Access Time:

You will retain access to the LPEX questions from the time you enroll until the final IBLCE exam.

The LPMOCK (Mock Exam) is a one-time-only 4-hour timed exam.

The discussion forum will close 24 hours before the first IBLCE exam worldwide. We will do our best to help accommodate you if you are having difficulties. (LPEX PLUS only)

Facilitator: (LPEX with LPPLUS only)

This program is facilitated by experienced International Board Certified Lactation Consultants with who you can communicate through the discussion forum and by an internal messaging system. 

Accreditation: (LPEX with LPPLUS only)

Total CERPs allocated: 8.5 L & 0.5 E CERPs (All domain topics in the IBCLC content outline).
To be eligible to receive the designated CERPs for the Lactation Practice Exam YOU MUST complete all 6 exam practices, review the feedback to each question, and actively participate in the discussion forum. 

To receive the CERP certificate you are required to

• • be enrolled in LPEX and the LPPLUS add-on 
  • pass the LPEX exams with a grade of at least 80% or higher (You can have multiple attempts)
  • Actively participate in the LPPLUS discussion forum and reply to questions that are posted
  • complete at least 9 hours of study and review work related to the lactation exam practice

Prerequisites

Practice Exams

Exam Practice A

• Physiology and Endocrinology
  • Maternal and Infant
• Techniques

Exam Practice B

• Pathology
  • Immunology and Infectious Disease
  • Maternal Pathology
  • Infant Pathology
• Public Health and Advocacy

Exam Practice C

• Development and Nutrition
  • Maternal and Infant
  • Maternal and Infant Anatomy
  • Nutritional requirements
  • Composition of human milk
• Pharmacology and Toxicology

Exam Practice D

• Psychology, Sociology, and Anthropology
• Development and Nutrition
  • Term development and growth
• Clinical Skills
  • Equipment and Technology
  • Ethical and Legal Issues
  • Research

Exams E & F

• 50 questions each on topics students may have more difficulties with including all the IBCLC content outline domains.
  • Physiology and Endocrinology
  • Pathology
  • Pharmacology and Toxicology
  • Psychology, Sociology, and Anthropology
  • Techniques
  • Clinical Skills

Your Practice Exam is graded automatically as soon as you submit it. You will receive a grade, but of more importance you will be able to look at each question again, reading the comprehensive feedback which may explain why the wrong answers are wrong, or give you references to online journal articles to read more about the topics.
The question feedback is another great learning tool for you.

Discussion Forums (LPPLUS only)

For students who have purchased the Add-On, the forum is where you will meet other exam candidates from all around the world. You can introduce yourself, and share your thoughts, cares, and concerns with others going through the same emotions preparing for the IBCLC exam as you are.
The forum is where questions are discussed, dissected, and examined until an understanding of exam techniques makes the chance of losing marks from misunderstanding a near impossibility. The extra weekly pop-up quizzes encourage students to answer the question and provide a reason for their correct answer. Students learn to problem-solve the correct answer. As an added bonus you'll likely gain even more lactation knowledge. Surveys of exam candidates who have completed the Lactation Exam Practice in previous years have told us that one of the best parts of this program is the learning, sharing, and caring that happened in the discussion forum.

Quality Assurance

All of the questions have been developed for Health e-Learning-IIHL and reviewed by a team of experienced IBCLCs.

Primary authors: 

Carole Dobrich, RN, B.Sc., IBCLC, Melanie Gingras, BScN, IBCLC, and Denise Fisher, MMP, BN, IBCLC

Reviewers: 

Kristina Palmer-Field, RN, RM, BA, IBCLC, Valerie Lavigne, DC, M.Sc, Odile Lapointe, IBCLC, Lenore Goldfarb, Ph.D., CCC, IBCLC

Aim

The aim of Lactation Exam Practice is to:

• give the candidate of the IBLCE exam, practice in multiple-choice exam techniques using question style the same or very similar to that of the IBLCE exam.
• give the candidate a feeling for the subject topics which they may need to study more thoroughly.
• give the candidate a trial experience of sitting the exam (LPMOCK - Timed Mock Exam)
• And the LPPLUS provides a venue for exam candidates from around the world to gather, ask questions, give one another support, and share friendships during a special time in their lives.

