Pharm Tech Help

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JakeOgle

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So after winter semester I plan on preparing to take the PTCB any one know of a good book that teaches the topics needed to know. I don't really feel like paying $1,200 to take a course because the information can be that hard to learn. Thanks

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When I took the PTCB, I didnt use any books or course to study for it. I literally just used this website: http://pharmacy-tech-study.com/

Its hard to say what the test will be like. My exam was 50% math , 25% drug names, 25% law review. Math is easy, just worry about the law and drug names. I took the test 3 years ago so I don't know if it has changed drastically.

Good Luck.
 
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+1 to the above post. That site was insanely helpful! It even has videos on how to do the math practice questions. I also used "The Pharmacy Technician" 3rd edition. It's on amazon for ~25$ I think? It helped out a lot as well.

I took the exam this past July, and it was mostly math, I didn't have a single law question (which frustrated me!) and a few brand/generics.
 
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Definitely memorize the top 20-50 drugs prescribed. I used some pharm tech study book and literally wasted so much time studying mediocre things from that book. All you need to know is basic math calculations (ratios, percents, decimals, 1-2 equations for pediatric dosages), drug laws (lots of HIPAA type questions), and the rest were drug names. I didn't know any of the drug names since I never worked in a pharmacy, but I still passed because I aced the math part. Also memorize some basic pharm words such as QID, BID, those types of abbreviations. Good luck!
 
That site was very helpful for the math section! But my test didn't have a lot a math maybe out of the 90 questions 15-20 were math. I had a lot of drug questions and a handful of law questions. I would use any book that helps with drugs, prefixes and suffixes, and stuff like that. Study math, but not only math because its not guaranteed that you will have mostly math questions. But any book helps really
 
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agree with DanceMONSTAR. I took my test in Sept2013 and my test had a lot of law and drug question (which i was not expecting)... not much math. I also used a study book by Press Perspective called The Pharmacy Technician. I focused mainly on math, read sig & abbreviations and law sections of the book. And used the site posted above. really helpful and the practice questions are good too.
 
I am a pharm tech instructor. I like the review book from mosby. It has a nice set of practice exams on cd. Also paradigm publishing has nice math review books. You could get these books for a hundred bucks and pass if you can study alone.
 
I self-studied using Mosby's and the pharmacy tech review website and passed the exam. Mine was a majority math, 5 drug questions, 3 pediatric dosing questions, 2-3 aseptic technique questions, 7-8 law questions and 5-6 controlled substances law questions.
I scored on the real exam what I was getting on the practice exams that came on the Mosby's CD.
 
If you're taking it after winter, it'll most likely be the new PTCB exam. I'm not sure how different it is from the old one, but the new one actually splits the exam into 9 knowledge areas that hold different percentages (calculations &order processing are ~17% of the test). You can find the breakdown on the PTCB website. I took the exam today and passed with not too much difficulty. I would suggest getting Mosby's review-- it's really helpful and covers laws and other subjects more specifically. Make sure you know your laws, math, & drug info!! Skim through everything else in the book especially anything regarding insurance, compounding, and hospital pharmacies. I had a good amount of questions regarding hospital procedures...
 
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