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Pharmacy tech class or self study ?

by Jan
(OKC)

Pharmacy tech schools seem terribly expensive! A friend says I should just self study, but... I don't know where to start. Please help

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School vs self study
by: Jerry

Going to a classroom is probably best for most, and you may be able to get financial aid grants and loans.

If you decide you want to self study for the PTCB, a "review manual" is the way to go. They are updated more often than store bought books and are much cheaper. Store bought books are usually 50-100 bucks each, since every jobber who helped distribute it gets paid. Review Manuals often cover what 3-5 books do, and they're only $40-60. Not to mention the information is usually more accurate and fresh. However: One HUGE factor to consider with self-study is do you have the discipline to do it? If you don't, then maybe the school tuition is worth the expense. Another big consideration is job placement. Some schools have lifetime job placement assistance, which also may make the tuition worth paying. Lastly, the demand is out there for technicians. But, pharmacy managers want good people quickly, so they call the schools and recruit from there first. Unless you know some people, that's really tough to compete with. As such, it makes getting a job more difficult for self study folks. Hope this helps.
University of Florida
by: Anonymous

I am almost finishing Pharmacy Tech class at UF
I go to Tampa General Hospital for classroom training.
14 weeks - $3900
Check TBT free paper for Ads of next semester
Self study experience
by: Anonymous

I did self study! I had a little over a week to study and no prior experience working as a pharmacy tech and I managed to pass the exam. Here's what I did: I took some of the free practice exams on this site to get a feel for what kind of material there would be on the exam then looked through all of the tutorials. I used one of the study aids recommended on this site - the pharmacy tech exam book from Learning Press. It's available on scribd.com and if you make an account and upload a document, you can download it for free (google how to download books off scribd for free). I read through the book then pretty much just googled a bunch of practice exams to try. If you check out your local library's website, they might have a database that will give you access to more practice exams that are very close to what the real exam is like. I also downloaded an app that had flash cards for the top 200 drugs (Learn Top 200 Drugs by Imago LLC).

Overall, I think only you can decide whether or not self study is for you. I'm a pre-pharmacy student so I'm plenty used to cramming for exams like this. It definitely is possible though! You just have to study hard :) I basically did nothing but study for that entire week. Hope this helps and good luck!
Test
by: shailee

I am going to give my test in 10 days. This is the first time I read all about pharmacy terms. I have prepared with 2 books and online included this site. Any tips to pass this test. I read about scribd.com is it free? I am very nervous, my math is not very good.
how do you learn?
by: amanda

I did the certificate program through Penn Foster (with no previous experience) took me about 6 months....got lucky and got a job soon after, worked for 6 months (this was before you had to be certified) then took the exam, passed with a high score. I liked the Penn foster program, if you do good at learning by reading then you'll be fine. If you learn better by doing, then a class might do better. It depends on how you learn and how much you want to spend (Penn foster was about $500)

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