March 2018 NAPLEX experience

[WithGod]

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Hi everyone,

I took my NAPLEX last week and just got an email that I passed with a score of 100 on my first attempt I've always turned to SDN throughout my pharmacy education, so I wanted to share my experience & tips for studying.

A little bit about myself: I graduated in May 2017, traveled internationally for 6 months, came back to the US in November & that's when I began studying for NAPLEX (~4 months) & MPJE (~5 days). My GPA was ~3.4 with mostly Bs and B+... no, I wasn't the brightest child in my class I was good at math so I felt pretty confident with calculations before I began studying. Biostats- I forgot everything from school so I basically had to relearn everything. Other clinical chapters- no foundation, forgot almost everything so I had to re-learn them also

Materials I used:

• 2017 RxPrep book & question banks that my school provided (no lectures)
• 2 sets of Pre-Naplex from NABP website

How I studied :

• First, PRAY. Guys, PRAY. Everyone who failed (those that I know) had major anxiety attacks before & during the exams. I even saw one of Rho Chi student fail naplex on her first attempt due to anxiety. Try to calm yourself. At the end of the day, you'll pass. Praying & relying on God definitely helped me to stay strong whenever I felt overwhelmed. Remember, "With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26
• Second, re-organize and categorize Rxprep chapters into disease states or organs. Here's how I divided:

1. CORE: Calculations, PK, Biostats, Compounding, Drug References, Immunizations,
2. ID: Infectious Diseases I-IV, Oncology, HIV, Cystic Fibrosis
3. Anticoag/CVD: Ischemic Heart Disease, Acute coronary syndrome, Chronic Heart Failure, Arrhythmia, Anticoagulations, etc
4. Ambulatory Care: Diabetes, HTN, Dyslipidemia, etc
5. Auto-Immune/Steroids: Thyroid, Steroid/autoimmune, Transplant, Gout, etc
6. Psych/Brain: Bipolar, Parkinsons, Alzheimers, ADHD, Depression, Sleep, etc
7. Kidney: Renal Diseases, Critical Care, Anemia, Sickle, etc
8. Lung: COPD, Asthma, Tobacco Cessation, etc
9. Others: Peds, Preg, Drug formulations, Osteoporosis, BPH, Labs, IV, Migraine, GI chapters (GERD, IBD, Constipation), sexual dysfunction, etc.

• Where to start:
  1. Study & master "CORE" category chapters from above first (Calculations, PK, Biostats, Compounding, Drug References, Immunizations). No matter what version of exam you'll get, these core chapters will be on your exam 100% like many other SDNers said. You need to know these chapters like back of your hand. I used 2017 version of Rxprep and I found Calculations, Immunizations, PK and biostats to be very helpful. However, Drug references & Compounding sections were not so good.
  2. After mastering CORE chapters, try to study 1 section per week. Of course, you won't remember everything when you study first. But just continue. Try to retain underlined/bolded informations from the book. For important chapters like ID & Anticoag, I read like 5-6 times to make sure I know the materials. Some chapters like liver/hepatitis, OAB, BPH, etc I only skimmed through them once.
  3. 4 weeks before naplex, I took Rxprep's 150Q pre-naplex and got 60%. About 2 weeks before the exam, I took NABP's Pre-naplex and got 73 1 week before, I took the second pre-naplex and got 78% ... honestly, I thought the actual Naplex was much doable than the prenaplex.
  4. 2-3 days before Naplex, I redid all Calculations & PK problems, re-read ID I-IV chapters, all CVD/anticoag chapters, psych/brain chapters, thyroid &steroid chapters. On the day of the exam, I briefly went over conversions & formulas again, grabbed coffee & a sandwich and got to Pearsonvue an hour before exam.
• During the exam
  1. I re-checked all math problems 2-3 times. I requested a hand-held calculator but ended up not using it. Practice using on-screen calculator.
  2. I kind of ran out of time when I had about 10 questions left, so I had to guess answers at the end😕 You don't want this to happen.. When you don't know an answer to a clinical question, just make a best educated guess and move on.
  3. Take both of your breaks! I got my first break 2 hours in to the exam, and the second one 4.5 hours into the exam.
  4. Be hydrated & eat good breakfast. Drink, eat and use bathroom during breaks.

I hope my tips will help. Again, pray and study hard. If I can pass, you can definitely pass. I'll be happy to answer any question you have🙂

 

[Highly favored]

Hi everyone,

I took my NAPLEX last week and just got an email that I passed with a score of 100 on my first attempt I've always turned to SDN throughout my pharmacy education, so I wanted to share my experience & tips for studying.

