BCPS Fall 2021 test thoughts...

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Any1410s

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So, I took the BCPS exam today. I’ve spent a lot of time the past 6 months reading what folks said about the spring 2021 exam…about it being completely random and not what they expected at all. That basically sums it up for me today…it was all over the place. A few questions were laugh out loud absurd (I had people staring at me when I busted out laughing). Some I thought were laughably easy…like NAPLEX easy. How did I do you ask? You know, I really don’t know. I consider myself a good test taker and think I did ok. I didn’t leave crying or anything…but it was just ok. I’ve spent the last 6 months studying everything with HYMR…I also bought the ACCP biostats material and the Med101 Regulatory review. Test wise, I took the ACCP Mock Exam (59%) [before buying the ACCP biostats material] and the Med101 exam (69%). I did the Mock exam without stopping after 100 questions and the Med101 exam with a 30 minute break. I felt like taking the break helped me today….and, during the break you can go to your phone or notes and look up stuff like I did (didn’t miss anything I wrote down to look up later).

My suggestion for those who haven’t taken the exam yet….Study biostats and regulatory like your life depended on it. That’s 35% (25% & 10%) of the exam (and I literally marked 43 slash marks counting the stats questions)…I couldn’t WAIT for the stats questions. I struggled with stats in pharmacy school 17 years ago. I swear I was socially passed because I never really understood them. HYMR and ACCP changed that dramatically. I am positive I got all those questions right today. Regulatory I got the majority but not as confident I got them all right but probably 75%.

Now the long wait until mid-December.
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Any1410s said:
So, I took the BCPS exam today. I’ve spent a lot of time the past 6 months reading what folks said about the spring 2021 exam…about it being completely random and not what they expected at all. That basically sums it up for me today…it was all over the place. A few questions were laugh out loud absurd (I had people staring at me when I busted out laughing). Some I thought were laughably easy…like NAPLEX easy. How did I do you ask? You know, I really don’t know. I consider myself a good test taker and think I did ok. I didn’t leave crying or anything…but it was just ok. I’ve spent the last 6 months studying everything with HYMR…I also bought the ACCP biostats material and the Med101 Regulatory review. Test wise, I took the ACCP Mock Exam (59%) [before buying the ACCP biostats material] and the Med101 exam (69%). I did the Mock exam without stopping after 100 questions and the Med101 exam with a 30 minute break. I felt like taking the break helped me today….and, during the break you can go to your phone or notes and look up stuff like I did (didn’t miss anything I wrote down to look up later).

My suggestion for those who haven’t taken the exam yet….Study biostats and regulatory like your life depended on it. That’s 35% (25% & 10%) of the exam (and I literally marked 43 slash marks counting the stats questions)…I couldn’t WAIT for the stats questions. I struggled with stats in pharmacy school 17 years ago. I swear I was socially passed because I never really understood them. HYMR and ACCP changed that dramatically. I am positive I got all those questions right today. Regulatory I got the majority but not as confident I got them all right but probably 75%.

Now the long wait until mid-December.
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I am glad to hear that you didn’t leaving the exam room feeling completely lost. I did 😬
I failed the spring. I did well on domain 1, but poor on the regulatory part. There’re number of questions on regulatory that I am still not clear. Can I inbox you my email to discuss?
 
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ADT98 said:
I am glad to hear that you didn’t leaving the exam room feeling completely lost. I did 😬
I failed the spring. I did well on domain 1, but poor on the regulatory part. There’re number of questions on regulatory that I am still not clear. Can I inbox you my email to discuss?
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sure that's fine
 
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Thanks for posting. I took my exam recently and honestly, I walked out of there like what was that. Does anyone know how many questions we need to get correct (raw score) to pass? Is it like 60% correct to pass?
 
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ADT98 said:
I am glad to hear that you didn’t leaving the exam room feeling completely lost. I did 😬
I failed the spring. I did well on domain 1, but poor on the regulatory part. There’re number of questions on regulatory that I am still not clear. Can I inbox you my email to discuss?
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Hi. When you received your test score for spring, do they break it down by percentage correct per domain? I'm very nervous too. Just took the exam and felt like I did poorly.
 
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shorteeee said:
Thanks for posting. I took my exam recently and honestly, I walked out of there like what was that. Does anyone know how many questions we need to get correct (raw score) to pass? Is it like 60% correct to pass?
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Idk...colleague at work saw somewhere that if you nail the stats part, you need 50% of the rest of it to pass? That seems awfully low
 
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Hello,

First off, congratulations on taking the exam! And thank you so much for coming on here and letting the rest of us know how it went, really appreciate that!

