Examworthyexamworthy.comPharmacy Technician Certification Exam (PTCE) cheat sheet
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At a glance
Format: Multiple choice, computer-based
Domain weight map
Heaviest first - spend your time hereHow this exam thinks
The PTCE rewards medication knowledge plus exact calculation, law, and safety, so the convenient answer that breaks a verification step, a legal rule, or a safety check is always the wrong one.
Spot the trap
Tempting wrong answers, and why they failTempting but wrong
St John's wort inhibits hepatic enzymes, raising warfarin levels and increasing major bleeding risk.
Why it fails
Enzyme inhibition would indeed raise warfarin levels, which tempts candidates who confuse inducers with inhibitors. But St John's wort induces rather than inhibits CYP enzymes, so it lowers warfarin levels and raises clot risk, not bleeding.
Medications
Tempting but wrong
A dose written by the prescriber as ".5 mg" should be entered exactly as written so the record matches the order character for character.
Why it fails
Faithful transcription feels safe, which is the trap. A naked decimal with no leading zero reads as "5" if the point is missed, causing a tenfold overdose. Adding the leading zero (0.5 mg) is the safer record, not a deviation from intent.
Patient Safety and Quality Assurance
Tempting but wrong
A drop bottle dosed in both eyes once daily lasts about 50 days because each bottle delivers one drop per day.
Why it fails
Tempting because it treats the once-daily sig as one drop per day, but a sig that doses each eye means 2 drops daily, not 1. Counting only one drop halves the daily use and doubles the apparent supply, so the real figure is about 25 days.
Order Entry and Processing
Tempting but wrong
A patient-requested partial fill of a Schedule II prescription must be completed within 72 hours or the remainder is void.
Why it fails
This is tempting because a genuine 72-hour limit does exist for Schedule II partial fills. However, that 72-hour rule governs partials caused by the pharmacy lacking stock. When the patient requests a partial fill, the balance may be supplied within 30 days of the written date, so the 72-hour deadline is not the operative rule here.
Federal Requirements
Tempting but wrong
The main dietary hazard with phenelzine is grapefruit juice, which raises drug levels to a toxic range.
Why it fails
Grapefruit juice is a classic enzyme-inhibition interaction for many drugs, so it is a tempting default. But the defining dietary hazard with MAO inhibitors is tyramine, which can trigger a hypertensive crisis, not grapefruit-driven toxicity.
Medications
Tempting but wrong
A bar code mismatch can be overridden if the printed drug name on the label visually matches the stock bottle.
Why it fails
A visual name match looks confirmatory, which is the trap. The scan catches discrepancies the eye misses, like wrong strength, salt form, or manufacturer. Overriding on a name match alone defeats the entire purpose of bar code verification.
Patient Safety and Quality Assurance
Tempting but wrong
Insulin days supply for a 10 mL vial at 24 units/day is about 10 days, found by dividing vial volume directly by the daily dose.
Why it fails
This is a unit-mismatch error: it divides 10 mL by 24 without converting volume to units. The vial holds 1000 units, not 10, so the correct calculation is 1000/24 = about 41 days. Mixing mL and units makes the answer far too low.
Order Entry and Processing
Tempting but wrong
If an authorised refill remains on a Schedule IV prescription, it can still be dispensed regardless of how long ago it was written.
Why it fails
Having an unused authorised refill makes it seem the order is still good. But a Schedule III to V prescription expires six months from the written date. Once past that point, the remaining refill can no longer be used no matter how many refills were authorised.
Federal Requirements
Key terms
Exam-day rules
- Read the last line of the question first. It tells you whether it wants the days supply, the quantity, the dose, or the interaction, so you can work the problem instead of re-reading the scenario.
- Show the working on every calculation and label the units. The careless tenfold and unit-conversion errors disappear once the numbers are on the page, and a wrong number is treated as a safety failure.
- Never pick the convenient answer that skips a check. If an option is quicker but breaks correct-patient verification, a controlled-substance rule, a REMS, or a safety step, it is wrong by design.
- Route anything clinical to the pharmacist. A DUR alert, an interaction, an OTC recommendation, or a therapeutic substitution is the pharmacist's call, not the technician's, and the exam tests that boundary.
- Mind the zeros. A leading zero before a decimal and no trailing zero after one are not style points; they are the difference between the right dose and ten times it.
Revision schedule
- Day 1Map the blueprint and book a date
- Weeks 1 to 3Build the medication base
- Weeks 2 to 4Make the calculations automatic
- Week 4Lock down federal law
- Week 5Drill safety and order processing