Post Naplex thoughts and tips

[Ritalin]

Just got out of the exam and although I don't post a lot I have been a regular reader and I am giving back.

First off, KNOW YOUR MATH. I can't stress that enough. If I fail this exam it will be because of the math. I received an A in calculations in pharmacy school, completed all the questions in RXprep, Kaplan, APHA and the 120 question on here and thought I was ready. I wasn't. I STILL thought it was insanely difficult. I can't tell you specifics because I know this will get flagged and deleted, but KNOW HOW to do multiple step equations, it will suit your best interests. Many are fill in the blank and I honestly was not able to answer most of them. I didn't get that many math questions like 15ish, so I am hoping that doesnt mean I just failed because everyone else that posted on here got so much more math questions.

I agree with everyone if you are low on time RXprep is the way to go, if you have extra time supplement with self study with notes, quizlet.com, etc. Doing any practice problems from resources you can get, apha, kaplan, etc will help you.

The one thing I found interesting is that I specialized in another field before going to pharmacy school, so I can answer some very complicated questions in that area. Sure enough, I ended up getting 25 questions in that area. I am wondering if part of this computerized exam recognizes what you are doing well in and asks you a ton of questions in regards to that? I have friends that have had a focus on so many different disease states and I could never figure it out how the test was operated, if it was just random or not. I know it is just a hypothesis but I do think there is something to it. The areas that I know I was the weakest I only received a couple questions and the areas I knew I tended to get more. Maybe it is a conincidence, I don't want to give people false hope.

Overall I dont think the level of difficult of the exam was unlike anything I had seen in prior therapuetics courses. In fact, I would say that many of the prior 'peutics tests were much harder but on less volume of info. At my school we would routinely get 50% K=type questions, the naplex was no where like that, in many situations it was straight recall, either you know it or you dont.

Know the general trends, know the more important drugs, that is why I think rxprep does do a good job. There was a couple disease states I had never heard of before but once I got it wrong, it did not ask me any other questions in that area.

Lastly... this is more of a statement but prepare well and you should have very little anxiety that you should pass. I dont find it a coincidence that almost everyone that ever posts on here does pass and the overall pass ratios are around 90+% If I indeed dont pass, it will be just because I wasn't prepared enough for the type of math that I saw. I would be confident to pass it next time now that I know what they asked.

My details since I know someone will ask.

Undergrad 3.8
Pharm School 3.3
Time spent studying: One month, daily 6+ hours a day (I had several weaker rotations so I didn't think I was as prepared as some of my classmates)
Prenaplex 102 (I should say that the first time I tried it I had tech difficulties and it timed out after like 45 minutes and gave me a score of 78, it was reset and I took it again and got a 102 but I did not change any answers. I should also note that that it was around question 36 that it timed out and I still had a passing score on the prenaplex despite not even finishing the last 12 questions so it eased my anxiety, you can still get a bunch wrong and pass)


anyway, best of luck and Ill let you know if I passed.

Mark

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[sosoo]

yea, i also took my exam yesterday. i had a lot of math dispersed from beginning to end. i did the 120 calcs around here and answered most of them correctly without looking up the ans, but still the math on the naplex was rough. i also worked through Lange Q&A math problems (not the compounding or pharmaceutics). so i thought i was good enough. but now im "hoping" i got more than half the math right.

 

[xanax1]

Hi

What about stat? And do u seen any vaccination and
OTC and herbals. And any tips on compounding side.

Thanx

Sam

 

[Ritalin]

again cant give specifics to any of the exam questions but yes do know your stats, there was some poster in another thread that posted a PPT explaining ARR/RR/RR/NNT, that sort of stuff would be helpful. If you are using RXprep they talked about stats but didnt talk about anaylzing but the rest of the stuff in the book was good.

For your other questions, look at the blueprint and it will help you identify what to focus on, but in a nut shell, if it something a pharmacist could do, immunize, counsel on an OTC/herbal, compound, etc, it is fair game. Remember guys that this exam tests for minimum competency. They are NOT trying to trick you, the questions are straight forward and if you studied for it and paid attention during pharmacy school, you will know it. If you dont know some of the MOA of some of the drugs or some of the CYP enzymes by now for some of the most important drugs for interactions then you yes you aren't ready to take the exam, but thats also why almost everyone passes it. I'd be shocked if I failed because I know I did well enough on the other part of the exam besides the calculations and it is IMPORTANT to remember that even with the calculations, it falls under 33% of the exam, but other parts of that blue print also include identifying brand and generic. Interestingly towards the end of the exam, I received about 3 or 4 of those in a row, who knows, maybe its because I was sucking on that math so bad they gave me a chance to get some points elsewhere, haha. I am confident that most of the people reading this will be fine... you know why? Because people that dont give two cents are not generally doing to be spending a whole bunch of their time posting on an internet forumn, they wont care, wont study, wont prepare, and not do as well. I have know a couple people that have not passed and it is NOT because they didn't know it, it was nerves that killed them and both did not finish the exam on time. You get penalized a great deal if you don't answer all the questions and one of my friends was told directly that if she had just guessed and answered the last 4 or 5 questions wrong rather then run out of time, she would have passed. She scored around a 74, the next time she scored 100, so keep that in mind.

 

[Ritalin]

I found out I passed with a 115! So my advice is study rxprep and you will be golden! Know how to do the math but even with me struggling with a bunch of it, I passed with a really good score. So just take it, you guys will be ready.

 

[poda521]

Congrats Ritalin!

I'm using the RxPrep book and it's a godsend. Bought apha book too, my god was that a mistake, such a headache. When studying rxprep, I haven't really studied all the CYPs and which drugs are 3a4, which are 2c19...etc. I've just been using the PSPORCS and GPACMAN as the standard rule of thumb, definitely a bad idea right?

I'm not too good on the math as of yet, hopefully the naplex math questions are almost identical to what its like on the test packet. Because if so, the allegations, mmols, mEqs, and mosms weren't bad. Considering I sucked at math in school, I'm glad the packet explained the answers and basically taught me the math. Knowing my luck, they'll always be 2 answers on the math questions, the right answer and then my answer that just so happens to another choice.

 

[aangthony]

Just wanted to say THANK YOU for this thread! I'm a P4 and even though I have about 6 months to study for the NAPLEX in 2012... my nerves are absolutely killing me and it means a lot to read what all of you guys have dealt with.

 

[Tom Applewood]

Wait, how in the world are there fill in the blank test questions? I thought they were all multiple choice?

 

[Pharmacopia]

Wait, how in the world are there fill in the blank test questions? I thought they were all multiple choice?

Half of the math questions will be fill in the blank. It will tell you to round to whole number or to within one decimal pt. I think it was half of the questions for me.... its been a few months

to the other People who ask how to pass Naplex:
1. Either read RxPrep carefully, or read it a few times. Questions are random, its like playing pharmacy trivia night. You can't possible know what they will ask you, so the best way to prepare is to be comfortable with as many subjects as you can. Do you have to be an expert on them? No.

2. Know how to do math, and practice as many as you can until you are COMFORTABLE.

3. review statistics, 2011 edition of Rxprep was lousy, they might change it for 2012.