A little bit about myself: I graduated in May 2017, traveled internationally for 6 months, came back to the US in November & that's when I began studying for NAPLEX (~4 months) & MPJE (~5 days). My GPA was ~3.4 with mostly Bs and B+... no, I wasn't the brightest child in my class I was good at math so I felt pretty confident with calculations before I began studying. Biostats- I forgot everything from school so I basically had to relearn everything. Other clinical chapters- no foundation, forgot almost everything so I had to re-learn them also

Materials I used:

• 2017 RxPrep book & question banks that my school provided (no lectures).
  [*]2 sets of Pre-Naplex from NABP website.

How I studied :

• 
  
  
  • First, PRAY. Guys, PRAY. Everyone who failed (those that I know) had major anxiety attacks before & during the exams. I even saw one of Rho Chi student fail naplex on her first attempt due to anxiety. Try to calm yourself. At the end of the day, you'll pass. Praying & relying on God definitely helped me to stay strong whenever I felt overwhelmed. Remember, "With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26 .
    [*]Second, re-organize and categorize Rxprep chapters into disease states or organs. Here's how I divided:

1. CORE: Calculations, PK, Biostats, Compounding, Drug References, Immunizations,
2. ID: Infectious Diseases I-IV, Oncology, HIV, Cystic Fibrosis
3. Anticoag/CVD: Ischemic Heart Disease, Acute coronary syndrome, Chronic Heart Failure, Arrhythmia, Anticoagulations, etc
4. Ambulatory Care: Diabetes, HTN, Dyslipidemia, etc
5. Auto-Immune/Steroids: Thyroid, Steroid/autoimmune, Transplant, Gout, etc
6. Psych/Brain: Bipolar, Parkinsons, Alzheimers, ADHD, Depression, Sleep, etc
7. Kidney: Renal Diseases, Critical Care, Anemia, Sickle, etc
8. Lung: COPD, Asthma, Tobacco Cessation, etc
9. Others: Peds, Preg, Drug formulations, Osteoporosis, BPH, Labs, IV, Migraine, GI chapters (GERD, IBD, Constipation), sexual dysfunction, etc.

​

• 
  
  
  • Where to start:
    1. Study & master "CORE" category chapters from above first (Calculations, PK, Biostats, Compounding, Drug References, Immunizations). No matter what version of exam you'll get, these core chapters will be on your exam 100% like many other SDNers said. You need to know these chapters like back of your hand. I used 2017 version of Rxprep and I found Calculations, Immunizations, PK and biostats to be very helpful. However, Drug references & Compounding sections were not so good. .
       [*]After mastering CORE chapters, try to study 1 section per week. Of course, you won't remember everything when you study first. But just continue. Try to retain underlined/bolded informations from the book. For important chapters like ID & Anticoag, I read like 5-6 times to make sure I know the materials. Some chapters like liver/hepatitis, OAB, BPH, etc I only skimmed through them once. .
       [*]4 weeks before naplex, I took Rxprep's 150Q pre-naplex and got 60%. About 2 weeks before the exam, I took NABP's Pre-naplex and got 73 1 week before, I took the second pre-naplex and got 78% ... honestly, I thought the actual Naplex was much doable than the prenaplex. .
       [*]2-3 days before Naplex, I redid all Calculations & PK problems, re-read ID I-IV chapters, all CVD/anticoag chapters, psych/brain chapters, thyroid &steroid chapters. On the day of the exam, I briefly went over conversions & formulas again, grabbed coffee & a sandwich and got to Pearsonvue an hour before exam..
    
    [*]During the exam
    
    1. I re-checked all math problems 2-3 times. I requested a hand-held calculator but ended up not using it. Practice using on-screen calculator.
    2. I kind of ran out of time when I had about 10 questions left, so I had to guess answers at the end😕 You don't want this to happen.. When you don't know an answer to a clinical question, just make a best educated guess and move on.
    3. Take both of your breaks! I got my first break 2 hours in to the exam, and the second one 4.5 hours into the exam.
    4. Be hydrated & eat good breakfast. Drink, eat and use bathroom during breaks.

I hope my tips will help. Again, pray and study hard. If I can pass, you can definitely pass. I'll be happy to answer any question you have🙂

We thank God Almighty for your success! Gives me hope when I hear success results.. hehe. I know prayer is the key. I have been praying but I feel like am not doing enough studying so I keep panicking. I wanted to schedule my exam this month but am so scared. How was the math section? Is it short answers with no answer options provided? What about ID, DM, BIOSTATS question distribution?Please brief me if I should study the whole therapeutics chapters in the Rxprep book or should I focus more on core topics. Thank you.

