PCOA Administrator Information

The Pharmacy Curriculum Outcomes Assessment^® (PCOA^®) provides Colleges of Pharmacy with data on individual students’ knowledge in major content areas and subtopics as recognized by the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE). Colleges will also receive score reports for comparison with national results by program year for two reference groups: 2018-2019 and 2021-2022. The assessment can be administered multiple times throughout a student’s academic career, making it easier to track student progress from year to year. The assessment also:

• Serves as an evaluation plan as suggested by ACPE guidelines.
• Provides documentation of improvement in individual performance after a curriculum is modified or updated.
• Delivers score data that can be used in research and studies with existing assessments.

To register, participating colleges should:

1. Complete a PCOA Registration Form for each desired testing session. Select a three-day testing session, Monday through Friday, within a monthly testing window. Scheduling excludes weekends and certain holidays, and administrators should consider high-volume test dates when selecting a test session.
2. Submit the completed registration form by the registration deadline outlined below for the month of testing you selected.

Registration Timeline

60 days before monthly testing window:

• College registration forms must be submitted for all participating colleges of pharmacy.

45 days before monthly testing window:

• Students participating in the scheduled testing session must register and create an NABP e-Profile.
• Testing accommodations requests, if needed, must be submitted for students by the Administrator.
• Student rosters for participating students is due, so students can be assigned to a scheduled testing session.

Fees

Students nearing the completion of their didactic year (P3) can take the PCOA one time at no cost.

• A fee of $75 per student will apply for any additional administrations or administrations for students in other curriculum years (non-P3s).

Testing Accommodations

Students may request testing accommodations under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) by completing the Testing Accommodations Request Form and submitting it to the Administrator at their college of pharmacy.

The Administrator submits completed forms to NABP for final review and processing by uploading the form to the student’s NABP e-Profile no later than six weeks prior to the monthly testing window. Refer to the ADA Request Form webpage for additional details.

Students will receive information to follow the “Test It Out” instructions from ProctorU. Students must check their computer through their ProctorU dashboard. There is a “Test It Out” button on the student’s dashboard to connect to ProctorU. To avoid and minimize the number of students that must reschedule due to technical difficulties, it is strongly encouraged for students to follow all instructions provided in the Student Information section and ProctorU website in advance of their scheduled test day.

Test Day Troubleshooting

NABP’s remote proctoring provider, ProctorU, will provide technical assistance to students on the day of their scheduled exam. If ProctorU is unable to resolve the technical issue(s) during the originally scheduled test appointment, the student will be provided instructions to reschedule their exam. Students will be required to reschedule only during the testing session available the last week of the monthly testing window.

1. The student will notify their college Administrator that they were unable to complete their exam. Student to provide their full name, NABP e-Profile number, and the reason for rescheduling.  
2. The Administrator will notify NABP of the students that need to be rescheduled.
   • School Administrator to email PCOA@nabp.pharmacy with a list of student names and NABP e-Profile numbers.
   • The list of students that are required to reschedule must be sent to NABP no later than 48 hours after the student’s originally scheduled test appointment.
3. The student will receive an email notification from ExamStudio, and the link in the email will take the student to their ExamStudio dashboard with the new test dates. Students should be instructed to schedule a new appointment time for the available test dates provided during the last week of the monthly testing window.

Scores will be released to Administrators within the first two weeks of the month after the monthly testing window. For example, if the monthly testing window selected is January 2023, scores will be released by February 10, 2023. We do not issue reports directly to the students.

We provide a thorough analysis of the data and two reports:

• Individual Student Score Report: details student outcomes and provides a comparison of individual performance with national results by program year for two reference years: 2018-2019 (last national cohort) and 2021-2022 (last academic year cohort).
• College of Pharmacy Score Report: includes data on results of overall performance at the institutional level with comparisons to the 2019 and 2022 national reference groups. Colleges will only receive the report for cohorts with 10 or more students who tested within the testing session. These reports will be made available at the same time as the student reports and will only include the students who tested within the school’s testing session month.

Important Note: while students who test outside of the test session will not be included in school reports, their individual reports will be released at the next available release date. No exceptions.