1.1 BCEMP Exam Logistics, Content Outlines & Scoring
Key Takeaways
The BCEMP exam has 150 multiple-choice items (125 scored, 25 unscored pretest items) delivered in 3 hours 45 minutes at Pearson VUE test centers.
BPS reports a scaled score from 200 to 800, and 500 is the passing point; passing candidates receive no numeric score.
Exams given through November 30, 2026 use the 2024 content outline (Patient Care 75%, Practice Management 15%, Education and Research 10%).
Exams given on or after December 1, 2026 use the 2025 outline: Emergency Medicine 17%, Therapeutics and Patient Management 66%, Professional Practice 17%.
The first-time application fee is $600 and the retake fee is $300, with three attempts in total and a 90-day wait after each attempt.
Note
Independent BCEMP study resource provided by OpenExamPrep. Exam facts below come from the Board of Pharmacy Specialties (BPS) Emergency Medicine Pharmacy page, the 2024 and 2025 BCEMP Examination Specifications, the BPS Candidate's Guide and BPS results announcements, checked on 2026-10-01.
The Credential
The Board-Certified Emergency Medicine Pharmacist (BCEMP) credential is awarded by the Board of Pharmacy Specialties (BPS). BPS formally recognized emergency medicine pharmacy as its fourteenth specialty in February 2020, and the first BCEMP examination window ran in April–May 2023. BPS describes the target population as pharmacists who provide and support patient care at the bedside in emergency medicine settings, and it reported more than 930 BCEMP-certified pharmacists in 2026.
The exam rewards practical bedside judgment: choosing a drug, dose, route and monitoring plan for a patient who is deteriorating, often with incomplete information. The BPS sample items show the style — a pediatric SVT dose of adenosine, a drug-induced hyponatremia, an inferior STEMI where nitrates are dangerous, a ketamine analgesia monitoring policy, autoinjector counseling for a child and parent, and a thrombolytic contraindication.
Examination Format
| Feature | BCEMP rule |
|---|---|
| Items | 150 multiple-choice items: 125 scored and 25 unscored pretest items mixed in |
| Time | 3 hours 45 minutes, including the introduction and tutorial |
| Delivery | Pearson VUE test centers; online/remote testing only by case-by-case BPS approval (US, Australia, Canada) |
| Breaks | No scheduled break. One optional 10-minute unscheduled break; the clock keeps running |
| Navigation | Items must be answered in the order presented; you cannot return to earlier items or skip ahead |
| Calculator | On-screen scientific calculator |
| Item types | Mostly single-best-answer from four options; a small share may ask for several answers from up to eight options, and some include an image |
At 225 minutes for 150 items you have 90 seconds per item. Because you cannot go back, flagging and returning is not a strategy: commit to your best answer, keep moving and budget time for long vignettes.
Two Content Outlines Around December 1, 2026
BPS runs a job analysis about every five years. Its content-outline page lists two BCEMP outlines: the 2024 specifications apply to administrations through November 30, 2026, and the 2025 specifications apply from December 1, 2026. Check your appointment date before you plan your study.
2024 Outline (exams through November 30, 2026)
| Domain | Weight | What it tests |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Patient Care/Management | 75% | Bedside management of emergencies and resuscitations, triage, history taking, medication-related problems, care plans, time-sensitive therapy, alternative routes, monitoring, drug information and transitions of care (tasks 1.01–1.13) |
| 2. Practice Management | 15% | Adverse drug events, quality assurance, inventory, order review, regulatory compliance, shortages, disaster planning, guidelines, practice advancement and committee work (tasks 2.01–2.11) |
| 3. Education and Research | 10% | Teaching, patient and caregiver education, professional development, literature evaluation and research (tasks 3.01–3.05) |
2025 Outline (exams from December 1, 2026)
| Domain | Weight | Subdomains (weight) |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Emergency Medicine | 17% | 1A Emergency Medicine Operations (8%); 1B Medical Therapies and Devices (9%) |
| 2. Therapeutics and Patient Management | 66% | 2A Patient Assessment (13%); 2B Pharmacotherapy (33%); 2C Therapeutic Implementation, Outcomes, and Monitoring (20%) |
| 3. Professional Practice | 17% | 3A Quality of Care (9%); 3B Practice Management (8%) |
The 2025 outline lists 50 subtopics. Examples include pre-hospital care and poison centers (1A); ventilation, mechanical circulatory support, renal replacement therapy, lines, infusion devices and delivery devices (1B); pharmacotherapy from cardiology through trauma and burns (2B); monitoring, adverse drug events, transitions of care and counseling (2C); and medication safety, regulations, formulary and shortage management, informatics, biostatistics, literature evaluation and disaster management (3).
