PEBC EXAM
Before we get into the details of what the PEBC exam entails, we have to give a little history of PEBC itself. PEBC stands for Pharmacy Examining Board of Canada and was created in 1963 to license all pharmacists and pharmacy technicians in Canada. The PEBC also ensures that entry-level pharmacy professionals have the proper professional ability to practice safely within their scope. The board acts on behalf of all the provinces in Canada except Quebec. Quebec conducts its assessment and licensing process differently.
The PEBC exam assesses the competence, knowledge, and skills of persons who want to be licensed as a pharmacist or pharmacist technician in Canada (except Quebec). The people who will write this exam are generally classified into three groups. These groups are Canadian Graduates, American Graduates, and Overseas Graduates. Each group has its specific requirements and will be discussed individually.
Furthermore, the PEBC exam is divided into two parts –
- Part I (MCQ section)
- Part II (OSCE section)
Requirements
Overseas Graduates/International Students
For international students, there are specific steps you need to complete
- Document Evaluation – You will have to submit your foreign pharmacy education credentials to be able to take the Pharmacy Evaluation Examination. PEBC will determine if your credentials are equivalent to the Canadian ones. Only after this is done will you be able to take the Pharmacy Evaluating Examination. If it is not comparable, you will have to enroll in a pharmacy school in Canada for four years.
- Pharmacy Evaluating Examination – This exam tests your knowledge of pharmacy as relevant to the Canadian pharmacy curriculum. To pass the exam, you will have to get 60. You have four attempts only to pass this exam.
After this examination has been completed, you will be able to go on with the PEBC certification. Note that you may not need to do a language proficiency test as an international student before you write the PEBC exam. However, certain provinces in Canada do require it.
United States of America Graduates
If you are a recognized and licensed pharmacist in the US and graduated from a program approved by the Canadian Council for Accreditation of Pharmacy Programs (CCAPP) or the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE), you are eligible to take the Pharmacy Evaluation Examination.
Canada Graduates
- You must have completed a four-year undergraduate pharmacy degree in Canada and possess a certificate as evidence of graduation.
- Successful completion of pharmacy evaluation examination to test your entry-level proficiency
One should note that even after all these requirements are met, the PEBC exam and certification do not automatically make one a legal pharmacist in Canada. The specific provinces also have their requirements for this.
Where Can the PEBC exam be taken?
The PEBC exam can be taken in several locations in Canada. Places such as Victoria, Calgary, Edmonton, Regna, Winnipeg, London, Hamilton, Toronto (North York and Downtown), Mississauga, Ottawa, Halifax, Whitby, Montreal, Vancouver, Saskatoon, and St. Johns.
International Locations the exam can be taken include Egypt (Alexandria, Cairo), India (Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Gurgaon, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai), Palestine (Ramallah), Jordan (Amman), Kenya (Nairobi), Kuwait (Kuwait), Lebanon (Beirut), Nigeria (Lagos), Oman (Muscat), Pakistan (Islamabad, Karachi, Lahore), Philippines (Cebu City), Qatar (Doha), Saudi Arabia (Jeddah, Riyadh), South Africa (Durban, Johannesburg), South Korea (Seoul), Turkey (Ankara, Istanbul, Izmir), Uganda (Kampala), United Arab Emirates (Abu Dhabi, Dubai), United Kingdom (London), and the various Unites States cities.
You can also do Remote Proctoring. This means that you will be able to take the test remotely without going to test centers. This is an effect of the global pandemic and the fact that there are limited centers for this exam.
What Does the PEBC Exam Entail
The PEBC exam is split into two parts.
Part I
This part is an MCQ examination written in one day. It is meant to check your understanding, application of knowledge, and ability to combine these two to solve problems and make judgments in pharmacy practice. The exam is divided into two half-day sections. Each section has 150 questions to be answered in 225 minutes. Therefore, you will have just 90 seconds to answer each question. Thus, you will have to be very fast and accurate to pass this section. CanadaQBank helps prepare you for these exam conditions.
Part II
Part II is done on a different day. It is an OSCE (Objective Structured Clinical Examination) with various stations that simulate real-life practical scenarios. These stations will represent a part of the pharmacy you are meant to be conversant with. In each station, you will interact with a “Simulated Patient,” “Simulated Client,” or “Simulated Health Practitioner.”
In this exam, there are certain things that you may have to do, such as identifying a patient’s drug therapy issue, gathering and interpreting the clinical history, working without health practitioners, and effectively communicating with the patient, caregiver, and other health workers.
How to Schedule Your Exam
If it is your first time applying for the exam, create an account on the PEBC portal. After making the account, you must do an ID and education verification. You will then have to submit all the necessary documents online and wait for the approval. Approvals could take up to 6 weeks. Once you have been verified and approved, the Part I and Part II applications will appear on your portal. You will then choose what part of the exam you want to write.
Two weeks to your Part I exam, you will receive an email to schedule your exam with Prometric. For Part II, this usually is three weeks before the exam.
Payment
International students will pay CAD 665 for documents evaluation and CAD 850 to take the evaluation exam in Canada.
After this is done, they will have to pay CAD 795 and CAD 1795 for PEBC Part I and Part II, respectively. This amount is the same for everyone who writes the PEBC in Canada.
Preparing for your exam
For an exam like the PEBC exam, it is best to prepare at least six months beforehand. There are a wealth of resources at your disposal that you can use. CanadaQBank helps streamline all these with questions bank. We have over 1500 multiple questions with explanations to use anytime you want.
You could also take timed tests that simulate exam conditions for you. These services are accessible from anywhere globally and not just in Canada.
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