Hi all - I just wanted to make this thread to offer some reassurance to those who haven’t taken naplex yet and might be worried about not passing. I took the exam about a week ago, and found out that I passed with a 94 (not the highest score of course, but I’m happy with it).
I was the type of student that would study for a therapeutics exam in school, pass it with a low-to-moderate grade, and then forget a lot of the information right after the test. I tried to slow down on the cramming in my last year or two of classes and moderate my studying better, but still found myself not retaining much of the info for whatever reason.
So on rotations I basically had to re-learn most everything. Of course, some things came back pretty easily because I had already learned them once before. When it came time for naplex studying I even found myself forgetting a lot of the info that I had used daily on earlier rotations – even very basic pharm stuff that was embarrassing to not know after so many years of studying pharmacy.
I had read many threads on SDN and was excited to see so many people talk about how they thought they would fail but ended up passing, and how you really just need to know calculations and the rest you should know from pharm school. But like I said, I felt pretty certain that I had not retained as much info as the typical pharm student. I was also discouraged as I started finding multiple threads with multiple people saying they failed.
Anyways, I just wanted to give a little background info and mention that I was on the low end of my pharm class and I still passed with room to spare.
I used the RxPrep book for all of my studying, and there were multiple chapters that I didn’t even get a chance to glance over at all. I went over HTN, DM, dyslipidemia, and asthma a few times to try to get a decent handle on them, and I read through most other chapters once only, with some quick skimming review in the few days before the exam. For oncology, I only looked at the drugs that require supplementation with another drug (due to major toxicities etc). I didn’t even look over brand/generics for oncology or even read through the chapter because I didn’t manage my time well enough. I had studied HIV very early on, but forgot much of it around test time – I glanced over it before the test again to try to refresh myself and retain whatever I could.
I purchased the RxPrep quiz bank but only got around to doing 10 quizzes - I scored from 61-83% on all of them, barring one 93% on smoking cessation. I started late, and in the last 5 days before the test I figured it would be better for me to keep studying/reviewing from the book than to do practice questions on topics that I didn’t know very well.
I also went through the SDN 120 calc questions twice. This is one area where I did feel pretty confident. I always did pretty well in pharmaceutics class and with calculations in general. I think this is because calculations are something that once you figure out how to do them, it usually sticks. It’s not really memorization like most therapeutics stuff. I will admit that going through RxPrep’s calc chapter I felt pretty confident but ended up being surprised at how tough some of the questions on the SDN 120 calc questions list were. Many were simple, but some of the tough ones threw me. However, once I looked up and understood how to do them I realized they weren’t so bad. The second time around was much better, though I did get caught up on one or two questions but realized my errors after checking the answer.
I took pre-naplex twice. 12 days before the test I scored a 66. I took it again 4 days before and scored a 98. BUT, I looked up multiple things during the test lol. It started with some things that I felt “I would probably know this on the exam cause I do intend to review it again, so I’ll just look it up for now to get a more accurate score,” and just went from there. The 2nd pre-naplex was really tough for me, def tougher than the first, and I didn’t want to get a really low score and freak out a few days before the exam so I ended up looking up a few things. After receiving my score, which was higher than I expected, I wished I had not looked up anything to see what my actual score would have been. I would estimate maybe 70-80, though it’s impossible to tell. I felt that the questions on both pre-naplex exams were much tougher than those on my actual naplex.
My exam (everyone’s experience will of course vary):
The calculations that I got on the exam were much easier than the ones on SDN’s 120 calc list. I had time to double check them all, and honestly felt like I got them all correct. This was probably a huge part in helping me pass. Just like everybody else, I recommend you know your calculations – it will probably play a large part in your score.
I also felt like my non-calc questions were not all that hard. It is an adaptive test, so maybe I was getting easier questions if I got certain ones wrong, but either way I didn’t feel like I was bombarded with impossible stuff like I did on the 2nd pre-naplex. This was good, because it kept me in a good mood throughout the test (as opposed to feeling hopeless like I’ve heard others feel). There were many questions which I wasn’t sure of the answer to, but were not very tough questions, and I took educated guesses on.
After the test I was pretty happy, and actually felt like I passed (along with just being relieved to be finished). I know most people say they feel like they def did not pass and yet end up with a very good score, but this was not really the case for me. I think that my confidence with the math questions (of which I had a ton) helped me to feel good about how I did. There were multiple questions which I already knew I had missed, but I still felt like I would get a passing score because I knew that they grade the test somewhat leniently.
Also, as far as time – I had more than enough. I was trying to move somewhat quickly from the start, but about an hour in I realized I was doing well on time and made sure to slow down when necessary. I even took a 5 min unscheduled break about 20 min before my scheduled one to get some water and quickly eat a granola bar.
Sorry for the long post, but just wanted to let you guys know that you will probably be fine. Put in the effort to study of course, but there’s really no need to freak out about it. I certainly put in plenty of study time, but was not very quick with going through material so I didn’t get through everything I should have. I still passed though, so don’t worry too much.
