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Hi All,
I just want to thanks those who post advice for passing the NAPLEX on this forum. Without your help I would not have pass the NAPLEX. I want to share my experience for those who failed and feeling hopeless. There is hope!!! I went took the NAPLEX twice both time got mid 60s and finally got a High 80s you can do it too.
A little bit on my background, I did not start pharmacy school until I was 29 years old. During the 6 years in pharmacy school I was struggling. It's not because I was not trying but I tried my very best. After class I spend around 8 hours in the library to study every single day. I was in constant fear of failing due to one of the professor who always gave you the hardest exam. A few of my upperclass failed due to his exam. Anyhow with all the hard work I graduated. During those years I realized that most of my classmate who failed are those who also work really hard. The only issue was most of them are over 30 years old. I believe the older you are the harder it is to retain the information. Even dealing with the NAPLEX most of young student in my class passed with the first attempt. I and a few older student were struggling. So if you did not pass please do not feel bad, this is only biology.
During pharmacy school you pretty much learn how to take the exam base on your instructor. The instructor will summary the chapter into the powerpoint presentation and lecture during class. You pretty much learn from the powerpoint and after a while you can expect what type of questions the instructor asked. After graduation you are pretty on your on. You need to read the NAPLEX book on your own and summarized it yourself. This is where I got lost, how would you know which information is important which is not. I used the Rxprep book it pretty much underline what is important. But it still is a lot of information to retain over 1000 pages.
I was totally lost when I took the first exam. I did not know where to start with the summary so I basically learn the patho of the disease and the drug used to treat it. I neglect the BBW, CI and SE. I learn my mistakes from the second exam and focus entirely on the BBW, CI, SE and Drug/indication. Both the first and second time I failed with mid 60s.
NOW ON HOW TO PASS THE NAPLEX.
I believe the key to passing the NAPLEX are
1. The NAPLEX Blueprint
2. Study the Right Material
3. Practice, Practice and Practice
I came up with a conclusion on how to pass the NAPLEX base on my experience during the exam. I thought I would focus on the material that I got wrong the first exam, I will pass on my second attempt but it does not work. Since this is an adaptive exam it seems they know your weakness and keep asking the questions. So how would you study? Everything would be the obvious answer but it's too much information to learn everything. There's come the NAPLEX Blueprint which posted on the http://www.nabp.net/programs/examination/naplex/naplex-blueprint . Whenever you are in doubt what material to study or what to omit look at the blueprint for the answer. You should be able to answer every single bullet points if you want to pass the exam. For example the exam required you to learn, Indication, BBW, CI, SE. That's pretty much every single chapter and that's a lot of drug to study. So you can focus on the Top 300 drugs (listed on rxprep book) but learn everything that's underline about that drug, and skim through the pathos. A section on the blueprint that list about sterile and non-sterile compounding you need to learn almost everything that is underline. It's only two chapter so you would expect the questions to be more specific. If you look at the blueprint you can kind of predict what to study/skip.
I did an academia rotation during my 6th year and part of it was doing a research naplex study material. In my research I found that RXPREP is the best source to prepare for the exam. APHa books contain a lot of material that is unnecessary for the exam. Some student suggest that APHa is a good source for calculation. SDN 120 questions is also a good for calculation. After I failed the first time, I also bought prontopass study guide, it's a complete waste of money. I look at it for 10 minutes and resell it on ebay. I remember look at the drugs for hypertension, they listed two or three drug thats is not on the market anymore. I thought about going to a live naplex seminar but figure it would a waste of money like prontopass so I stick to RXPREP.
