Stressing about NAPLEX...

[kfinnegan]

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My exam is Friday.. I took the Pre-Naplex this morning and it made me nervous rather than more confident about the exam. I wish it told you which questions you got right/wrong and perhaps that the patient profiles were easier to view; it was really annoying to have to zoom in and pull the screen around. I'm hoping the actual exam isn't like that. From what I've heard/read here, calculations are very important and I think I will be fine for those, but if I get therapeutics questions similar to a lot of the ones asked on Pre-Naplex, I feel that I will not do so well! There were a bunch of oncology and OTC/herbal questions, compounding, sterile preparations (aka everything I didn't focus on).

Has anyone had the experience that the actual NAPLEX encompasses some questions from these topics and more questions from broader topics (hypertension, diabetes, CHF, pain management, etc.)?

Also, has anyone found that taking the Pre-Naplex twice was helpful vs. just the one time? I'm debating taking it again tomorrow in hopes that I do better and can go into the actual exam a little more confident, but I'm just not sure if it's worth blowing another $50.

Wish me luck...

 

[DrWrong]

My questions came from all over the place. I had barely any questions from the topics you listed.

 

[DrWrong]

Just make sure to know your math. There are four types of questions

Math that you must get right
Questions you'll know right off hand (MOA, side effects)
Questions you can try to make an educated guess on (lifestyle modifications)
Questions about topics/drugs you've probably never even seen (endometriosis, Zoladex, zollinger-Ellington syndrome)

Just try your best. The best case scenario is that you walk out of test feeling like you completely failed the exam. If that's the case you probably passed it.

If you come out feeling like the exam was easy you may want to worry.

I walked out of the exam knowing I missed a lot of questions and feeling like I failed. I got a 135.

 

[all4rx]

NAPLEX is super random. You can read my post earlier about what I actually encountered in my test. I ended up taking Pre-Naplex twice just to calm myself too....You will see DM, HTN, HLD, ID, etc. the more familiar topics on NAPLEX, but you'll also see rare diseases, not-so-familiar syndromes, even questions about diagnosing, lab interpretation, and staging disease state. As you answer the questions rights, the computer will select more difficult questions to test you....eventually, you will feel like you're guessing for the most part of the exam, but it's ok...if you come out feeling like you have just failed, you're likely to pass 😉

 

[Avelox]

My exam is Friday.. I took the Pre-Naplex this morning and it made me nervous rather than more confident about the exam. I wish it told you which questions you got right/wrong and perhaps that the patient profiles were easier to view; it was really annoying to have to zoom in and pull the screen around. I'm hoping the actual exam isn't like that. From what I've heard/read here, calculations are very important and I think I will be fine for those, but if I get therapeutics questions similar to a lot of the ones asked on Pre-Naplex, I feel that I will not do so well! There were a bunch of oncology and OTC/herbal questions, compounding, sterile preparations (aka everything I didn't focus on).

Has anyone had the experience that the actual NAPLEX encompasses some questions from these topics and more questions from broader topics (hypertension, diabetes, CHF, pain management, etc.)?

Also, has anyone found that taking the Pre-Naplex twice was helpful vs. just the one time? I'm debating taking it again tomorrow in hopes that I do better and can go into the actual exam a little more confident, but I'm just not sure if it's worth blowing another $50.

Wish me luck...

I took it twice just cause I'm paranoid and there are 2 versions and scored 9 points better the second time. I know others who took it twice and got relatively same scores too .. so not sure if it really helps. Most ppl generally say though if you are passing pre-naplex you will be fine for the real thing as its easier/more calc based

 

[Torkey]

The naplex is really a joke. I scored 79 on the practice exam and over 100 on the actual. The real one gives you more of a chance to showcase your math and earn decent points doing it. Someone on the forums said "if you fail the naplex you shouldnt be a pharmacist" and after experiencing the exam and seeing how much i was unsure of and how much i didnt know, i still went through most of the exam saying "yeah this is something I should definitely know to practice responsibly". There were a lot of obscure questions but you dont really HAVE to know them to pass. If you know the important things to practice pharmacy safely, you will do fine.

 

[kfinnegan]

Thanks for all the advice. I'm just gonna have to go in accepting that I'm gonna see some really random stuff, but I think I'll be okay. 8 AM tomorrow morning! I'm going to have a hard time going to bed early tonight.