Good luck!
I was the type of student that would study for a therapeutics exam in school, pass it with a low-to-moderate grade, and then forget a lot of the information right after the test. I tried to slow down on the cramming in my last year or two of classes and moderate my studying better, but still found myself not retaining much of the info for whatever reason.
So on rotations I basically had to re-learn most everything. Of course, some things came back pretty easily because I had already learned them once before. When it came time for naplex studying I even found myself forgetting a lot of the info that I had used daily on earlier rotations – even very basic pharm stuff that was embarrassing to not know after so many years of studying pharmacy.
I had read many threads on SDN and was excited to see so many people talk about how they thought they would fail but ended up passing, and how you really just need to know calculations and the rest you should know from pharm school. But like I said, I felt pretty certain that I had not retained as much info as the typical pharm student. I was also discouraged as I started finding multiple threads with multiple people saying they failed.
Anyways, I just wanted to give a little background info and mention that I was on the low end of my pharm class and I still passed with room to spare.
I used the RxPrep book for all of my studying, and there were multiple chapters that I didn’t even get a chance to glance over at all. I went over HTN, DM, dyslipidemia, and asthma a few times to try to get a decent handle on them, and I read through most other chapters once only, with some quick skimming review in the few days before the exam. For oncology, I only looked at the drugs that require supplementation with another drug (due to major toxicities etc). I didn’t even look over brand/generics for oncology or even read through the chapter because I didn’t manage my time well enough. I had studied HIV very early on, but forgot much of it around test time – I glanced over it before the test again to try to refresh myself and retain whatever I could.
I purchased the RxPrep quiz bank but only got around to doing 10 quizzes - I scored from 61-83% on all of them, barring one 93% on smoking cessation. I started late, and in the last 5 days before the test I figured it would be better for me to keep studying/reviewing from the book than to do practice questions on topics that I didn’t know very well.
I also went through the SDN 120 calc questions twice. This is one area where I did feel pretty confident. I always did pretty well in pharmaceutics class and with calculations in general. I think this is because calculations are something that once you figure out how to do them, it usually sticks. It’s not really memorization like most therapeutics stuff. I will admit that going through RxPrep’s calc chapter I felt pretty confident but ended up being surprised at how tough some of the questions on the SDN 120 calc questions list were. Many were simple, but some of the tough ones threw me. However, once I looked up and understood how to do them I realized they weren’t so bad. The second time around was much better, though I did get caught up on one or two questions but realized my errors after checking the answer.
I took pre-naplex twice. 12 days before the test I scored a 66. I took it again 4 days before and scored a 98. BUT, I looked up multiple things during the test lol. It started with some things that I felt “I would probably know this on the exam cause I do intend to review it again, so I’ll just look it up for now to get a more accurate score,” and just went from there. The 2nd pre-naplex was really tough for me, def tougher than the first, and I didn’t want to get a really low score and freak out a few days before the exam so I ended up looking up a few things. After receiving my score, which was higher than I expected, I wished I had not looked up anything to see what my actual score would have been. I would estimate maybe 70-80, though it’s impossible to tell. I felt that the questions on both pre-naplex exams were much tougher than those on my actual naplex.
My exam (everyone’s experience will of course vary):
The calculations that I got on the exam were much easier than the ones on SDN’s 120 calc list. I had time to double check them all, and honestly felt like I got them all correct. This was probably a huge part in helping me pass. Just like everybody else, I recommend you know your calculations – it will probably play a large part in your score.
I also felt like my non-calc questions were not all that hard. It is an adaptive test, so maybe I was getting easier questions if I got certain ones wrong, but either way I didn’t feel like I was bombarded with impossible stuff like I did on the 2nd pre-naplex. This was good, because it kept me in a good mood throughout the test (as opposed to feeling hopeless like I’ve heard others feel). There were many questions which I wasn’t sure of the answer to, but were not very tough questions, and I took educated guesses on.
After the test I was pretty happy, and actually felt like I passed (along with just being relieved to be finished). I know most people say they feel like they def did not pass and yet end up with a very good score, but this was not really the case for me. I think that my confidence with the math questions (of which I had a ton) helped me to feel good about how I did. There were multiple questions which I already knew I had missed, but I still felt like I would get a passing score because I knew that they grade the test somewhat leniently.
Also, as far as time – I had more than enough. I was trying to move somewhat quickly from the start, but about an hour in I realized I was doing well on time and made sure to slow down when necessary. I even took a 5 min unscheduled break about 20 min before my scheduled one to get some water and quickly eat a granola bar.
Sorry for the long post, but just wanted to let you guys know that you will probably be fine. Put in the effort to study of course, but there’s really no need to freak out about it. I certainly put in plenty of study time, but was not very quick with going through material so I didn’t get through everything I should have. I still passed though, so don’t worry too much.
Good luck!