my thoughts on the exam (i passed the october one)

[blueskim]

so here's what i went through (score : 135 ish)

i began studying about a year ago, because i was aiming for the April exam. However, the application process took longer than i thought, so i ended testing in october. In other words, apply early! It did give me more time to study though.

what i used :

CPR (skip the OTC chapter) : should be one of the main references imo.

Lippincott's pharmacology : good reference, recommended.

Dutta : already commented on this book, take it with a huge grain of salt. questions are unnecessarily hard, mistakes/typoes on every page. I liked the first chapter on organic chemistry.

Shroff 1000 questions : Good review. recommended, though they really need to update the questions. format is similar to FPGEE.

Shroff's Theory : decent review, almost point form. Would get it for the legal/phmcoeconomic chapter.

Shroff's management : YOU'LL ONLY BE MIXED UP. AVOID. unnecessary formulas and calculations.

Shroff's organic chemistry : i got this from the package deal, but never used it. skip it.

Remington : Huge book, i only got this for the history and legal section. It's a good book, worth the investment i think (for future references) but don't spend too much energy on this book for the FPGEE.


I'm a Canadian hospital pharmacist working on an internal medicine floor. This undoubtely helped me as well.


On the exam itself :

1st part on general science, i found it hard. (graduated from undergrad in 2003) I randomly chose around 30% of the questions.

2nd part on clinical questions, i breezed through it.

I don't think studying an extra year would have made a difference. There were some materials in the exam that couldn't be found in the references that i used, but that's ok. IT'S IMPOSSIBLE to know everything.

good luck to you all.

****I also want to point out that some of the posters in this forum are obviously here to plug in their own agenda. Just something to be aware of***

[hnks]

Well said
I would just like to add to the above"
Take the pre-FPGEE, it will help you tremendously in directing your studies, needless to say that I saw at least 4 of the pre-FPGEE questions in the test, but re-formated.

As of me, I graduated 10 years ago and only studied for 3 months. Since my Ph.D. degree has a lot of basic science courses and my management knowledge was limited, I found the first part much easier, most of the questions were straightforward. The second part was not tough either as so many of the management questions can be answered with common sense.

Once more, make CPR your first and last resource.
Good luck to all

HNKS
Passing score 110

[blueskim]

yes the pre-fgpee was definitely useful, and don't forget the sample questions availalble from NAPB site. there actually was a question directly from the sample questions!

and while at the actual exam, don't stress out yourself. If you don't know, you just don't know. a guess is a guess (since it's a multiple choice), no point in sitting through the entire time.

[blueskim]

also, to add, there was i think 2 calculations total in the exam. I was surprised that they didn't even bother to give us a calculator. so NO CALCULATOR at the exam.

Let this be a hint that calculations may not be important (unless they change their mind or something).

[bobbyblue]

Hi blueskim,
Thanks for your valuable tips.
I would like to know why you appeared for fpgee when you are already a Canadian pharmacist?Please inform what prompted you for this shift as there are few more who have done this?
Is working as US Pharmacist is better option than Canadian Pharmacist?

[blueskim]

Originally Posted by bobbyblue

Hi blueskim,
Thanks for your valuable tips.
I would like to know why you appeared for fpgee when you are already a Canadian pharmacist?Please inform what prompted you for this shift as there are few more who have done this?
Is working as US Pharmacist is better option than Canadian Pharmacist?

my wife got an interesting job offer (not pharmacist) in CA, so i'm just trying to be with my family...

so 2 main reasons why a Canadian pharmacist would move to the US

1)family reason (i know another classmate going through the process for this reason)
2)warmer weather(actually a big deal for some, not for me though.)

it sort of sucks for me to "suspend" my career and be an intern again, but hey, family first! and hopefully, i can become a clinical pharmacist. Such a title doesn't exit officially in Quebec, Canada, though the effort to change this is there.

[hykhleif]

can you please inform us how much a pharmacist could earn in canada