Should You Get Board Certified in Oncology Pharmacy?
Are you getting ready to take the BCOP exam?
Practice questions are one of the best ways to study
Access > 500 high quality questions written by experienced BCOPs to help you prepare!
What is Board Certification?
The Board of Pharmacy Specialties (BPS) was created over 40 years ago and offers board certification for pharmacists in 16 specialties. Interestingly, our physician colleagues developed their first board certification in 1917, in ophthalmology no less!
There are currently 4,738 board-certified oncology pharmacists (BCOP) worldwide as of 6/2026, which makes it the 3rd largest board-certified pharmacy specialty.
The purpose of the BCOP certification, according to BPS, is:
To validate that the pharmacist has the advanced knowledge and experience to optimize outcomes for patients with malignant diseases by recommending, designing, implementing, monitoring, and modifying pharmacotherapeutic plans; reducing medication errors; and recognizing and responding to adverse physical and emotional issues that may arise during treatment and when providing education and counseling.
Board certification is a marker of baseline competency. Here is one pharmacist’s view of her BCOP certification.
Should I strive for BCOP?
This is a question asked often - is BCOP worth it? Do employers prefer/require it? Does it actually hold value in the job market?
Each of us is on our own professional journey so I can only speak to my experiences. In oncology jobs I have held or pursued, BCOP is an expectation. If you don’t have it when you start, you are expected to achieve it when eligible. I was in the job market in early 2020 and saw that BCOP was either required or strongly preferred for traditional oncology pharmacist roles. It definitely gives an advantage to those that have it, and it is even more important for those that have not completed residency training as it communicates a baseline competency.
Interestingly, I have found BCOP also holds value, and arguably more value, in non-traditional roles. This is because the vast majority of people outside of healthcare (and even many in healthcare) don’t understand the value of a pharmacist or exactly what services we can provide. When they hear the term “board-certified” it resonates as something they can wrap their head around. They’ve likely heard the term in relation to physicians and it implies competence. I have used it as an additional descriptor of what I am capable of and what skills I bring to a position.
Additionally, I know how difficult oncology can be so when I come across another BCOP I have an instant level of respect for their knowledge and experience.
BCOP Eligibility
Not all pharmacists are eligible to take the BCOP examination. This is one of the most common assumptions people make so let’s outline what the BPS requirements are to sit for the exam. Of note, these can change so always refer back to the BPS website for the most up to date information.
There are 2 buckets of eligibility criteria.
You have to be a licensed (active) pharmacist that graduated from an accredited program
If you are a foreign graduate or are licensed in another jurisdiction, you likely still qualify. In fact, there are many BCOP pharmacists across the world, with Spain leading the charge!
With the increasing prevalence of non-traditional pharmacist roles that don’t require a pharmacist license, there is talk about not maintaining active licensure. If you are striving for board certification and plan to maintain it, you cannot let your license lapse.
You have to have oncology practice experience
This makes sense but what about if you wanted to study and learn the material without having worked in oncology? BPS indicates that this component is required to “assure practical application of components of the specialty knowledge being certified”.
The devil is in the details here. There are 3 paths that BPS recognizes for this practice experience.
You completed a PGY2 oncology residency
Of note, this path does NOT include our colleagues that complete other PGY2 programs. I have worked with pharmacists that completed PGY1/2 programs in pharmacotherapy but they cannot meet eligibility via this path.
You completed a PGY1 pharmacy practice residency AND you have 2+ years of recent (within 7 years) pharmacist experience working in an area where >50% of your time was in oncology
You have not completed residency training but have 4+ years of recent (within 7 years) pharmacist experience working in an area where >50% of your time was in oncology
If you have not completed a PGY2 residency, your practice experience must be attested to by your employer. This attestation must indicate you have spent 50% or more of your time in the domains described in the Oncology Pharmacy Content Outline.
This is where it can get a little fuzzy on exactly what kind of experience counts. They don’t specify it has to be direct patient care. There is a clinical trial and research domain so presumably pharmacists in those area qualify. What about those in the pharmaceutical industry? It isn’t clear but the outline they provide covers a lot of bases so you could make your case for your experience. Yes, they are here to promote the recognition and value of specialized training, knowledge, and skills in pharmacy but they also generate a lot of revenue from that endeavor. So read the outline and make your case!
