2016 High Board Exam Failure Rate

[confettiflyer]

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How do you spend 4 years practicing in California and fail the state's law exam?

It's not a law exam. It's a clinical exam with like a peppering of law. The prevailing advice to students is to study for NAPLEX and CPJE concurrently and spend a few days cramming for the law/regulations part just before CPJE.


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[TheBlaah]

I was fortunate enough to take the cpje after practicing in other states for 2 years.

CA kids don't know how good they have it. Any MPJE is harder than the NAPLEX - 75-100 questions of pure law! I'm the first to admit that I never scored higher than an 81 on the 3 MPJEs I had to take. My CPJE only had maybe 10 law questions. Scored >90 on it.

I agree. While I haven't taken the CPJE, the two MPJEs I've taken were much much harder than the NAPLEX. I remember seeing a couple of questions about veterinarian prescribing laws and mouthing to myself "What the fudge".

 

[Pharmd = Phake Doctor]

Is this a sign of the Board exams getting harder or more subpar students are getting accepted?

It's the latter. My class had an Intro Pharmacy Law class last year and the average grade for the midterm exam was 85%. The current P1 class took the same exam and scored 70% average. My law professor was shocked and told me that someone actually scored a 22% on the exam.

I can't wait to see how low it goes next year. Pharmacy applications have really shrunk, and now they're letting in illiterate trash.

 

[BidingMyTime]

Also, they are cutting the wait times between taking tests if you fail from 91 days to 45 days. Why do that if it was actually getting harder or more difficult to study for? So, you will be able to pay the registration fee (now higher cost) sooner to retake the exam sooner.

Still, there is a lifetime maximum number of times one can attempt the test.....so whether one spreads out their tests, or retakes them as soon as they can, there is a maximum amount of money for the testing center to make.

that to say, i hate it when old folks (cheaters) are claiming new pharmacists are failures, can't pass naplex, GPA below 3.0, etc. when they themselves had to cheat when the naplex questions were a lot easier.

There are plenty of older old folks (ancient?) here who took the NABPLEX (before it changed to the NAPLEX), who didn't cheat, and reputable schools had at least 95%+ passing rates. And by what standards to you think the Naplex is much harder now, then it was a few years ago (and I supposed you think both those tests were much harder than the ancient NABPLEX) I don't think any of these incantations of the test are "harder", just a different subject focus, which will only seem "harder" if ones school didn't appropriately cover that subject focus.

Although I agree with others here, it is one thing to lean something from a book, but it's the hand-on aspect that really makes it gel in the brain. In that regard, people who go into the test with little real world work experience are at a disadvantage.

 

[ithink]

Offical naplex pass rate scores released:

 

[Amicable Angora]

Offical naplex pass rate scores released:

I can only describe the scores as UGLY.

 

[Pharmibippy]

If 40% of your school is failing a minimal competency exam, you should probably close your ****ty program. Embarrassing

 

[WVUPharm2007]

Under 60%
Florida A&M
Hampton
Under 70%
Husson
Marshall
Mass. COP-W

 

[gwarm01]

Yikes. This is our future, folks.

 

[Gombrich12]

I converted the PDF to a spreadsheet so it's easier to compare years. I thought the changes to the NAPLEX were going to be instituted in 2017? Mass COP-Worchester dropped from nearly 90% to 64.39%. I find it hard to believe the aptitude between classes changed that much in one year.

 

[Niosh]

Yeah, but, Lebanese American University.

 

[Chriskahn]

I wonder if it has anything to do with the new pharmacogenomics material. My class was the first class to have genomics as a course when I was a P1. The P2s that never took it are P4s now that will be taking the NAPLEX after they graduate in a couple months. They never had genomics so its going to be something they have to learn on their own. Same with infectious diseases. Its an elective (the hardest one so everyone avoided it) so a lot of students never took it. The current P4s are in a weird spot since a lot of the coursework are getting revamped so they missed out on things P1-P3s are exposed to currently.

 

[Claydoe]

I wonder if it has anything to do with the new pharmacogenomics material. My class was the first class to have genomics as a course when I was a P1. The P2s that never took it are P4s now that will be taking the NAPLEX after they graduate in a couple months. They never had genomics so its going to be something they have to learn on their own. Same with infectious diseases. Its an elective (the hardest one so everyone avoided it) so a lot of students never took it. The current P4s are in a weird spot since a lot of the coursework are getting revamped so they missed out on things P1-P3s are exposed to currently.

Are you saying antibiotics flat out aren't taught unless you sign up? My naplex in July had very little genomics if any at all. It was however very infectious disease and biostat heavy

 

[Chriskahn]

Are you saying antibiotics flat out aren't taught unless you sign up? My naplex in July had very little genomics if any at all. It was however very infectious disease and biostat heavy

Antibiotics are taught in pharmacotherapy but not as detailed as in infectious diseases. I think it spanned over 2 exams and that was it versus the elective thats a semester long

 

[radio frequency]

Yeah, but, Lebanese American University.

Yes. All one to two of their students who took the NAPLEX each year for the past three years passed on the first try. Not exactly representative...