orchidthief88

hi all. I had a score of 112 (range was 95-120) on the pre-test and passed the official FPGEE with 129. what was i so worried about? lol

Hello all. First off, I will have to agree with most of PharmNerd's advice on how to prepare for this test: http://www.www.urch.com/forums/fpgee/119201-all-april-19-test-takers-come-here-tell-us-your-advice.html I will also agree with Aleksandra that the test questions were on the whole more general than the ones in the CPR for the science questions. I took the pre-FPGEE a month before the exam and that was finally when I realized that the CPR was not as important as everyone makes it out to be. It is still the best reference book for the science section. If I was to study for this test again I would not go into so much detail during the preparation. I concentrated way too much on the pharmacology, and I regret listening to the forum rabble rather than going with my gut on what to study. I think there is way too much emphasis on "study CPR and you will do great. The exam questions are exactly like the CPR questions." That's a total crock. No they are not, the exam questions are like the pre-FPGEE questions and the ones on the NABP website that are included in the information about the exam. If you get an *overview* of the chapters in the CPR then you have covered most of the science related concepts you need to know. Many of the CPR questions were harder or more detailed than the ones on the exam. I'm not saying don't look at the questions, but I'm just saying people on this forum are waaaay too caught up in this "do all the questions and you will pass" mentality. In my opinion, just understand the concepts and you will pass the science section. For example, for pharmacology if you can summarize the mechanism of the most common drugs into one sentence, you will be able to answer or make an educated guess at most of the questions. That being said, there were still quite a few questions asking me very specific questions about drugs I had never heard of. You don't want to aim to be able to answer those questions. Your time is better spent being able to answer a lot of basic questions about a wide range of topics rather than specific questions about a small sliver (e.g. pharmacology) of topics. As for the rest of it, I regret not putting more time into Area 3 of the blueprint. In my opinion, these are easy points, the topics are not hard to understand, but you just have to look for it. Just follow the blueprint for this section line by line and look stuff up on the internet. Try not to skip it. As for the statistics questions, you should know what the different types of tests are (including ANOVA and T-tests), and what kind of clinical studies they apply to. You can find this info on the internet, it's not hard. You will also want to keep in mind Type I and Type II errors. Also if you are a practicing pharmacist in a westernized country, in my opinion you can skip OTC and rely on what you remember from practice. As for the difficulty of the exam itself, I found it to be in keeping with the pre-FPGEE, but with more emphasis on Area 3 than I had prepared for. I think that's what made Part II of the test difficult for a lot of people. On the Pre-FPGEE I would say I made wild guesses on 20% of the questions and got a 112 score on it. I would say the same for the actual exam.That's already 50 questions right there where I'm pretty sure I got them wrong... even so I do not think I failed the exam. No one knows how they grade these tests, so until we get them back, no one can really talk about how they did, they can only talk about how they felt. Many computerized tests are designed to have questions that are beyond the scope of most candidates so that the can stratify the test-takers. We also don't know if any of the questions were "test drive" questions for other exams. I remember taking my GRE, thinking I was failing in the middle of the exam, and almost walking out. But I didn't, and when I got my results, I found out I had scored in the 90th percentile. To be honest I would be totally shocked if Aleksandra or Torontopharmie failed this exam.

that is the US healthcare system for ya! I would say that question would be referring to a deductible. Not sure if this was clearly mentioned before, but the deductible is usually an annual or quarterly set amount that the patient must pay out of their own pocket before the insurance company begins to pay for them. For example, in Canada we have a class of government sponsored coverage called "high income seniors". Every August 1st, the seniors must pay full price for their drugs until they have paid out their $100 deductible. Some seniors would end up paying it all in one shot (getting a 90 day supply of lipitor is 100+ dollars) or they would end up coming to the pharmacy for four or five prescriptions paying full price until they met their deductible. After their deductible was paid the seniors would then pay $6.11 for every prescription - their copay - as the government would pay for the remainder of the cost of the prescription. That is of course until the next August 1st rolled around again. It's important to note that a deductible is typically paid at the time of service directly to the service providers and the amount paid out recorded by the insurance company until you have paid out that set amount. Don't let the fact that you are paying at the time of service confuse you into thinking it is a copay. Copays are generally begun after the deductible is paid off, when the insurance company is paying for part of the cost of the service. August was always a special month for me in Canada :)

can't help weighing in on this one...I think it makes a difference whether you are from an english speaking from the UK or from a commonwealth country (Australia, Canada, South Africa) vs. somewhere in asia. If you speak very clean english I think you have a much better chance of being hired as an intern. This is just the impression I'm getting. Also, interns are more likely to be hired in smaller towns rather than the big cities that are saturated already.

anyone taken this recently? I just flew through this ten minutes ago. I am only halfway through an initial review of all the study materials (I've gotten terribly behind) but still got a score of 112, the range was somewhere between 95 and 120 I think. I found the questions to be reasonable, some were very easy, some were very hard, but most of them made you think. I made educated guesses on about half of them, one quarter I didn't know, and one quarter I knew without blinking. This test has encouraged me to be a bit more general in my study strategy. Based on this exam I think I am not even going to study the management section...better to know the science and clinical stuff really well and guess on the random silly management questions, at least that is how I feel. I feel it's very important to refresh your clinical knowledge and know general mechanisms of how drugs work (don't get too hung up on details) as well as their key side effects. I think I will go through my notes again and just memorize one sentence about how all the most important drugs work. My strategy now is to review key principles in all subject areas now that the exam is less than a month away. Does anyone know how accurate the pre-fpgee is at predicting your final score? When I took my GRE the powerprep practice tests were extremely accurate at predicting my score.

