Dr. Akram Ahmad, PhDKAPS Exam Reference Books || Books for KAPS Exam || KAPS Test Material
The Knowledge Assessment of Pharmaceutical Sciences (KAPS) exam is an Australian Licensing process for international pharmacists who wish to work in Australia. The Australian Pharmacy Council assesses the candidates on the basis of their educational qualifications, KAPS exam or intern written exam and intern oral exam.
The first step is to complete all the requirements and get registered with the Pharmacy Board of Australia. Once your eligibility is confirmed then you will be asked to complete a full-time internship under supervision where you will be assessed on various aspects. After this, you need to register for the KAPS exam and upload all the required documents.
Note: The exam paper consists of 100 questions for which you will be given 2 hours.
In order to ace the exam, you must be well-versed with the syllabus and important topics that are often asked in the examination. In this article, we’ve compiled the complete syllabus, required books and important topics.
Why Pharmacists Migrate to Australia?
Qualified Pharmacists Can Immigrate to Australia. This is because Australia has deemed Pharmacists to be an occupation that the nation is in need of. People who are approved to immigrate to Australia as Pharmacists can be offered Permanent Residency in Australia. According to the most recent data released by the Pharmaceutical Board of Australia, registration data for the period of the 1st of January 2020 to 31st March 2020 shows that at this date, there were 32,777 registered pharmacists in Australia.
Jobs for Pharmacists are expected to grow from 25,500 in 2018 to 27,400 in 2023, according to Job Outlook of Australia. It is predicted that there will be around 2,600 pharmacist jobs per year in Australia for the next five years.
KAPS Exam Steps to Migrate Australia
Steps for registering as a pharmacist in Australia:
Step 1: Initial Skills Assessment: https://academically.ai/2022/08/25/retail-pharmacist-anzsco-251513/
Step 2: KAPS Exam Preparation:
https://academically.ai/course-category/kaps_pharmacy_exam_australia/Step 3: English Test (PTE): https://academically.ai/courses/pte-exam-miles/
There are two papers in the KAPS exam: –
Paper1 – Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Physiology, Pathophysiology and Pharmacology
Paper2 – Pharmaceutics and Therapeutics
Below are the must-have books if you wish to qualify KAPS exam: –
1. Comprehensive Pharmacy Review (CPR) 7th Ed:
It is good resource and completely revised to reflect current progress in pharmacy education and practice, it is useful from the first year of pharmacy courses to preparation for the KAPS/PEBC/SPLE/NAPLEX pharmacists’ examination etc. A wide range of topics central to the study of pharmacy–chemistry, pharmaceutics, pharmacology, pharmacy practice, drug therapy–are organized to parallel the pharmacy curriculum and presented in outline form for easy use. It may be used as a quick review or preview of essential topics by a diverse group of readers, including matriculation pharmacy students, instructors and preceptors, professional pharmacists, and foreign pharmacy graduates. Here’s how you need to chapter-wise study this book-
2. Lippincott Pharmacology
Pharmacology, Sixth Edition, is the updated, enhanced version of best resource for essentials of clinical pharmacology. It has clear, effective writing and hundreds of illustrations for ideal rapid review and the assimilation of complex information. Clear, sequential images present mechanisms of action and focus on showing rather than telling students how drugs work.
3. Australian Medicines Handbook
It is a peer-reviewed medicine prescribing guide for Australian health professionals
Reflecting contemporary Australian clinical practice and adhering to the principles of the quality use of medicines, it is generally considered the Australian equivalent to the British National Formulary on which it was partly modelled.
4. Appleton & Lange’s Review of Pharmacy
This best seller features thirty patient medication profiles and over 1,200 questions typically seen on certification and licensing exams. CD-ROM features an up-to-date, simulated NAPLEX-format practice test–ideal for self-assessment and study.
Note:- To pass the overall exam, you need to score 50% aggregate marks on each paper. If you are unable to acquire 50% in any one of the papers then you’ll need to reappear for the exam.
The KAPS exam covers the following four domains from the National Competency Standards Framework for pharmacists in Australia in 2010:
Domain 1– Pharmaceutics
Domain 2– Therapeutics
Domain 3– Pharmaceutical Chemistry
The two papers of KAPS exam consist of following subjects:-
Paper 1 consists of the following subjects:-
● Chemistry
● Physiology
● Pharmacology
1. Chemistry
Paper 1 consists of the first 20-25 MCQs from chemistry.
The questions will be from basic organic chemistry and medicinal chemistry.
2. Physiology
Approximately 20 questions can be expected either directly from physiology/pathophysiology
In paper 1, questions 21 to 40 will be from physiology. Questions can be asked from basic definitions like “Dyspnoea” to “which side of the heart failure leads to cause pulmonary oedema”.
Immunology-based questions can be expected in the examination under this section (for instance: what is meant by delayed hypersensitivity reactions).
It is advisable to revise the physiology while studying the pharmacology component.
3. Pharmacology:-
The core component of paper 1. One can easily pass paper 1 provided that they must have sound knowledge of pharmacology and pathophysiology.
Questions from 41 to 100 (including 1 or 2 case studies at the end) will be from pharmacology.
The questions will be ranging from basic “mechanism of action” to complex topics like management of “Multiple Sclerosis”.
Paper 2 consists of the following subjects:
1. Pharmaceutics
There will be approximately 40-50 MCQs from pharmaceutics. It consists of the following subtopics.
2. Therapeutics
There will be approximately 50-60 questions from Therapeutics. You must prepare the following aspects of the drugs.
Drug Indication
Drug side effects
Drug dose (at least six questions will be asked on drug doses. Try to remember the doses of the most commonly used drugs).
Drug Interactions (Minimum of 10 questions can be expected from drug interactions. You must know the examples of cytochrome enzyme inducers and inhibitors)
Apart from the above-mentioned topics, one must also need focus on:
Herbal products (at least 2-4 questions will be asked, to answer such questions you need to know about the basic herbal product names and their use. Example – Black Cohosh, Echinacea, Milk Thistle, Gingko Biloba, Ginseng, Black Berry, Cranberry, Feverfew, Saw Palmetto, St Jhon’s Wart and supplements like Fish Liver Oil, Chondroitin, Glucosamine, Coenzyme, etc).
Concluding Words:-
Every exam demands the right strategy and smart approach. KAPS exam is an easy-to-ace exam given you’re strictly adhering to the syllabus and topics and following a smart approach. If you are aspiring to work as a pharmacist in Australia then Academically.ai is here to help you with it- from the registration process to exam preparation. We are equipped to cater all your needs! Contact us to know more!
Contact us to know more!
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Note: To the best of our ability, we give all information in a correct manner, although errors are possible. We cannot guarantee that this information is accurate, complete or current.
Dr. Akram Ahmad, PhD
Academically.ai is the brainchild of Dr. Akram Ahmad. He has done his PhD from the Faculty of Medicine and Health, the University of Sydney, Australia. He is a self-motivated clinical pharmacist and committed lecturer with over 9 years of teaching and research experience in various subjects of medicine at the leading Universities in Australia, Malaysia, and India.
Dr. Akram is the recipient of prestigious “Best Promising Researcher Award” from the UCSI University (Malaysia). He has also published over 110 papers, book chapters, conference papers including in high-impact journals. In addition to that, he is a reviewer and editorial board member in
several journals of medicine and pharmacy.