Black Friday Books

Today's Black Friday, and what did I buy?  (Ignoring the speakers and a dvd player/burner for my computer.  Both of which I'm using as I type this.  =D)

Despite the title of this post, the first item isn't a book.  It's the CPR Pocket Resuscitator.  I took the class and got certified, and I thought these things were cool when we were practicing with them.  I looked'em up on Amazon.com and saw they were only about $10!  Click.  It was an auto-buy.

I took the class because I want to be prepared, just in case.  I bought this little guy to help me be prepared for that just in case.  Although I have yet to decide where I'm going to keep it.  I have an emergency bag where I keep a first aid kit, an ace bandage, etc that I might throw it in.  Although I was also thinking the glove compartment of my car.  But then of course just keeping it in my bag might be a good idea too.  I want to have it handy when there's an emergency... so I need to have it with me when I'm around an emergency.  But since it's only $10, I may just buy a couple more.

The orange case comes inside a ziplock bag, and inside is the resuscitator, some blue nitrile gloves (size: large), some antiseptic handwipes, and some brief instructions.  Definitely worth it.

Get Into Pharmacy School: Rx for Success!  Now it should be obvious why I bought this.  I'm working towards and writing about getting into pharmacy school, and that's what this book is about.  I'll do a full review on it when I'm done getting through it.

As for a glimpse into what's in it, the Table of Contents is divided into six sections:

PART ONE: Is Pharmacy School for You?

- Ch 1: Introduction to Pharmacy

- Ch 2: Making the Decision

PART TWO: Planning for Pharmacy School

- Ch 3: Planning Your Undergraduate Experience

- Ch 4: The Pharmacy College Admission Test (PCAT)

- Ch 5: Selecting the Right Program

- Ch 6: Researching Pharmacy Schools

PART THREE: Applying to Pharmacy School - Navigating the Application Process

- Ch 7: Admission Criteria

- Ch 8: Completing the Application

- Ch 9: Personal Statement

- Ch 10: Letters of Recommendation

- Ch 11: The Interview

- Ch 12: Admissions Process - An Inside Perspective

- Ch 13: Rejection and Your Alternatives

PART FOUR: Preparing for Your Career in Pharmacy

- Ch 14: What to Expect and Do in Pharmacy School

- Ch 15: Postprofessional (Post-Pharm.D.) - Residencies, Fellowships, and Board Certifications

- Ch 16: Career Options

PART FIVE: Financing Your Degree

- Ch 17: Figuring Out Costs

- Ch 18: Applying for Financial Aid

- Ch 19: Finding Free Money

- Ch 20: Borrowing the Money

PART SIX: Resources

- Quick Reference List of Key Resources

- Pharmacy School Statistics

- Index

Looks like there should be a lot of good information in there, and this is a first printing, published in 2009, so the info should be up to date.  I'll let you know how it goes!

Prescription to My Younger Self: What I learned after Pharmacy School  Now this book... it caught my eye as I was shopping for the other one.  It was first published on March 28, 2008... had no description and no reviews.  Yet it had a very catchy title and there were only two copies left!  (Just one copy now with a "order soon (more on the way)" note on it.).  It was only $20, and I was curious.

I've only just cracked it open since it only arrived today, but here's an actual description for anyone else wanting to take a look at it, straight from the book:

This book is a collection of letters written by pharmacists in varying professional settings, who we feel have either excelled in the profession of pharmacy, or who have inspired us and were willing to share their stories in print.  We asked the pharmacists to provide a biography along with a letter they have written int he present to their former self on the day that they graduated from pharmacy school, and share the pearls of wisdom they learned about their profession after graduation.  Included in the epilog is group of letters from a different perspective- the student.  Each of us contributed a letter reflecting upon our current aspirations and hesitations as we venture into the unknown, a career.  Prescription to My Younger Self: What I learned after Pharmacy School, allowed us to step outside of the box and take a chance on a very unique and rewarding project.

There are twenty-seven total pharmacist chapters, from pharmacists in all kinds of pharmacy settings, as well a chapter each from the four students who came up with the idea for this book.  So the title of the book didn't lie to me, and it is what it says.  Cool.  And now you guys get more info about it than amazon.com gives.  Full review forthcoming!

Becoming a Pharmacy Technician - Part 8 - Practice Exam

Finally took the Official PTCE Practice Exam.  I was confused the first time I looked for into on the practice exam page.  The page does describe what the practice exams are all about (There are two general practice exams, a calculations exam, and a medication usage and administration exam.), but I couldn't find the link to press to pay for it and get it started!

