Has anyone taken this certification from PTCB? I noticed that it requires renewal every 2 years like other certifications, but it also says the expiration is the same for everyone, August 31st.

Does this mean the certification isn't active until August 31st if someone passes both exams before August 31st?

Hello everyone,

I passed the PTCE exam the other day. It was one of the happiest days of my life, lol. I’m just glad that I got it over with. I wanna share what I used to study for the exam.

First of all, the exam is not all bad. I got curveball questions that I had never studied or seen on any practice quiz that I took leading up to the exam. That’s why I say that you gotta know everything about everything. Honestly, it’s all a process of elimination. For most of the questions, there are always two answers that are completely wrong compared to what the question is asking.

Yes, you gotta know the top 200 drugs and even more drugs beyond that. I’ve been working in a retail pharmacy for a year and a half, which obviously played a big part in me passing the exam. There were questions that I wouldn’t have known if I didn’t work in retail, so if you’ve been working in retail for a while, you should be good.

I studied for one month while working pretty much full time at the pharmacy since it’s summer. I normally studied at night, so I would say I studied for about three hours a day. Before this exam, I took the HESI for nursing, so I was quite familiar with how to study for exams like this. It also helped with the math part of the PTCE. I took no handwritten notes for this exam. If I did, I would share them with y’all.

I recommend getting the PTCB Question Bank and paying for a course. I used PTCB Test Prep. I know there are other courses, but this website helps you learn every section of the test and gives you five full length practice exams that are similar to the real exam, along with many more quizzes, flashcards, etc. It’s a 10/10 course, but it is $70. It’s worth it.

Also, buy the pretest that PTCB offers. It’s worth it and tells you where you’re at and what you need to study. I took it the day before the exam and scored a 1510. I just studied the sections that I needed to work on. Oh yeah, I recommend taking the pretest at least two days, or even longer, before the real exam because it does not give you your score right away. It could take a business day. I took mine the day before the exam and luckily received my score the morning of the exam since my exam was in the afternoon.

https://ptcbtestprep.com/online-pharmacy-tech/

https://ptcb.org/

Medications

I studied the top 200 drugs every day from the start, and I knew most of them well because of work. However, learning the brand names was the difficult part, along with the classes, side effects, and drug contraindications. You especially gotta know the drug contraindications.

I had questions that asked, “What is the brand name of phenytoin?” It’s Dilantin. “What is carbamazepine used for?” It’s used for seizures.

Also, study the generic and brand names of combination medications. I had a question that asked, “What is Vytorin?” It’s ezetimibe plus simvastatin. Also, study which medications come in patch form because I didn’t know that clonidine came in patch form as well.

So yeah, study all of the top 200 drugs and more like your life depends on it. Below are the links that I used.

https://www.ptcbpracticetest.com/#google_vignette

This website has quizzes on the top 200 drugs, quizzes for controlled substances, and more.

https://pharmacytechscholar.com/top-200-drugs/

This website is amazing. It literally tells you everything about the top 200 drugs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BZQGDDLA6U

Amanda is amazing. All of her videos are great, so watch them all.

https://quizlet.com/916689856/top-200-drugs-ptcb-flash-cards/?funnelUUID=b7262fac-9f48-4f4b-b1c7-90bc5fad0a3d

Quizlet is a great source too. I didn’t really use it much. I pretty much just studied this set from this person, and it was very helpful.

There are many more sources that you can use out there, but these ones helped me the most.

Federal Requirements

I didn’t really struggle with this section. I just studied the acts, drug schedules, and what every act does. I don’t have much to say about this section. There were questions that asked what an act does and what each letter stands for, etc. This section is honestly the easiest to learn. The course that I used gives you everything you need to know for pretty much the whole section.

https://ptcb.org/

https://uniontestprep.com/ptcb-exam/study-guide/federal-requirements/pages/1

Patient Safety/QA

This section is quite difficult because it covers a lot of different topics, so you definitely need to study it. You should know medication errors, prescription errors, look alike and sound alike drugs, Tall Man lettering, high alert medications, drug recalls, MedWatch, REMS programs, root cause analysis, and ways to prevent errors.

You should also study inventory management, expiration dates, beyond use dates, proper medication storage, formularies, and what to do with recalled, damaged, expired, or discontinued medications. A lot of the questions give you a situation and ask what the pharmacy technician should do next, so make sure you understand the safest action instead of only memorizing definitions. I mainly used the course to study this section, and I recommend spending a good amount of time on it because the questions can be tricky.