I always have the RXprep since the first time taking the exam. I had the videos, questions bank and the book. I look at several video they pretty much summary each chapter of the book. I will have to learn the SE, BBW, CI indication etc. So might as well do it on your own so I did not watch the video anymore. I failed twice with rxprep because I did not do the question banks. The question bank is very important to my success in pass the naplex. Thanks to other user of this forum suggested to do the questions and pass at least 70% without any sources. I believe it is true if you pass with 70% everything chapter I will guaranteed you will pass the naplex. Because some of the chapter I only passed with 50% and I still passed the NAPLEX with high 80s. The question on each chapter help you re-established the information you learn. For example for Post MI there's a few drug a patient need to be on such as aspirin, beta-blocker, ace-i etc. I though it's enough to learn the drugs but the questions bank ask for how long each drugs is used. One important things I learn from doing the questions bank was it help you to be a good test taker. I'm very good at Math but when I was doing the calculation, I know all of my formula, I did the calculation several times already. On the 4 calculation section, I got a 86, 70, 75 and 79. It just you need to read the questions more carefully, sometimes they ask for gram but I gave the answer in milligram or asked to round up the answer and I did not. You can learn a lot if you do the questions bank.
HOW I STUDY
Since I'm old now and a slow learner, it took me 4 months to study. Even though I already learn it twice already. I study about 8 hours a day for 5 days a week.
1st month to read the RXprep text book, pretty much light reading try to retain as much as you can but do not stop to study.
2nd month I learn the indications. There's about 1500 indication all togethers that's not counting second line drugs.
3rd month study SE, CI, MOA, BBW. Pretty much everything underline in the box even with special storage/handling.
4th consider this month a review complete all the 3500s questions in the RXPrep question bank. I did a summary of mine for each chapter so I look at it before the questions on each chapter. I was able to do 8 chapters a day.
OTHER TIPS
Learn the material as if it's the first time you took the exam. Do not skip any section/chapter.
Before taking the exam, ask yourself am I ready? This is computer adaptive (well until nov 2016) they will know your weakness and ask all the questions. It's better to re-schedule than failing and wait 3 months.
Don't think about what you got wrong on the your previous attempt. It will be totally different when you take it this time.
If you have not learn how to do the math/calculation learn it beginning and a few days before the exam do it again.
Bring snack to your 15 minutes break during the exam. You need to recharge after 2 hours of exam. Dark chocolate increase blood flow to the brain so it's a good snack.
Please read the non-disclosure agreement before taking the exam. Which stated you are not allow to discuss anything about the exam to others. So please don't ask me what type of questions I got.
I just want to thanks those who post advice for passing the NAPLEX on this forum. Without your help I would not have pass the NAPLEX. I want to share my experience for those who failed and feeling hopeless. There is hope!!! I went took the NAPLEX twice both time got mid 60s and finally got a High 80s you can do it too.
A little bit on my background, I did not start pharmacy school until I was 29 years old. During the 6 years in pharmacy school I was struggling. It's not because I was not trying but I tried my very best. After class I spend around 8 hours in the library to study every single day. I was in constant fear of failing due to one of the professor who always gave you the hardest exam. A few of my upperclass failed due to his exam. Anyhow with all the hard work I graduated. During those years I realized that most of my classmate who failed are those who also work really hard. The only issue was most of them are over 30 years old. I believe the older you are the harder it is to retain the information. Even dealing with the NAPLEX most of young student in my class passed with the first attempt. I and a few older student were struggling. So if you did not pass please do not feel bad, this is only biology.
During pharmacy school you pretty much learn how to take the exam base on your instructor. The instructor will summary the chapter into the powerpoint presentation and lecture during class. You pretty much learn from the powerpoint and after a while you can expect what type of questions the instructor asked. After graduation you are pretty on your on. You need to read the NAPLEX book on your own and summarized it yourself. This is where I got lost, how would you know which information is important which is not. I used the Rxprep book it pretty much underline what is important. But it still is a lot of information to retain over 1000 pages.
I was totally lost when I took the first exam. I did not know where to start with the summary so I basically learn the patho of the disease and the drug used to treat it. I neglect the BBW, CI and SE. I learn my mistakes from the second exam and focus entirely on the BBW, CI, SE and Drug/indication. Both the first and second time I failed with mid 60s.
NOW ON HOW TO PASS THE NAPLEX.
