2008 Grads want to hear from those who have taken the new NAPLEX

ShowMe2008 said:

I am graduating from rx school this may from a FL school but will be taking the exams in Missouri. Although I've never had any problems in school, I'm scared to death of failing the NAPLEX or the law exam. I guess that is typical of most students.

I have heard TONS of advice for the old exam but zilch.....nadda.....nothing for the new and "improved" one.

I also have a few other questions for those who have an answer:

Which study books did you find most helpful? Are there ones that you found to be not helpful what so ever? I don't even know where to begin with studying.

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I was really scared about failing too.. mostly because of the extra 3 months you'll have to spend studying and working as a tech while you wait to try again. I don't know much about the old NAPLEX vs. the new NAPLEX because I just took the new one. I studied for about 1 month for the NAPLEX and about a week for the MPJE. I scored way over the pass rate of 75 for the NAPLEX and got an 80 on the MPJE. I've heard people say though that they don't know anyone who scored over an 85 on the MPJE.

I studied Prontopass only for both. I heard the AphA book is good too, but very detail oriented. For law, just read the state statues and and I studied off of Prontopass for federal law as well.

I haven't taken the exam yet, but from what I've heard it's not all that different from the old exam. If you prepare appropriately just like you would have for the old exam, then you will do fine on the new exam. The subject matter can't change all that much because let's face it, it covers nearly everything.

crossurfingers said:

I studied Prontopass only for both. I heard the AphA book is good too, but very detail oriented. For law, just read the state statues and and I studied off of Prontopass for federal law as well.

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How exactly did you study with Prontopass? I have the cards too but I can't get over how much material is on each card. Did you just read them over and over?

ShowMe2008 said:

I am graduating from rx school this may from a FL school but will be taking the exams in Missouri. Although I've never had any problems in school, I'm scared to death of failing the NAPLEX or the law exam. I guess that is typical of most students.

I have heard TONS of advice for the old exam but zilch.....nadda.....nothing for the new and "improved" one.

I also have a few other questions for those who have an answer:

Which study books did you find most helpful? Are there ones that you found to be not helpful what so ever? I don't even know where to begin with studying.

Click to expand...

I took the new exam. I only used APHA book for a couple of months. You should know the top 300 generic/brand names. I had several questions on how to consult a patient on specific medications.

Took Naplex 2-04-08, found out from the Board two days later with 107 (average score?). Here is my background: BPharm almost 14 years ago, passed the tests before, never practice pharmacy, went into basic science got a PhD, no jobs, getting my license back.

From reading other people's comment in this and other forum, there should be no big difference between the old and new Naplex. I have some calculations but that is perfect for me, I'm good at that.

I used the older version APhA mainly but that has too much information. I assume you can use your class notes as a guidline to avoid studying too much. Of course you don't have to worry about those crazy equations in the kinetics chapter. I brought the Comprehensive Pharmacy Review practice CD, did half of their questions. I also used the Lange Q&A questions books, a very old edition (2000) in the library, did 80% of their questions. Now, there is a practice book named Pharmacy & Federal Drug Law Review: A Patient Profile Approach out there that not many people use, but with my background I found it very useful. If you use this book, you need to avoid those odd topics like infection from dog bites.

I hope this help a little. To pass, my feeling is that you need to know calculations very well (everyone understands this), top 200 trade/generic, know the blood pressure, diabetes, infection disease very very well. The rest try your best. Trust your school notes and go from there. Good luck. I need to study for the law exam.

vman77 said:

I hope this help a little. To pass, my feeling is that you need to know calculations very well (everyone understands this), top 200 trade/generic, know the blood pressure, diabetes, infection disease very very well. The rest try your best. Trust your school notes and go from there. Good luck. I need to study for the law exam.

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When you say you need to know infectious disease very well... how well is very well? If you know the DOC for the more common infections will that be ok? Also, was HIV a big focus on the exam?

I just took the naplex couple days ago and passed. I studied prontopass. you guys have to know brand/generic top 200 very well. also the dosage forms. study statistic too.

ontheair said:

. also the dosage forms. study statistic too.

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So, it really is important to study whether things come as a tablet or capsule or liquid etc? That really seems like something we should be looking up if unsure rather than memorizing.

