United States
Hong KongHow long is it?
The exam itself is 110 minutes, sitting inside a two-hour appointment that also covers a tutorial and a post-exam survey. Across 90 administered questions that is about 73 seconds each, the tightest per-question budget of the licensing exams we build for.
Shorter than most licensing exams, and tighter than almost all of them.
The timings
- Exam time
- 110 minutes
- Total appointment
- 120 minutes
- Questions
- 90 administered
- Per question
- About 73 seconds
The extra ten minutes covers the tutorial and the survey. It does not extend your working time.
How that compares
At 1.22 minutes a question the PTCE is the tightest of the seven licensing exams we build for. The next two give 1.5 minutes and the most generous gives 2.64.
Order Entry and Processing is 18 of the 80 scored questions and its largest area is calculations. Doing pharmacy maths at 73 seconds a question is what makes this exam hard, and it is not something a short paper is usually assumed to involve.
Do you get breaks?
It is a single session. Check the current Pearson VUE and PTCB candidate rules for anything on unscheduled breaks, because those rules govern and they change.
Do most people finish?
Candidates who are fluent finish comfortably. Candidates who derive conversions rather than recalling them frequently do not.
That difference is trainable and it is the point of practicing against a clock.
What the extra ten minutes is for
A tutorial before the exam and a survey afterwards. Neither extends your working time, and the tutorial is worth doing properly because knowing where the flag and review functions are before question one costs less than finding out at question forty.
Planning against the right number
Pace against 90 questions rather than the 80 that are scored. All 90 take time, and planning on 80 gives you 82 seconds a question when you actually have about 73.
That difference is roughly fifteen percent of your budget, which is the margin most candidates who run out of time were missing.
Common questions
How long is the PTCB exam?
110 minutes, within a two-hour appointment.
How much time per question?
About 73 seconds across the 90 administered questions.
Is that tight?
It is the tightest of the seven licensing exams we build for.
Are there breaks?
It is a single session. Check the current candidate rules for unscheduled breaks.
Do most candidates finish?
Fluent ones do. Those deriving conversions rather than recalling them often do not.