NAPLEX 2025 Score Increases

[clarkbar]

Advertisement - Members don't see this ad

Looks like scores increased across the board, even with relatively stable graduation numbers. I looked at test changes. It appears they discounted math, which was difficult for this generation.
Also, I heard they score MPJE based on the cohort you test with that day. Is this also the case for NAPLEX?

 

[CetiAlphaFive]

Wait, by math do you mean the calculations section????

 

[projektreverb]

The MPJE has been based on your cohorts for a while now no? I feel like it was that way in 2018 when I took mine.

 

[clarkbar]

Wait, by math do you mean the calculations section????

yeah, apparently they reduced calculations. that has to be it. my students struggled the most
The Bar did something similar, as pass rates have been trending downward for the last 14 years.
It's very tragic; academia cannibalizing itself for deanships.
Academic ability was touted as the sole function of meritocracy for working/middle-class people in our society. Now, even undergrad grades, I think the average is an A. When I was in organic chemistry, out of a class of 350, there were maybe 30 As and -As. (I was an A-.)
Does this mean ACPE will never shut down a school for bad scores?

 

[clarkbar]

The MPJE has been based on your cohorts for a while now no? I feel like it was that way in 2018 when I took mine.

Yeah, but it wasn't in my day. I recently took a MPJE. Barely did any studying and passed. I notice they don't give a score anymore.
The problem is, if your cohort is weak, an average student passes, and vice versa.
I noticed they also got rid of reactive test questions, where the NAPLEX keeps asking the same types of questions for that section if you get the lower challenge question wrong.
People at my old school are jumping for joy, says a colleague.

 

[projektreverb]

Yeah, but it wasn't in my day. I recently took a MPJE. Barely did any studying and passed. I notice they don't give a score anymore.
The problem is, if your cohort is weak, an average student passes, and vice versa.
I noticed they also got rid of reactive test questions, where the NAPLEX keeps asking the same types of questions for that section if you get the lower challenge question wrong.
People at my old school are jumping for joy, says a colleague.

Oh wow they're definitely lowering the bar....

 

[croquemonsieur]

yeah, apparently they reduced calculations. that has to be it. my students struggled the most, particularly a distinct subsection.

???

 

[clarkbar]

???

In a bid to boost flagging student NAPLEX pass rates, the NABP people lowered the amount of math, particularly calculations. This resulted in a 8 point boost across the country.
This is serious, because it reduces pressure on ACPE to enforce its subjective, flexible accreditation standards that schools must graduate practice ready students.

 

[croquemonsieur]

@clarkbar This is new information to me so thanks for the update. Grim stuff. Fully agree that it's a sad state of affairs. The observation I was hoping you would elaborate on is the "distinct subsection" of students who are particularly bad at calculations but if you don't want to that's fine.

Here's an excerpt from an article I recently read, corroborating Gen Z's lack of mathematical ability:

"A recent UC San Diego report finds that 1 in 8 incoming freshmen do not meet middle school math standards.

From 2020-25, the number of UCSD students who were performing below middle school level increased by thirtyfold. The university remedial math class that covered gaps in high school knowledge grew from about 50 students in 2020 to nearly 500 students by fall of 2023.

According to the report, the university recently decided to redesign this remedial math class to cover middle school and elementary school math after finding that their students’ knowledge gaps went further back than just a high school level.

The report attributed the shift to remote learning from the COVID-19 pandemic as a major factor contributing to the sharp decline in freshman math preparedness."

 

[clarkbar]

They were blaming COVID at the time as well, but the fact of the matter is college students have really fallen off of a cliff since 2015 or so. The decline before then was a function of larger cohorts of less academically fit students being admitted to a ballooning academic industry.
I don't know where it ends. Obviously, pharmacy has seen the greatest decrease in academic ability with its students of any program I am aware of.

 

[Gombrich12]

I don't know where it ends.

It ends with a college degree being completely worthless unless it's from one of the top 30 schools. If all the students are using AI to complete their work and the professors use AI to grade the work, what is the point? As for pharmacy I can't see kids who grew up with AI thinking that sitting in front of computer for 8 hours a day as a pharmacist is a job that is going to exist for long. Good riddance to all the pharmacy schools that are going to close.

 

[Xenophylia]

Why require math aptitude anyway? In most places, the register tells you what change to give...

 

[lord999]

Yes, they did, and I actually voted in favor of it. We removed mEq/mOsm calculations (can you remember the last time anyone calculated those from elemental sources rather than from a bag?). Advanced kinetics was taken off the exam (as much as I find nonlinear phenytoin entertaining from an intellectual perspective, it has no place in the exam). The percentage decrease was because it was integrated elsewhere.

I still think the exam questions are as easy or easier during the dork age when I first took NAPLEX (2004). Taking the exam annually since 2016 as part of the calibration group, I can safely say that a nonpracticing pharmacist can easily pass the current version, which was not true in my era. I really wished we based our exam on the Canadian PEBC as I would consider that the real baseline for serious practice. I thought that exam was more comprehensive and harder than the Board Certified Nuclear Practice one where the generality of the questions as well as the gut check that you know what you know forced you to pay attention in your clerkships.

Sample PEBC questions, all reasonable, but definitely are a test of basic competency:

https://pebc.ca/wp-content/uploads/pdfs/Sample%20Question%20PDFs/Pharmacist%20Qual%20Exam%20Sample%20Questions%20-%20EN.pdf

Questions 4 and 29 are emblematic of where you had to be there in a pharmacy to know how to answer it, rather than just memorize in class.

The PEBC was based on the old NABPLEX, which was significantly harder than the NAPLEX of my era and then of today. The pre-1998 generation had it much harder.