It turned out the link was right in front of me, but in the form of a flashing banner.  I tend to ignore banners because they're usually ads, but it wasn't the case this time.

These are the various "slides" of the banner as they switch from one to another.

After following the link, you'll wind up having to register for a third time. (The other two times were back when I made my appointment to take the official exam.)  This registration gets you a Logon ID and Personal ID number. However unlike the other two registrations, there is no accompanying email, so be sure you really do print out the page or jot down the information somewhere. (If you forget, there still is a method to recover the info, but better to just keep note of it right away.)

That info allows you to see a dashboard that has all your testing info:

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Just click on the link of the exam you want to pay for, then afterwards that exam becomes available to take.  I haven't taken a lot of online exams, but I was happy to see that you're able to apply normal Multiple Choice Test-taking strategies.  You're shown one question at a time, but you're allowed to "mark" questions.  This allows you to go through the entire exam, then you see a summary page.  That summary page let's you know which questions you marked, and you can easily jump back to those questions that you wanted to go back to.  I didn't realize what the "mark" feature was until I got there, so I didn't really need to use it, but that will be very helpful when it's time to go through the real process.

I took the exam, guessed on the questions that I didn't know the answers to(I need to really study that Top 200+ Drugs list), and still had about thirty minutes left of the hour that was allowed.  I passed with a score of 725.  I could not find on the PTCB website what the max score is, but if The Pharmacy Technician is right, it's out of a possible 900.  (The information on scoring can be found here.  It's important to know that each question is not weighed the same, like in traditional multiple choice tests.)

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Besides the overall score, the results page gives you a breakdown of how well you did in the three different areas that the exams tests for.

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Those scores aren't exactly the best scores to be proud of, but like I said earlier, I essentially spent no time studying the Top 200+ Drugs list.  The way the The Pharmacy Technician and The Pharmacy Technician Workbook and Certification Review are set up, the drugs list is in the Appendix and not part of the main 17 chapters.  With some studying, I'll do better on these drug specific questions and will also hopefully make less stupid mistakes.

This is a pass or fail exam, but I'd be nice to do better.  Should I fail, I have to wait two months before taking the exam again.  (Failure a second time means waiting two more months, and failure a third time and onward means waiting 6 months!  Although that's pretty understandable.  The exam really isn't that hard from what I've seen.  It takes some studying, but isn't that hard.)

So that's it.  The practice exam was certainly helpful.  Worth paying the $29.00.  And I'll be taking the exam on the 18th.  I could spend weeks studying to get as close to a perfect score as possible, but I'd really like to continue learning while working.  The exam isn't the goal, the certification is the goal.  I'll keep on studying after the 18th, but I'm ready to take the exam now.

Becoming a Pharmacy Technician - Part 6 - Workbook Calculations Practice Exam

While the full practice exams is 100 questions, the calculations exam is only 50. But with that said, the question types within the calculations category feel more varied.

How did I do? I did ok. Not great though. There were three questions that I simply did not know what they were asking. I mixed up the equation in my head for converting degrees Celsius to Fahrenheit (the practice exam gave the equation, the calculations exam did not. I think it's safe to say I need to memorize the equation before I go into the exam.) There were two questions that I failed to catch the trick, and I forgot how to convert gallons to liters.

Seven questions wrong out of fifty is not good at all. But the reason I say I did ok, is that none of the mistakes will be hard to fix. The practice exam did what it was supposed to and show me where I need a little bit more work.  Conversions are easy to memorize, and once I understand what the three questions are asking, the math will be simple. I did not mess up on any of the math where I understood what the question was asking for. (Besides the degree conversion.) 

For anyone else that uses this book, even if you do well on the practice exam, the variety of questions in the calculations exam makes it worth taking.

Next... it's time to study for a couple more days to fix the holes in my ability, and then take the official practice exam.

Becoming a Pharmacy Technician - Part 5 - Workbook Practice Exam

I took the Practice Exam in The Pharmacy Technician Workbook & Certification Review book, and I did pretty bad. (Note: I finished within 1 hour, and did not use the second hour to go over all the questions and double check my answers like would be my normal practice. I wanted to see what my initial reactions were, and I know that I'll have the official PTCB practice exam to take later on.)

Most of the errors were due to simply not knowing details about specific drugs. I'm not quite sure where those questions fall into the three categories of:

I. Assisting the Pharmacist in Serving Patients - 66% of exam

II. Maintaining Medication and Inventory Control Systems - 22% of exam

III. Participating in the Administration and Management of Pharmacy Practice - 12% of exam

But I did expect some of those questions, and to not do that well with them. Something I still need to work on before taking the official exam. What I did want to take the practice exam for was to see how I'd do on the other types of questions.

