Congratulations to the RPSGB Preregistration students that passed this the prereg exam

For more on the RPSGB Prereg Exam visit www.pharmacyknowledge.co.uk

Friday was another day of results for RPSGB preregistration students in the UK. Another 272 people passed this Autumn exam. Congratulations for those that passed for the first time, and those taking it the second time, you must be relieved its all over. Now you can enjoy the rest of the year.

With the inclusion of new pharmacy schools in the uk the amount of new pharmacist available every year is increasing. How many pharmacists jobs are there actually in the UK?

What to do next
Now that you've passed the preregistration exam and soon be registered, what should you do next? Some of you may already have jobs lined up, if not here are some things you should consider:

1) Take a break
The pharmacy preregistration year is a though year, you work full time and have to study in the evenings. But guess what, being an actual pharmacist is more stressful, you'll be wondering if you made any mistakes every night. Take a break, organise yourself, your personal life, your finances ect. If you jump straight into a job you'll feel great for the first week cause you can give medicines out yourself, but after that you will wish for a break.

2) Get MUR certificate
For everyone that has just passed the RPSGB preregistration exam, you should try to get a certificate to allow you to do MUR's as soon as possible, get it out the way. Most employers and locum agencies want you to be able to do MUR's. If you do not have a MUR certificate this will decrease your chances of getting a job and locum jobs. Do it while all the prereg exam knowledge is still in your brain.

3) Locum
Register with a locum agency and get some experience. I know it may be scary cause your gonna be thrown in the deep end, but have confidence, be careful and get some experience. This is the best way to earn some money and get a whole load of experience. I personally went straight into a full time job after my prereg, I still haven't got any locuming experience cause I'm too knackered by the weekend, and feel it's too risky to work when your tired. So I recommend everyone to get some locum experience before you get locked in a job. One of the best things about being a qualified pharmacist is that if all goes wrong, you can locum.

Essential Knowledge for the RPSGB pharmacy Exam

Following my post of my notes from my exam on CSM warnings from the BNF. I have updated pharmacyknowledge.com with new pages with this information.

Essential reading for RSPGB Exam CSM Warnings page 1

Essential reading for RSPGB Exam CSM Warnings page 2

Pharmacy Preregistration Exam: September Exam

The next RPSGB pharmacy preregistration exam takes place on the last friday of september. For everyone thats taking the exam for the first time be prepared and get tips from anyone that took the exam in June, for those who failed the June RPSGB Preregistration exam, hopefully your working hard and learnt from your mistakes, hope everyone passes.

Here are some tips which I found might be useful for those that are retaking or taking for the first time:

1. Know your BNF
When I was studying for the exam my tutor told me to read the whole BNF AT LEAST twice. I know the BNF is a long and very boring book but doing this gives you many advantages:
a) you will know content better, if you've read it you will at least retain some information.
b) it helps greatly for the open book paper, many of us read things and forget it, but if you've seen it somewhere then you know where to look it up again, reading the BNF twice at least means your gonna know if something is in the BNF or not.
c) BLUE BOXES - In the BNF you'll come across some CSM information in blue boxes, this information more likely than not is something important and you should know it. My revision technique was to copy all of the blue boxes down so I can read through it quickly and remember these things without looking through the whole BNF.
d) while reading the BNF highlight the things that you think are important, especially figures such as oxygen percentages and uses, Cholesterol numbers, and important therapeutic concentrations ect.

2.Calculations
Be confident with calculations and learn how to time them.
Calculations can be a tricky thing and many people struggle with it, learn calculation well, cause you could get stuck on one and be looking at it for ages knowing you can get the answer while wasting alot of valuable time.

3. Practice, practice practice
Practice as many past exam papers as possible and disect the answers fully. Also remember to do timed practices so you can get you timing right.

RPSGB Prereg Exam mistake - Good News for prereggers

The 2009 RPSGB Prereg exam open book paper had questions which were impossible to look up in the reference sources, BNF, Drug Tariff, and MEP.

The RPSGB Pharmacaceutical society sent out letters to all pharmacy prereg students to notify them of mistakes in the exam. I personally haven't read the letter but I have heard from the prereg in my shop that, according to the letter, the open book paper had questions in it that didn't have any way to reference and find the answers in the reference sources allowed to be taken into the exam. This means that pharmacy prereg students in the UK could have been wasting valuable time looking and searching for something that wasn't there.

From feed back from many pharmacy prereg students in the UK, this year was supposebly the hardest exam, everyone seems to think they failed and was complaining about the exam.

I will try to get a copy of the letter and have a proper read.

The RPSGB is looking to rectify the problem. How? well, we will probably never know, but we can make a few guesses:

1) The RPSGB will definitely not pass everbody because of this mistake.

2) The RPSGB as far as the letter seems to perceive, all student will not have to retake the exam

3) The closed book paper marks will not be affected.

4) The RPSGB will have to standarise the marks somehow.

Well, at least theres abit more hope for prereg students.

Good luck to everybody.

