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- May 4, 2004
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I took the PCTB exam this morning (Saturday, July 23rd). Man was it a difficult exam!!
I went to my local library and checked out the 2 most popular pharmacy technician books available, Delmar's and Moini's Pharmacy Technician book. I even spent $85 to purchase materials at Pharmacytrainer.com.
I went through the entire pharmacy trainer manual, did over 500 practice questions and memorized a majority of the top 200 drugs, their generic & trade names and functions.
Then upon taking the exam, AT LEAst 25-30% of the questions are no where to be found in any of these 3 books. Questions using drugs i have never even heard of, detailed questions about insulin, and a question regarding which DEA
form is needed to dispose of controlled drugs (is it 40 or 41? And no it is not the 222!!!)
And off the wall questions that i was lucky to get correct just from knowledge i gained in my chemistry, biology and anatomy classes that helped me.
Did i miss some essential book or test material in my studying for the PCTB?
It reminded me of exams where you study everything they give you and and you know cold and you can only answer about 60% of the questions with good certainty. I guessed on at least 20-25% of the questions.
What is the deal? Have they made it SAT like? Scores are 300-900 or something, with a 650 to pass, and they scale based on how others performed.
This reminds me of the math section on the PCAT. It was impossible. i never finished the math section and just flat out guessed on 35-40% of the questions. I walked out of the exam feeling horrible. Then six weeks later i get my scores and i get an 85%??? WTF???
I hate exams that are too difficult and then curved!!!
I went to my local library and checked out the 2 most popular pharmacy technician books available, Delmar's and Moini's Pharmacy Technician book. I even spent $85 to purchase materials at Pharmacytrainer.com.
I went through the entire pharmacy trainer manual, did over 500 practice questions and memorized a majority of the top 200 drugs, their generic & trade names and functions.
Then upon taking the exam, AT LEAst 25-30% of the questions are no where to be found in any of these 3 books. Questions using drugs i have never even heard of, detailed questions about insulin, and a question regarding which DEA
form is needed to dispose of controlled drugs (is it 40 or 41? And no it is not the 222!!!)
And off the wall questions that i was lucky to get correct just from knowledge i gained in my chemistry, biology and anatomy classes that helped me.
Did i miss some essential book or test material in my studying for the PCTB?
It reminded me of exams where you study everything they give you and and you know cold and you can only answer about 60% of the questions with good certainty. I guessed on at least 20-25% of the questions.
What is the deal? Have they made it SAT like? Scores are 300-900 or something, with a 650 to pass, and they scale based on how others performed.
This reminds me of the math section on the PCAT. It was impossible. i never finished the math section and just flat out guessed on 35-40% of the questions. I walked out of the exam feeling horrible. Then six weeks later i get my scores and i get an 85%??? WTF???
I hate exams that are too difficult and then curved!!!