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I am starting to study for the Naplex and hope to take in Early June 
. Has anyone taken it yet and if so what did you think?
. Has anyone taken it yet and if so what did you think?
NAPLEX 2009 (Has anyone taken it yet?)
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How long did you all prepare for?
I took the NAPLEX last year. I was really, really nervous. I studied for 5 days, about 8 hours a day; it was too much. The test was incredibly easy. The worst thing you can do is stress yourself out before/during the test. Take it easy, it will be a breeze. Good luck!
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Oh wow, only 5 days.
Most people say like 4-6 weeks. I guess it depends on how long it takes to get ready.
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I'm taking it in 2 1/2 weeks.
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I'm taking it at the end of June too...any study tips from anyone? I'm taking the CPJE a couple weeks later..terrified about that
most of my boys passed with flying colors without studying
i regret studying the amount i did
the test is easy
the law exam however, can trip you up, id study 2-4 days for that
on the naplex, i remember my one new clinical professor, he summed it up best: 'the test was a joke, i was laughing my way thru it." ....this guy btw, is writing to nabp and trying to push thru a stricter standardized exam
i regret studying the amount i did
the test is easy
the law exam however, can trip you up, id study 2-4 days for that
on the naplex, i remember my one new clinical professor, he summed it up best: 'the test was a joke, i was laughing my way thru it." ....this guy btw, is writing to nabp and trying to push thru a stricter standardized exam
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I took the NAPLEX on June 2, 2009. I studied for 3 weeks before taking the exam. My exam was a mix of easy questions that any pharmacy student would know and difficult questions that most new graduates probably don't know. I felt like I had passed it after taking the exam, and I felt that if I failed, studying more wouldn't have made much difference. I got got my results today, and I made a 135 scaled score!
I recommend studying as much as you think you need to study, but it's designed to assess MINIMUM competancy to practice, and if you look at the statistics, well over 90% pass it the first time.
However, the MPJE is not so easy. I took it today, for the state of Tennessee, and I think I might have failed. It was really difficult. I only studied for 3 days before taking the MPJE, and now I wish that I had spent 3 days on the NAPLEX and 3 weeks on the MPJE. I went to pharmacy school in NY, so I didn't have the advantage of Jurisprudence notes from TN. I studied federal law and the "Blue Book" the state sent me of TN pharmacy laws. I'm not sure what score I'll end up with on the MPJE, but I found it to be much more difficult that the NAPLEX.
Hope this helps.
Good luck with your exams!
I recommend studying as much as you think you need to study, but it's designed to assess MINIMUM competancy to practice, and if you look at the statistics, well over 90% pass it the first time.
However, the MPJE is not so easy. I took it today, for the state of Tennessee, and I think I might have failed. It was really difficult. I only studied for 3 days before taking the MPJE, and now I wish that I had spent 3 days on the NAPLEX and 3 weeks on the MPJE. I went to pharmacy school in NY, so I didn't have the advantage of Jurisprudence notes from TN. I studied federal law and the "Blue Book" the state sent me of TN pharmacy laws. I'm not sure what score I'll end up with on the MPJE, but I found it to be much more difficult that the NAPLEX.
Hope this helps.
Good luck with your exams!
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Oh wow. Thanks for sharing your input! I still feel like I don't know anything after graduating pharmacy school >< Good point that it is testing your minimal competency standards.
^congrats on the naplex score
however, i will tell you from my experience, a lot of people think they did terrible on the law exam and it turns out they passed it
dont get too down on yourself
however, i will tell you from my experience, a lot of people think they did terrible on the law exam and it turns out they passed it
dont get too down on yourself
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oops....dup post
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I took it today.
The questions weren't all in multiple choice format. About 1/2 of mine were in case format, but only half of those you actually needed the case to answer it. Maybe 1/4 of all the questions were the 1,3,1 and 2, 2 and 3, all of the above format. Most of them were straight a,b,c,d,e. About 5-7 questions were....
1)Math problems you had to type in the answer
2)Diagrams for MOA of a drug and you had to pick the spot on the body,body part, cell, intercellular structure were it worked.