For the ACCP biostats material you're talking about, is it that live lecture? "Fundamentals of Biostatistics and Clinical Trial Design Workshop, 2021 Edition"

ACCP - Store - Fundamentals of Biostatistics and Clinical Trial Design Workshop, 2021 Edition

American College of Clinical Pharmacy (ACCP) - an international association of clinical pharmacists dedicated to optimizing drug therapy outcomes in patients by promoting excellence and innovation in clinical pharmacy practice, research, and education. ACCP information; membership application...
www.accp.com www.accp.com

And for HYMR, did you watch all the videos? I started watching them for ID and cardio but they go into too much detail, so I've been focusing more on doing their test bank questions and reading the answers instead. I have been reading the ACCP book for clinicals but skipping around to the chapters I think are more important (i.e. I don't have time for peds lol).
 
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PharmCaffeine said:
Hello,

First off, congratulations on taking the exam! And thank you so much for coming on here and letting the rest of us know how it went, really appreciate that!

For the ACCP biostats material you're talking about, is it that live lecture? "Fundamentals of Biostatistics and Clinical Trial Design Workshop, 2021 Edition"

ACCP - Store - Fundamentals of Biostatistics and Clinical Trial Design Workshop, 2021 Edition

American College of Clinical Pharmacy (ACCP) - an international association of clinical pharmacists dedicated to optimizing drug therapy outcomes in patients by promoting excellence and innovation in clinical pharmacy practice, research, and education. ACCP information; membership application...
www.accp.com www.accp.com

And for HYMR, did you watch all the videos? I started watching them for ID and cardio but they go into too much detail, so I've been focusing more on doing their test bank questions and reading the answers instead. I have been reading the ACCP book for clinicals but skipping around to the chapters I think are more important (i.e. I don't have time for peds lol).
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No, for stats I bought the ebook with ACCP....with HYMR stats review plus that, I was WELL prepared.

Yes, I watched ALL the lectures for HYMR. It took a few months to do it. I know it may have been overkill to some extent, but I'm a 'why' person when it comes to drugs/diseases.

Idk about congratulations for taking the test...yet :) It's so odd that now I have all this time on my hands when I've done nothing but studying for 6 months. Those 6 months flew by.
 
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Wish I found this sooner, but just another place to get do extra practice questions for all the people who still haven't taken the exam yet. Good luck to everyone!

BCPS Biostatistics questions | Pharmacy Question Bank

NAPLEX, BPS, Board Pharmacy Specialities, BCPS, Biostatistics, literature evaluation and interpretation of medical journals
pharmacyquestionbank.com pharmacyquestionbank.com
 
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Any1410s said:
No, for stats I bought the ebook with ACCP....with HYMR stats review plus that, I was WELL prepared.

Yes, I watched ALL the lectures for HYMR. It took a few months to do it. I know it may have been overkill to some extent, but I'm a 'why' person when it comes to drugs/diseases.

Idk about congratulations for taking the test...yet :) It's so odd that now I have all this time on my hands when I've done nothing but studying for 6 months. Those 6 months flew by.
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Ohhh thank you so much for the reply and tips! Hopefully it'll be good news for you in December :giggle:
 
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LaylaMina said:
I did! I took it yesterday. I flagged 130 questions 80 the first set and 50 the second set! I’m so scared!
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Woah, that's some heavy duty flagging action. : ) I rarely flag because if I don't know I go with my gut and move on. I did flag two on part one. I seemed to be in the groove on part 2 but who knows. Some of the stats questions were even tricky for me and that's rare as I'm very strong in that area. And don't you just love those questions involving "choose the best three", "choose the best two", etc. Those are the worst. Good luck to you!
 
