September 30, 2010 FPGEE - Share your experience!

[smileysilvia]

Iriska,

Yes you can consider CPR is the primary source for FPGEE, But you may need other sources for few ares like management and calculations. You can also consider Mannon&Sharoof and Remington for Management and M&S 1000 Q&As. FPGEE Review by Dr. Dutta for practice.

Obviously internet is the biggest source to search and find, anything which is missing in above books. All the best.

 

Nancy,

You can write TOEFL either before or after FPGEE. TOEFL is not the requirement to apply FPGEE. For more details, You can read the brochure available at NABP site. All the best.

Are we supposed to take the TOFFEL test before the FPGEE or after FPGEE, I thought we had to tae the TOFFEL before applying to the GFPGEE??

[Iriska]

what about Pharma synapse?? is anybody describe this book as a usefull for preparing for fpgee?

[thaierah143]

Do you guys not read what we are trying to tell you? The FPGEE is not going to be memorized or found in one book, nor two, nor three. It will not even be found in the 1000 MCQ of Manan you must revise and use the internet as well especially for current trends and procedures that are most likely not covered in any books. If you are using these books to memorize forget it you are in for a big let down. You will not find anything int he exam that remotely resembles what you memorized. maybe the basic sciences ya those are memorization but they arent even that many. It might help to memorize the organisms and their antibiotics antifungals but also not that many to bother with. You will get many curve balls you will have no idea how they came up with a question like this. I am telling you even if you had CPR, Depiro, Lippincott as an open book exam you still wont find the exact answer. Their questions are not memorization they are either common sense or practical questions. This is not an easy exam and it is not easy to answer. you must choose the most appropriate answer when other answers can be correct as well. I am telling you they will hit you with curveballs adn you will not find them in any one book. Just study and do your best thats all I can say and make sure you study current trends off the internet as well.

[aleksandra]

guys, you can read all the books that are out there and still fail the exam. what you need is common sense, basic college knowledge and you MUST speak good English! you MUST, cause some of the questions are complicated and if you do NOT understand what they are all about, memorizing CPR is not going to help a bit. I think you just have to know a little about a lot. Internet is a good source, so are practice tests. Do NOT rely on just one book, no matter whether its CPR, manan shroff, lippincotts or duta.

[simplereg]

Hi guys. I believed that CPR is a good reference for the exam. I took the fpgee last Sept 30 and i find it very hard maybe because I was not able to finish reading /reviewing CPR and the management but some questions I was able to answer because of what I have studied from CPR. CPR is very detailed book you don't need to memorize it what you need to do is to analyze, understand the mechanism of drugs, how different drugs can be related to one another. Understanding is the key. Maybe if I have finish studying CPR I can confidently say that I did well on the exam. But I'm still hoping and praying that I'll pass on God's will.

[tranhong40]

Hi Aleksandra,

you said the internet is a good source. Could you please tell me more detail? Such as: How do you study Fpgee on internet? What do you search for Fpgee? What kind of the questions normally do you search for ? Sorry, i ask you many questions. However, with your help we have more helpful sources for Fpgee. Thank you.

 

Hong

[aleksandra]

hi. well as long as you have the blueprint in front of you, you can always google up all kinds of topics. i even used wikipedia even though i do know its not the best source ever. however it was good enough to rush through topics like krebs cycle, glycolysis and biochemistry in general. other than that i used youtube cause believe me or not, there are some interesting things out there. look for basic chemistry classes or statistics. thats where i learnt the difference between: mean, median, mode, standard deviation, etc. and search for practice tests. they help out a lot. do NOT rely on CPR. its very detailed yet not good enough.

[Iriska]

hi, i've got not a very pleasant question. how many time can you repass the fpgee and toefl if you fail ?? thanks

[tranhong40]

Hi Aleksandra,

 

Thank you for your internet resource.

[smileysilvia]

Hi, There is no limit for the appearing FPGEE n TOEFL. You can try as long as you can have so much money :-)

hi, i've got not a very pleasant question. how many time can you repass the fpgee and toefl if you fail ?? thanks

[thaierah143]

ya sure take it as many times as you want its only going to cost you $800+ each time. kind of silly to keep wasting money like that study hard and you wont have to worry.

