Naplex June 2016 Experience

[MShopes]

Hello everyone, hope everyone is doing well.

I will try to keep this short but not guaranteed haha. I took my Naplex June 6, 2016 and just got my score today and scored a 91. It may not be the highest of scores but more than enough for the amount of studying I did.

I studied for about 6 days in total, with studying of about 5 main topics plus math and biostatistics.

Materials used: Rxprep textbook (only studied 5 main chapters plus math and biostatistics) plus online questions. I did half the 120 SDN math questions but thought it's overkill for someone like me who is strong in math even.

I only studied for 6 days simply because I was tired of studying and thought to take a risk. I'm a very risk taker kind of person. I don't recommend anyone to do that though.

Materials to focus on (Disclaimer: Everyone's exam is different so my material of focus may not represent your exam in any way. This only refers to my exam)

1) I got asked about 25 questions in math, about 8 in biostatistics.

2) About 10 questions in HIV. Thank god I decided to make this one of the main chapters to study and I got lucky to be asked that many on it. If you can't study it, know main toxicities, side effects of drugs, AND BRAND NAMES BRAND NAMES BRAND NAMES of combo and stand-alone drugs).
3) About 6 questions on DM, 2 on thyroid, 3 on hypertension, 3 on skin disorders, 4 in coagulation, 3 in depression, only 2-3 in ID and oncology (yes I'm so lucky). Some compounding questions (Sterile and non sterile) and some herbal/OTC questions.

Piece of advice. READ THE QUESTION BEFORE READING THE PROFILE!!! most questions can be answered without even needing the patient profile or case. They tend to give you big cases to confuse you and waste your time. Most of the time you barely even need them. Read the question first to know exactly what to look out for.

ALLERGIES ALLERGIES ALLERGIES. most profiles have patients with allergies. That helps you eliminate choices easily. Always look at allergies first thing.

The exam was really all over the place. The best advice I can give you is like everyone else, know your math. If you don't know math like your name, don't even think about going in the exam. Period.

I don't know why everyone had a hard time with time. I left the exam with 1 hours and 20 minutes to spare. It's not because I knew my stuff. It's because with Naplex, you either know the answer or you don't...I also didn't have all my math toward the end. It was more like scattered all over the exam.

I hope I didn't leave anything out but ask me any questions!!!

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[MShopes]

Oh my pre naplex scores were 85 and 90 in a row. So real naplex reflects it pretty well.

 

[EyeTeeFarmer]

I took it today and for one or two of the math multiple choice questions, my rounding came out different by a value of about 2 (518 vs 520 for the answer choice they provided).

I manipulate all the numbers to be able to leave all the digits in the calculator without rounding early, and then I round at the end according to how they want it.

My concern is if there is some systematic difference in my rounding vs. their answer. Did you ever come across this?

 

[MShopes]

Yeah no that's fine...a lot of times my answer won't be exactly like their choice but usually their choices are so far from each other that your answer would be close to only one of them so it makes sense to choose it. I did come across this as I'm like you, I don't round early! No worries.

 

[MIZRx]

I would have to say my experience was almost identical (took it last Thursday). I got a 105 studied about two weeks (only 2 days of legit 6-8hr studying). I was a solid student in school (graduated with honors). I thought the test made very little sense and would only suggest studying biostats and the math. I know someone I graduated with from my undergrad also received a 106 (she was valedictorian from her pharm school). Everyone says the test is easy, but I actually thought it was far from it. It had very random topics that don't really test any strength of skills.

And no mine did not get harder as I went as it does according to some. It was about the same the entire time, so the adaptability of the test is crap and hardness is relative. I may be unique because I have 5 years of broad (small and top 10 size) hospital experience and thought all those topics to be easy, my friends in retail found them to be hard and vice versa.

 

[EyeTeeFarmer]

Yeah no that's fine...a lot of times my answer won't be exactly like their choice but usually their choices are so far from each other that your answer would be close to only one of them so it makes sense to choose it. I did come across this as I'm like you, I don't round early! No worries.

Agreed for the multiple choice answer, bc those are so obviously different. But the fill-in-the-number ones... Each of my answers could be off a percent or two.

And yeah, the test was pretty random. I had many cases where I needed to evaluate laboratory parameters, see which one was out of range, think about contributing factors in terms of PMH, SH, or drug therapy and then select all that apply... After about 20 of those, your brain tends to go a little wonky.