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Yesss I was put off by the select all because I didn’t have any select all on bcps so that took me by surprise!
Yea the second part was definitely easier for me.
Good luck to you too! Hoping we both pass! Only 2 months of anxiety 😂
 
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Took the BCPS a week ago and been meaning to post about it but got busy with life lol

Biostats/Regulatory

BIOSTATISTICSBIOSTATISTICSBIOSTATISTICSBIOSTATISTICSBIOSTATISTICSBIOSTATISTICSBIOSTATISTICSBIOSTATISTICSBIOSTATISTICSBIOSTATISTICSBIOSTATISTICSBIOSTATISTICSBIOSTATISTICSBIOSTATISTICSBIOSTATISTICSBIOSTATISTICSBIOSTATISTICSBIOSTATISTICSBIOSTATISTICSBIOSTATISTICSBIOSTATISTICSBIOSTATISTICSBIOSTATISTICSBIOSTATISTICSBIOSTATISTICSBIOSTATISTICSBIOSTATISTICSBIOSTATISTICSBIOSTATISTICSBIOSTATISTICSBIOSTATISTICSBIOSTATISTICSBIOSTATISTICS

Make sure you know that paragraph well just like everyone before has said! Some resources I used to help with that portion bc I needed help D:
1. tl;dr has four parts and breaks it down really well for you to understand --> link (free)
2. MedEd101 has a great hand out as well that's simple --> link ($)
3. HYMR rapid review has a section on biostats that's good to read ($)
4. ACCP has a good book as well with practice questions that are similar to what is asked on the actual exam --> link ($)
5. BCPS practice questions --> link (free)

In regards to what type of test is used like chi-square or t-test, I didn't get any questions on that. Instead I got more like, "interpret the results...." so make sure you know your OR, RR, ARR, NNT/NNH really well

Didn't get too much regulatory questions, but thankfully I had read MedED 101's blog post on the update to the exam where it was changed to just 10% of the exam now. So basically just studied from the questions that HYMR review had.

Clinical
-Make sure you know the first and second line. I can't narrow it down to what topics to focus on because I got a bit of everything. Like 3 questions were just on acne! I didn't even look at that D: and I also got like 5 questions on what to do if the patient is pregnant. So it was ID or cardio questions but the patient was pregnant, so know the special population as well!
-The questions were fair, it wasn't too difficult compared to the practice questions in the ACCP book. For some reason those are way more difficult in my opinion.

Materials I used for clinical
1. ACCP book
  • I like to write out the main s/sx and treatment on post-its so it's a quick and easy reference when I'm doing the practice questions.
  • Don't get bogged down by all the clinical trials they like to cite, pick out the main treatment and move on! Also like I said before, the questions are way harder than on the exam BUT do them and look at the explanation bc they are helpful and do a good job explaining why the other answer choices are incorrect.
  • The ebook is helpful because you can access it from anywhere, so sometimes if you have down time at work you can study a little on the side.
2. HYMR
  • I bought the package so it came with the test bank questions, lectures, and ebooks.
  • Lecture videos: If you like to know why then watch the lectures because Dr. Busti really goes into a lot of detail and explanation which I liked for certain topics like cardio bc I'm weak in that. But I wouldn't watch them all unless you have the time bc they are long.
  • Test bank: I LOVED THE TEST BANK QUESTIONS!!! If you don't want to buy the whole package then that's fine, just get the test bank and do the practice questions at least. They give good detailed explanations as well, so it's a great way to learn/refresh your memory. Highly highly recommend that and they have over 1900 questions to practice with! Also helpful when you're at work and have time to study you can do those questions as well.
  • e-book - I read the rapid review book before the exam and they list out the main stuff you need to know
  • Webinar - they have live webinars a few weeks before the exam and they are really helpful as well. Basically have your ebook open and take notes on the extra things they tell you to look out for during the exam

Mock exams
1. ACCP - I highly recommend taking this exam because they will break it down into what categories you're good at and what you need help with. Also the questions are structured like the actual exam so you'll have an idea of how the questions will be worded for the actual exam.
2. MedED 101 - I took only one of their exams, it was helpful as well but if I had to pick between the two I'd go with ACCP

Wow didn't expect this post to be so long but I wanted to put all the info out there while still fresh in my mind because I came on here to get an idea before I started studying and found the tips and resources very helpful. Thank you to all those people and hopefully we get good news in December :)
 
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ICUPharm said:
It is some top secret BPS formula that no one knows. Probably based on complicated Bayesian analysis. : )
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I know but the wait. Like 60 days from the close of the exam period and it’s electronic? How ridiculously long and unnecessary anxiety kicks in because of it. Ahh.
 
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LaylaMina said:
I know but the wait. Like 60 days from the close of the exam period and it’s electronic? How ridiculously long and unnecessary anxiety kicks in because of it. Ahh.
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My theory is because they do manually review various questions. Just a theory. Anyway, last year I had my BCPS results prior to Thanksgiving if that helps.
 
