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- Jul 26, 2016
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Hello everyone,
I took the NAPLEX a few days ago and I absolutely bombed it. I knew roughly 20 questions with 100% confidence, at most 25. The entire weekend I had no appetite, I couldn't sleep, and all I could think about was how bad I performed. There were questions all over the place with majority on the major topics (inf, onco, hiv). I read over the entire RxPrep Book once and then read over some of the major topics to brush up on but it felt overwhelming. It's impossible to memorize everything in that book. During the exam I anticipated that I would get a few check all that apply questions but no more than 15, I had about 30! In addition the math was much harder than the math in the book. Do not expect straight forward questions. Every question requires you to think and all the answers are fairly similar therefore, you have to know the EXACT answer.
The way I studied for the exam was not efficient. I would read 2-3 chapters a day without reviewing them. I did not take the the pre-naplex nor did I do the practice questions in the RxPrep Book/Online (even though I had access to them from my job). Furthermore, I only reviewed everything for a second time 4 days before the exam.
I was BLESSED to pass the exam and received my score today of 84
I strongly advise everyone reading this to ignore every post about how easy NAPLEX is and anticipate some of the hardest questions possible. It's also luck. Five of my friends took the exam on the same day as me and only 3 of them passed the other two failed. Expect the worse and hope for the best.
How to study:
- Read RxPrep once and highlight all the important notes.
- Do all of the math in one day and write down all the formulas. Focus on the main ones: ANC, CrCl (usually IBW, also Adj and TBW), meq, mmol, moles, TPN (in and out). MUST know these well.
- Get some form of review sheet of the RxPrep where somebody wrote out all the important information and review that. If you cant find one for free BUY it amazon/ebay - theres many out there. Do this after you finish the book.
- Days before exam go over the math AGAIN, must do the entire 200 calculations without looking at any formulas. Go over biostat (DO AS MANY QUESTIONS AS POSSIBLE) you will see them on the exam. I went over this chapter for a whole day and did the practice questions from the RxPrep test bank. ~100 qs. Expect charts on exam.
- Go over Oncology - memorize generic + class + side effects
- Go over HIV - memorize BRAND + GENERIC + side effects ( )
- Go over sterile + non-sterile compounding VERY important - will see on exam
- Go over inf - mem bacteria = treatment
I got about 25 questions on infectious and I didn't know any of them. Some people got one or two.
Best of luck and hope you do better than I did and don't freak out. I was certain I failed.
I took the NAPLEX a few days ago and I absolutely bombed it. I knew roughly 20 questions with 100% confidence, at most 25. The entire weekend I had no appetite, I couldn't sleep, and all I could think about was how bad I performed. There were questions all over the place with majority on the major topics (inf, onco, hiv). I read over the entire RxPrep Book once and then read over some of the major topics to brush up on but it felt overwhelming. It's impossible to memorize everything in that book. During the exam I anticipated that I would get a few check all that apply questions but no more than 15, I had about 30! In addition the math was much harder than the math in the book. Do not expect straight forward questions. Every question requires you to think and all the answers are fairly similar therefore, you have to know the EXACT answer.
The way I studied for the exam was not efficient. I would read 2-3 chapters a day without reviewing them. I did not take the the pre-naplex nor did I do the practice questions in the RxPrep Book/Online (even though I had access to them from my job). Furthermore, I only reviewed everything for a second time 4 days before the exam.
I was BLESSED to pass the exam and received my score today of 84
I strongly advise everyone reading this to ignore every post about how easy NAPLEX is and anticipate some of the hardest questions possible. It's also luck. Five of my friends took the exam on the same day as me and only 3 of them passed the other two failed. Expect the worse and hope for the best.
How to study:
- Read RxPrep once and highlight all the important notes.
- Do all of the math in one day and write down all the formulas. Focus on the main ones: ANC, CrCl (usually IBW, also Adj and TBW), meq, mmol, moles, TPN (in and out). MUST know these well.
- Get some form of review sheet of the RxPrep where somebody wrote out all the important information and review that. If you cant find one for free BUY it amazon/ebay - theres many out there. Do this after you finish the book.
- Days before exam go over the math AGAIN, must do the entire 200 calculations without looking at any formulas. Go over biostat (DO AS MANY QUESTIONS AS POSSIBLE) you will see them on the exam. I went over this chapter for a whole day and did the practice questions from the RxPrep test bank. ~100 qs. Expect charts on exam.
- Go over Oncology - memorize generic + class + side effects
- Go over HIV - memorize BRAND + GENERIC + side effects ( )
- Go over sterile + non-sterile compounding VERY important - will see on exam
- Go over inf - mem bacteria = treatment
I got about 25 questions on infectious and I didn't know any of them. Some people got one or two.
Best of luck and hope you do better than I did and don't freak out. I was certain I failed.
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