Best math book for me

April 30, 2011

Someone emailed me asking which book I used for math. I wanted to post my answer

for the benefit of others.

I liked the green Perspective Press (AShP) " Pharmacy Technician " (3rd ed.).[1]

And, the white workbook.[2]

I bought mine a year ago on eBay. A 4th ed is available now. The 3rd ed. was

fine, so you might save money buying a used copy on eBay or Amazon's

" marketplace. " (Sometimes you can get spectacular deals on recently deprecated

editions.).

The book contains a lot of material that's unnecessary for the exam (I'm not

saying anything I learned from the exam. It's just an obviously broad-topic book

compared to the other prep books. I said this a few weeks ago on another

forum.). You'll have broader knowledge if you study this book. But, if your goal

is just to pass, you'll waste your time.

However, regarding math. I liked this book best. (Delmar), Reifman and

Medina just didn't resonate for me. They were a little more algebraic and terse,

like a formula. The PP book explained ratio-proportion more procedurally. The

workbook has a 50-question math exam. (It also has a 100-question practice exam,

which helps make it worth the price.).

Speaking of practice math exams, PTCB sells a 25-question math exam for $29. A

bit pricey, but it's pretty good. It doesn't score your results. It gives you

the answer after you choose an answer, and shows how they arrived at the answer

(unfortunately, a little tersely.).

This PTCB practice exam is a bit deficient because it gives you 30-60 minutes to

complete it (I forget). Which means, if you spend too much time studying the

answers you'll run out of time.

For basic math review, I liked " Math for Nurses " and " Dosage Calculations Made

Incredibly Easy. " [5] They review fractions, percentages, etc. They also get into

ratio/proportion. They have more IV flow rate than pharmacy-tech books. More

than you need to learn. But, they come at it from a different angle.

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