FPGEE study guide
FPGEE · Work through your exam, one topic at a time.
The Foreign Pharmacy Graduate Equivalency Examination (FPGEE) is the assessment the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy (NABP) uses to judge whether a pharmacist educated outside the United States holds knowledge comparable to that of a US-educated entry-level practitioner. Passing it is not a license: it is one step that foreign graduates complete before a state or territorial board of pharmacy will consider them for licensure, along with whatever other requirements that board sets. The FPGEE study guide has 5 sections and about 1,532 words.
01Basic Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences
Biochemistry questions cluster around enzyme kinetics (Km, Vmax, competitive vs noncompetitive inhibition), rate-limiting steps of glycolysis and the TCA cycle, oxidative phosphorylation, and vitamin cofactors. Molecular biology expects the central dogma, PCR, restriction enzymes, mutations, and the difference between replication, transcription, and translation.
327 words, about 2 min02Pharmacology, Medicinal Chemistry, and Toxicology
Master the vocabulary of affinity, intrinsic activity, potency, and efficacy. Full agonists have both affinity and full intrinsic activity; partial agonists have affinity but submaximal efficacy; competitive antagonists have affinity and zero efficacy; inverse agonists reduce constitutive activity.
321 words, about 2 min03Clinical Pharmacy and Pharmacotherapy
Clinical questions reward a systematic approach: subjective and objective data, assessment, and plan (SOAP). Build a problem list, then link each problem to guideline-based therapy, goals of therapy, and monitoring parameters.
292 words, about 1 min04Social, Behavioral, Administrative, and Economic Pharmacy Sciences
Know the four main analyses: cost-minimization (outcomes assumed equal), cost-effectiveness (cost per natural unit, such as cost per life-year), cost-utility (cost per QALY), and cost-benefit (all costs and outcomes in dollars). The incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) = (cost new − cost old)/(effect new − effect old).
285 words, about 1 min05Pharmacy Practice, Law, and Ethics
Pharmacy law is a layered system: federal statutes set a floor, and state boards of pharmacy may impose stricter rules. Know the Controlled Substances Act schedules.
307 words, about 2 min