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Well, took my PTCE earlier today... As the title says, I failed. For some reason, I didn't realize that the test could change format/basis in the span of a year. I went into the test thinking the majority of the test would be mainly on pharmacy math and the top 200 drugs, but nope, about 40 out of the 90 questions were about hypothetical situations such as "What should a pharmacy technician do when he sees Mr. Johnson suddenly start to bleed from the neck?" or "When you need to use a computer to report a claim and a pharmacist is standing in front of the computer while counseling a patient, what do you do?" I half-expected something for me to go wrong, like it always does, but the lack of math and drug questions were astonishing. There were probably about 8 math questions, and 4 drug questions, and the rest were all regarding laws, organizations, and situational.
After you take the exam at the testing center, the result shows up on whether you passed or not at the end. It doesn't say what score or how many you got right/wrong, but when I saw "Preliminary result: Fail", I put my head down and wanted to cry. The proctor must've noticed something was wrong, since he came in, logged out of everything, helped me up, and consoled me that it could've been an off day. Though I'm thankful to the proctor, it's just saddening to know that it wasn't some off day, and that it was just me not being prepared.
The hardest pill to swallow is me studying and working on passing this one 90 question, 2 hour exam for so long and dedicating so much of my time and to see it simply all go to waste is... I can't even think of a word, lol.
As soon as I get home, I lay on my bed, and couldn't help but keep thinking myself as a failure. Saw my final exam scores for school earlier today and saw that even though I aced all of my finals, because I did so poorly throughout the year, my GPA wasn't any better. I think, well, it's alright, I have friends that'll help me out and get me through this, right? Wrong. I'm one person out of 7 billion in the world. My "friends" are busy/occupied with other things, have other friends, and it's just me lying in bed on my own with nobody to ask how I did on the exam that nobody cares I took. Only people that might care are my parents, and even then, I don't need to burden them with my problems.
Maybe I am, maybe I'm not, but I feel like an utter failure right now. Not to my parents, not to my friends, but to myself. I always ask myself "why me?" and I've never asked myself that question more times than I have in the past hour.
  
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Hong Kong9180 Posts
consider other options in your life instead of moping around over spilled milk
or take it again, your choice.
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1001 YEARS KESPAJAIL22272 Posts
You prepared wrong and failed
If you prepare right, you might succeed
Start preparing right and try again if pharmacy is really your thing
edit: In Starcraft metaphor, it's like you thought your opponent was going to hatch first on a 2 player map so you CC first, when he was actually 4 pooling you. No reason to ragequit because you chose the wrong build order. Choose a safer build order next time and try again.
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TLADT24920 Posts
 I'm really sorry to hear that. You sounded really confident from the last time you mentioned it. Even the best of us have off days and just because you failed this, it doesn't mean that you are a less capable person or that you're a failure in any way. As you already mentioned, you didn't realize that the format changes and such. Don't let it get you down just because you happened to fail it. If you are set on being a pharmacy technician, take it again. You have first hand experience of what to expect and since you've done work on the math problems, you'll brush up on your laws and regulations for the next time. Don't give up! If it was me, I would tell my parents tbh. I think their support will only help you and you won't burden them if you explain what went wrong. If you're still feeling pretty down, feel free to message me if you want to just talk and such.
On May 16 2014 13:22 lichter wrote:
You prepared wrong and failed
If you prepare right, you might succeed
Start preparing right and try again if pharmacy is really your thing
pretty much this.
On May 16 2014 13:19 itsjustatank wrote:
consider other options in your life instead of moping around over spilled milk
or take it again, your choice.
while I agree with your advice, could've wrote the first line better lol.
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Shit happens. Stay calm and carry on. If your ego is bruised, don't worry, it heals with time. Pharmacy is no cakewalk so don't feel bad.
Cheers.
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That result on that exam is not you, SynC, it's just one event that happened in your life. Don't be afraid to confide in the people around you. Don't be afraid to learn and keep trying. You'll be fine.
