Foundational Knowledge and Basic Science — practice questions

10% of the exam ≈15 real questions 19 free questions here

15 scored items covering health care settings, medical terminology, basic pharmacology, nutrition and psychology. Terminology is the highest-yield part: decode the word parts and you can answer questions about terms you have never seen.

Where people lose points

• Learn word parts rather than whole terms. A prefix, root and suffix will decode hundreds of words; memorized lists will not.
• Similar-sounding prefixes reverse meaning — hyper versus hypo, inter versus intra, peri versus para. These are deliberately paired in distractors.
• The six rights of medication administration are tested as a checklist you apply to a scenario, not as a list you recite.
• Drug classification questions usually want the class effect, not the individual drug — know what a beta blocker or an ACE inhibitor does as a group.
• Some abbreviations are on the do-not-use list precisely because they cause errors. A question may ask which one should never be written.

Drill other domains

• Anatomy and Physiology (5.3%)
• Patient Intake and Vitals (9.3%)
• General Patient Care (18.7%)
• Infection Control and Safety (10%)
• Point of Care Testing and Laboratory Procedures (6%)
• Phlebotomy (8%)

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