I've been an immunization coordinator for about three years and my employer is now requiring the APHA certification. Starting to prep and honestly a little intimidated by what I've read in various forums. Some people are saying they failed twice before passing, which is making me nervous even though I've been doing this work daily.
Currently averaging about 74% on the practice questions I've found. The vaccine storage and cold chain sections are easy for me since I deal with that constantly at work. Where I'm struggling is the public health law and liability sections — probably pulling 55-60% on those, which is not great.
Planning to study for about five weeks total, roughly 1.5 hours per day. Anyone have a sense of what score you need to feel confident walking in?
Don't let the failure stories scare you. Most people who fail are either underprepared on the public health policy side or ran out of time. If you're already at 74% overall with weak spots you've identified, you're in much better shape than average.
Three years of hands-on experience is worth a lot on this exam. The questions are applied, not just recall, so your field knowledge will carry you through sections where your practice scores aren't perfect. I came in with 69% on practice and passed easily.
I passed on my first try after six weeks of prep. The law and liability stuff is legitimately tricky if you're coming from a clinical background — I spent almost a third of my study time just on that section. It paid off though.