Hello all, I just wanted to mention to all the fellow Canadians out there that I graduated after 2003 from a Canadian pharmacy program and I have been accepted to write the FPGEE. I thought that our program was considered a four year program and for years I believed I would not be able to get licensed in the States. However, after I finally called the NABP, they confirmed that the Canadian degree is considered a "four plus one" - four year degree plus one year foundational/prerequisites/whatcha-ma-call-it I submitted my ECE documentation in early April and received word within a couple of weeks. I sat on my documents for a while and then sent everything off to the NABP at the end of April and received word within four weeks, probably three, that everything had been approved and I am now signed up for certain for the September 30th exam. It all went surprisingly quick for me, though I guess I did obsessive-compulsively check everything multiple times. I'm just posting this so that other Canadian pharmacists curious about their equivalency eligibility will have a quick answer.

Hi guys, I've got a study schedule generally mapped out. I am going by the FPGEE blueprint and reading everything in the CPR that applies to each section. Right now I am on my second week of Area 4 (clinical sciences) in the blueprint, and could always use some more dedicated online study partners. Just scroll down near the bottom as there were a few different versions of it - the last one on the list is a very detailed version of a six week schedule according to Area 4 of the Blueprint. Study Schedule

Hey people. I've just started studying for the FPGEE and I'm looking for serious online study partners that are willing to help contribute to making summary notes and basically keeping me company online I've started a forum that has just a few active people, and I'm looking for a few more. The more motivated you are, and the more you are online, the better it will be. I have a study schedule for the Sep 30th exam set up and we are only a couple of weeks into it. People can jump in at any point that suits them. The forum is organized according to the FPGEE blueprint topics so that we can share our links and materials in an organized fashion. Please join me and let's ace this thing! Free forum : FPGEE Forum

mission 2010, have you got any idea what the market is like for interns in Maryland? Have you already begun looking for internships there??

this is news to me...where did you hear this? The only thing I can think of is that if you hold a Canadian pharmacy license, that you may be eligible in some states to go straight to an internship. Those states include Vermont, Michigan, Washington State, Maine, and maybe others that I can't think of off the top of my head.

here's a link to a short summary of the licensing process: Canadian Pharmacist License : Guidelines For Foreign Pharmacy Graduates | Pharmainfo.net You can see the process is similar to the U.S. process. Major differences are 1)internship is usually shorter than in U.S. but it depends on which state you are comparing it to 2)the PEBC licensing exam (equivalent to NAPLEX) is supposed to be much harder for foreign pharmacists to pass because it has an in-person role play component (OSCE) cases that you must solve by interacting with actors that are playing patients, nurses, and doctors. You are given a limited amount of time and resources and then must role play. It looks like the qualifying exam now ALSO has an OSCE component now as well... 3) you only get three chances at the qualifying exam. If you don't pass within three attempts, you will have to petition for a fourth. If you don't pass on the fourth try, you are done with being a pharmacist in Canada. Many pharmacists struggle with the role play in the exams. You must be very confident in your abiliy to communicate and assess patients in order to pass these exams. The interactions on the exams are not tricky, but for many people coming from different countries, pharmacy practice in Canada is much more involved than what they are used to at home, where they just dispense and don't really ask too many questions. The good thing is that I feel the Canadian provinces, at least Ontario, are quite serious about supporting foreign pharmacists by providing courses to help them with these skills. My recommendation is to take any course that is offered by the local pharmacy college. I feel the biggest thing that foreign pharmacists are unprepared for when they come to Canada is how harshly they will be judged for their english and interviewing skills. You need to be speaking university level English fluently before you come, or you will simply not be able to pass the OSCE's. I think overall the Canadian exam is not harder than the U.S. exam in that the material and science is pretty much all the same, it's just that you are tested in a different way because of the OSCE's. If you have been practicing in the West, you'll be fine. If you have been practicing somewhere in the middle east or china or something, then I think you will find the Canadian exam much harder to pass than the U.S. exam.

hi pharmies. for anyone interested in an online study group, I set up a little forum for the sep30th exam. I'm going to set up a study schedule real soon on it. Free forum : FPGEE Forum

Guys, I've recently started a forum specifically to form a study schedule and online group for the Sep 30th exam - Free forum : FPGEE Forum

hi pharmies. For those of you who are gearing up for the Sep 30 exam, I'd like to connect and come up with a schedule and plan for studying for the exam. This forum is already awesomely useful, but if anyone wants to join a smaller group with a forum for more personal use (e.g. posting notes) and threads that are a bit more specific, please visit the site I set up and consider joining me: Free forum : FPGEE Forum I don't care if it's just, like two of us, but if you're committed to doing well on the exam, are online a lot, and need a partner that will hold you accountable to your schedule, that's me! There's a calendar and a chat function that we can set up appointments to use. You have to register, but it doesn't take long. I really like the idea of going through this process with other people, as that's how I got by in pharmacy school. p.s. the site has no ads or anything, and I don't have an agenda, I am just craving some anonymous online solidarity and a place where I can set up a schedule to follow

Who the heck went and scanned these books?! AWESOME!!! Thanks for sharing - I think these are the best manon shroff books to have!