 

[andli430]

We thank God Almighty for your success! Gives me hope when I hear success results.. hehe. I know prayer is the key. I have been praying but I feel like am not doing enough studying so I keep panicking. I wanted to schedule my exam this month but am so scared. How was the math section? Is it short answers with no answer options provided? What about ID, DM, BIOSTATS question distribution?Please brief me if I should study the whole therapeutics chapters in the Rxprep book or ......should I focus more on core topics. Thank you. .

Don't stress yourself, you've already made it this far. You just have to study to the best of your abilities to pass these exams!
As for your questions; math section is still multiple choice, there are no short answers on the exam. I can tell you with certainty though, you'd best know all the math stuff that rxprep provided with 100% certainty because those questions are freebies (as in the answers seem more definite since they are numeric) and more of a guarantee than other questions.
As for distribution of the other questions, I cannot assure you that they are evenly distributed as there is a test question bank and every test would probably be distributed differently. My best answer for you would be to read through every chapter in RXprep as many times as you can to try and get as much therapeutic material in your head as possible before your exam (maybe focus more on topics that you are less comfortable with). If you have question banks, definitely use them as well, because they can help you think through things in a certain way which may also help retain your therapeutic knowledge better. Any therapeutic topic is fair game.
For the core topics that was mentioned above, I agree that you should know those topics fairly well as I remember a good portion related like my rxprep book stated ~30% should be calculations related. If you can master the calculations you are almost halfway there to passing the NAPLEX! at least that's how I saw it.
I hope this information may be of some use to you!
PS. Took the NAPLEX in august of 2017, also graduated in may of 2017 (studied for ~1 month just reading and re-reading RXprep), passed with a score of 103

 

[pharmer747]

Thank you for providing an update!

I'm writing my NAPLEX next week and really worried about HIV and Oncology, any advice on the number and type of questions you saw on your exam?

Thanks 🙂 God bless

Hi everyone,

I took my NAPLEX last week and just got an email that I passed with a score of 100 on my first attempt I've always turned to SDN throughout my pharmacy education, so I wanted to share my experience & tips for studying.

A little bit about myself: I graduated in May 2017, traveled internationally for 6 months, came back to the US in November & that's when I began studying for NAPLEX (~4 months) & MPJE (~5 days). My GPA was ~3.4 with mostly Bs and B+... no, I wasn't the brightest child in my class I was good at math so I felt pretty confident with calculations before I began studying. Biostats- I forgot everything from school so I basically had to relearn everything. Other clinical chapters- no foundation, forgot almost everything so I had to re-learn them also

Materials I used:

• 2017 RxPrep book & question banks that my school provided (no lectures).
  [*]2 sets of Pre-Naplex from NABP website.

How I studied :

• 
  
  
  • First, PRAY. Guys, PRAY. Everyone who failed (those that I know) had major anxiety attacks before & during the exams. I even saw one of Rho Chi student fail naplex on her first attempt due to anxiety. Try to calm yourself. At the end of the day, you'll pass. Praying & relying on God definitely helped me to stay strong whenever I felt overwhelmed. Remember, "With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26 .
    [*]Second, re-organize and categorize Rxprep chapters into disease states or organs. Here's how I divided:

1. CORE: Calculations, PK, Biostats, Compounding, Drug References, Immunizations,
2. ID: Infectious Diseases I-IV, Oncology, HIV, Cystic Fibrosis
3. Anticoag/CVD: Ischemic Heart Disease, Acute coronary syndrome, Chronic Heart Failure, Arrhythmia, Anticoagulations, etc
4. Ambulatory Care: Diabetes, HTN, Dyslipidemia, etc
5. Auto-Immune/Steroids: Thyroid, Steroid/autoimmune, Transplant, Gout, etc
6. Psych/Brain: Bipolar, Parkinsons, Alzheimers, ADHD, Depression, Sleep, etc
7. Kidney: Renal Diseases, Critical Care, Anemia, Sickle, etc
8. Lung: COPD, Asthma, Tobacco Cessation, etc
9. Others: Peds, Preg, Drug formulations, Osteoporosis, BPH, Labs, IV, Migraine, GI chapters (GERD, IBD, Constipation), sexual dysfunction, etc.