This guide follows the 2025 subtopics. Chapters 16–18 cover the devices, systems pharmacotherapy and professional-practice subtopics, and the older 2024 task list is covered by the same material.
Eligibility
Both specifications require all three of the following:
- Graduation from an ACPE-accredited pharmacy program, or a program outside the US that qualifies you to practice in your jurisdiction.
- A current, active pharmacist license or registration in the US or another jurisdiction.
- One of these, completed within the past 7 years:
- At least 4 years of emergency medicine pharmacy practice after licensure, with at least 50% of time in the scope of the content outline;
- A PGY1 residency plus at least 2 years of such practice after licensure; or
- A PGY2 residency in emergency medicine pharmacy.
Practice-pathway applicants need an attestation from their employer, on company letterhead, that the experience represents at least 50% of their time in the outline's activities. Residencies must be ASHP-accredited or in candidate status (or CPRB-accredited year-1 programs).
Scheduling, Scoring and Results
- Continuous testing: BCEMP is offered year-round. For authorizations to test issued after January 1, 2026, you have 90 days to sit; missing the window counts as a no-show and forfeits fees.
- Scaled scoring: BPS equates test forms and reports scores on a 200–800 scale with 500 as the passing point. The passing standard is set by criterion-referenced procedures; there is no fixed percentage and no curve.
- Results: since January 2026 candidates see a preliminary pass or fail on screen, and the official score report appears in MyBPS within 45 days. Passing candidates get no numeric score. Failing candidates see their total score and high/moderate/low domain feedback.
- No guessing penalty: unanswered items are simply wrong, so answer everything.
Pass-Rate History (BPS announcements)
| Administration | All candidates | First-time candidates |
|---|---|---|
| Apr–May 2023 (first window) | 72% (439 examinees) | 72% |
| Aug–Sep 2023 | 54% | 59% |
| Mar–Apr 2024 | 60% | 62% |
| Sep–Oct 2024 | 50% | 55% |
| 2025 continuous testing | 53.9% (323 examinees) | 61.1% (198 examinees) |
Fees, Retakes and Recertification
| Item | 2026 amount or rule |
|---|---|
| Initial application | $600 |
| Retake application | $300 |
| Attempts | 3 in total (initial plus 2 retakes); 90-day wait after each attempt, then 90 days to test |
| After a third failure | Wait 12 months, then reapply at $600 |
| Reschedule or cancel | Free 30 or more days ahead; $60 at 5–29 days; not allowed under 5 days |
| Annual maintenance fee | $125 in years 1–6 |
| Recertification fee | $400 in year 7 |
Certification runs on a 7-year cycle, and you must report at least 2 units of assessed continuing education or self-reported professional development every year. You recertify by either route:
- Professional development program: 100 units, made up of at least 80 units of assessed continuing pharmacy education from BPS-approved programs (ASHP with ACCP) and up to 20 units of self-reported continuing professional development; or
- Recertification exam: pass the exam and report 20 units of continuing professional development. BPS says BCEMP recertification exams begin in 2030, when the first cohort reaches year 7.
Tip
About two-thirds of the newer outline is pharmacotherapy and monitoring, but the remaining third is not optional. Operations, devices, safety, regulations and biostatistics are high-yield because many candidates under-prepare them.
A pharmacist completed an ASHP-accredited PGY1 residency, was licensed, and has since worked 2.5 years in an academic emergency department, spending about 60% of her time on bedside emergency medicine pharmacotherapy. Her director will sign an attestation letter. Which statement about BCEMP eligibility is correct?
She is eligible through the PGY1-plus-2-years pathway, provided the experience falls within the past 7 years.
She is not yet eligible until she has 4 years of emergency practice, because a PGY1 residency only replaces 1 year.
She is eligible only if at least 80% of her time is spent on emergency medicine activities.
She is not yet eligible because every pathway requires a PGY2 residency in emergency medicine.
A candidate is scheduling the BCEMP exam. Which description of the test-day rules is accurate?
Items may be flagged and revisited before the end, so long vignettes can be skipped and answered later.
Items must be answered in the order presented, and one optional 10-minute break comes out of the testing time.
Two scheduled 15-minute breaks are built in, and the exam clock stops during each break.
The exam has 125 items, all of them scored, in 3 hours.
A pharmacist certified as BCEMP in 2025 asks how to recertify. Which plan meets BPS requirements?
Complete 100 hours of any continuing education, with no annual reporting requirement.
Pay the annual fee each year and earn 30 units of any ACPE-accredited continuing education before year 7.
Retake the full certification exam every 5 years; continuing education does not count.
Earn at least 80 units of assessed CPE from BPS-approved programs plus up to 20 units of self-reported CPD by the end of year 7.
Sections you finish are checked off in the contents.