2021 NAPLEX Rates Coming Soon

[VA77]

Well it's that time of the year again. No, I'm not talking about the Superbowl, Golden Globes or that special gift for Valentine's Day but instead its time for the NABP to publish their annual pass score rates later this month.

140+ schools will have the Class of 2020 numbers released and its time to test your prognostication skills. Schools boast their student's achievements if they are near the top but the more important ranking is who is the best of the worst. I have listed who I think will be the top 5 based on 1st time pass rates and their respective "leadership". I hope you will play along with at least with your top 3.

1. Larkin (Dean Levin)
2. CSU (Dean Fete)
3. West Coast (Dean Hassell)
4. Hampton (Dean Iyer)
5. St. Joe (Dean Henkle)

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[Pronounce Doxazosin]

It’ll be interesting to see how COVID will affect the passing rates.

 

[projektreverb]

Bets on Chicago State being below 50%?

 

[samven582]

Well it's that time of the year again. No, I'm not talking about the Superbowl, Golden Globes or that special gift for Valentine's Day but instead its time for the NABP to publish their annual pass score rates later this month.

140+ schools will have the Class of 2020 numbers released and its time to test your prognostication skills. Schools boast their student's achievements if they are near the top but the more important ranking is who is the best of the worst. I have listed who I think will be the top 5 based on 1st time pass rates and their respective "leadership". I hope you will play along with at least with your top 3.

1. Larkin (Dean Levin)
2. CSU (Dean Fete)
3. West Coast (Dean Hassell)
4. Hampton (Dean Iyer)
5. St. Joe (Dean Henkle)

I bet Touro NYC isn't going to be that great either

 

[Gombrich12]

All I know is when I read about pharmacy students these days a lot of them sound like they should be on daytime tv shows. University of Health Sciences and Pharmacy in St. Louis (formerly known as STLCOP) just had a student get arrested for sexually assaulting a random jogger in a park and previous to that had another student stab a lawyer to death. There are no admission standards and as such you hear about a lot of students struggling.

 

[VA77]

Bets on Chicago State being below 50%?

I think you are going to have somebody under 50 and I think it's going to be Larkin but CSU is right there too and could see it.

 

[projektreverb]

I think you are going to have somebody under 50 and I think it's going to be Larkin but CSU is right there too and could see it.

Honestly it’s a toss up. Neither would shock me.

 

[BidingMyTime]

Oh! Great idea! So many great, er worst, contenders. I usually lose at these things, because I tend to ignore the statistics and go with my gut favorites. But I think all of the ones on my list will get an honorable mention, even if they don't win, er lose.

1) Chicago State (Dean Fete)
2) LECOM (Dean Ogden)
3) Chapman (Dean Jordan)
4) Palm Beach (Dean Lewis)
5) Touro (Dean Cohen)

 

[gwarm01]

Honestly it’s a toss up. Neither would shock me.

They are neck and neck each year, but I have faith that Larkin can pull off a big win.

 

[VA77]

I really want to create a trophy for this and have all the past "winners" etched on it. Just can't think of a design other than a mortar and pestle.

 

[gwarm01]

I really want to create a trophy for this and have all the past "winners" etched on it. Just can't think of a design other than a mortar and pestle.

Golden statue of Atlas burdened by a mortar filled with past due student loan bills.

 

[radio frequency]

I really want to create a trophy for this and have all the past "winners" etched on it. Just can't think of a design other than a mortar and pestle.

A broken mortar and pestle, cast in a cheap metal?

 

[TheBlaah]

A broken mortar and pestle, cast in a cheap metal?

How about a mortar with a big swirl of poo in it, with a pestle stuck into that?

 

[tlh908]

Oh! Great idea! So many great, er worst, contenders. I usually lose at these things, because I tend to ignore the statistics and go with my gut favorites. But I think all of the ones on my list will get an honorable mention, even if they don't win, er lose.