There were a lot of strange calculations on trials I had never even seen. I was prepared for interpreting all of the data and some calculations but the ones on there were from left field (and like 5 of my 1st 6 questions....not a fun start).
Overall there were about 35 calculations and it by far the largest part of the exam. Most of the I either knew and were fairly common or I could work backwards by knowing the answers.
I had only 1 HIV question and I studied hard for those!!! I had maybe 2 cancer questions and they pertained to class side effects. I had gone over the top 400 drugs (top 200 brand/top 200 generic) and there were only 1-2 direct questions in the top 400!!! Most of the questions actually referred to the generic name, when I many people from last year said it was almost all brand name. Most of the need to know drugs were obvious (lisinopril, zocor, etc...). The questions I had that directly asked, 'what is the generic for xxxx' were drugs I have never dispensed and might have recognized and it would be hard to study for. I had maybe 3-4 questions on HTN, 3-4 on heart disease/MI, 5-8 on asthma/COPD and 3-4 on diabetes. The rest were random. Sometimes I would get something like (not real questions)...."what's the brand name for lisinopril?" and then "what is 1 + 1?" and then something like...."What's the airspeed velecity of an unladen swallow?" Sometimes I got worried because I would get a series of very easy questions on things I had basically answered already, but I knew I got them right so I thought maybe some of them were test questions in the way they were wording the questions. There was a certain interaction question which I know 100% I answered right and I got the same basic quesiton 3 times spread throughout the test (by the way only 4-5 interaction questions and all were basic)
Overall I felt good about passing but had no clue on a final score.
Out of the 185 questions...25 I had no clue on, 100 I was 85-100% sure of my guess, and the rest I could narrow down to 2 choices. If I was you I would study calculations a little bit more and stop plugging away memorizing random drugs and MOA's. The calculations can be easy points.
I got a 92 on the MPJE exam so just need to pass this.
Total study time for me for Naplex for those still plugging away.........
Kaplan (just the book for like $40 off of amazon....might have even been last years)-about 40 hours
ASHP online question bank ($60 bucks and was helpful but much harder then the exam itself)-about 40 hours
Top 400 drugs-6 hours + HIV drugs-4 hours
calculations-1 hour
Soooo.....If I was redoing this, I would still hit HIV, but maybe 2 hours, still hit the top 400 because it's not much effort. However I would do less Kaplan and question bank and put those hours into calculations. Spend about 2-3 weeks 6 or so hours a day and practice a lot of calculations.
The questions weren't all in multiple choice format. About 1/2 of mine were in case format, but only half of those you actually needed the case to answer it. Maybe 1/4 of all the questions were the 1,3,1 and 2, 2 and 3, all of the above format. Most of them were straight a,b,c,d,e. About 5-7 questions were....
1)Math problems you had to type in the answer
2)Diagrams for MOA of a drug and you had to pick the spot on the body,body part, cell, intercellular structure were it worked.
There were a lot of strange calculations on trials I had never even seen. I was prepared for interpreting all of the data and some calculations but the ones on there were from left field (and like 5 of my 1st 6 questions....not a fun start).
Overall there were about 35 calculations and it by far the largest part of the exam. Most of the I either knew and were fairly common or I could work backwards by knowing the answers.
I had only 1 HIV question and I studied hard for those!!! I had maybe 2 cancer questions and they pertained to class side effects. I had gone over the top 400 drugs (top 200 brand/top 200 generic) and there were only 1-2 direct questions in the top 400!!! Most of the questions actually referred to the generic name, when I many people from last year said it was almost all brand name. Most of the need to know drugs were obvious (lisinopril, zocor, etc...). The questions I had that directly asked, 'what is the generic for xxxx' were drugs I have never dispensed and might have recognized and it would be hard to study for. I had maybe 3-4 questions on HTN, 3-4 on heart disease/MI, 5-8 on asthma/COPD and 3-4 on diabetes. The rest were random. Sometimes I would get something like (not real questions)...."what's the brand name for lisinopril?" and then "what is 1 + 1?" and then something like...."What's the airspeed velecity of an unladen swallow?" Sometimes I got worried because I would get a series of very easy questions on things I had basically answered already, but I knew I got them right so I thought maybe some of them were test questions in the way they were wording the questions. There was a certain interaction question which I know 100% I answered right and I got the same basic quesiton 3 times spread throughout the test (by the way only 4-5 interaction questions and all were basic)
Overall I felt good about passing but had no clue on a final score.
