Pharmacy technician practice test

What the real test usually looks like

The PTCE at a glance. PTCB describes the PTCE as a computer-based exam with 90 multiple-choice questions: 80 scored and 10 unscored. The unscored questions are placed randomly and are not marked, so you cannot tell them apart. The exam itself takes 1 hour 50 minutes, and PTCB says to allow 2 hours in all, with a 5-minute tutorial before and a 5-minute survey after. It is taken in person at a Pearson test center with a live proctor (PTCB).

Who can take it. PTCB lists two pathways: completing a PTCB-recognized education or training program, or at least 500 hours of work experience as a pharmacy technician. It lists the fee to apply and take the exam as $129 (PTCB).

The four domains in the content outline effective January 6, 2026 (PTCE outline):

• Medications (35%): generic and brand names and drug classes, therapeutic duplications, interactions and contraindications, strengths, dosage forms and routes, side effects, indications, stability and storage.
• Federal requirements (18.75%): handling and disposal of hazardous and non-hazardous substances, controlled substance prescriptions and DEA schedules, receiving, storing and destroying controlled substances, restricted drug programs such as pseudoephedrine and REMS, FDA recalls and the Drug Supply Chain Security Act.
• Patient safety and quality assurance (23.75%): high-alert and look-alike or sound-alike medications, error prevention such as Tall Man lettering and leading and trailing zeros, issues that need the pharmacist, event reporting, types of prescription errors and infection prevention.
• Order entry and processing (22.50%): calculations, conversions, Sig codes, abbreviations and days supply, equipment and supplies, lot numbers, expiration dates and NDC numbers, and returns.

The outline marks several areas as including calculation-based knowledge, so expect math in more than one domain.

Another exam. NHA's ExCPT exam is a second pharmacy technician exam, with its own plan of 100 scored and 20 pretest questions in 2 hours 10 minutes (NHA ExCPT plan). Its domains differ, so check which exam you need.

What our mocks cover. Our full mocks are 90 questions in 110 minutes, in four sections in this order: medications (32), federal requirements (17), patient safety and quality assurance (21) and order entry and processing (20). You can go back and flag questions, and a calculator is available. They cover federal law only, not your state's pharmacy rules, they do not include hands-on compounding, and every calculation uses an invented medicine.

Question types with worked examples

One worked example for each domain, with the trap most people fall into.

1. Medications. Which generic matches Zoloft? Sertraline, an SSRI. Trap: guessing from a similar sound. Learn brand and generic pairs in groups by drug class, so a wrong pair looks out of place.

2. Federal requirements. Under federal law, a Schedule III or IV prescription may be refilled up to 5 times within 6 months of the date it was written, whichever comes first. Trap: applying that rule to Schedule II, which has no refills under federal law.

3. Patient safety. Why do some labels print "hydrOXYzine" and "hydrALAZINE"? This is Tall Man lettering, which highlights the different letters in look-alike names to prevent mix-ups (PTCE outline). Trap: thinking the capitals mark a stronger dose.

4. Order entry. Convert 0.25 g to milligrams. There are 1,000 mg in a gram, so 0.25 g is 250 mg. Trap: moving the decimal the wrong way and getting 2.5 mg or 2,500 mg. Check whether your answer is bigger or smaller and whether that makes sense.

5. Calculations with a concentration. An invented solution has 40 mg in 2 mL. How many mL hold 100 mg? 100 divided by 40 is 2.5, and 2.5 times 2 mL is 5 mL. Trap: dividing by the wrong number. Set it up as dose wanted, divided by dose on hand, times the volume.

How to prepare

1. Get the content outline. PTCB publishes the PTCE outline with each domain's share of the exam (PTCE outline). Use it as your checklist.
2. Study by weight. Medications is 35% of the exam, the largest domain, so learn the common brand and generic pairs, drug classes and their usual uses first.
3. Learn the stems. Many drug names share endings by class: "-pril" for ACE inhibitors, "-olol" for beta blockers, "-statin" for statins, "-prazole" for proton pump inhibitors. They help you reason through unfamiliar names.
4. Know federal controlled substance rules. Schedules, refill limits, DEA forms and record keeping come up often. The PTCE tests federal requirements, so study those rather than one state's rules.
5. Practice calculations every day. Days supply, conversions, concentrations and dilutions. Write out each step and check the units.
6. Learn the technician's limits. When a question involves advice, a drug interaction or a substitution, the answer is usually to involve the pharmacist.
7. Practice at the real pace. 90 questions in 1 hour 50 minutes is a little over a minute a question (PTCB). Take full timed mocks so the pace feels normal on the day.

How scoring usually works

How the PTCE is scored. PTCB says the passing scaled score is 1,400, on a range of 1,000 to 1,600. Only the 80 scored questions count, and the 10 unscored ones are mixed in without labels. A preliminary result appears on screen after the post-exam survey, and PTCB says the final score report is typically in your PTCB account within three weeks (PTCB). PTCB also says the credential must be renewed every 2 years.

A scaled score is not a percentage of questions correct, so you cannot turn a raw count into a PTCE score yourself.

Our practice score is the number of our own questions you answered correctly, with a breakdown by section, so you can see where to focus. It is a practice score: it is not a PTCE score, it is not converted to PTCB's scale, and it does not predict whether you will pass.

Common mistakes on the pharmacy tech exam

• Learning drug names one by one. Group them by class and learn the stems. It is faster and helps with names you have not seen.
• Mixing up the schedules. Schedule II has no refills under federal law; Schedules III and IV allow up to 5 within 6 months.
• Studying state law instead of federal. The PTCE outline covers federal requirements.
• Skipping the units. Write mg, g, mL and tablets at every step of a calculation. A missing unit is how decimals slip.
• Misreading Sig codes. b.i.d., t.i.d. and q.i.d. look alike under time pressure. Read each one twice.
• Answering as the pharmacist. Advice, substitutions and drug utilization review questions belong to the pharmacist.
• Ignoring dangerous abbreviations. Leading zeros in, trailing zeros out.