Calculations - There were some stupid mistakes in the calculations questions because I missed converting units. That's inexcusable. Calculations is the majority of the exam, and is also the easiest part of the exam.

Abbreviations - I also forgot some of the abbreviations that I made flash cards for. It shouldn't be too hard to pick up again.

References - I also need to study all the different references again. Orange Book, Red Book, Merck Index, etc all are one thing in my head at the moment, and there were several questions regarding them in the practice exam.

Other - Some minor topics that I need to review more are the different Acts and what the different parts of the NDC mean.

Next - Callculations Practice Exam

The workbook also has a Calculations Practice Exam. It's half as long as the Practice Exam. I used to be a physics student and checking units used to be second nature to me. I like that the workbook has this second exam to take so I can retake the most important part of the exam. I should definitely do better with this second go at it.

Becoming a Pharmacy Technician - Part 3 - PTCE Update

I've finished studying The Pharmacy Technician. It took a little bit longer than I wanted, due to moving out of my old place and everything that entails. The material isn't all that bad. It was mostly a lot of new terms and abbreviations that I had to learn, a lot of common sense and straightforward procedures, and some extremely simple math.

The only major difference, which I mentioned in an earlier post, is that is says the PTCE is 100 multiple choice questions long. This is wrong. It's actually only 90 questions long, with 10 of those questions (randomly placed throughout the exam) to be used for evaluation purposes for future exams, and will not count towards the final score. This change is likely due to the fact that that both books were published in 2007. While there's a format change to the exam, I doubt there are major changes to the content of the exam. To be safe however, I will take the official practice exam offered by the PTCG from their website for $29.

The breakdown of the exam is (direct from the PTCB website):

I. Assisting the Pharmacist in Serving Patients - 66% of exam
II. Maintaining Medication and Inventory Control Systems - 22% of exam
III. Participating in the Administration and Management of Pharmacy Practice - 12% of exam

(I'd probably be a good idea to go through the Content Outline links at the bottom of that page so see what the official website says about the content of the exam.)

I'll be timing myself and taking the practice exam in the Workbook & Certification Review companion book tomorrow, and completing the online registration for the exam tomorrow.

Becoming a Pharmacy Technician

There are courses to take to become a certified pharmacy technician, but I'm not taking that route.  I've been given the advice multiple times to just buy some books to help study for the exam, and work on it on my own.

The two greatest benefits would be the time and money saved, in taking this approach.  Admittedly though, I did not really do all that much research before deciding to just study on my own.  A quick google search shows me that CSU East Bay offers a course for $1,825, and the the course is self-paced.  So it looks like only one of my assumptions was right, although right by a large margin.

What book to buy?  I went to amazon.com and looked at some reviews, and settled on

- The Pharmacy Technician, 3rd Edition

- The Pharmacy Technician: Workbook & Certification Review, 3rd Edition.

Total cost was about $82.

The books are clearly approved of by the APhA, and have all excellent reviews of 4 and 5 stars.  The other book I considered buying was, Mostby's Review for the PTCB Certification Examination, for $36 dollars, but while the average score was 4 stars, the scores were across all levels.

Here's a quote from one of the 2 star reviews (source):

2). The biggest problem is the abundance of typographical errors. There was contradictory information (eg: a class a balance has a minimum accuracy at 6mg...then, a few dozen pages later it says it is accurate at 120mg.....then a few dozen pages after that it is explained that there are several types of class A balances with different accuracy ranges). Forget about scoring yourself on the practice tests.....answers are coded improperly (you selected B, the answer guide says C is correct but the explanation clearly indicates that B is the right choice). Well, if you only double check the answers you got wrong and found these errors, how do you know if you actually got all of the other ones correct without verifying all of them (there are apprx. 1200 questions in the book - pay me and I'll edit the answers). There were even questions asked in the practice tests that did not match the answers given at all (which drug would you use to treat chronic pain? the choices were all hypertension drugs). There was also a question on a practice test that in no way, shape or form matched these answer - it was an entirely different question.

That scared me away a bit, although there are enough good reviews that I may consider it later.  But first I'll finish going through the ones that I have before considering getting a second book to study from.

The books contain 17 chapters with the standard problem types of matching, multiple choice, true/false, and short answer for use in studying, as well as a practice exam.  I've only just gotten started with the book, but it seems pretty decent so far.

We'll see how fast I can get through this, because I want to be certified as soon as possible, which I have in my head at about a month.  Without knowing the material in the books, that's a very tentative date.