​

• 
  
  
  • Where to start:
    1. Study & master "CORE" category chapters from above first (Calculations, PK, Biostats, Compounding, Drug References, Immunizations). No matter what version of exam you'll get, these core chapters will be on your exam 100% like many other SDNers said. You need to know these chapters like back of your hand. I used 2017 version of Rxprep and I found Calculations, Immunizations, PK and biostats to be very helpful. However, Drug references & Compounding sections were not so good. .
       [*]After mastering CORE chapters, try to study 1 section per week. Of course, you won't remember everything when you study first. But just continue. Try to retain underlined/bolded informations from the book. For important chapters like ID & Anticoag, I read like 5-6 times to make sure I know the materials. Some chapters like liver/hepatitis, OAB, BPH, etc I only skimmed through them once. .
       [*]4 weeks before naplex, I took Rxprep's 150Q pre-naplex and got 60%. About 2 weeks before the exam, I took NABP's Pre-naplex and got 73 1 week before, I took the second pre-naplex and got 78% ... honestly, I thought the actual Naplex was much doable than the prenaplex. .
       [*]2-3 days before Naplex, I redid all Calculations & PK problems, re-read ID I-IV chapters, all CVD/anticoag chapters, psych/brain chapters, thyroid &steroid chapters. On the day of the exam, I briefly went over conversions & formulas again, grabbed coffee & a sandwich and got to Pearsonvue an hour before exam..
    
    [*]During the exam
    
    1. I re-checked all math problems 2-3 times. I requested a hand-held calculator but ended up not using it. Practice using on-screen calculator.
    2. I kind of ran out of time when I had about 10 questions left, so I had to guess answers at the end😕 You don't want this to happen.. When you don't know an answer to a clinical question, just make a best educated guess and move on.
    3. Take both of your breaks! I got my first break 2 hours in to the exam, and the second one 4.5 hours into the exam.
    4. Be hydrated & eat good breakfast. Drink, eat and use bathroom during breaks.

I hope my tips will help. Again, pray and study hard. If I can pass, you can definitely pass. I'll be happy to answer any question you have🙂

 

[tennisplayer90]

Thank you for providing an update!

I'm writing my NAPLEX next week and really worried about HIV and Oncology, any advice on the number and type of questions you saw on your exam?

Thanks 🙂 God bless



.......

I took my naplex last month and I'd say every exam is different. I had barely any oncology and a decent amount of HIV but I wouldn't use that as a good indicator by any means. The best way is to focus on key clinical pearls/side effects for drugs in those two chapters. Also obviously with HIV know brand/generic.

 

[Ari22]

I just took the Naplex in May, and i failed it for a second time... Do you or anyone seeing this post know of tutoring services? Not finding much on google..

 

[Limbo2018]

I just took the Naplex in May, and i failed it for a second time... Do you or anyone seeing this post know of tutoring services? Not finding much on google..

I've tried looking for in-class naplex prep courses/tutoring and have been unsuccessful as well. The only thing I can tell you is that there is a boot camp in Ohio given by pronto pass. I don't know if it's any good tho? Good luck!!

 

[PharEL]

Hi everyone!

I took my NAPLEX on 6/18/2018 and just got the result on 6/25/2018 which was 112, which I’m really thankful to God for helping me.

A little bit about me: I got my PharmD in 2011, before moving to the States by the end of 2015, so I was a foreign grad... with a 3.51 GPA. I was terrified before the test since I read here that foreign grads would usually fail the 1st time😉...

As a general advice to all who are preparing just make sure to “understand” all the calculations/Biostatistics concepts from the Rxprep course book (Rxprep 2017 was the ONLY resource I had and was perfectly enough, I didn’t waste my time on any question bank, etc). I studied almost everyday for 2 months and 2 wks but it still can vary depending on your background at school and how much you remember🙂

Also, try to write some notes the first time you start reading the Rxprep and after finishing the whole book, review those notes as many times as you can, and do the questions at the end of each chapter (that was so helpful for the exam). I reviewed most of the chapters 2 times and I think I could have done better if I had reviewed all the chapters.

Take the pre-naplex since it gives you a great idea of how the actual NAPLEX would look like (I took it once and I think that was enough I didn’t take anything from other websites).
I hope this post helps a bit🙂

Wish you all best of luck!

 

[PharmDSCCP]

I just took the Naplex in May, and i failed it for a second time... Do you or anyone seeing this post know of tutoring services? Not finding much on google..

One of my professors (Dr. Scott Sutton) works for a company and he travels around the country giving NAPLEX review courses. They also have a website and I believe you can purchase an online video-based review. He’s hands down one of the best in his field (infectious disease) and given his background I’d trust him with my life when it comes to NAPLEX review. I can’t post the link but just google “RxExamCoach.”

He also has his own review book through McGraw Hill that’s becoming really popular. The nice thing about it is it comes with a huge test bank that shows the percentage of students who got each question right. His advice is if >50% of students got it right, it’s fair game for the NAPLEX and you should know it.

I would look into those two options if you want something bedsides RxPrep, which I’ve noticed is overkill (I don’t know how people make it through the entire book.. I haven’t and I take the test next week )...best of luck.