Out of the 185 questions...25 I had no clue on, 100 I was 85-100% sure of my guess, and the rest I could narrow down to 2 choices. If I was you I would study calculations a little bit more and stop plugging away memorizing random drugs and MOA's. The calculations can be easy points.
I got a 92 on the MPJE exam so just need to pass this.
Total study time for me for Naplex for those still plugging away.........
Kaplan (just the book for like $40 off of amazon....might have even been last years)-about 40 hours
ASHP online question bank ($60 bucks and was helpful but much harder then the exam itself)-about 40 hours
Top 400 drugs-6 hours + HIV drugs-4 hours
calculations-1 hour
Soooo.....If I was redoing this, I would still hit HIV, but maybe 2 hours, still hit the top 400 because it's not much effort. However I would do less Kaplan and question bank and put those hours into calculations. Spend about 2-3 weeks 6 or so hours a day and practice a lot of calculations.
very interesting, i dont remember my test being hard, or having tat much math on it
however, i dont think hiv or cancer gets tested a lot....i got one question on hiv (which i think every1 gets), and like 3 on cancer
the brand generics can be from left field, but you improve your chances by process or elimination
i thought the kaplan book was too detail, the ashp book has errors in it, so i didnt spend much time on those
i think the pronto pass is the best, the pronto math and their final review set
however, i dont think hiv or cancer gets tested a lot....i got one question on hiv (which i think every1 gets), and like 3 on cancer
the brand generics can be from left field, but you improve your chances by process or elimination
i thought the kaplan book was too detail, the ashp book has errors in it, so i didnt spend much time on those
i think the pronto pass is the best, the pronto math and their final review set
and on statitics, unless its asking mean, median, or standard deviation (67 or 95%), i think its a fair bet those are the trial questions for future use....cuz anything more in depth most students prolly wont get right
the biggest advice i give to the students who rotate at my store: dont get disheartened by a hard question, remember, if you have problems with it, then so will almost everybody else taking it that day
the biggest advice i give to the students who rotate at my store: dont get disheartened by a hard question, remember, if you have problems with it, then so will almost everybody else taking it that day
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Not really. The ones that were were easy and basic just to figure out if you understood what the half life was or Cmax. Most of them compared two drugs and had two very simple tables and asked about a specific number and what it meant compared between the drugs. Not much calculating.
~1/2 the calculations questions were standard hospital stuff (drip rates, etc), ~1/2 were compounding related. If you are decent at math, the ones you don't know you can work backwards. I had several questions were I couldn't remember exactly how to work it but I took the answers and worked those backwards and got the answer.
I wouldn't say the test was hard, but it was not one of those tests were I took it and went "Well I know I got between a 85-92%'. There were a lot of questions were I thought I was guessing the right answer but wasn't positive. There were a lot of questions that I was thinking....this can't be a real question...it's too easy. There were questions that you may know but you may not have studied because they were odd (storage temps of all of the vaccines which I knew OR storage temps of something like a lot of the 'mab' drugs which I did not know) Then there were questions that got you wondering if you were even taking the right test (but only 20ish).
What makes this test easy is it that the passing level is less then a regular exam, and all you have to do is get ~60% (nobody really knows) to pass. I think the people that fail most likely know the material and just aren't great test takers and they freek out and can't concentrate (Unless of course you are from like Howard, Xavier, Long Island, etc.... were they don't teach you what you need to know). Most people could pass this right after pharmacy school with no review as long as you have retained some stuff from working in either a hospital or even better...retail.