For more articles and revision guide check out http://www.pharmacyknowledge.co.uk/

RPSGB Pharmacy Prereg exam results 2009

Congratulations to all the prereg students that took part in the pharmacy rpsgb exam today. This day, the 26th of June 2009 the last of the late nights studying, you can enjoy yourself now. Today is definitely a day to remember, not only did you take the exam of your life, Michael Jackson also died. At least you got a landmark occasion to remember it by. Now all you have to do is wait for the RPSGB Pharmacy Prereg exam results.

I still remember the day when I took the prereg exam, it was a mixture of relief and fear. Everybody will feel the same, everyone feels like "I definitely failed that exam" "the open book was too hard" "I spent too much time on calculations". Remember over 90% of students pass the prereg exam, could you really be part of that 10% that failed? I thought I failed, and in the end passed. You have to be truly confident to feel that you passed 100%.

Well, you have to wait 3 weeks before you can completely relax, before you can say "I'm a pharmacists". Good Luck to all pharmacy prereg students today, I hope you all pass.

RPSGB Prereg Exam Revision Books

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Pharmacy RPSGB Exam - everyone keep calm

To all the pharmacy pre registration prereg trainees in the UK ready to sit the exam on June 26th. Everyone be prepared for the exam of your life. I know the pressure will be immense and all your 22 years of education come down to this moment. What you have to do is keep calm, check you've revised everything and don't panic.

Closed Book Exam:
Everyone initially thinks this one is gonna be the hardest, because you have nothing to refer to exept your brain. Actually it's easier than the Closed Book. If you've covered the material then it will come up, there aren't many suprises, you will see similar questions from what you've seen in past papers. The quantity of is double the practice exams, but this is an advantage, it actually means the questions you get wrong will count for less a percent. There will be more questions you know believe me.

Open Book Exam:
The open book is the hardest and pressurised exam you'll get. You know the answers are in front of you but you have no time to find them. Theres no way to prepare properly for it because they ask you questions that you will definetely need to look up. You just need to tag your BNF in the right places. Practice past papers and tag are you do them e.g theres always a question about infusions, interactions, etc. Tag as key chapters.

The calculations are also something that scares people. Some people have a natural talent in maths, and some don't. If you don't, then you need to work 5 times as hard to make sure you can get the RPSGB prereg calculations questions right, as you have to get 70% in this section otherwise you fail.

The night before the RPSGB Prereg Exam:
The night before the exam is the scariest of all. Just keep calm and try to absorb any extra informaiton that you can get, pay attention to details. Some people that live far away from the examination venue will book a hotel the night before, this mean you have no worries about travelling in the morning, and you can get a better nights sleep.

Hope this advice helps and good luck.

visit: http://www.pharmacyknowledge.co.uk/ for last minute revision guidance

RPSGB Laws: Responsible Pharmacist

Heres a round up on the new legal reguilations for the "responsible pharmacist" by the RPSGB:

Display a notice: The responisble pharmacist must display a notice with their name, registration number, and something that states that they are the responsible pharmacist in charge of the pharmacy.

Pharmacy record: A pharmacy record must be kept of the responsible pharmacist for any given day, the record must include: Name of responsible pharmacist, registration number, date and time of being responsible, date and time of stop being responsible, date and time of absence from the pharmacy including, the leaving work and entering. (This record must be kept by the pharmacy owner/superintendant for 5 years).

The responsible pharmacist must ensure standard operating procedures are being carried out correctly.

For more pharmacy information for students check our site RPSGB Prereg exam revision site

Gout - A common exam question

QUESTION
a) Which of the following have an indication in acute gout?

1. allopurinol
2. colchcine
3. diclofenac

b) Which one of the following is not correct, with regard to gout treatment?

1. Allopurinol is not indicated for the treatment of an acute attack of gout
2. aspirin may be used for an acute attack of gout
3. colchicine can cause diarrhoea
4. patients with moderate renal impairement should not use probenecid
5. thiazide diuretics may precipitate gout

Find out what you need to know about gout at http://www.pharmacyknowledge.co.uk/gout.htm

Pharmacy Prereg exam 2008 Bumetanide infusion question

Site update
I've heard alot about this question causing problems. Here's my theory on the answer...

".........The question something like this:
Which of these are suitable infusion fluids for bumetanide:
1. Sodium chloride 0.18% and Glucose 4%
2. Sodium chloride 0.9%
3. Sodium lactate

Is the answer:
A. 1, 2 and 3 are correct
B. 1 and 2 are correct
C. 2 and 3 are correct
D. 1 only is correct
E. 3 only is correct

My theory
To help you look up it up in the BNF: (1) referenced in BNF inappendix 6 under bumetanide and (2) and (3) referenced in BNF under Sodium Chloride infusion chapter 9.2.2


1. MAYBE FALSE: cause "injudicious use of solutions such as sodium chloride 0.18% and glucose 4% may also cause dilutional hyponatreamia especially in children and elderly" quoted from the BNF. bumetide causes hyponatraemia, so....."

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