 

[Mikep10509]

I would have to say my experience was almost identical (took it last Thursday). I got a 105 studied about two weeks (only 2 days of legit 6-8hr studying). I was a solid student in school (graduated with honors). I thought the test made very little sense and would only suggest studying biostats and the math. I know someone I graduated with from my undergrad also received a 106 (she was valedictorian from her pharm school). Everyone says the test is easy, but I actually thought it was far from it. It had very random topics that don't really test any strength of skills.

And no mine did not get harder as I went as it does according to some. It was about the same the entire time, so the adaptability of the test is crap and hardness is relative. I may be unique because I have 5 years of broad (small and top 10 size) hospital experience and thought all those topics to be easy, my friends in retail found them to be hard and vice versa.

Did you take the Pre-Naplex?

 

[MIZRx]

Yeah. However, I'd take it with a grain of salt. I mean, my god, it had a drug on it that was taken off the market 5 years ago. Also, there were no point and click. If anything, it just shows you how patient profiles are integrated in the testing window.

 

[pharmacydreamz]

hi mshopes,

It was really encouraging to read your report about the NAPLEX . I am a foreign pharmacy graduate and attended the passnaplexnow course and am studying from their course material. do you recommend me studying the question bank from RXPREP? I have prepared for math from rx prep text book but this edition is 2012.

Also in stats, do they ask direct questions or will it be interpreting a case. Like, I am ok with RRR NNT etc and definitions. but if they ask me if the data was clinically significant or statistically etc then i am not good with it.

please advise .i am planning to take the exam end of july.

 

[Ccjmatt]

Hi,

Took the exam may 30 but still waiting for the result. I was surprised that you guys got the result pretty fast. Waiting for the result is killing me... Just curious if anyone took the exam at the same date or closer to mine??? I know that california took a little bit longer in releasing scores..

 

[sd0809]

Hello everyone, hope everyone is doing well.

I will try to keep this short but not guaranteed haha. I took my Naplex June 6, 2016 and just got my score today and scored a 91. It may not be the highest of scores but more than enough for the amount of studying I did.

I studied for about 6 days in total, with studying of about 5 main topics plus math and biostatistics.

Materials used: Rxprep textbook (only studied 5 main chapters plus math and biostatistics) plus online questions. I did half the 120 SDN math questions but thought it's overkill for someone like me who is strong in math even.

I only studied for 6 days simply because I was tired of studying and thought to take a risk. I'm a very risk taker kind of person. I don't recommend anyone to do that though.

Materials to focus on (Disclaimer: Everyone's exam is different so my material of focus may not represent your exam in any way. This only refers to my exam)

1) I got asked about 25 questions in math, about 8 in biostatistics.

2) About 10 questions in HIV. Thank god I decided to make this one of the main chapters to study and I got lucky to be asked that many on it. If you can't study it, know main toxicities, side effects of drugs, AND BRAND NAMES BRAND NAMES BRAND NAMES of combo and stand-alone drugs).
3) About 6 questions on DM, 2 on thyroid, 3 on hypertension, 3 on skin disorders, 4 in coagulation, 3 in depression, only 2-3 in ID and oncology (yes I'm so lucky). Some compounding questions (Sterile and non sterile) and some herbal/OTC questions.

Piece of advice. READ THE QUESTION BEFORE READING THE PROFILE!!! most questions can be answered without even needing the patient profile or case. They tend to give you big cases to confuse you and waste your time. Most of the time you barely even need them. Read the question first to know exactly what to look out for.

ALLERGIES ALLERGIES ALLERGIES. most profiles have patients with allergies. That helps you eliminate choices easily. Always look at allergies first thing.

The exam was really all over the place. The best advice I can give you is like everyone else, know your math. If you don't know math like your name, don't even think about going in the exam. Period.

I don't know why everyone had a hard time with time. I left the exam with 1 hours and 20 minutes to spare. It's not because I knew my stuff. It's because with Naplex, you either know the answer or you don't...I also didn't have all my math toward the end. It was more like scattered all over the exam.

I hope I didn't leave anything out but ask me any questions!!!

Hi! What main topics did you decide to focus on while studying besides HIV?

 

[kerykos]

Hello everyone, hope everyone is doing well.

I will try to keep this short but not guaranteed haha. I took my Naplex June 6, 2016 and just got my score today and scored a 91. It may not be the highest of scores but more than enough for the amount of studying I did.

I studied for about 6 days in total, with studying of about 5 main topics plus math and biostatistics.

Materials used: Rxprep textbook (only studied 5 main chapters plus math and biostatistics) plus online questions. I did half the 120 SDN math questions but thought it's overkill for someone like me who is strong in math even.