As far as the computer adaptive part.....the common questions/topics that I answered correctly kept coming up. These were things that every pharmacist should know at the retail level like basic interactions (alcohol and flagyl kind of things....not a real question). So several times I started doubting myself because I got the same subject a few times....but I am sure I got them right. However, the odd topics/disease states were the ones I think the adaptive part seemed to follow me. Although HIV isn't real odd but they asked an HIV question which involved me needing to know the class of the 5 brands listed to know which one was a dup therapy. I had just knocked the HIV drugs out in the car before the exam and knew right away what the answer was...and I didn't get any more HIV questions. However, for other topics, 1 imparticular, I know I got the answer wrong and wanted to change it right after I clicked 'next'. I then got a few more questions on that topic within the next 20 questions which seemed a lot more basic.
Sorry....forgot to answer. There were maybe 5 drug info questions (what source to use for xxxxx). They were very easy. My wife could have gotten 2 of them on intuition using the question to go with the names of the answers not knowing anything about pharmacy.
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Hi
Thanks for sharing your experiences of the Naplex....really helpful.
Does any one have the Law notes for Ohio..I did not receive any book.... after i applied for the exam ? i am due to write the exam end of July. What topics should I concentrate on?
Thank you...
Thanks for sharing your experiences of the Naplex....really helpful.
Does any one have the Law notes for Ohio..I did not receive any book.... after i applied for the exam ? i am due to write the exam end of July. What topics should I concentrate on?
Thank you...
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Took on Saturday, results posted on the NCBOP web page on Tuesday afternoon. Scored a 123, so plenty of wiggle room. Good luck all.
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Congratulations! Thank you for posting your experience. Anyone with any more input we could all appreciate your help!
i took the test yesterday and Im worried....i studied for 4 weeks
i already know 20 questions i missed
i took the kaplan course, and those guys said the more math you get, that means you are doing them wrong....but i think they were wrong....i got boatloads of math questions....aka flow rates, tpn cals, c1q1 stuff....i know i was getting em right cuz id do it with ratios and double check with another method
anyways, i got lots of available dosage form questions, more than 15, i thought that was not fair
i also got questions which didnt have exact answer, which confused me since the kaplan guys said naplex ask questions that have one answer and cant be disputed....i got a question on MOA of zyprexa, and i know the exact MOA is unknown (which of course wasnt a choice), so I dont know how they could ask that question with certainity
the antidote question was on some random drug i had never heard of which wasnt covered in kaplan book
one hiv and one cancer question
i just hope i passed
i already know 20 questions i missed
i took the kaplan course, and those guys said the more math you get, that means you are doing them wrong....but i think they were wrong....i got boatloads of math questions....aka flow rates, tpn cals, c1q1 stuff....i know i was getting em right cuz id do it with ratios and double check with another method
anyways, i got lots of available dosage form questions, more than 15, i thought that was not fair
i also got questions which didnt have exact answer, which confused me since the kaplan guys said naplex ask questions that have one answer and cant be disputed....i got a question on MOA of zyprexa, and i know the exact MOA is unknown (which of course wasnt a choice), so I dont know how they could ask that question with certainity
the antidote question was on some random drug i had never heard of which wasnt covered in kaplan book
one hiv and one cancer question
i just hope i passed
Just finished taking the NAPLEX about 2 hours ago. I, unlike some of the others who have posted, didn't think the exam was easy. I didn't necessarily think it was crazy hard either. The math wasn't all the hard, and there were some easy questions. There were also some questions that I didn't have a clue about. I couldn't even narrow down the choices and had to completely guess. There were probably about 10 of those. Then the majority made me think a little and there are a few that I already know that I missed.
Did I pass? I would be surprised if I didn't. One thing that I would suggest to everyone is that on the questions where you have to type in the answer to the calculation, make sure and triple/quadruple check your answer. One of my first questions was one of these and right after I clicked next I realized that I had miss calculated one part of the calculation and therefore my answer was off by 2. It wasn't even a hard question, which really didn't help me get started on the right foot.
Anyway, if I get my result and it is a high scaled score, maybe I'll feel like the test was easy, but until then, I would say it was just right.
I will be taking the MPJE tomorrow. Yeah!!