How bad are the statistics? Just basic P-values and confidence intervals?

For stats, I had some questions involving relative/absolute risk ratios. Also, I remember one or two med chem questions. That kind of freaked me out since everyone always said med chem wasn't on the exam. I also had a set of probably 9 questions on HIV. I lucked out with hardly any cancer questions though. You should definitely study the coverage of all the different antibiotics and what they are drugs of choice for. The top 200 poster from Prontopass is very good to know too. It contains brand/generics, strengths, dosage forms and the main things to remember about each of them.

As for how to study with Prontopass, I didn't actually follow the way they recommend. I basically just read them 3 times total. You pick up more each time you go through them. I didn't even touch those disease state posters, although I'm sure it would have helped.

I took my NAPLEX on 2/19 and MPJE on 2/26 still no resukts yet.I call MN board and they told me they will mail my scores tomorrow.I bet did not pass.The exam is very different from the old NAPLEX i took my 1st one in 2003 and I practiced in FL .I just moved to MN and they don't reciprocate so I had to retake it.I have 5 yrs experience in retail phamracy but that did not help a lot.It helped in brand/generic,but most my question were out of my practice setting I got lot on biological drugs which we rarely dispense in retail.Also as someone mentioned you need to know your DOSAGE FORMs that was a killer for me coz all of them have the option for parenteral/injectable which if you don't have clinical/hospital experience you won't know the answer.
The NAPLEX needs good preparation on my part I only studied for 10 days and for someone who has been out of school for 6 yrs that is a not enough.I only used Kaplan coz it is concised and some of Appleton & Lange.I have APHA but did not use it,no time it is very detailed.I looked at notes from students who took it in summer of 2007 but none of that was on my NAPLEX I guess it has changed with the new provider.
good Luck

Anyone got a sample of any of the past exams?

I took it on 03/14 and my score is 133.I feel it is easy exam,comparing to the California law exam.
I got a lot of pt profile questions which are easy.A little bit calculation which are even easier.The most difficult part is equipment for me, which was informed by friend before the test.So I read a chapter from a NAPLEX review book.It is kinda helpful.
Don't be afraid.It is easy exam.If you can not nail it, you are not a eligible pharmacist.

I used APhA and passed the new naplex. I liked the book because it covered most of the things I saw on the exam. I did get a few 'trivia' type questions though that you would never know unless someone told you...

On the other hand, the mpje sucked. I studied the Reiss & Hall book, state laws and school notes, and consider myself to be a pretty good student in school. Yet I found myself randomly guessing many questions in the exam... Wasn't pretty waiting for the results either... So I have no advice on how to study for the mpje...

pharmkelly said:

I took it on 03/14 and my score is 133.I feel it is easy exam,comparing to the California law exam.
I got a lot of pt profile questions which are easy.A little bit calculation which are even easier.The most difficult part is equipment for me, which was informed by friend before the test.So I read a chapter from a NAPLEX review book.It is kinda helpful.
Don't be afraid.It is easy exam.If you can not nail it, you are not a eligible pharmacist.

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What do you mean by equipment? Just curious.

Do you have to memorize equaitions for the calculations portion of the naplex?

jpharmfarm said:

Do you have to memorize equaitions for the calculations portion of the naplex?

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You should know the relationships between dosing rate, clearance, volume of distribution, steady state concentration, elimination rate constant, and half-life.

You will not have to do any calculations involving ln or e because the calculator in the exam does not have these functions.

You should know the Henderson-Hasselbalch equation and how to calculate simple base-10 logs without a calculator.

You should know how to convert any sort of ratio, concentration, %, reconstitution, etc.

how about cockroft gault. mdrd, osmolarity etc?

I know I am way ahead of myself to be asking this question, but do they supply you with a calculator for the NAPLEX?

glowinglimabean said:

I know I am way ahead of myself to be asking this question, but do they supply you with a calculator for the NAPLEX?

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They give you a small calcuator. you should ask for it in advance to make sure.

I thought I had heard that they there was an on-screen calculator that you had to use. I hope it is in fact an actual calculator instead.

Also, is it true that we can't use actual paper and pencil and that we have to use a wipe-off board instead?