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Strange for a test to change its composition so radically. Unlucky for you, at least you'll be a very well rounded pharmacist when you pass next time. Think of it as more of a build order loss, rather than a failure. Adapt to the new meta and try again.
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Dude, that really sucks. I can only imagine that feeling is like, 100x worse than when I failed my online driving test.
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On May 16 2014 13:19 itsjustatank wrote:
consider other options in your life instead of moping around over spilled milk
or take it again, your choice.
On May 16 2014 13:22 lichter wrote:
You prepared wrong and failed
If you prepare right, you might succeed
Start preparing right and try again if pharmacy is really your thing
edit: In Starcraft metaphor, it's like you thought your opponent was going to hatch first on a 2 player map so you CC first, when he was actually 4 pooling you. No reason to ragequit because you chose the wrong build order. Choose a safer build order next time and try again.
Yeah, maybe in a couple of months or a year from now, I'll look back and think that it's no reason to mope around and feel depressed and sorry for myself. Just that at the time being, I can't help feeling like I've made zero progress with myself after this. I just think I was putting all of my eggs into one basket, which wasn't a good idea...
On May 16 2014 13:23 BigFan wrote: I'm really sorry to hear that. You sounded really confident from the last time you mentioned it. Even the best of us have off days and just because you failed this, it doesn't mean that you are a less capable person or that you're a failure in any way. As you already mentioned, you didn't realize that the format changes and such. Don't let it get you down just because you happened to fail it. If you are set on being a pharmacy technician, take it again. You have first hand experience of what to expect and since you've done work on the math problems, you'll brush up on your laws and regulations for the next time. Don't give up! If it was me, I would tell my parents tbh. I think their support will only help you and you won't burden them if you explain what went wrong. If you're still feeling pretty down, feel free to message me if you want to just talk and such. Show nested quote +On May 16 2014 13:22 lichter wrote:
You prepared wrong and failed
If you prepare right, you might succeed
Start preparing right and try again if pharmacy is really your thing pretty much this. Show nested quote +On May 16 2014 13:19 itsjustatank wrote:
consider other options in your life instead of moping around over spilled milk
or take it again, your choice. while I agree with your advice, could've wrote the first line better lol.
I was confident heading into the test, assuming it was mainly going to be on pharmacy math and drugs. I had gotten 100-90's on practice tests (that were mainly math/drugs based) leading up to the exam. Little did I know that about 50% would be something I probably spent less than an hour on.
On May 16 2014 15:15 Scarecrow wrote:
Strange for a test to change its composition so radically. Unlucky for you, at least you'll be a very well rounded pharmacist when you pass next time. Think of it as more of a build order loss, rather than a failure. Adapt to the new meta and try again.
I have no idea how it changed so much. I had several friends and acquaintances that took the PTCE coming out of high school that all said it was almost 75% math and hardly any "What would you do when...?" questions. I heard the exam can change formats slightly every 5 years, but I heard it changed 2007 and 2012, so why change all of a sudden?
On May 16 2014 15:28 Epishade wrote:
Dude, that really sucks. I can only imagine that feeling is like, 100x worse than when I failed my online driving test.
Funny enough, I failed my driving test the first time I took it too. Didn't feel as bad as I feel now, just felt annoyed that I had woken up at around 3:00am just to get to the DPS and take my driving test.
Just my predicament feels so unfortunate in every way. By no means am I saying that this situation is unfair because I studied and therefore, I should pass for putting in effort. It's just that I thought/hoped the the dedication I put into this was enough. Of course, others have it worse and eventually work exponentially harder than I ever will to get to places that only hard work can achieve. Hopefully I'll be able to get out of this rut pretty soon.
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Well it's a pity you failed, but don't beat yourself over it too much, it's too late. You can always take the test again next year. The fact you aced all your finals should be very encouraging.