 

[DesiRX]

Thanks for all the advice. I'm just gonna have to go in accepting that I'm gonna see some really random stuff, but I think I'll be okay. 8 AM tomorrow morning! I'm going to have a hard time going to bed early tonight.

best of luck. eat well. sleep well. do well. 🙂

 

[TIMSHEL]

So I took the Pre-Naplex a month ago before I started studying and scored a 120. I took it today and got a 99. I take the test in six days and this really freaked me out. How can I do so much worse after studying for the last month? Yikes.

 

[Avelox]

The tests are just so random and only 50 questions. I wouldn't worry about it..

 

[jp9801]

If you are sure about the 50 questions.That would be enough to pass the Naplex.Because I was just sure about 40 questions and I passed it with 115🙂

 

[jp9801]

If you know the math and get most of them correct ,your score would probably be around 105+.If you are not that much into math but you get the easy ones correct ,still you would pass with 80+.

 

[shahj3]

If you don't mind me asking, how did you calculate that jp9801? I took the test last week. I was doing fine with the math, until I got to the last 15 questions or so. I saw that I only had about 13 minutes left, so I was rushing through on the last 3 math questions and probably the last 10 therapeutic questions. I couldn't even get an answer that was one of the choices. I had many difficult questions, especially on TB and dosage forms. Do you think that would hurt my score? Please if you could help me, I would really appreciate it! I won't find out my score until end of July, until I take my MPJE...ahh I can't stand waiting this long!!!

 

[jp9801]

I studied with my best friend ,we were in the same level in the most parts( clinical judgement, brand generic,MOA,...) so the only differences between me and her was the math portions,as far as simple math she was doing them OK but whenever we had to solve much harder problem ,she couldn't get the correct result ,She claimed that she got at least 8 math questions wrong and I believed her because I knew her ability.She got 85 in her test.

 

[msm70]

Hi, I've been reading the posts here for long time but it's the first time posting anything.
I am a foreign pharmacy graduate and have not practiced for a long time so it took me a real effort to pass the fpgee. I took the MPJE for IN state and passed but the Naplex was a shock to me. I took it 10 days ago but I got a score of 67. The questions were mainly drug interactions and patient counselling . Lot of brand names never heared of. Although I got 85 in prenaplex , yet I went down almost 18 points down. I was told that apha is not good enough because of the overwhelming info. And the way these info was presented was very confusing. Many recommended rxprep and that's what I'm going for. For those who ask about correlation between prenaplex and the real test , for me it was way different. For some of my friends, they did bad in prenaplex but passed the Naplex with good score. So take the prenaplex once to have an idea and get familiar with the test environment , but don't really count on this score.
Good luck everyone. Wish me the same in my second trial.

 

[abhi09]

msm70, did u get the questions from all the topics? How many math qs did u get? All the best for future attempt.

 

[msm70]

msm70, did u get the questions from all the topics? How many math qs did u get? All the best for future attempt.

Yes, almost every chapter, but I was hit hard with DM questions probably because I got the first 2 wrong.Generally They focused a lot on pt. counsel . I have to admit that some of the questions I should have answered right, but I got nervous from the very first Q. Which was a calculation I've never heard of and had no choices , fill the blank type. Know well how to round.
I'm still trying to put myself in the mood to study.

 

[ravingrabbid]

Here's my two cents: I panicked and read both the rxprep and APhA books for the exam - think the APhA book was better in giving info on most of the disease states (except HIV) but the treatment section was a bit disorganized. RxPrep had good summaries of the drugs used but not so much on explaining what/how they worked but I guess that might've been covered on their video lectures (which I didn't bother with cuz my internet connection sucks).

If you don't really have money or time to spare, you could always get one of those exam books and just keep taking the quizzes till you get everything correct in addition to the 120 calc packet that's floating around here.

 

[msm70]

has anyone tried pharmprep question book? I got it to practice patient profiles. It has about 76 profiles with answers and explanations . I did not have time to to go through it all , jut few cases and I found it to be same in difficulty level as Naplex .
Also prontopass calculations were very helpful.

 

[fenil2005]

has anyone tried pharmprep question book? I got it to practice patient profiles. It has about 76 profiles with answers and explanations . I did not have time to to go through it all , jut few cases and I found it to be same in difficulty level as Naplex .
Also prontopass calculations were very helpful.

The Prontopass math cards are sufficient for the naplex math. Also, the wording of question is almost similar. To me Prontopass is the best source for math. 120 calculation sheet is OK for practice.