What are the Reason for failing FPGEE?

[PRETTY89]

I am just wondering, why is it so hard to pass the FPGEE, like some it takes so many tries before they pass. I have some questions to those that made a lot of tries, and to those who made it the first time.

1. Do you have a work experience as Pharm Tech in US?
2. Did you really memorize shargel? or other references?
3. Do you really know chemistry and pharmacology, word for word?
4. Is it just pure Luck that you Passed?
5. For those who had so many tries, how hard did you study?
6. For those who made it the first time, how hard is hard study for you?
7. I don't think that Pharmacist are not smart or intelligent, if you are a pharmacist, no matter from which ever country you are, you are intelligent, because you are a Pharmacist.

I'm hoping somebody can answer these questions, this will help us assessed and prepare ourselves future Fpgee takers. At least it will guide us, that maybe FPGEE is not just all about studying, maybe it is also about having experience in the US Pharmacy. Thank you.

[knok]

My answer is that, as a pharmacist, you should not focus only on the exams, but you should also be prepared to answer questions being asked by patients, doctors, and co-workers. This is more important than exam questions. That's why when people asked questions, I usually posted links which explain reasons behind those answers.

Pharmacists should be on going training, studying, and reading updated information since medical usages change every day.

You should study as much as you can. If you don't study today, you have to study it anyway. You don't want to hear any surprising questions happening at your work and you can't answer it. You are going to lose face. When I studied, I studied in depth in every section. If you understand in depth, no matter how hard the questions play with you, you can answer it, especially clinical parts. Oh! I owned drug stores for 12 years and worked for product department in pharmaceutical companies for 12 years. I believe that training in companies and working with real patients helped a lot.

[MedCaribo]

Great post. This is one for the Gurus - let us see if they can live up to their name.

[bva]

I am just wondering, why is it so hard to pass the FPGEE, like some it takes so many tries before they pass. I have some questions to those that made a lot of tries, and to those who made it the first time.
I passed FPGEE on my first attempt. My preparation time was 6 months. I can say that the test was hard; it was not easy for me. After I finished my exam, I had mixed feelings - some parts I thought I aced it, some part I was not sure whether I did it well enough to pass.

1. Do you have a work experience as Pharm Tech in US? No, I don't have experience whether pharm tech or pharmaceutical field in the U.S.
2. Did you really memorize shargel? or other references? I studied mainly from The Comprehensive Pharmacy Review Shargel, I could not memorize every page. I also used Manan Shroff Q&A, calculation, management. The rest references were from this forum and from the websites that our friends posted in this forum. 75% of my preparation time, I used Shargel.
3. Do you really know chemistry and pharmacology, word for word? Of course not, I was not good in organic chemistry. I spent almost one month studied the basic chemistry and organic chemistry.
4. Is it just pure Luck that you Passed? Absolutely not pure luck. I studied very hard and GOD definitely has tremendous impact on my success. GOD + Luck + Study.
5. For those who had so many tries, how hard did you study? This question is not applicable for me. However, I know that my best friend studied very hard and I thought she would pass, but she didn't. From my perspective, you cannot judge how hard people study by passing or failing the test. It doesn't mean that she/he was not trying hard enough. Maybe he/she was trying/studying harder than me.
6. For those who made it the first time, how hard is hard study for you? I think, I studied for FPGEE very hard. In 6 months of my study, I did not study everyday, since the time and circumstance was not allowed.

I hope these answers will help you in some way. Just want to tell you guys and encourage you that WE CAN DO IT!!!!!!

[bva]

Dear Pretty89,

Your topic was a little bit sad and scary (just joking). I was almost skipping your thread (seriously, not joking). You asked a lot of good questions. Let's hear from others.

[MedCaribo]

bva. Thanks for a prompt and itemized reply. I now can see why you passed on the first try.

[MedCaribo]

bva - a few more questions.

1. What is the time lag before getting results -with your experience as a Guru?
2. How does the grading system work for this exam?
3. For those that fail - how many allowed tries do they have after the first one?

[PRETTY89]

Thank you for all the reply. I think it is something that all we need to know. BVA and Knok, I appreciate your answers so much.

[bva]

bva - a few more questions.
Hello MedCaribo, Thank you for your compliment.

1. What is the time lag before getting results -with your experience as a Guru? First of all, I am not a guru. My result (small envelope) came exactly 7 weeks after the test date.

2. How does the grading system work for this exam? I don't know how they grade the exam. (I assume that each question is not exactly 1 point, the hard question may worth more than 1 points, the easy one may worth less than 1 point. This is just my personal assumption.)
I definitely know that in order to receive the overall passing score, we must attain a passing grade in every section.

3. For those that fail - how many allowed tries do they have after the first one? I heard that there is no limited time for those who failed the test. However, there are two FPGEE tests per year - June and December.

If my answers create any confusion, please let me know.

[Rexa411]

This is very useful. Thank you very much.