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[as Wayne Manor is burning down]
Bruce Wayne: What have I done, Alfred? Everything my family... my father built...
Alfred Pennyworth: The Wayne legacy is more than bricks and mortar, sir.
Bruce Wayne: I wanted to save Gotham. I failed.
Alfred Pennyworth: Why do we fall sir? So that we can learn to pick ourselves up.
also 
“Don't fear failure. — Not failure, but low aim, is the crime. In great attempts it is glorious even to fail.”
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Think of this as a learning experience, but next time you can do better research (i.e. look up the place that gives the exam). Best of all it applies to everything so all of life improves.
I'm going to look like a dick for posting this link.
http://www.ptcb.org/get-certified/prepare - not 75% math.
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On May 16 2014 16:39 endy wrote:
Well it's a pity you failed, but don't beat yourself over it too much, it's too late. You can always take the test again next year. The fact you aced all your finals should be very encouraging.
Ahh, the earliest I can take it again is 3 weeks from now, but I'm definitely going to be hesitant to take it within the next month or so. Hopefully if I do ever take it again, I can get it done within the summer and get a job before my next semester of classes begin.
On May 16 2014 17:01 icydergosu wrote:[as Wayne Manor is burning down] Bruce Wayne: What have I done, Alfred? Everything my family... my father built... Alfred Pennyworth: The Wayne legacy is more than bricks and mortar, sir. Bruce Wayne: I wanted to save Gotham. I failed. Alfred Pennyworth: Why do we fall sir? So that we can learn to pick ourselves up. also “Don't fear failure. — Not failure, but low aim, is the crime. In great attempts it is glorious even to fail.”
Haha, as a fan of Nolan's Batman trilogy, this made me smile.
On May 16 2014 17:38 MoonfireSpam wrote:Think of this as a learning experience, but next time you can do better research (i.e. look up the place that gives the exam). Best of all it applies to everything so all of life improves. I'm going to look like a dick for posting this link. http://www.ptcb.org/get-certified/prepare - not 75% math.
I don't think it was bad that you posted the link, but honestly, it looked exactly like that last year around May. The blueprint may be a guideline of the curriculum that'll be on the exam, but my exam was not outlined as closely as it could've been. Not exaggerating when I say 40 questions were pretty much about how technicians assist pharmacists.
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Don't worry, Madrid will win champion's league.
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You'll be fine. That's all there is to it.
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Dude who gives a fuck if you failed. I broke my computer in half with an ax and do you know what I learned from the experience? Absolutely nothing.
The only individuals who care what grades you got are nerds. Nerds are awful and are scorned by all except other nerds.
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On May 16 2014 19:40 puppykiller wrote:
Dude who gives a fuck if you failed. I broke my computer in half with an ax and do you know what I learned from the experience? Absolutely nothing.
The only individuals who care what grades you got are nerds. Nerds are awful and are scorned by all except other nerds.
holy shit o_o
also theres two blogs about exams side by side
one fail, one pass lol
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On May 16 2014 13:22 lichter wrote:
You prepared wrong and failed
If you prepare right, you might succeed
Start preparing right and try again if pharmacy is really your thing
edit: In Starcraft metaphor, it's like you thought your opponent was going to hatch first on a 2 player map so you CC first, when he was actually 4 pooling you. No reason to ragequit because you chose the wrong build order. Choose a safer build order next time and try again.
Lol I have little experience of bw and was wondering why a zerg would kill off some initial workers and then build a pool
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I remember that blog where you wrote how confident you are in your knowledge and that you can handily name the 200 drugs and do math questions... sucks pretty hard that you were prepared for those but not for the hypothetical type questions
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''In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing. '' Theodore Roosevelt
So, head up, try harder, you will succeed next time. There is not life without fails and wins. One minor loss doesent makes u loser. Crying over 1 fail is waste of time. So, head up, take some rest and do it again. Only thing human cant beat is time, so spend it wisely.
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EPT
