please recommend a book for Pharm tech PTCE exam?

Started by fxok425
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fxok425 said:
My friend suggests these:

-Manual For Pharmacy Technicians (Paperback)
- Pharmacy Technician Certification Quick-Study Guide (Apha Pharmacy Technician Training) by Susan Moss Marks and William A. Hopkins
- Mosby's Pharmacy Technician - Text and Workbook Package by Teresa Hopper, Laura McBride, and Karen Snipe

Which one is the best? Is one of them enough? Thanks.
Click to expand...

Hmmm... I didn't use any of these buy it seems to me the Mosby one is the better book. I went with the Delmar Learning one. I had a couple mistakes as far as the practice questions but overall it was a really good book. Someone was nice enough to write down the errors so if u want to use the book that shouldn't be a problem. Honestly, just take some time and study for the exam. I don't think it was a matter of which book I used, but of finding the time to study for it. It's a lot of info but if you study well, you should be fine. But like I said, out of those two books, I would probably go with Mosby's. Good Luck


Errors to Delmar Learning Book (From another source so I don't know if these are all correct or if they are all the errors in the book):

pg 111 - 125mg/ml stated in question, changed to 125mg/2ml in the solution on pg 112.
pg 115 question #2 - 200mg/ml, changed to 250mg/ml in solution on pg 519.
pg 115 question #9 - 250mg/5ml, changed to 125mg/ml in solution on pg 520. pg 118 "PCTB", should be "PTCB" (come on editor, it was in caps and it's the subject of your book)
pg 119 "adult dose of a drug is 2m/kg", should be 2mg/kg
 
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I used Delmar's and I thought it was helpful for the test.

As a brief aside, it seems like very study guide out there has typos out the wazoo. It's like after they release the first edition, they just stop editing. The PCAT book that I used from Kaplan was littered with typos, sometimes absurdly so (on one problem, instead of writing f'(x), they had f9[theta symbol]). When you're rusty on crap, it is utterly frustrating to reconfigure your thinking only to find out that your original intuition was correct.

--Garfield
 
I also used Delmar, but an older version. It was a little dated though. I only studied on and off for about a week and I passed, but I've been working in a pharm for about 2 yrs...so that definitely helped.

Oh yeah, before the test, my friend lent me a Mosby disk. It was just a bunch of potential questions. I found the math was more similar to the actual test than it was in Delmar. But again, I had an older version. GL
 
Aside from study material, check with your state's board of pharmacy website to see if they have pharmacy technician certification review seminars scheduled. These seminars are created for people preparing to take the PTCB exam and for already certified pharmacy techs looking to get their CE credits. I went to one of these seminars in my state to help prepare for the PTCB exam, and it was tremendously helpful. The seminar is all day, and it was around $70, which is kinda steep, but it fully prepares you for everything you need to know for the exam. They give you a workbook with all the information you need to know, and alot of practice problems and the instructors are there to help you work through them.
That's all I did to prepare for the exam, i attended this comprehensive seminar. I didn't buy any other books or reading material, and I passed the exam!🙂
 
Delmars is way, way, way too much(its 600 pages long!). I dont know why so many people recommend it for the PTCE.

All you need to pass the PCTE is ONE book: Mosby's PTCB Review. Trust me, I just took the PTCE a month ago and my score was in the 800s.

I would get Delmars only after you pass the PTCE. It is a great preparation book for either working long-term as a pharm tech or if you plan to go to pharmacy school eventually, because its so in-depth. But as a preparation book for the PTCE, its overkill. Buy Mosby's Review and you will pass/ace the test. Good luck!

http://www.amazon.com/Mosbys-Review...d_bbs_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1207443243&sr=8-1
 
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