I only studied for 6 days simply because I was tired of studying and thought to take a risk. I'm a very risk taker kind of person. I don't recommend anyone to do that though.

Materials to focus on (Disclaimer: Everyone's exam is different so my material of focus may not represent your exam in any way. This only refers to my exam)

1) I got asked about 25 questions in math, about 8 in biostatistics.

2) About 10 questions in HIV. Thank god I decided to make this one of the main chapters to study and I got lucky to be asked that many on it. If you can't study it, know main toxicities, side effects of drugs, AND BRAND NAMES BRAND NAMES BRAND NAMES of combo and stand-alone drugs).
3) About 6 questions on DM, 2 on thyroid, 3 on hypertension, 3 on skin disorders, 4 in coagulation, 3 in depression, only 2-3 in ID and oncology (yes I'm so lucky). Some compounding questions (Sterile and non sterile) and some herbal/OTC questions.

Piece of advice. READ THE QUESTION BEFORE READING THE PROFILE!!! most questions can be answered without even needing the patient profile or case. They tend to give you big cases to confuse you and waste your time. Most of the time you barely even need them. Read the question first to know exactly what to look out for.

ALLERGIES ALLERGIES ALLERGIES. most profiles have patients with allergies. That helps you eliminate choices easily. Always look at allergies first thing.

The exam was really all over the place. The best advice I can give you is like everyone else, know your math. If you don't know math like your name, don't even think about going in the exam. Period.

I don't know why everyone had a hard time with time. I left the exam with 1 hours and 20 minutes to spare. It's not because I knew my stuff. It's because with Naplex, you either know the answer or you don't...I also didn't have all my math toward the end. It was more like scattered all over the exam.

I hope I didn't leave anything out but ask me any questions!!!

 

[kerykos]

Congrats. Did you get any biostats charts for interpretation other than the common questions about NNT, ARR? Thanks

 

[ChristinaMarie26]

Hi all! Just took the NAPLEX last week, found out I passed yesterday. I had lots of HIV/OnC (lots of BSA calc) /Biostats (including using charts for interpretation) /ID and then just a lot of random information. It is do-able but I felt as though I failed when I left the exam. Good luck to everyone!

 

[ChristinaMarie26]

Oh! If anyone has RxPrep, the new Biostatistic video they put up really helped me solve about 5 questions on the exam so I would take a look at that

 

[meyabyte]

I had a truckload of flow rate and mEq questions; I didn't get all of my math and biostats in one hit but in clumps all throughout the exam. If you did well in school the NAPLEX is totally do-able. Remember, it is a BASIC competency exam. You have to mentally prepare yourself, eat well, exercise, and get enough rest, and of course, have fun.

 

[babybull]

can confirm. separate from the math portion itself, biostats was a huge portion of the exam, but i now wonder whether or not many of them were simply experimental questions.

 

[amariee4u]

hi mshopes,

It was really encouraging to read your report about the NAPLEX . I am a foreign pharmacy graduate and attended the passnaplexnow course and am studying from their course material. do you recommend me studying the question bank from RXPREP? I have prepared for math from rx prep text book but this edition is 2012.

Also in stats, do they ask direct questions or will it be interpreting a case. Like, I am ok with RRR NNT etc and definitions. but if they ask me if the data was clinically significant or statistically etc then i am not good with it.

please advise .i am planning to take the exam end of july.

Hi,
I am a foreign student converting too, have you taken the naplex yet?

 

[pharmacydreamz]

Hi,
I am a foreign student converting too, have you taken the naplex yet?

yes i did take my Naplex and passed. I referred Passnaplexnow course material alone. I would recommend you to take pre naplex before naplex. it is really very helpful.

 

[mouse2562]

I don't recommend the Pre-NAPLEX. It was so incredibly NOT indicative of the difficulty of the actual NAPLEX that it isn't even funny. I took the Pre-NAPLEX 1.5-2 weeks before the NAPLEX and before I'd brushed up on my math. I took it kind of lazily just to get a feel of the setup, while getting up & snacking, with interruptions from my wife, etc., and I still finished in less than half the time allotted and scored 100. That, combined with so many people saying the NAPLEX is easy, got me to let my guard down too much.
The NAPLEX was ***MUCH*** harder than the Pre-NAPLEX. Much, much harder. The one and only thing I was sure of after the NAPLEX was the math. I also barely finished, which has never happened to me on a test before (I'm usually on the first 5%-10% of students done), and the Pre-NAPLEX gave me no reason to think time would be an issue on the NAPLEX either.

