APC Exam Syllabus

The APC exam consists of either the KAPS, CAOP, oral exam or the Intern Written Exam. Their content is detailed below:

KAPS Syllabus

The KAPS exam is significantly harder than the CAOP exam, question categories included in past exams include:

Pharmaceutical Chemistry 

• Organic Chemistry: nomenclature, drug class recognition, reaction types, functional group reactivity, drug stability, acid-base reactions, chelation agents.
  
• Stereochemistry: nomenclature, optical activity, geometric isomerism, conformation.
  
• Physical Chemistry: kinetics, acid-base reactions, phase equilibria, radiochemistry.
  
• Analytical Chemistry: spectroscopy, redox reactions, assay techniques, diagnostic agents.
  
• Biochemistry: nomenclature, structures, biochemical classes, thermodynamics, biochemical pathways.
  
• Medicinal chemistry: structure-activity relationships, drug presentation and delivery, drug formulation and stability, drug metabolism, mechanism of drug action, modern drug development, and absorption, distribution and elimination of drugs.

Pharmacology and Physiology 

• Pharmacology: principles of drug action, drug interactions, receptor pharmacology, autonomic transmission, endocrine pharmacology, cardiovascular pharmacology, anti-inflammatory agents and analgesics, antibiotics, diuretics, local and general anaesthetics, vitamins, drugs affecting nutritional and metabolic function, drugs affecting the central nervous system.
  
• Chemotherapy: antibacterial, antiviral, antifungal, antiprotozoal, anthelmintic and anticancer drugs.
  
• Toxicology: common side effects and signs of toxicity.
  
• Pathophysiology: alteration of physiological processes by drugs or disease states.
  
• General Physiology: central nervous, digestive, cardiovascular, lymphatic, nervous, respiratory, urinary, endocrine and reproductive systems and their integration; blood and other body fluids.

Pharmaceutics 

• Physical pharmacy: solvents, types of preparation, solutions, suspensions, emulsions.
  
• Biopharmaceutics: dissolution, drug absorption, bioavailability and bioequivalence, drug interactions with a biopharmaceutical basis.
  
• Pharmacokinetics: biological half-life, elimination rate constants, apparent volume of distribution, clearance, steady-state considerations, drug-protein binding, relevant calculations.
  
• Pharmaceutical microbiology: preservation, antimicrobial agents, sterilisation technology.
  
• Formulation: formulation of drugs for various routes of administration, parenteral dose forms, controlled-release preparations, evaluation of particular dose forms.

Therapeutics 

• Calculations: dilutions, percentages, densities, the sensitivity of balance, proportions, isotonicity, milliequivalents/milliosmoles, buffers, dose calculations from body weight or surface area, stability.
  
• Posology: appropriate dosages and dosage regimens of common medications.
  
• Prescriptions: adverse reactions, common contra-indications, and indications, drug interactions, patient counselling and advice. Surgical dressings, appliances, and drug delivery systems.
  
• Over-the-counter(OTC) medications: non-prescription prescribing, diagnosis of minor illness, rational OTC product selection, OTC drug information.
  
• Clinical pharmacy and therapeutics: problem-solving, drug management of disease states, the clinical relevance of biochemical parameters.
  

CAOP Syllabus

The CAOP exam syllabus relies less on theoretical science and mainly concerns practice.