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ICUPharm said:
My theory is because they do manually review various questions. Just a theory. Anyway, last year I had my BCPS results prior to Thanksgiving if that helps.
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It helps but also means still another month! I hope they do curve it though!
 
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It's likely "curved," but not like a bell curve. BPS is pretty tight-lipped about specifics, but on most board exams (and almost certainly, BPS is the same), certain questions have higher weight and some are test questions that will be thrown out. I imagine like most boards, they review ones that don't perform as expected.

A board exam curve is usually not to guarantee a certain number of people passing but to assure the test is equally as hard across the board from test period to test period. They usually call it normalizing or scaling the scores.

*No inside information, but I have read a bit about standardized testing. This is what BPS says:
"BPS and its testing consultants follow best practices in certification testing so that all forms are comparable in content and difficulty. Once the examination forms have been equated, a procedure called scaling is used to convert the actual number of correct answers, or raw scores, to a uniform scale. These converted scores are called scaled scores."
 
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But isn’t that bad for others. Let’s say they throw out questions people actually got right doesn’t that lowers the threshold because let’s say a person got 15 questions out of 75 wrong, that’s an 80% and they threw out 7 questions that the person actually got correct so that means the person 15 questions out of 68 wrong which is an 80% how is that fair. Unless they give everyone those free points for that question it’s actually hurting the people that got the questions right l.
 
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If a question is thrown out because it's unclear. misleading, has multiple correct answers, or is out of date with guidelines so another answer is more correct than the keyed one, the person who happened to arbitrarily choose the keyed answer doesn't really deserve the points for it, IMHO. The other questions on the test should accurately assess the person's knowledge.

These exams aren't really graded like 75/100 = pass. One of the ACCP materials said that some years, even answering just above 50% of the questions right is passing because of scaling (hard questions have more weight than easy ones).

These exams are designed to detect if you have a broad knowledge base or not. If that person actually got the majority of the fair questions wrong, do they really need to be a board-certified pharmacist? Doesn't that mean they probably guessed? Statistically, you should be able to drop a random number of questions from any exam and get the same score if it's an accurate assessment of knowledge. If they happen to be in the one area a person knows, then maybe that person shouldn't be broadly board-certified (but I doubt they'd all be in a single area).
 
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A101Dal said:
If a question is thrown out because it's unclear. misleading, has multiple correct answers, or is out of date with guidelines so another answer is more correct than the keyed one, the person who happened to arbitrarily choose the keyed answer doesn't really deserve the points for it, IMHO. The other questions on the test should accurately assess the person's knowledge.

These exams aren't really graded like 75/100 = pass. One of the ACCP materials said that some years, even answering just above 50% of the questions right is passing because of scaling (hard questions have more weight than easy ones).

These exams are designed to detect if you have a broad knowledge base or not. If that person actually got the majority of the fair questions wrong, do they really need to be a board-certified pharmacist? Doesn't that mean they probably guessed? Statistically, you should be able to drop a random number of questions from any exam and get the same score if it's an accurate assessment of knowledge. If they happen to be in the one area a person knows, then maybe that person shouldn't be broadly board-certified (but I doubt they'd all be in a single area).
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That was not my point but that’s ok. That was just a hypothetical example. My question was regarding the scaling and being fair across the border. If they drop a question some people got right and it it hurts them that does not seem fair.
 
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LaylaMina said:
That was not my point but that’s ok. That was just a hypothetical example. My question was regarding the scaling and being fair across the border. If they drop a question some people got right and it it hurts them that does not seem fair.
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I have a foolish guy just out of residency at work that already failed this thing during summer,,, i think he will likely to fail again....LOL. This guy has major issues with arrogance and he thinks he knows everything,, which is crazy. This guy just finished residency for pete's sake,,,,, and he argues with people who have 6-8 times more experience than him at work. Often he's proven wrong and makes wrong recommendations. Not sure what to do with this guy. But problem with him is he's one of favorite pet of the manager...... LOL
 
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AF1823 said:
Really hoping they don’t wait until day 60 to release results
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Likewise. They released them the last week of November and first week of December last year. But there were multiple years it took the full 60 days.
 
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I think it's dumb that they take so long. I understand it's a complicated test to grade, but most MD boards are back in 3-4 weeks and they're graded in a similar fashion. We pay enough for the exams that the turnaround time should be a little quicker.
 
