I graduated from Jefferson in 2014, did a year of residency and became a Clinical Coordinator right after. I'm licensed in NJ, NY and Texas, yet I cannot pass this ridiculous CPJE. Failed now twice with a 72 this time. I have no idea what else to do. I used Pharmacy Charts and weissman book. This game is humiliating. Homie just trying to go back home to SoCal lol. I feel like the golf ball in Happy Gilmore, just trying to go back home.
Real talk tho, any suggestions at this point. I actually walked out of the exam feeling pretty good, which is the scary thing. Maybe I'm getting the experimental questions right and the real ones wrong...? Any how I have 2 more tries before things get really hairy... any tips?
PS: I took NJ because I did my residency there and I currently work in NY. I just got Texas two weeks ago because of fear that I wouldn't pass Cali and I'll do anything to get the F out of the north east and go somewhere warmer. Missing that Cali Sun. I guess I'm halfway back to Cali now with a Texas license haha
Since I failed once and passed it for the second time, I think I can give you couple of tips and how I approached it after failing the first test. The first test I just studied the CPJE law by RxPrep and superficially memorized stuffs like vaccinations, cephalosporin generations, some brand-generics, etc. However, that was not enough and I got my ass clapped. So I went on and bought Pharmcharts and this book was clutch. Read it 3 times and it was good enough. So here are some things I feel like most of the CPJE questions dealt with:
1) Memorize brand-generics: I know this sounds like no-brainer, but perhaps I feel like this is the most important concept for the clinical part of this exam. If you cannot recall the drug name, you won't know what the drug is used for, and if you don't know that, you will have no clue to solve the problem. Make sure to memorize not just top 300 brand-generics drugs but also beyond common disease states (MS, cystic fibrosis, some chemo, hep b, hiv, some rare vaccines, and so on). I just looked at them everyday and on the test, I still didn't recognize some. So be familiar.
2) Memorize unique adverse effects along with monitoring parameters: I will not say to memorize all the adverse effects for each drugs verbatim since AEDs like headache, nausea, or diarrhea are common in like every drug, but try to remember the unique ones for some drugs (ex: priapism in trazodone, severe rash in lamotrigine, ototoxicity in aminoglycosides, vision problems with chlorquines, and so on). Know monitoring parameters such as sodium levels for seizure drugs, any hearing loss for vancomycin, renal function in lithium users, WBC counts in clozapine, and so on. Since CPJE will deal with "clinical" questions, it is definitely expected that they will ask questions for us to look at lab values and make judgement for the use of the drug. Again, these will likely come out in brand names, which was emphasized in 1.
3) Know all the first-lines for each disease state: If you look at the CPJE handout (yellow packet before the exam), one of the objectives was something like making a clinical decision based on patient's state or something, which means that there will be questions on asking what to give for certain patients. So forcommon disease states like HF, DM, HTN, cellulitis, CAP, stroke, glaucoma, anticoagulation, just know what to give first hand for each state. Brand names always apply so this again emphasizes my 1. Don't forget OTC medications and their indications as they will obviously be used for common disease states like allergic rhinitis, upset stomach, athlete's foot and stuff.
4) Be familiar with dosages/frequency/formulations/refrigeration,etc: For some drugs there are always unique method on how to use and how to store. The back part of the pharmchart helps. Also, memorize the vaccine schedule from CDC perfectly and I think you will be good.
5) Know IV compatibility: Similar with 4-formulation, refrigeration, but if you look at the back of the pharmchart they show you some shortened versions of IV solutions that should be protected from light, short stability and etc. Must memorize.
6) Try solving the backtest on the Board website. I remember solving this backtest provided by the board from 2003 or something. Many will say that it is now totally different and obsolete since CPJE has been updated on April 2016, but I found lot of the questions awfully similar and it helped me a lot.
7) For law, I never looked at Weissman so I cannot really say which one is better, but I only studied CPJE RxPrep one and it covered enough materials. No matter how much I studied on law, I feel like there will always be random scenario and policy questions on the exam, and those part you just have to make logical guess.
Hope this helped and I feel you on trying to escape the East since I am trying to do so as well. Good luck to you and have faith in yourself.
Soooo frustrated.
