Finally passed NAPLEX and MPJE on the second attempt! Thanks and advice

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CourtneySheldon

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The past few months have been incredibly difficult after finding out I failed both the MPJE and NAPLEX on my first attempt, especially since I failed by pretty small margins (74 on MPJE, 68 on NAPLEX). It was really hard to push through and I felt incredibly discouraged, but I want to give a genuinely heartfelt thanks to everyone on this forum. Coming here and reading everyone's experiences and advice were usually the only things that kept me from feeling completely hopeless, so thank you to all the incredible people here!

I wanted to share my own experience and what I felt helped me pass, since I was so grateful to everyone who shared their experiences on here. I'll break it down by test:

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MPJE:

Unfortunately this one is tricky. It's going to vary by your state (I took it in Georgia), and I also just don't think the test is very well made. I failed it the first time with a 74 (which was a miserable experience) and passed with a 79 after a month and a half of studying. Everyone I talked to had a similar barely passing score. I don't think Pharmacy Law lends itself well to a multiple choice format, and also the test questions themselves just aren't well-written. So don't get discouraged if you find it difficult, it's an absurd test.

That said, my method to study was just to straight up read through my state's laws and take notes on them. If you live in Georgia, the Secretary of State's "Rules" website (http://rules.sos.ga.gov/gac/480) was immensely helpful and easy to read. I really couldn't find any other sources that people said were good, but I feel like as long as you read the actual laws you can't go wrong. That's what they're testing you on, after all.

Kind of a random tidbit, but KNOW CLEAN ROOM REQUIREMENTS (e.g. hood has to be ISO Class 5, Clean room has to be ISO 7, ante area has to be ISO 8, garbing procedure, etc). I remember getting these questions and thinking, what the hell, I didn't know we had to know this. So just throwing that out there.

Other than that, know the requirements of a prescription and prescription label, know controlled substance law like the back of your hand, know about different types of pharmacy licenses (e.g. manufacturer, wholesaler, etc) and what requires you to get one or the other, know compounding law, know what functions each person in a pharmacy (pharmacist/tech/intern) is allowed to do and not do, know the minimum physical requirements of a pharmacy (e.g. how much space is needed, how big the drive through window needs to be and how many lanes you can have and how far at most they can be from the window, what materials you legally need at minimum like mortar & pestles/counting trays/spatulas/etc, what reference materials you must have in the pharmacy, and so on), and basically any aspect of pharmacy that's law-related. I wish I could really let you know exactly what to study but they really can ask you anything, but as long as you read through the laws you WILL be able to pass.

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NAPLEX:

This test is changing on November 1st, with more questions and it's also no longer going to be adaptive (i.e. it'll be a fixed test instead of one that gives you easier/harder questions based on your performance). However, what I feel like will still apply is the fact that you should:

1) LEARN CALCULATIONS/BIOSTATS REALLY WELL! The calc/biostats questions are worth a lot of points and are fairly straightforward once you know them, so that will get you a bunch of quick and easy points. I highly recommend using the SDN 120 calculation packet. It's much harder than what you'll see on the NAPLEX so if you can do those problems you can definitely do the NAPLEX calculations. I only reviewed calculations once before my first attempt and encountered many questions I didn't know how to answer, which I'm sure really hurt my score. Definitely learn these topics well!

2) GO THROUGH ALL THE MATERIAL! This sounds simple but given how much material there is to review, it can actually be difficult as you may feel you don't have enough time. I used the RxPrep 2016 book the first time and made the mistake of just focusing on the chapters I thought were hardest/most important, thinking I could just rely on my knowledge from pharmacy school for the rest of the topics.

However the NAPLEX is so all over the place that you should expose yourself to as many different topics as you can so that you at least have SOME idea of what the right answers are, or at the very least what the wrong answers are so you can eliminate them and increase your chances of getting a question right.

What helped me IMMENSELY was getting the RxPrep Test Bank for my second attempt. I highly recommend getting it. It's a great way to let you know if your knowledge in a topic is sufficient. I had a lot of time to study on my second attempt thanks to the 90-day wait period (which thankfully is being reduced to 45 days with the new NAPLEX), but if you don't have as much time then the Test Bank is a great way to gauge what topics you need to focus more on. I was scoring around 60-70% on most of the test bank quizzes and I feel that like that's sufficient to answer most questions on the NAPLEX. This may or may not change with the new NAPLEX (I'm thinking it won't but you never know), but hopefully this helps anyone taking it before November 1st.

However, even if you can't cover the whole book don't feel too bad. Even with my 90 days of study time I was still unable to go through the whole book (mostly due to feeling burned out). But I did go through a lot of it and scored an 81. It's not as high as I wanted, and I'm sure I could've scored higher if I at least looked at all the topics since I had a lot of questions from topics I didn't look at (and no/few questions from some topics I studied a lot, like HIV and Oncology), but it's a passing score and that's all that matters.

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I wish everyone here the best of luck. Just remember not to get discouraged. You have a pharmacy degree, you're definitely capable of handling the exams as daunting as they may seem. And again I want to thank everyone who offered their experience and advice to help me pass. Pharmacy feels like a cruel world sometimes, people unfortunately aren't really that nice to each other in our profession which is a terrible thing. I'd read so many responses on other sites from people saying things along the lines of "You'd have to be dumb to fail the NAPLEX"/"It's so easy"/etc. But studentdoctor was consistently positive and encouraging, and that's something we need in our profession.

Thanks again everyone and if you have any questions just post them and I'll answer!

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congrats on passing!!! when you studied for the Naplex, did you focus alot on dosing? or primarily just the bolded and underlying things?
Also, I know you got your license in GA, how did you prepare for the wet lab?
Thanks in advance and congrats again!
 
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