1) Chicago State (Dean Fete)
2) LECOM (Dean Ogden)
3) Chapman (Dean Jordan)
4) Palm Beach (Dean Lewis)
5) Touro (Dean Cohen)

Chicago I can see on this list but LECOM usually does pretty well. LECOM may not win popularity contest but their students are not in the bottom 5.

 

[BidingMyTime]

Chicago I can see on this list but LECOM usually does pretty well. LECOM may not win popularity contest but their students are not in the bottom 5.

Yeah, LECOM is a long shot. That is why I always lose these things, I go with my gut, instead of the stats. But sometimes, rarely, that pays off.

 

[297point1]

Schools now have the scores...look for those who did well to blast the information out, while those who didn't will remain suspiciously quiet.

ACPE usually releases their nationwide comparison chart at end of February.

 

[VA77]

Schools now have the scores...look for those who did well to blast the information out, while those who didn't will remain suspiciously quiet.

ACPE usually releases their nationwide comparison chart at end of February.

Samford has already released their score of 97.6%. They will probably double some other school's score.

 

[DrWrong]

Larkin will eat ****. I know a former tech who went there. I think they graduated in 2019 and still haven’t passed the NAPLEX

 

[jrenfroe]

I don't know why schools haven't realized they killed their golden goose yet. When I graduated it was the first time reality sank in. We asked them all the time why the acpe wasn't doing more to protect the profession by regulating the huge numbers graduating every year. We always got the same response... it's a restraint of free trade... we'd get sued. So??? was our next thought. Getting sued vs tens of thousands of pharmacists looking for work? LIke that's keeping you from doing the right thing? Case in point howard university sued because acpe shut them down just a few months ago. Judge threw it out. Antitrust laws haven't worked since the robber barrons. It was just an excuse all along. They were too busy counting the moolah.

 

[Pharmgrlnxdor]

Soooo.....in the past you either passed or failed the NAPLEX and MPJE but of course you got percentile information. Are they saying that now you will only find out if you passed or failed not by how much? Weird change and for what reason? NAPLEX and MPJE Exam Results Announcement - National Association of Boards of Pharmacy

 

[VA77]

Very surprised they haven't released the numbers. Must be foreshadowing.

 

[297point1]

Very surprised they haven't released the numbers. Must be foreshadowing.

They are indeed late this year.

 

[projektreverb]

I’m trying not to read too much into the delay until I see the results.

 

[ValeRx]

Soooo.....in the past you either passed or failed the NAPLEX and MPJE but of course you got percentile information. Are they saying that now you will only find out if you passed or failed not by how much? Weird change and for what reason? NAPLEX and MPJE Exam Results Announcement - National Association of Boards of Pharmacy

Does your score really matter other than if its at least 75?

 

[297point1]

Does your score really matter other than if its at least 75?

To the graduate? It shouldn't - a 75 is just as good as a 120.

To the school? Not really; we are happy with every student who passes, and won't worry too much if it is a pass with a 75 or pass with a 120, so long as it is a pass.

However, schools have used the student score reports on the NAPLEX to tie student performance on the NAPLEX to everything that led to that point: GPA, PCOA scores, mock NAPLEX scores, NAPLEX prep session attendance, and progression exam scores (for schools that use them). The NAPLEX scores were used to correlate student performance with everything that came before the NAPLEX. A few years worth of data, and the school can start to develop profiles of who might be at risk for failing the NAPLEX and intervene accordingly. Now that the NAPLEX scores are gone, all of the good correlation work they've done in the past starts to grow old and unreliable; schools will be scrambling to have something else to try to connect the dots back to when a student fails the NAPLEX. For what it's worth: the schools HATE this change.

 

[Pharmgrlnxdor]

I guess if you pass no one cares but if you fail I imagine you would want to know just how bad you did? Having not had that issue I am just assuming what I would think if I got a fail on one of those exams. Do I need to study 10% more or 70% more?

 

[footfairy]

I guess if you pass no one cares but if you fail I imagine you would want to know just how bad you did? Having not had that issue I am just assuming what I would think if I got a fail on one of those exams. Do I need to study 10% more or 70% more?

