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Laboratory Assistant's Examinations
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SOCIETY OF MEDICAL LABORATORY TECHNOLOGISTS OF SOUTH AFRICA
 

Laboratory Assistants Examination

 

REGISTRATION

Students must be registered with the HPCSA as a student laboratory assistant for 1 year before they will be able to write the Board examination.

After they have passed the exam, they will receive a certificate in laboratory assistance from the exam office and can then register with the HPCSA as a Laboratory Assistant (Qualified).

Categories:- Clinical Pathology/ Media); Blood Transfusion; Histology / Cytology.
 

EXAMINATIONS

Will be held annually in April.

EXAM FORM: obtainable from the SMLTSA office.

EXAM DATE: 15th April 2010

EXAM FEE: R520.00

CLOSING DATE: 31st January 2010 (this date may be revised in future years.)

EXAM PAPER: 1 X 100 mark paper of 3 hours

CONTENT: 70% of the questions will be set on the general section of the syllabus (Section A); the other 30% will be discipline specific (Section B).

Section A must be answered by all candidates.

Section B – the candidate must answer one of the questions from section B. Each question will cover 1 of the disciplines – either Clinical Pathology (Chemistry, Haematology, Microbiology, Media), Histology, Cytology or Blood Transfusion.
The section B question will have multiple parts/ short questions. (i.e. will not be an essay type question worth 30 marks!)

(Instructions will be supplied on the exam paper.)

PASS MARK: 50%; however there will be a sub-minimum for both sections.

 

General exam information:

The general section will be very basic – what to do in the case of a spill, or an accident. How would you correct pH of a urine, what type of sample is needed for FBC (they do not need to have any idea of the mechanism of clotting or anti-coagulants). What to do with multi-discipline individual samples? What is specimen reception all about? Questions may also touch on things like communication & telephone etiquette – what is the minimum information required when taking or giving messages? When it comes to staining, they would not expected to know which cells take up which colour and why, but  would be expected to have an idea of the staining sequence.


Questions will be set on both the 2008 HPCSA Syllabus and the unit standards on the SAQA website:-

www.saqa.org.za - Qualification ID: 63189


Compiled by: Wendy Steytler & Carol Smith

23rd October 2009