all agree to a standardized curriculum. So really, because we're all supposed to learn the same thing, having a test at the end of the two years isn't that crazy.

But why do you need a comprehensive exam to say you know all 5 areas of public health (when you possess a MPH?).

To make sure you learned what you should have! Creating a standard for graduation (the NBPHE's ultimate goal with the exam) addresses a core issue with the MPH degree, and like I said, I don't think passing it could ever be a bad thing. It reminds me of the competencies ('comps') that PhD students have to take

Your other point is well taken though, CPH exam was not designed to be the only certification exam you'll ever need, it just covers the basics of what an MPH grad should know, epi to health policy. I become a SAS Certified Advanced Programmer when I graduated years ago to become more biostat friendly for the sort of job I wanted.

To summarize: it's a doable exam, and it made me review public heath stuff that I honestly should have known anyway. I think everyone who gets an MPH should take it. Yes the test is random as hell, but there is enough stuff of substance that makes it a necessary exam.

No, it will not guarantee you a job, but it was a GREAT conversation starter during interviews. I can't stress this enough. Only a few weeks ago I explained to an interviewer what the CPH exam was, and they seemed to agree that having a standardized exiting exam seemed like a good idea, being as all accredited schools are supposed to teach the same thing. If anything, it showed MY desire to have standards in the workplace which came across very well indeed (I got the position!). FYI I am a medical student who interviewed for a public health position

I don't use the CPH title as I think it will confuse people, and I think it's a tad silly

Good luck in whatever you all chose, PM me if you have questions as I don't look at the forums at all these days
 
hi I am a medical doctor, next week I am taking basic SAS certification exam and registered for the CPH exam this august and wondering what material should is better to prepare for the exam. I appreciate if you could provide me with more input and any particular strategies. Thank you in advance for your help.
 
hi I am a medical doctor, next week I am taking basic SAS certification exam and registered for the CPH exam this august and wondering what material should is better to prepare for the exam. I appreciate if you could provide me with more input and any particular strategies. Thank you in advance for your help.
 
To make sure you learned what you should have! Creating a standard for graduation (the NBPHE's ultimate goal with the exam) addresses a core issue with the MPH degree, and like I said, I don't think passing it could ever be a bad thing. It reminds me of the competencies ('comps') that PhD students have to take

Don't all Masters students take comps as well? I have to and I am pretty sure the demonstrates my knowledge of the 5 core areas.
 
Don't all Masters students take comps as well?

No, not all colleges have comps for masters students. I know I didn't take any.

So then, basically your school's comp exam would be replaced by this standardized test. That's the plan for the future, at least that's what the apha says in their emails

also to the guy above, the SAS basic exam is really easy, just make sure you know how to do arrays and make things look pretty using proc format. It's the advanced exam that has macros and SQL which is more difficult. The SAS prep book published by SAS themselves is great, i used that book alone and passed no problem
 
To Study for the CPH exam, I like the detailed e-book available on Amazon: Meeting Certified in Public Health (CPH) Exam Competencies: Biostatistics
Good Resource
Just $10!!!
i thought it was value pricing...
 
No comps at my school, just a thesis . I'd prefer comps, personally.

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