Objectives

• Be able to examine a multiple-choice question carefully and thoroughly with a view to discerning the exact intention of the question.
• Identify areas of the IBCLC content outline that may require additional study to feel fully prepared.
• Acknowledge with increasing confidence going into the IBLCE examination.
• Met new friends and colleagues from around the world who have supported them in their effort to prepare for the IBCLC exam. (LPPLUS only)

Administration:

• This program is facilitated by an experienced International Board Certified Lactation Consultant who has extensive experience in clinical practice and education.
• The LPEX exam practices are available from the time you enroll until the last IBCLC exam date of the period in which you enrolled.  **Dates may change if IBLCE modifies the exam dates.**
• Specific to LPPLUS add-on, the discussion forum is available from the time you enroll until 24-36 hours (Eastern Standard Time -  New York or Montreal) prior to the 1st IBCLC exam internationally held for that period. We close the discussion forum early to protect the privacy of the IBCLC exam. You will still have access to review the discussion forum posts.
• Your Username and Password will become activated at the time you enroll.
• The program accepts enrollments from January for the March exam (English only) and Mid-July for the September exam (Multilingual) each year.
• Enrollments for LPEX close the day before the last IBCLC exam date at 4 pm (Australian Eastern Standard Time - That is 2 am Eastern Standard Time -  New York or Montreal)

When is the IBLCE Examination?

That's easy! When you enroll in Lactation Exam Practice you'll get everything you can get from books and classes combined, plus much more for much longer. You have options to take the LPEX exam practices only or use the add-on LPPLUS and have access to the discussion forum with a facilitator to answer your questions and added extra questions and or try the LPMOCK and experience a trial run of the IBCLC exam.  We really look after you and it is fun!

• 300+ questions are similar to the IBCLC exam to practice, time, and time again. 
• Every LPEX question has feedback - tips on that specific question such as how to avoid the pitfalls or red herrings, how to look at photographs critically, how to handle the 'MOST', 'BEST', and 'FIRST' style of questioning, as well as some clinical information and where you can go to extend your knowledge of the topic.
• And you get all this at any time of day or night that suits you, without having to leave home! Why would you even consider anything else?

LPPLUS Add-on

• You'll have access to the exam questions, the forums, extra questions, and an experienced IBCLC facilitator in your preparation for the IBCLC exam. Take your time - consolidate your learning and experience; it's not all over in one or two days.
• The forum: "The questions were great, the feedback incredibly useful, and the forums were what gave me the most confidence. It was fantastic - sharing knowledge, tips, and support with other exam-takers from around the world, and Carole's knowledge and information were the best! What an incredible experience! I made friends on the forum with other new IBCLCs that I'll keep for a lifetime. Thank you Health e-Learning!"

LPMOCK Add-on

• Do a practice run of your exam day by enrolling in the LPMOCK Exam.
• You will have access to 175 questions (including 94 photo questions and case studies)
• 4-hour timed exam.
• Results immediately after submitting your exam.

What past students said

"What did you find MOST beneficial about the Lactation Exam Practice?"

