Pre-reg exam

[parent of pre-reg student]

The Pre-reg exam was on Friday - my daughter couldn't be entered because of her earlier pre-reg problems. Everyone she has spoken to has said that it was awful! This is scary for when she does it in September. Any tips for revision from those pre-reg students who have just experienced it? When do the results come out? Good Luck to everyone, and if anyone does have to re-sit in September, God Forbid, does the second attempt only take place in London, or can you sit it at regional centres again? Everyone she knows did it at Liverpool on Friday 27th June.Wish this year was all over..........

[johnep]

Weakest area is always calculations. Ensure you daughter practises these until second nature. My exam technique was to make sure I knew two or three areas backwards to ensure top marks. The areas were dosages and derivation of equations and then usually a simple problem using the equation.
johnep

[cezlaa]

Well I wont know whether I have passed or not for another 3 weeks so I don't want to say too much, but I didn't think it was too bad. It wasn't very different from the thousands of past questions I have done. There were 3 calculations that were asking you to do pretty much the same thing (so if you got one wrong then you are likely to get them all wrong which is mean!) and I couldn't get the exact answers for which scared me a bit, but after talking to others I think I did put the correct answers because the answers I got were close enough luckily. I think I know what I did wrong now but it's a bit late now!

I would agree that making sure you are pretty much perfect at calculations is important. I had been getting 100% for calculations in most of the past papers I did but when I got into the real exam I still had some problems. You can afford to get 6 out of 20 wrong, so you don't need to be 100% perfect, but you do need to be really sure of them just in case there are 3 the same that you struggle on like me!

Apart from that I would say you need to do lots of past questions, which can help identify areas you are weak in and help you familiarise yourself with the types of questions. Also, you need to tag your resources for the open book exam really well, and make sure you know them inside out so that you know exactly where to look and can turn to the right page in sceonds.

Good luck for your daughter for September. Hopefully I wont be sitting it with her!

[hanah]

Students think that one of the questions was not correct: the Bumetanide one. And one was ambiguous: the Co-codamol 8/500 as it wasn't clear what the dosage was or frequency so students would assume that GP can prescribe two tabs (16/1000mg) which will be good enough as a painkiller.
Also lots of other difficult questions.
I know only students who sat the exam will know what I am talking about!

[johnep]

Can you give us an outline of the bumetanide question?
johnep

[Lazy Nite]

Hey ppl

I remember the pre-reg exam. I did it jus last yr! So glad it was over.

When I did the exam I was a bit short of time on the open book paper. I guess you must have an idea of the answer but a quick look in the BNF does help. That’s why you need to flag ur BNF, for that quick look!

The last 20 questions in the open book paper I had to rush a bit. I finished in time though. Felt so exausted afterwards, but I tried not to think about it. I enjoyed myself – went out with the other pre-regs ..so take it easy and keep chatting/laughing, dnt think…

Few days later I got a small, thin envelope. It woz gud news…woo hoo!!

Some tips to consider for the pre-reg exam:

1. Read the BNF early in the year – all the answers are in the BNF
2. Flag ur BNF, MEP and the drug tariff. Flag CSM warnings, topical steroid potencies, appendix, index, introductions to each organ system, eq doses of oral morphine, eq doses of oral steroids, dental/nurses formularies etc
3. practice calculations early on – look at ‘ pharmaceutical calculations’ by Rees and ‘pharmaceutical calculations’ by bonner
4. understand the drug tariff – even thou this book makes u fall asleep, they often ask some questions i.e how many prescription charges etc
5. Practice pass papers – to get the timing right.
6. have a look at ‘pass the pre-reg pharmacy exam’ by chi-loon cheung
7. I was told that 90% of students PASS the exam the FIRST time.

Good Luck …

[cezlaa]

Yeah I'm sure the bumetanide one was wrong. It was a week ago now but it was something along the lines of:

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

Hmm..... that is quite sad that I can still remember it actually!

[banini]

Yeah I'm sure the bumetanide one was wrong. It was a week ago now but it was something along the lines of:

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

Hmm..... that is quite sad that I can still remember it actually!

i did the exam last wk too, for that question tho i put b, cos if u look at page 813 in the bnf, in the blue box at the bottom it says that if it is compatible with sodium chloride 0.9% (which bumetanide is) then it will also be compatible with sodium chloride and glucose intravenous infusion. unless i'm reading it wrong.

i thought the exam was ok, i was pushed for time in the open bk but that was cos i spent ages trying to figure out how to do 2 of the calc questions, when i left them and went back to them near the end they were pretty simple. i hated the questions where u had to look up 5 diff drugs just to answer one question. it wasted so much time.
some of the questions were similar to the past papers, so i would advise to get a hold of loads of them and keep practising, also read the professional guidance bk! it was so hard to find stuff in there!

[gamhulcol]

Can you give us an outline of the bumetanide question?
johnep

I heard about the bumetamide question, i tried to look it up aswell but still not sure what the correct answer is

The question was something like this:
Which iv infusions are suitable for bumetamide
1. sodium chloride 0.18% and glucose 4%
2. sodium chloride 0.9%
3. Sodium lactate intravenous infusion

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

I think the answer is 2and 3 is true

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" not sure what dilutional hyponatraemia means but i'm guessing it causes hyponatraemia and bumetide causes hyponatraemia, so this combination can't be good

2. TRUE: cleary shown in the infusion tables in bnf as what is recommended

3: MAYBE TRUE:not much information in the BNF but heres my theory... bumetamide causes hypokalaemia sodium lactate iv infusion contains potassium so may help counter this. haha its just a guess, this is how i would answer it with just the bnf and not looking at other references

The one that was clearly right was definetely 2, therefore one or both of the others must be true as theres no option to have 2correct only.

The prereg i spoke to said he said c aswell, but just as a pure guess, as he only looked up the infusion table and didn't have time to look up the sodium chloride info.

Anyone know the answer?

[cezlaa]

Yes I put B and everyone I know did too, but as far as I've been taught, if something is compatible with sodium choride 0.9% that doesn't mean it is compatible with 0.18%, and doesn't mean it is compatible with glucose (I can't remember if the BNF says it is compatible with glucose 5% or not, but I'm pretty sure it didn't say it was compatible with 4%). Surely the BNF states suitable infusion fluids along with suitable strengths for a reason? If a different fluid/strength is used then couldn't it affect the stability of the infusion?

(I don't have a BNF on me cos I've been leaving it at work now that I have no revision to do and can't remember my online password, so I can't see what the box in the bottom says so I might be wrong - will have another look tomorrow.)