I believe the key to passing the NAPLEX are
1. The NAPLEX Blueprint
2. Study the Right Material
3. Practice, Practice and Practice
I came up with a conclusion on how to pass the NAPLEX base on my experience during the exam. I thought I would focus on the material that I got wrong the first exam, I will pass on my second attempt but it does not work. Since this is an adaptive exam it seems they know your weakness and keep asking the questions. So how would you study? Everything would be the obvious answer but it's too much information to learn everything. There's come the NAPLEX Blueprint which posted on the http://www.nabp.net/programs/examination/naplex/naplex-blueprint . Whenever you are in doubt what material to study or what to omit look at the blueprint for the answer. You should be able to answer every single bullet points if you want to pass the exam. For example the exam required you to learn, Indication, BBW, CI, SE. That's pretty much every single chapter and that's a lot of drug to study. So you can focus on the Top 300 drugs (listed on rxprep book) but learn everything that's underline about that drug, and skim through the pathos. A section on the blueprint that list about sterile and non-sterile compounding you need to learn almost everything that is underline. It's only two chapter so you would expect the questions to be more specific. If you look at the blueprint you can kind of predict what to study/skip.
I did an academia rotation during my 6th year and part of it was doing a research naplex study material. In my research I found that RXPREP is the best source to prepare for the exam. APHa books contain a lot of material that is unnecessary for the exam. Some student suggest that APHa is a good source for calculation. SDN 120 questions is also a good for calculation. After I failed the first time, I also bought prontopass study guide, it's a complete waste of money. I look at it for 10 minutes and resell it on ebay. I remember look at the drugs for hypertension, they listed two or three drug thats is not on the market anymore. I thought about going to a live naplex seminar but figure it would a waste of money like prontopass so I stick to RXPREP.
I always have the RXprep since the first time taking the exam. I had the videos, questions bank and the book. I look at several video they pretty much summary each chapter of the book. I will have to learn the SE, BBW, CI indication etc. So might as well do it on your own so I did not watch the video anymore. I failed twice with rxprep because I did not do the question banks. The question bank is very important to my success in pass the naplex. Thanks to other user of this forum suggested to do the questions and pass at least 70% without any sources. I believe it is true if you pass with 70% everything chapter I will guaranteed you will pass the naplex. Because some of the chapter I only passed with 50% and I still passed the NAPLEX with high 80s. The question on each chapter help you re-established the information you learn. For example for Post MI there's a few drug a patient need to be on such as aspirin, beta-blocker, ace-i etc. I though it's enough to learn the drugs but the questions bank ask for how long each drugs is used. One important things I learn from doing the questions bank was it help you to be a good test taker. I'm very good at Math but when I was doing the calculation, I know all of my formula, I did the calculation several times already. On the 4 calculation section, I got a 86, 70, 75 and 79. It just you need to read the questions more carefully, sometimes they ask for gram but I gave the answer in milligram or asked to round up the answer and I did not. You can learn a lot if you do the questions bank.
HOW I STUDY
Since I'm old now and a slow learner, it took me 4 months to study. Even though I already learn it twice already. I study about 8 hours a day for 5 days a week.
1st month to read the RXprep text book, pretty much light reading try to retain as much as you can but do not stop to study.
2nd month I learn the indications. There's about 1500 indication all togethers that's not counting second line drugs.
3rd month study SE, CI, MOA, BBW. Pretty much everything underline in the box even with special storage/handling.
4th consider this month a review complete all the 3500s questions in the RXPrep question bank. I did a summary of mine for each chapter so I look at it before the questions on each chapter. I was able to do 8 chapters a day.
OTHER TIPS
Learn the material as if it's the first time you took the exam. Do not skip any section/chapter.
Before taking the exam, ask yourself am I ready? This is computer adaptive (well until nov 2016) they will know your weakness and ask all the questions. It's better to re-schedule than failing and wait 3 months.
Don't think about what you got wrong on the your previous attempt. It will be totally different when you take it this time.
If you have not learn how to do the math/calculation learn it beginning and a few days before the exam do it again.
Bring snack to your 15 minutes break during the exam. You need to recharge after 2 hours of exam. Dark chocolate increase blood flow to the brain so it's a good snack.
Please read the non-disclosure agreement before taking the exam. Which stated you are not allow to discuss anything about the exam to others. So please don't ask me what type of questions I got.