• The photos are excellent examples of what to expect on the IBCLE exam.
• It made me think as the real exam questions did. It was extremely helpful and will recommend it to other friends sitting for next year's exam.
• The quick grading and feedback helped to highlight areas I needed to focus my studies.
• After answering other practice exams (on other websites) - your professional level and the explanations given to answers were for sure the best I saw!
• It was tailored pretty close to how the questions were made. I like the discussion forum because you can share your knowledge that is learned from books and extensive courses about human lactation. It is a good experience hearing the insights from different countries. Very knowledgeable professionals.
• Thorough explanations of all correct and incorrect answers and directions on where to go for more information. Also comments about exam techniques, and general practice looking at photos.
• I found the questions helpful as they required reasoning. I found the dialogue through the forum very helpful indeed as it helped me to think about particular issues from a different perspective.
• I wasn't brave enough to join the forum but benefited from it enormously. Thank you!
• Getting used to the style of questioning and the way in which the knowledge you had would need to be applied in the exam.
• The technique of analyzing the question and answer was a good revision and every question with the 4 options covered an entire topic.
• Practicing the pace/timing of answering questions, but most helpful was having explanations for the correct answers.
• Questions were so similar to those on the real exam. Great preparation.
• Playing with and learning the exam technique, figuring out why I picked the wrong answer when I really did know the correct one! I learned to READ the question carefully and completely! Also reading the student comments and facilitator responses - often opening a bigger picture and sending me in search of reading different texts. Thank you!
• I liked the comments on each question explaining the rationale for selecting the right answer and possible pitfalls to watch out for to avoid selecting the wrong answer.
• The discussion forum. I loved discussing what we didn't understand and the fellowship.
• Reviewing completed exams with explanations. The explanations and comments were a great aid in de-constructing the questions.
• It helped to identify areas where I needed to do more work. It also helped to really think about how questions are worded and also to logically approach a situation. It also made me review my coursework really thoroughly - loved the BreastEd BE01-10 courses. I also found it useful to have the forum to get more information or be pointed to information sources. Great moderators!
• Two things: the wording of the questions was similar enough to the real test so I felt I knew what types of questions would be asked. Second, and most importantly, were the explanations. It would have been practically useless to not have good explanations of what I was doing wrong or why my thought process didn't bring me to the right answer.
• Going over the exam questions and really looked for what the question was asking. Really loved the support of our facilitator and the forum.
• It was tailored pretty close to how the questions were made. I like the discussion forum because you can share your knowledge that is learned from books and extensive courses about human lactation. It is a good experience hearing the insights from different countries. Very knowledgeable professionals.
• Thorough explanations of all correct and incorrect answers and directions on where to go for more information. Also comments about exam techniques, and general practice looking at photos.
• I found the questions helpful as they required reasoning. I found the dialogue through the forum very helpful indeed as it helped me to think about particular issues from a different perspective.
• I wasn't brave enough to join the forum but benefitted from it enormously. Thank you!
• Just doing the practice exams.
• Learning to read the question for the root, and then practicing what specifically they were asking us to do. Next, after taking the exam, being able to read the excellent explanations of the various answers really helped me to better read the question as well as the answers. It was also very helpful to read the blogs of questions and answers. Every part was well worth the cost for the knowledge gained and testing experience.
• I found participation in the forum to be very helpful. I did not post very much, but I read almost every thread. Particularly in the second half of the LC exam, where the focus was on breastfeeding management. The discussions on the forum helped me mentally triage and prioritize what I saw in the photos on the exam. The forum became a nice community of learners (and a place to vent off test anxiety). I miss it now that the test is over! Also, I liked that you could take practice exams multiple times.
• The discussion forum was extremely helpful! Having a facilitator consistently clarify information or recommend resources was really important for me, as I was getting very frustrated with the conflicting information from textbooks and my little experience finding (not reading or understanding) research papers that were valid.
• The pictures with questions were similar to the actual exam.
• picture practice.
• Understanding the level of critical thinking required to answer the questions. Getting the correct answer wasn't just about recalling information, it was about analyzing the scenario and interpreting the question asked, as would be necessary in real-life situations.
• Learning how to deal with multiple-choice questions as I had never done multiple-choice before. I found the forum extremely helpful.
• After answering other practice exams (on other websites) - your professional level and the explanations given to answers were for sure the best I saw!
• Working with the format of questions and answers was great preparation for sitting the exam. The fact that there were questions aimed at each area of study broadened my knowledge base, and going onto the forum for additional questions and interactive knowledge from the facilitator was the best.
• Your questions create pathways of learning. It was necessary to look at all the aspects of the question, and think carefully about the content in the answers. I found myself searching for conceptual understanding as well as factual information.
• Getting used to the style of questions and the process. The answers were also great and provided a lot of learning directly and also helpful in guiding to additional resources. Also the opportunity to take the exams more than once. Thank you for a great learning experience. I will be back!
• ... and so many, many more wonderful comments from very happy new IBCLCs.