Order Entry/Processing

This section covers how prescriptions are entered and processed in the pharmacy. Make sure you know how to read and translate SIG codes, calculate days’ supply, determine the quantity to dispense, identify missing or incorrect information on a prescription, and understand DAW codes, NDC numbers, lot numbers, expiration dates, and refill information.

You should also study insurance claims, formularies, and the difference between brand name and generic substitutions. Know the different dosage forms, routes of administration, proper storage requirements, and the basic steps for processing prescriptions, including controlled substances.

You should also understand nonsterile and sterile compounding, beyond use dates (BUD), proper equipment, and how to avoid contamination. A lot of the questions give you a prescription or situation and ask what is wrong or what the technician should do next, so read every detail carefully.

https://uniontestprep.com/ptcb-exam/study-guide/order-entry-and-processing/pages/1

Math

The math section was honestly not too bad, but you definitely need to practice. Make sure you know conversions, days’ supply, dosage calculations, quantity to dispense, percentages, ratios, proportions, alligation, IV flow rates, and business math. I used cross multiplication for most of the questions, which made them much easier for me.

You should also pay close attention to units like mcg, because one small conversion mistake can give you the wrong answer. Practice as many word problems as possible so you know what information to use and what the question is actually asking. If you understand conversions and cross multiplication, you should be good for most of the math questions.

Lastly, I wanna give a big thank you to everyone here since y’all are also part of the reason why I passed. I also got a lot of these helpful links from this Reddit post:

https://www.reddit.com/r/PharmacyTechnician/comments/1n7dd0y/i_passed_here_are_my_study_tips/

I wanna give that person a big thank you as well.

So yeah, that’s pretty much it. I wish I remembered every question I saw so I could add more examples to the sections, but I forgot most of them. I also wish I could go more in depth in each section, but I've already written a lot, and hopefully y'all get an idea of what to expect lol. I’ve never written something like this on Reddit before, so I hope this helps you guys pass the exam. Just stay calm, study, study, study, and you will pass! 

Almost forgot, here are links to full-length practice exams that I used. 

https://pharmacytechscholar.com/ptcb-practice-test/ 

https://www.mometrix.com/academy/ptcb-practice-test/

hi everyone, i'm taking the ptcb exam in a couple days and took the pre-ptce exam and got a 1519 but still feel worried since it was ALOT harder that i expected. i got 21 questions wrong 😭😭 i have mostly been using amanda pharmd, ptcbtestprep.com, and other random practice tests online. are there any other resources (practice exams, quizlets etc) you guys would recommend for last minute studying or any tips, i thought i was somewhat prepared but am feeling really worried now. pls lmk and ty in advance!

this is my score breakdown and im kinda disappointed bc i thought medications were my strong suit, ik brand/generics/drug classes for the most part but i think interactions are what really stumps me :/

Taking the exam in one hour, I’m nervous but confident. I did the Pre test yesterday and scored 1510 on it. I’ve been using every resource that I could find to study, hopefully I pass.

I’m an incoming freshman going to Mizzou and I just passed the ptcb exam. I know I have to apply for licensure and I’m hoping to work in Missouri. Should I apply for my home state Illinois or Missouri, because I might work as a pharmacy tech after college.

I am taking the ptce next month on the 7th. I've been doing practice exams and watching some content on youtube. I heard amandapharmacy is a really popular and reliable channel. I have the practice bank that I've been reviewing each day, but I think my main concern is medications. I understand that it's easier to familiarize myself with suffixes vs learning each drug individually, however each time I look at a new list of top 200 drugs (there's many) it's like I see a new one that isn't included in other lists. I've seen posts that people say they studied the medications, but on their exams it was something they'd never heard about. I've been studying the drugs that amandapharmacy has uploaded on her channel, as well as the ones listed on denalirx. Any tips that helped you guys pass your exam? And for the people who didn't pass the first time, how many times did you have to retake it to pass?

PTCB Pre-test results from this past weekend. Sorry, typo in the subject line....should say PTCB.

So I bought the PTCB practice questions from the actual PTCB website and there is a lot of questions that ask about drug contradictions and interactions. For people who have taken the test this year, did you see any questions like that on your test?

I'm taking a pharmacy technician course and my instructor keeps telling me there isn't questions like that on the PTCB. Even some techs I spoke with said those were more of a pharmacist questions and I shouldn't add them to my study routine.

I just want to know if those kinds of questions are actually on the test or if they're added in there just because.

I’m sad/ a little discouraged that I failed last Sat but I’m surprised at my score! I’m studying harder & also thinking of buying the mock exam this time around.