How costly is BCOP?
(Pricing as of 6/2026)
In the grand scheme of your professional development, not that expensive in my opinion. You need to consider the up front costs and the maintenance costs; maintenance costs are dramatically different depending on which recertification path you take. Here are factors to consider:
First Time Exam Fees
The fee to take the initial exam is $600. If you fail, you can retake it again within a year for $300.
Maintenance Fees
Once you become board certified, you pay $125 annually in years 1-6 to maintain it. If you are one of those people that collects BPS certifications, you are only assessed one maintenance fee per year, not one per certification - good news for all the overachievers!
Do not forget to pay this fee! I would HIGHLY recommend giving BPS your personal email account (not your employer’s) so you don’t miss any notifications if you change jobs.
Recertification fees
In your recertification year (year 7), you pay a recertification fee of $400 regardless of your method of recertification (continuing education or exam). This replaces the usual $125/year maintenance fee for this year. If you recertify by exam and fail, you can retake it again for $200.
Continuing education (CE) fees
This is where the majority of your fees will come from after you initially become certified. To maintain your certification, you need to either retake an exam or accumulate 100 hours of BCOP CE credit every 7 years (more on choosing between these below).
For new certification cycles beginning Jan 2024, you can now get 80 hours of BCOP CE credit and 20 hours of CPD (Continuing Professional Development) credit. More on this below.
If you opt to go the CE route, be ready for sticker shock.
There are currently only 2 CE providers that are accredited to provide BCOP credit - HOPA and the ASHP/ACCP partnership.
HOPA’s program offers 28 BCOP hours for $505 if you’re a member and $657 for non-members. ASHP/ACCP’s course offers 26 hours for $505/$715 (members/non-members).
There are a few ways to get the remaining hours.
HOPA offers BCOP study bundles that have various amount of credits. You can also purchase individual topics from their catalog (use the category filters to find them). They are usually priced at ~$35/1 hr credit, but it’s less expense per credit hour to bundle them. Due to expiring CE credits, pay close attention to the website for which programs to purchase.
ASHP/ACCP’s has a few offerings that change. Check out their website for more information.
ASHP has an innovative monthly program for recertification CE credit, but unfortunately they don’t offer oncology yet (not sure if they will, it’s been a while…). Something to keep an eye on if you’ll head down the CE path.
The cost of CE qucikly adds up; $505 per recertification cycle for the review course, not including their annual membership fees ($175/yr), and that is barely a quarter of the 100 hours you need. And this is assuming you pass all the post-activity tests; you only get one chance to pass and if you don’t you’ll lose that BCOP credit. Accounting for the remaining credits needed based on HOPA’s per credit cost, you’ll spend over $3000 to recertify by CE over the 7 year cycle, not including the BPS recertification fee. You’ll save a little money by swapping in 20 CPD credits, but you’ll pay for that in terms of gathering documentation.
How do I study for the BCOP exam?
PGY2 oncology residents have a leg up in preparing for the exam as their residency year is structured around almost all the content that is tested.
But if you aren’t residency trained, don’t worry! If pharmacists are skilled at anything it’s being a self-learner. This content can be learned with a structured plan and the right mindset!
Start with the BPS content outline. This is not my favorite way to structure this information but it’s a place to start and includes what content will be on the exam and the percentage of the exam is attributed to each section. The breakdowns for the initial exam are:
Oncology Diagnosis and Testing (23%)
Therapeutics and Patient Management (49%)
Professional Practice (28%)
This includes 14% of clinical research and 14% practice management questions which trip up people consistently - don’t sleep on this category!
There are 150 total questions which includes 25 unscored questions that represent new questions they are testing for future exams. They don’t break down which categories those fall into.
For the initial exam, you have 3 hours and 45 minutes to achieve a score of at least 500 (max score is 800). You will only be given a score if you fail the exam.
As of Jan 2026, you will get a preliminary pass or fail immediately after finishing the exam and your official report within 45 days. Many pharmacists have shared their report with me and it does not provide helpful data to guide studying, unfortunately.