[samdgreat33]

I will u guys all the Best, u will all pass. Please, i just wanna start studing for this exam, Do u know if theres any center in Africa, or must u take it in the US? And what are the text period for FPGEE? Sam

 

CONTACT DETAILS DELETED BY MODERATOR. Please use Test Magic messaging system.

 

THANKS

Edited October 15, 2010 by wasleys

[simon7]

hi

FPGEE centers are only in USA and it is offered twice each year , in April and September.

[orchidthief88]

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.

[rosa82]

removed Edited October 24, 2010 by rosa82
repeation

[rosa82]

The exam is hard and need educated guess but I feel CPR and manan management plus university notes is enough to pass .if the time return back I will pay more attention to genetic ,Immunology and microbiology .

but really if I fail the exam this due to fact that I didn’t study above subjects well(Area 1 and 2 of blueprint ), I hope all we pass[clap] .

Edited October 24, 2010 by rosa82

[thaierah143]

You all can talk about how hard the exam was but you guys are in for a real treat when it comes to finding anyone that will take you as an intern. I have called countless places and again all of them from all types of pharmacies and they tell me they have no interest in American citizen foreign grads let alone non american foreign grads who need sponsorships. They even told me even if I had my own liability insurance and interned as a volunteer I still had no shot due to the numbers of american pharmacy schools influx of interns they get slammed with. Seriously foreign pharmacy school is sure a waste of time if the plan is to work in the USA. I think that the NABP have to get it straight with these pharmacies and work something out.

[aleksandra]

unfortunately i have to agree... finding an internship is a real challenge! but it is possible. we just have to be patient and persistent. NABP should definitely do something about it. however, i believe that nothing will be done due to the fact that its just pure business. they make so much money doing it, they will still have all those poeple coming here, taking multiple tests and spending money like water...business is business

[Miss Nancy]

I'm sorry guys, but what is BLUE PRINT???????????????????????????

[pharmacu]

is the guide that the nabp made and explain all the points that they evaluated in the exam , you can find in the napb website ,

[simon7]

hi miss nancy

this is the blueprint

FPGEE Blueprint - National Association of Boards of Pharmacy (NABP)

[Pharmaddict]

Thaierah143, why are you doing all that if you are so hopeless?!! Before I started taking serious steps, I read a lot through this forum. I read a lot of similar posts that made me rethink several times before doing anything. I was also disappointed with the new TOEFL requirements!! BUT I decided I will go through all this. It's a challenge and this is life, full of challenges. I know it's hard to find an internship but it's not impossible. Several pharmacists succeeded to find an internship but we only keep hearing to desperate voices. I am like most of foreign pharmacists, I don't have a green card or a citizenship but I do have some HOPE and a goal that I always think about.

[Pharmaddict]

Regarding the exam, I do agree with many of the posts in this thread. I found the exam hard; I doubt it follows the blueprint!! Where are the clinical and pharmacology related questions?!! They were very few!! Part one included many questions related to structures which is really frustrating as no one memorizes structures!! I also noticed that there were many questions on genetics!! Part two had a lot of management questions that I have no idea about!! There were some questions that can be answered with some common sense but I have to guess in many!! Sometimes I think does answering these questions correctly mean that I am a good pharmacist and that I meet the quality and standards of pharmacy practice here?!!! I did a great effort as I wanted to score in the exam; now I just hope I pass!!!

My preparation:

I spent six months studying. I am somewhat slow, so I dedicated all my time to study. I strived to finish CPR (except for nuclear pharmacy, extemporaneous compounding, OTC and herbal medicine chapters) and I revised it once. I did the same with Manan Shroff management. I took notes throughout studying in CPR. I also read through some chapters in Lippincott; I find it a great book for its figures which are much easier to remember than written pages in CPR. I really hate pharmacology chapters in CPR!!! I answered 1000 Q and A. I also answered some questions on some websites, FPGEE CDs and few questions in Lange’s Q & A. I took the Pre-FPGEE couple of days before the exam; I got a score of 109 with a range of 92-126. This is briefly what I did.

What I learned from my experience:

· No one can say that certain books cover the exam. Whatever are you studying from, expect questions that you don't know, so try to learn how to correctly guess an answer and how to have control on yourself in the exam.

