Memorizing Pharmacy Technician Mnemonics

A Practice Exam Study Guide for the PTCB’s PTCE and NHA’s ExCPT Pharmacy Technician Exams

By: Tony Guerra

Narrated by: Tony Guerra

Whether you are taking the Pharmacy Technician Certification Exam (PTCE) which some call the PTCB which actually stands for the name of the organization, the Pharmacy Technician Certification Board, or the ExCPT, Exam for the Certification of Pharmacy Technicians administered by the National Healthcareer Association (NHA), there will be a point where you start taking a lot of practice exams.

What I want to do with this audiobook, that’s a little different than the Memorizing Pharmacology: A Relaxed Approach, Second Edition parent book, is talk about how to memorize what you learned from taking and reviewing those exams so you can have all of those questions and answers in your long-term memory as you enter the ultimate licensing exam.

In Memorizing Pharmacology: A Relaxed Approach, Second Edition, I introduced the acronym GMRINCE, where you start by memorizing the seven pathophysiologic classes in the book in order as G-M-RINCE, as Grand Mothers RINCE kids’ hair (except it’s the French r-i-n-c-e instead of the English r-i-n-s-e) to set up the broadest framework. These seven pathophysiologic classes help as steel reinforcing bars that, when surrounded by concrete, will provide the foundation for your memorizing the gastrointestinal (G), musculoskeletal (M), respiratory (R), immune (I), neuro (N), cardio (C), and endocrine (E) systems’ medications.

Students would take the mnemonic and put it on a notecard for later practice. For the licensing exam, we are going to create a way to sort our 3 x 5 notecards into 12 distinct piles, rather than seven. Personally, I would do this all in 12 tabs of an Excel spreadsheet, but do what works for you. I will now add five more letters to make a 12-letter acronym for pharmacy technicians, “GM RINCED ALSO,” G-M-R-I-N-C-E-D-A-L-S-O adding Dosage Calculations, (D), Abbreviations, Acronyms, and Initialisms, (A), Laws and Regulations, (L), Supplements, (S), and Other Questions (O).

We can use very Pharmacy Technician specific mnemonics to memorize drugs that need to be taken with water or that a patient should use sunscreen, for example.

Mnemonic - Take with Water - FLUIDS

• F, Furosemide
• L, aLlopurinol
• U, UTI, Phenazopyridine and SMZ/TMP
• I, Ibandronate
• D, Docusate
• S, Sulfa Antibiotics

Mnemonic - Use Suncreen – HOT SUN CAN (burn)

• H, Hydrochlorothiazide (Microzide)
• O, Ofloxacin (Floxin)
• T, Tetracycline (Sumycin)
• SU, SUlfamethoxazole/trimethoprim (Bactrim)
• N, Naproxen (Aleve) (NSAIDS in general)
• C, Ciprofloxacin (Cipro) (Quinolones in general)
• A, Amiodarone (Cordarone)
• N, Nortriptyline (Pamelor) (TCAs, in general)

Either way, in this quick and easy listen, you can better understand what's expected on the pharmacy technician exam and how you can use memory aids to help you pass.

©2021 Tony Guerra (P)2021 Tony Guerra