What is the purpose of the BCMTMS™ examination?
The BCMTMS™ examination is designed to measure the knowledge, skills, and experience requisite to the provision of high-quality patient care for medication therapy management.
Like any specialty certification examination, this examination does not presume to test all of your knowledge about the specialty. It samples the knowledge and skills a pharmacist needs to perform the tasks in each major area of responsibility, as defined through a practice analysis study. To receive certification, you must demonstrate mastery of the knowledge and skill areas in this defined scope of specialized practice, no matter what your particular current job responsibilities are.
What does the certification examination consist of?
A BCMTMS™ examination is a four-hour, closed-book, proctored exam that offers the candidate 200 multiple choice questions.
Following is a listing of the domains and tasks specific to each area of MTM practice, with a notation of the percentage of examination items related to each domain. For further information on the process that was used to determine the content of the examination, visit Exam Development.
I. Defining Medication Therapy Management and Translating Medication Therapy Management into Practice (13%)
II. Pharmacotherapy (62%)
III. Fundamentals of Pharmacogenomics (5%)
IV. Patient Care Advocacy (13%)
V. Documentation and Billing (7%)
You can also download the exam content outline here.
How is the examination scored?
Although the total score is based on the number of correct answers, all examination results are reported using a scale. The use of scaled scores allows for direct comparison of examination scores because there are multiple versions of each examination. For security purposes, NBMTM keeps multiple forms of each examination in circulation at all times. Candidates are randomly assigned a form. The use of scaled scores allows NBMTM to report scores for every form of an examination using the same scale.
The passing score for the NBMTM certification exam is not based on a percentage of questions answered correctly, the passing score is determined by a process called the Angoff Method which our Exam Committee uses to evaluate the difficulty level of each item to establish a reliable and legally defensible passing score. Each version of the exam may have a slightly different passing raw score and a rigorous scoring procedure ensures that all candidates are held to the same passing standard.
How to Apply
You must access myNBMTM Portal directly from the NBMTM website where you will find further instructions on how to register for, and apply to, the Board Certification in Medication Therapy Management. Once the exam application is submitted, it is valid for one year. The candidate must take the certification exam within this one-year period. After one year, the application will expire and all fees will be forfeited. The candidate will need to submit a new application fee.
To begin your application, you must access myNBMTM portal. You can access myNBMTM portal here. Once you have arrived at the main page of your myNBMTM portal, you can click on the APPLY NOW link.
Revised June 2018