· CPR has too many details that I was killing myself to finish BUT the exam doesn't worth all this. For the future test takers, just know the basics (treatment protocol for a disease, mechanism of action of drugs, most common side effects and most common interactions). Concentrate on important diseases related to cardiology, endocrinology and CNS. Concentrate on important drugs such as digoxin, warfarin, lithium, antihypertensive drugs,…etc. Don’t try to fill your brain with too much information; you will end up remembering nothing. There were simple questions in the exam that I do remember I studied but I cannot remember the answer!! So try to be smart in the way you study. Calculations were few but simple; you can count on CPR for that. There were not many questions on biostatistics; just know the basics (tests of statistical significance like t-test, chi-square test…/ type I and II errors/ p value….).

· For the management part, I don’t know what to say!! Manan Shroff didn’t help me a lot but it’s good for the pharmacoeconomic questions. I wished I had time to read through Remington. Just read through it and Don’t memorize.

· The only advantage for the Pre-FPGEE is to give you some comfort and self-confidence before the exam and to prove to you that CPR is not enough. It’s nothing more than that. Questions on the exam are not related to those in the Pre-FPGEE. For me, the Pre-FPGEE was easier so I don’t know if the score range I got reflects my score in the exam or not!! If you decide to take it, do that enough time before the exam so that you have time to cover areas you haven’t studied.

· The internet is a great friend; you will always find explanations for things you don’t understand.

· Try answering as many questions as you can. This will not only show you your weak areas but also will boost your self-confidence.

· Finally, the most important thing is to keep praying and put your trust in Allah to help you.

I have no idea how NABP score the exam and what a scaled score is!!! I wish someone explains to me that!! Now, I just have to be patient and wait and try to concentrate on the TOEFL, which I’m having soon.

[topaz]

Thaierah143, why are you doing all that if you are so hopeless?!! Before I started taking serious steps, I read a lot through this forum. I read a lot of similar posts that made me rethink several times before doing anything. I was also disappointed with the new TOEFL requirements!! BUT I decided I will go through all this. It's a challenge and this is life, full of challenges. I know it's hard to find an internship but it's not impossible. Several pharmacists succeeded to find an internship but we only keep hearing to desperate voices. I am like most of foreign pharmacists, I don't have a green card or a citizenship but I do have some HOPE and a goal that I always think about.

 

I agree with you,"It's a challenge and this is life,full of challenges".It's better to think positive outlook in life than to quit to fullfill your dream.Having hope,goal,perseverance,determination,interest,patience,effort and actions are good factors to success than doing nothing.There's no harm in trying.

For those foreign pharmacists who doesn't have GC or citizenship,DON'T GIVE UP!Try and try until you could find an internship.As Pharmaddict said it's hard to find an internship but it's not impossible.It's better not to entertain negative feedbacks.

[thaierah143]

Thaierah143, why are you doing all that if you are so hopeless?!! Before I started taking serious steps, I read a lot through this forum. I read a lot of similar posts that made me rethink several times before doing anything. I was also disappointed with the new TOEFL requirements!! BUT I decided I will go through all this. It's a challenge and this is life, full of challenges. I know it's hard to find an internship but it's not impossible. Several pharmacists succeeded to find an internship but we only keep hearing to desperate voices. I am like most of foreign pharmacists, I don't have a green card or a citizenship but I do have some HOPE and a goal that I always think about.

 

Because I went to a pharmacy school in Jordan while the shortage was actually real before all these schools in america popped up, when I left to jordan my intention wasnt to even study this field and there were barely any schools here. I was coaxed into it by all my friends who studied here and work with walgreens, cvs, target etc..but now these same people are the ones telling me its hard to get foreign grads hired, very hard! so stop kidding yourselves its not as easy as it was before. Before they used to hire you on the spot with a $10k bonus sign on, some places gave hirees BMW's. now its not like that. They are obligated to hire american student interns even then some places turn them away. Some schools tell students to choose a place way before the semester begins. So imagine us the foregn grads. And I really do feel bad for the ones without citizenship or immigration status its even harder for them. I advise anyone who hasnt started pharm school and their dream was to come to the states to scrap that idea. but as for us its too late now we have to hunt down companies or work as techs or work anything in hopes a pharmacy will take us as interns. This is reality some of you do not want to hear this because its the truth. and I wish everyone good luck because we really do need it.