The only useful thing about the Pre-NAPLEX was finding out the calculator on the NAPLEX is so much better than the one on RxPrep. Now you know that, and you don't have to waste your money. Congrats.

 

[amariee4u]

I don't recommend the Pre-NAPLEX. It was so incredibly NOT indicative of the difficulty of the actual NAPLEX that it isn't even funny. I took the Pre-NAPLEX 1.5-2 weeks before the NAPLEX and before I'd brushed up on my math. I took it kind of lazily just to get a feel of the setup, while getting up & snacking, with interruptions from my wife, etc., and I still finished in less than half the time allotted and scored 100. That, combined with so many people saying the NAPLEX is easy, got me to let my guard down too much.
The NAPLEX was ***MUCH*** harder than the Pre-NAPLEX. Much, much harder. The one and only thing I was sure of after the NAPLEX was the math. I also barely finished, which has never happened to me on a test before (I'm usually on the first 5%-10% of students done), and the Pre-NAPLEX gave me no reason to think time would be an issue on the NAPLEX either.

The only useful thing about the Pre-NAPLEX was finding out the calculator on the NAPLEX is so much better than the one on RxPrep. Now you know that, and you don't have to waste your money. Congrats.

Did you pass your naplex though?

 

[mouse2562]

Did you pass your naplex though?

I did, which was honestly surprising. I even had a decent enough margin above passing.
At this point, the whole thing just reminds me of the undergrad proffs who give tests they know no one can actually pass, so they end up giving 30-40 point curves so they don't get in trouble from administration. This isn't to test your knowledge on basic concepts, and it isn't to make sure you'll be a halfway decent practitioner. It all just feels like a racket.

 

[oct1rx]

Any suggestions for studying immunizations and drug structures? Can't seem to memorize the immunizations, so many details; and do you think the structures
were important on the NAPLEX?

Thanks!

 

[KoreanPharmacist]

Any suggestions for studying immunizations and drug structures? Can't seem to memorize the immunizations, so many details; and do you think the structures
were important on the NAPLEX?

Thanks!

I know its pricey but i suggest getting rxprep online lectures. Relevent info condensed so that its easier to study. I screen cap some of their slides and its really helpful in studying. Ive gone thru immunization and ID so far this way. Much more efficient.

 

[oct1rx]

I know its pricey but i suggest getting rxprep online lectures. Relevent info condensed so that its easier to study. I screen cap some of their slides and its really helpful in studying. Ive gone thru immunization and ID so far this way. Much more efficient.

Thank you for your reply - Just too expensive right now. I'm stuck on a math problem out of the 120 - see the answer, but just can't quite puzzle out the math. Don't
have problems with the rest of it.

The question is: you've got 90%w/w concentrated acetic acid. It has a S.G. of 1.11. You want to make up 60ml of 5% acetic acid soln. What volume of
the 90%w/w would you use?

Would appreciate help with setting this up corectly. I know for the 60ml I need 3g of the conc.

Thanks!

 

[Cookie922]

Thank you for your reply - Just too expensive right now. I'm stuck on a math problem out of the 120 - see the answer, but just can't quite puzzle out the math. Don't
have problems with the rest of it.

The question is: you've got 90%w/w concentrated acetic acid. It has a S.G. of 1.11. You want to make up 60ml of 5% acetic acid soln. What volume of
the 90%w/w would you use?

Would appreciate help with setting this up corectly. I know for the 60ml I need 3g of the conc.

Thanks!

The 120 SDN questions came with answers also... These are the steps I did:

1. I worked backward: the question asked "what volume is needed to obtain enough acetic acid to prepare 60mL of aa sol'n 5%"
so 5 g/ 100mL = x g/ 60 mL= 3 grams needed. That's what you got.

2. then I went back to the beginning: 90% wt/wt concentration and SG 1.11 -----> (%wt/wt (x) SG)= % wt/ vol
%= gram/100mL

so, 90% x 1.11 = 99.9%~ 100%---> therefore, 100 g / 100mL= 1g / mL

3. then use that to find the mL needed for the 3 grams in the 5%
1 g / mL = 3g/ (x)mL---> 3mL

I hope this helped. I had to do the 120 extra ques twice. It's much harder than the rxprep problems

 

[oct1rx]

Thanks! Do you know if NAPLEX has logarithms on it, other than the general idea of the H-H formula? I have the impression it doesn't...but if
the calculator on the exam is like the Windows calculator - also read that - then it could, right? It's got a log function.