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A101Dal said:
I think it's dumb that they take so long. I understand it's a complicated test to grade, but most MD boards are back in 3-4 weeks and they're graded in a similar fashion. We pay enough for the exams that the turnaround time should be a little quicker.
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Agreed. It’s really inconvenient to put multiple people under high stress and uncertainty for 60 days. Is it really in our favor though? Like is the curve great enough?
 
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It depends on the year, from what I understand. ACCP said in one of my prep things that some years answering just about 50% of the questions right is a pass. It depends on how hard the test was that year. I'm waiting for BCIDP, and I imagine it will be more significant this year since they changed up all the domains, but that's just a guess. I'm not sure we ever really know for sure.

MD board exams are graded the same way, and with the same kind of leveling (or "curving") that BPS claims to do. I'm not sure why BPS is such a long wait. I understand it being longer than the NAPLEX, but not longer than the internal medicine boards, for example.
 
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A101Dal said:
I think it's dumb that they take so long. I understand it's a complicated test to grade, but most MD boards are back in 3-4 weeks and they're graded in a similar fashion. We pay enough for the exams that the turnaround time should be a little quicker.
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False. My colleague who is an infectious disease MD just had to take his internal medicine boards again (it had been 10 years) and they get their results in 90 days. I've never heard of an MD board exam back in 3 - 4 weeks. Not saying I'm 100% correct, but I know many an MD colleague at my medical center and 60 days plus is the norm.
 
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BCIDP said:
Hopefully on 11/24/21 like last year.
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November 19, 2021 – Compounded Sterile Preparations Pharmacy, Nuclear Pharmacy, Nutrition Support Pharmacy, Psychiatric Pharmacy, Cardiology Pharmacy, Solid Organ Transplantation Pharmacy, Infectious Diseases Pharmacy
 
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  • Fall 2021 Certification and Recertification Examination Results will be released on the following schedule:
    • November 19, 2021 – Compounded Sterile Preparations Pharmacy, Nuclear Pharmacy, Nutrition Support Pharmacy, Psychiatric Pharmacy, Cardiology Pharmacy, Solid Organ Transplantation Pharmacy, Infectious Diseases Pharmacy
    • November 20, 2021 – Oncology Pharmacy, Geriatric Pharmacy, Pediatric Pharmacy, Critical Care Pharmacy
    • November 21, 2021 – Ambulatory Care Pharmacy, Pharmacotherapy
    • November 22, 2021 – Pharmacotherapy
    • November 23, 2021 – Pharmacotherapy
  • You will receive an email notifying you that your report is ready to be viewed with instructions to access your score report.
 
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PharmaSuli said:
  • Fall 2021 Certification and Recertification Examination Results will be released on the following schedule:
    • November 19, 2021 – Compounded Sterile Preparations Pharmacy, Nuclear Pharmacy, Nutrition Support Pharmacy, Psychiatric Pharmacy, Cardiology Pharmacy, Solid Organ Transplantation Pharmacy, Infectious Diseases Pharmacy
    • November 20, 2021 – Oncology Pharmacy, Geriatric Pharmacy, Pediatric Pharmacy, Critical Care Pharmacy
    • November 21, 2021 – Ambulatory Care Pharmacy, Pharmacotherapy
    • November 22, 2021 – Pharmacotherapy
    • November 23, 2021 – Pharmacotherapy
  • You will receive an email notifying you that your report is ready to be viewed with instructions to access your score report.
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HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF. This seems to be the MO for the Fall Exam results, while the Spring Exam results release schedule is a total crap shoot! It varies dramatically from year to year. In any event, good luck to all those who sat in the Fall.
 
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PharmaSuli said:
  • Fall 2021 Certification and Recertification Examination Results will be released on the following schedule:
    • November 19, 2021 – Compounded Sterile Preparations Pharmacy, Nuclear Pharmacy, Nutrition Support Pharmacy, Psychiatric Pharmacy, Cardiology Pharmacy, Solid Organ Transplantation Pharmacy, Infectious Diseases Pharmacy
    • November 20, 2021 – Oncology Pharmacy, Geriatric Pharmacy, Pediatric Pharmacy, Critical Care Pharmacy
    • November 21, 2021 – Ambulatory Care Pharmacy, Pharmacotherapy
    • November 22, 2021 – Pharmacotherapy
    • November 23, 2021 – Pharmacotherapy
  • You will receive an email notifying you that your report is ready to be viewed with instructions to access your score report.
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Do they really release results on the weekend? I’m waiting on BCPPS and the date is a Saturday. Didn't expect results so soon, so anxious for tomorrow! Good luck everyone!
 
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