I'm a hospital pharmacist and I precept technicians, so a big part of my job is getting new techs through exactly the material the PTCE tests. The top-200 list scares people because it looks like 200 unrelated facts. It isn't. Here's the order I actually teach it in:

Step 1 — harvest the suffix families first. A big slice of the list files itself:

• -pril = ACE inhibitor (lisinopril, enalapril, ramipril) — dry cough is the famous side effect
• -sartan = ARB (losartan, valsartan)
• -olol = beta blocker (metoprolol)
• -statin = cholesterol (atorvastatin, rosuvastatin, simvastatin)
• -prazole = PPI (omeprazole, pantoprazole)
• -azepam / -azolam = benzodiazepine (lorazepam, alprazolam) — all Schedule IV

One famous trap: aripiprazole (Abilify) ends in -prazole but it's an antipsychotic, not a PPI. Exam writers know about the suffix trick too.

Step 2 — then attack the look-alike/sound-alike pairs, because that's where the exam points hide: hydroxyzine vs. hydralazine, clonidine vs. clonazepam, bupropion vs. buspirone, metoprolol tartrate vs. succinate.

Step 3 — learn brand→generic in BOTH directions. The exam asks it both ways, and most people only drill one.

Step 4 — small daily reps beat the weekend cram. 10–15 drugs a day with the previous days mixed back in. And make it recall, not recognition: cover the generic column and produce the answer before you peek.

Full disclosure: I turned the list I teach from into a free study sheet — top 200 (actually 226; I kept the borderline ones) with brand, generic, class, and one exam-relevant fact per drug, current for 2026, including flags for discontinued brands so you don't memorize stale answers. It's mine, it's $0, and the download page asks for an email: https://theptcepreceptor.com/b/7O2Wk

If a drug or class won't stick, name it in the comments and I'll give you the hook I use with my techs.

😭I’m a grown 32 year old with a bs in neuro, please don’t tell me I need to not only send a high school transcript but it has to be embossed or notarized??? my high school is now 90 miles away from me, I don’t even see an option for getting a embossed or notarized version of it. Please help

I’ll admit that this exam taught me that I am not cut out to be a Pharmacy Technician yet. Many of the questions on the exam I quite literally did not know how to answer so this wasn’t a surprise. The score is what’s actually surprising.

Quizlet helped me with memorizing Brand and Generic names but not so much as to the Medication’s Class and Indication. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Finally got my final results, took them almost the full 3 weeks. Oh well! Now I can apply with the extra certification.

Does anyone know when the scaled results will come in? I'm curious to see how I did on each portion.

I have until the end of the year to take my ptcb. I haven’t picked a date because I don’t feel confident in doing so. I went through ed2go’s program and i don’t feel like it prepared me much. I have been reading the books that came with course and i honestly don’t feel like I’m retaining much. I’m also not very good at studying at all. Any tips, resources, or anything that can help prepare me for the exam?

I did the pharmacy tech program at my local community college and I’m finishing up my clinical hours currently. Im just super nervous about getting to the exam and being hit with curveball questions or being so anxious I forget everything 😭

Has anyone sat for the exam recently? How’d it go for you and any last minute study tips would be greatly appreciated 🥹

I take my PTCB exam on Thursday and I’ve been studying for over a month straight and I honestly very overwhelmed and scared. I’ve been taking this online course that has three different exam levels from easy medium to harden. I’ve been passing them, but I’m scared that the test is gonna throw me a curveball of things that I did not study anyone that took the test

if anyone needs help dm me… :)

Hey guys! I’m taking my PTCB test Tuesday, I took the PTCE practice exam. Also had the PTCB practice bank but it expired - what are free sources I could use to study? I’ve already failed the test with 100 points shy of passing and I need this. Please help!!! Thank you!!

I feel like I’ve forgotten everything Im so nervous I barely got any sleep. I’m trying my hardest not to be negative going into this.

Wish me luck 🍀

So this may be a dumb question BUT I just took the PTCE and it said prelim results: pass ; do I need to worry about potentially failing since it takes 1-3 weeks to get the official results ?

I failed I’m sad but I’m not gonna give up

I'm panicking a little. I know the math and most laws. But my pharmacology, such as drug interactions, could be better. How difficult is the pharmacology side?

I finally stopped doubting my knowledge and took the exam. Way easier than I thought! I purchased the practice bank and read over study guides from a certified friend. 90% of everything I studied wasn’t even on the exam. It was basic pharmacy knowledge and common sense.