All the information you need to study for the exam is available on the vast world wide web. But if you are taking BCOP for the first time, I can’t imagine curating the content yourself - there is just so much of it!
The Enjoy Learning Oncology (ELO) Collaborative is a robust training program that combines curated content, access to oncology pharmacy experts to ask questions, a community of your peers, practice cases and questions, and the Oncology Pharmacy Question Bank, which includes >500 questions written and reviewed by board certified pharmacists working in each oncology area.
There are a few other places to purchase information:
ASHP’s recertification course provides a lot of information - and by a lot I mean endless pages of PDFs on each disease state and topic covered on the exam. I’m not going to lie - it’s overwhelming because it’s intended for those that already have a baseline knowledge. It’s actually overwhelming for me and I have a baseline knowledge 😅. This can be used for ACPE credit if you’re studying for the first exam.
HOPA has a Core Competency program that covers basics but does not go into detail on specific diseases. For that information, you can purchase a variety of BCOP materials.
High Yield Med Reviews offers a BCOP study package that has a question bank. They also have some lectures and an eBook, although these are focused more on statistics. I have purchased this myself in the past and was underwhelmed with the content and the platform.
StatPearls has exam questions also but it’s unclear to me from their website who writes them as they offer education for many healthcare professions.
Since high quality practice questions are a great way to prepare for the BCOP exam, the Oncology Pharmacy Question Bank was created to give you access to >500 questions written and reviewed by board certified pharmacists working in each oncology area. You can even add on disease specific practice cases!
All of these other methods rely on you, the individual, to learn on your own with little to no guidance from anyone who can answer questions, which is particularly challenging in oncology. The ELO Collaborative program provides the support you need when learning oncology as a newer oncology pharmacist.
Should you recertify by CE or exam?
Once you pass the initial exam, you’ll need to maintain your certification.
Years ago, as a newly minted as a BCOP fresh out of residency, I received advice to recertify by exam. I was still learning the process and it came from an experienced clinician so I took the advice to heart.
Recertification by exam sounds like a fantastic idea for about 6 years until it’s time to take said exam 😅
BPS posts certification and recertification results by specialty. This will tell you pass rates and how many people recertify by exam. For BCOP, the pass rates are really bad 😳. In 2025, only 43% passed the initial certification exam. This has been falling every year but it dropped 10% between 2024 and 2025. Recertification pass rates are better but <10% of people take that route.
If you are deciding which path is for you, you might want to first review the BPS recertification guide. They have also published infographics for a quick glance of recertification requirements for domestic and international pharmacists.
Recertifying by exam used to have 2 perks. The exam was only 100 questions and you didn’t need to complete any CE. For some reason that makes no sense to me, that has changed. The recertification exam is now 150 questions and you have to complete 20 hours of the new CPD credit.
BPS says the CPD pathway was instituted to allow you to use some of your work activities towards recertification. Which sounds great in theory. And for those that go the CE recertification route, it saves money because you only have to buy 80 BCOP hours instead of 100 (a potential savings of ~$700).
But to this BCOP who is not in a direct patient care role and recertifies by exam, it leaves a lot to be desired. I wrote more about it in this blog.
So, will I recertify by exam again?
Before the changes, that answer would have been an easy yes. The recertification exam taught me that experience holds a lot of weight. I may be in non-traditional roles these days, but years of practice experience have taught me more than enough to have that minimum competence level. Plus, I’m okay with a little testing anxiety in year 7 versus the ongoing task list of getting (and paying for) enough BCOP credits every year.
But, the changes BPS has made is making me seriously re-consider whether I will renew at all, and I’m not the only one.
If you need support on your BCOP journey, I would love to be your guide! The ELO Collaborative program is a structured way to prepare for the exam and we have a much higher pass rate than the national average. Plus, there is a BCOP guarantee!
About The Author
Kelley is a board-certified oncology pharmacist that strongly believes oncology is the best specialty for pharmacists and that anyone can learn it. She founded the ELO (Enjoy Learning Oncology) Program, the only private member network exclusively for oncology pharmacists.
Do you want to get a structured content plan and personalized support to take your oncology knowledge and career to the next level?