If you fail a minimum competency exam you should err on the side of study 100% more so that you arent a danger to society.

 

[Xenophylia]

Pretty funny we've come to look forward to pass rates being released so we can make fun of them. Kind of like standing by the tracks waiting to watch the trains wreck.

 

[VA77]

Apparently they are having a "formatting" issue with the website and marketing 🙄

 

[projektreverb]

Apparently they are having a "formatting" issue with the website and marketing 🙄

More like a formatting issue with the results being terrible 😂

 

[VA77]

More like a formatting issue with the results being terrible 😂

Yeah I'm thinking these numbers are going to be very suspect no matter what they are.

 

[Sunshine98*]

These days even if a school has a failing rate, future employer is only looking for a way to get rid of long term pharmacists who cost too much for the company to hire new grads in at lower wages anyway.

 

[VA77]

And the winner(loser) is........
Hampton 55
CSU. 56.82
Larkin 57.38
New England 58.21
U of Charleston 64.44

Man it was close among the top spots. Dean Iyer (Hampton) pulled it out by saying fu to ACPE and still admitting students without a shred of accreditation. This school really is the Gordon Gekko of pharmacy academia. Next stop in his career is the c suite in Rhode Island.

CSU always a perennial loser but Larkin was SO close. Dean Fete and Levin should still get together and have a celebratory toast.

UofCharleston. Wow I knew this place was getting bad from some former faculty but Damn. Dean Weston will be boarding the Titanic this summer to get some more lifeboats off the ship but time will tell how much longer the program has as far as financial solvency.

Now, Dean Levin, go ahead and let those students graduate early and give them their ATT. You are so close to first and just that extra little effort will make it.

NAPLEX Passing Rates

Yearly passing rates are available for each of the United States schools and colleges of pharmacy. The data includes all candidates who reported graduating from one of the ACPE-accredited schools/colleges of pharmacy and took the exam within the same year.

https://nabp.pharmacy/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/NAPLEX-Pass-Rates-2020.pdf

 

[WVUPharm2007]

And the winner(loser) is........
Hampton 55
CSU. 56.82
Larkin 57.38
New England 58.21
U of Charleston 64.44

Man it was close among the top spots. Dean Iyer (Hampton) pulled it out by saying fu to ACPE and still admitting students without a shred of accreditation. This school really is the Gordon Gekko of pharmacy academia. Next stop in his career is the c suite in Rhode Island.

CSU always a perennial loser but Larkin was SO close. Dean Fete and Levin should still get together and have a celebratory toast.

UofCharleston. Wow I knew this place was getting bad from some former faculty but Damn. Dean Weston will be boarding the Titanic this summer to get some more lifeboats off the ship but time will tell how much longer the program has as far as financial solvency.

Now, Dean Levin, go ahead and let those students graduate early and give them their ATT. You are so close to first and just that extra little effort will make it.

There a link to the whole list?

 

[VA77]

There a link to the whole list?

In there now.

 

[Pronounce Doxazosin]

I’ll give credit where credit is due; UCSD and UCSF continues to be the best pharmacy schools

 

[projektreverb]

And the winner(loser) is........
Hampton 55
CSU. 56.82
Larkin 57.38
New England 58.21
U of Charleston 64.44

Man it was close among the top spots. Dean Iyer (Hampton) pulled it out by saying fu to ACPE and still admitting students without a shred of accreditation. This school really is the Gordon Gekko of pharmacy academia. Next stop in his career is the c suite in Rhode Island.

CSU always a perennial loser but Larkin was SO close. Dean Fete and Levin should still get together and have a celebratory toast.

UofCharleston. Wow I knew this place was getting bad from some former faculty but Damn. Dean Weston will be boarding the Titanic this summer to get some more lifeboats off the ship but time will tell how much longer the program has as far as financial solvency.

Now, Dean Levin, go ahead and let those students graduate early and give them their ATT. You are so close to first and just that extra little effort will make it.