Did I pass? I would be surprised if I didn't. One thing that I would suggest to everyone is that on the questions where you have to type in the answer to the calculation, make sure and triple/quadruple check your answer. One of my first questions was one of these and right after I clicked next I realized that I had miss calculated one part of the calculation and therefore my answer was off by 2. It wasn't even a hard question, which really didn't help me get started on the right foot.
Anyway, if I get my result and it is a high scaled score, maybe I'll feel like the test was easy, but until then, I would say it was just right.
I will be taking the MPJE tomorrow. Yeah!!
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and got my license today...even though they said it wouldn't come til Thursday.....now that's pretty fast
Test Saturday....license Wednesday
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I'm so scare reading all of these responses about NAPBLEX. What if I don't pass? Any one took the CPJE???? What should I focus on for the exam. Please help. I'm panicking. You don't have to tell me the questions, just please tell me the weird subject that they ask? what am i gonna do? so scare.
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Some, but most of it was classic drugs. Remember, it's for minimal competency. I got a 123 studying for just a few weeks while already working full time and with 1 of those weeks being drugged out of my mind on oxy for a kidney stone.........you will be fine.
I could have gotten at least a 50 just knowing what I did as a tech. You are only going to fail if your school sucks OR you are bad at tests.
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For the math questions that you have to put the answer in the box, do you have to put units with it or are they just looking for the correct number? Also, I had a chance to take a look at the Kaplan Q-banks and I am freaking out because they seemed so difficult. I miss like half of them. Is NAPLEX anything like Kaplan Q-banks at all? If it is then I'm screwed.
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No units
I didn't do the Naplex online.....only the book....but did the ASHP question banks......and they were much harder then the naplex questions
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Thanks for all your tips..what did you mean by "strange calculations on trials I had never even seen. I was prepared for interpreting all of the data and some calculations but the ones on there were from left field"...so statistics questions, questions on the validity of clinical trials? Thanks
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Thanks for all your tips..what did you mean by "strange calculations on trials I had never even seen. I was prepared for interpreting all of the data and some calculations but the ones on there were from left field"...so statistics questions, questions on the validity of clinical trials? Thanks
I don't want to get too specific.....but every stat you have ever seen in a table in a trial....usually just thrown on there and you were taught how to interpret.....it was asking how to calculate some of those stats. Some stats I knew how to calculate....some I thought were calculated only by computer programs....guess not
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hai all
iam going to take naplex on june 30 and if any body can tell me where i could get the good preparation material for statistics (math)...............
thankyou
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How has the OTC content been? Approximately how many questions on average?
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Took that NAPLEX last month, and I don't really remember a significant number of questions on OTC... It seems as if everyone's NAPLEX experience is a little different, though.
For those of you who have taken the Naplex. Were there a lot of questions on dosing? I'm memorizing the top 200 brand/generic drugs, but I don't know how much I should focus on the dosing regimen for each drug. Thanks and good luck to everyone!
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Wow, thanks for all the input guys! I'm definitely not freaking out as much as I was prior to finding this thread
I've signed up for the July 2nd NAPLEX exam and have been studying the top 250 drugs (I found some notecards online if anybody is interested) and the APhA book.
I've signed up for the July 2nd NAPLEX exam and have been studying the top 250 drugs (I found some notecards online if anybody is interested) and the APhA book.
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I just took the NAPLEX this morning, and I thought overall it was fine. There weren't any crazy questions, just ones where I had at one point read over the knowledge, but couldn't recall easily on the test.
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How did you study for it? I'm using the APhA book but I've heard mixed reviews on this method...
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I used ProntoPass, and then I also had the APhA and Kaplan book, as well as the ASHP PharmPrep (as I had gone to Midyear Clinical Meeting, and if you went to their board review, they gave you a complementary subscription).
I think overall, the Kaplan book and ProntoPass were the most helpful. ProntoPass because it offered ways to help remember the material (pictures, rhymes, etc.).
I think overall, the Kaplan book and ProntoPass were the most helpful. ProntoPass because it offered ways to help remember the material (pictures, rhymes, etc.).