NAPLEX Passing Rates

Yearly passing rates are available for each of the United States schools and colleges of pharmacy. The data includes all candidates who reported graduating from one of the ACPE-accredited schools/colleges of pharmacy and took the exam within the same year.

https://nabp.pharmacy/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/NAPLEX-Pass-Rates-2020.pdf

Ahhh the usual suspects...

 

[gwarm01]

Imagine going into six figure debt to be educated by a school with a 56% licensure rate for new grads.

 

[SomeDude123]

Imagine going into six figure debt to be educated by a school with a 56% licensure rate for new grads.

It's not so bad. My field has ~5% completion rate for people who passed the first exam. 1.8% for people who attempted the first exam. 56% is pretty decent.

 

[WVUPharm2007]

How in the holy hell does almost half of an entire pharmacy class fail to pass that easy exam? I literally only studied for like a week and got somewhere around a 120 or so. And I was probably the worst student there. I hated school. And professors. And tests. And everything about academia.

 

[297point1]

Ahhh the usual suspects...

Actually not entirely - University of New England has gone from 86% two years ago to 68% last year and then 58% this year, with the graduating student number dropping each year (97 to 83 to 67). That's a steep decline.

Husson is doing no better (90% to 69% over same period).

It appears there are one too many schools in Maine [perhaps two too many].

 

[VA77]

How in the holy hell does almost half of an entire pharmacy class fail to pass that easy exam? I literally only studied for like a week and got somewhere around a 120 or so. And I was probably the worst student there. I hated school. And professors. And tests. And everything about academia.

Wouldn't that be a great question to ask AACP and ACPE? Oh wait, it rhetorical right cause it's all about the money.

 

[iamapharmacist]

My school, Texas Tech, just made PCAT option... wtf?. Expect their passing rate to drop to 50% in about 4 years... it's already dropping to below 90%...

 

[gwarm01]

It's not so bad. My field has ~5% completion rate for people who passed the first exam. 1.8% for people who attempted the first exam. 56% is pretty decent.

56% might be good for whatever your field is, but it is abysmal for pharmacy. Notice that all of the established schools are pushing 90%+ rates. Pharmacy is simple enough that a qualified person going to a reputable school should have no problem getting licensed. Rates like 56% mean the school is completely failing to teach to an adequate standard, and is most likely accepting students who do not have the aptitude.

 

[WVUPharm2007]

56% might be good for whatever your field is, but it is abysmal for pharmacy. Notice that all of the established schools are pushing 90%+ rates. Pharmacy is simple enough that a qualified person going to a reputable school should have no problem getting licensed. Rates like 56% mean the school is completely failing to teach to an adequate standard, and is most likely accepting students who do not have the aptitude.

The NAPLEX (at least back in the aughts when I took it) didn't even ask difficult therapeutic questions. They wanted to know what color 5mg Warfarin was and stupid **** like that.

 

[VA77]

Honestly it tells you what the questions to pass the test are like. I mean if they were even as good as the NAPLEX then the students would be passing. The schools must be getting their questions from a 10th grade Biology book.

 

[KARM12]

Dang, I was really hoping we would get someone under 50% passing this year. It would round out 2020 nicely.

 

[KARM12]

Also how are some of these schools surviving with such small class sizes? I would imagine a college of pharmacy is expensive to run if you aren't raking in tuition dollars.

 

[297point1]

Also how are some of these schools surviving with such small class sizes? I would imagine a college of pharmacy is expensive to run if you aren't raking in tuition dollars.

It is expensive. You are right.

The difference: the public schools get state subsidies (tax dollars) to help keep the lights on; the privates don't. And the state dollars aren't as plentiful as they used to be. Will a public program shut down? Unlikely. But satellite schools of some public programs are getting closed.

 

[VA77]

Various things can keep a school afloat. Rich benefactors, subsidizing one program with another, lowering tuition. Any of these plus other more creative ideas but the magic number seems to be 35 for schools that have to do it all on their own. No school is going to throw good money after bad because after all it is a business. Pay attention to the faculty, they are the canary in the coal mines and you can see them doing a mass exodus before anyone else.