DISCLAIMER: sorry for this post looking like another chapter in the APHA book!
Hello everyone! I felt it was necessary for me to contribute to this forum since i spent a lot of time reading various posts throughout my study for the NAPLEX and it has helped me a lot. So to begin, i started studying immediately after graduation and spent 2.5 months total. Everyone is different but i am really slow and need time to get the material settled in my brain. My main source was the APHA comprehensive book which might seem very detailed but honestly speaking is probably the best out there that covers MOST of what you need to know to be a good pharmacist. I read 1 chapter a day thoroughly and answered the questions at the end of the chapter. Alongside i had bought the reiss and hall pharmacy Q&A, which was excellent because it had over 900 questions and came with a CD-rom that enables you to customize exams similar to NAPLEX and time yourself. You can also do brand and generic practices on there. I aimed about 50 questions a day on there. My school had also gotten us a membership with the Kaplan Qbank questions online, which contained 1200 questions. This was also an excellent source for practicing what you were studying. The questions are tougher but are worth spending time doing. I aimed at 50 questions a day on those. I had also bought the pronto pass kit, which for me was an excellent source as well because i am a very visual person. The charts are great and simplify the material so well. I wasnt planning on using any other sources because it can start getting confusing. But i had heard that the kaplan book had really good points (and it did), so i looked through that as well (which started increasing my anxiety but was still worth looking through). A week before the exam i took the Pre-Naplex and scored 102 (82-119 being my range i think). It gave me some confidence since a lot of people mentioned that it correlates pretty well with your real score and most of the time you end up doing much better on the real NAPLEX. After a week i finally took the exam, ran out of time and didnt get to finish 3 questions at the end. I walked out of that exam and felt miserable.
So the exam itself was interesting. Lots, i should say, MOST of the questions were patient profiles. Some were simple and didnt need much digging into the profile, but others were very complex and needed you to look at the comments at the bottom (very important!). Overall, i had questions from various areas: DM, cancer, thyroid to mention some. There were only like 1-2 questions from each of these. I had couple from compounding: knowing what agents are used as what in a prescription. 2 questions on vitamins (ex. if a patient is taking a certain medication, which vitamin would you make sure you have them on, or which should they NOT be on). Know which vitamins interact with warfarin. So the beginning of the exam was all patient profiles, K-type questions and very little math. I was afraid they were going to through all the math at the end, which is exactly what happened. The math itself wasnt so hard but there were questions that i still didnt get the answer to (and it doesnt make things better when they dont give you any choices and make you TYPE IN the answer in a little box). Math is the utmost important aspect of this exam that every candidate should master it and should be able to do in their sleep. I used the prontopass math questions to practice as well as the other resources mentioned above to practice my math until i got so sick of it that i couldn't look at it anymore but knew that i could do any question if given so. However, i think what got me on the day of the exam was the time. I started running out of time at the end when they were throwing all math at me. I literally panicked when i saw 30 mins left and had 20 some questions to do (most of them being math). Luckily most were easy, flow rate, meq, NaCl equivalent. But there were statistic questions (like NNT) which i couldnt do. I had at least 3 i think on stats. So as i rushed through the last 30 mins with mostly math, the exam ended and i still had 3 questions to answer which i couldn't. Feeling miserable and especially not finishing just left me thinking how horrible i had done. I got my results today and i passed
So my advice to anyone reading this or wanting to know how to study and what to concentrate on:
1) I would really read through the APHA book thoroughly. Really look at the counseling points, main ADRs, MOA, therapeutic class
2) do LOTS and LOTS of practice questions because it doesnt matter how much you review. If you cant apply it by answering questions then it is no good. I used different sources for the questions because i wanted different styles of questions and wanted to be able to answer them all. Also, reading the explanations for the answers is very important!
3) Learn to manage time if that is your limiting factor. Now that i think about it i struggled with time on the pre-naplex too (yes, it was only a 70 min exam with 50 questions) but not everyone is the best test-taker. I spent wayyy too much time on the first half of the exam, when i could have spent a lot more in the second half which was mostly math. Don't spend more than a min or minute and a half on a non-math question because you are risking your freebie math questions which need more time and are worth more. If you just have no idea on a question just guess and move on. Staring at the screen isnt going to help. If you are able to eliminate answers then perhaps your chances of getting that one right is pretty high.
4) Know the dosage form and frequencies of common drugs. I had alot of patient profiles with multiple drugs with their dosages and frequencies and was asked to pick one that is not the right frequency, or doesnt come in that strength etc.
5) I would also look through the reference material. I had 1 question on that.
As far as pre-naplex correlating to the real naplex, i would say it does a pretty good job. If i had more time at the end and had been able to concentrate more on my math questions and finished all of them, i would have scored a lot higher than the pre-naplex i believe. But because of my loss of time i didnt do as well as the pre-naplex but wasnt way off either! So study hard and have confidence. Believe me if I can do it anyone who puts time and effort into this can I would be happy to answer any questions if anyone has any because i sure had alot when i was studying
Hello everyone! I felt it was necessary for me to contribute to this forum since i spent a lot of time reading various posts throughout my study for the NAPLEX and it has helped me a lot. So to begin, i started studying immediately after graduation and spent 2.5 months total. Everyone is different but i am really slow and need time to get the material settled in my brain. My main source was the APHA comprehensive book which might seem very detailed but honestly speaking is probably the best out there that covers MOST of what you need to know to be a good pharmacist. I read 1 chapter a day thoroughly and answered the questions at the end of the chapter. Alongside i had bought the reiss and hall pharmacy Q&A, which was excellent because it had over 900 questions and came with a CD-rom that enables you to customize exams similar to NAPLEX and time yourself. You can also do brand and generic practices on there. I aimed about 50 questions a day on there. My school had also gotten us a membership with the Kaplan Qbank questions online, which contained 1200 questions. This was also an excellent source for practicing what you were studying. The questions are tougher but are worth spending time doing. I aimed at 50 questions a day on those. I had also bought the pronto pass kit, which for me was an excellent source as well because i am a very visual person. The charts are great and simplify the material so well. I wasnt planning on using any other sources because it can start getting confusing. But i had heard that the kaplan book had really good points (and it did), so i looked through that as well (which started increasing my anxiety but was still worth looking through). A week before the exam i took the Pre-Naplex and scored 102 (82-119 being my range i think). It gave me some confidence since a lot of people mentioned that it correlates pretty well with your real score and most of the time you end up doing much better on the real NAPLEX. After a week i finally took the exam, ran out of time and didnt get to finish 3 questions at the end. I walked out of that exam and felt miserable.
So the exam itself was interesting. Lots, i should say, MOST of the questions were patient profiles. Some were simple and didnt need much digging into the profile, but others were very complex and needed you to look at the comments at the bottom (very important!). Overall, i had questions from various areas: DM, cancer, thyroid to mention some. There were only like 1-2 questions from each of these. I had couple from compounding: knowing what agents are used as what in a prescription. 2 questions on vitamins (ex. if a patient is taking a certain medication, which vitamin would you make sure you have them on, or which should they NOT be on). Know which vitamins interact with warfarin. So the beginning of the exam was all patient profiles, K-type questions and very little math. I was afraid they were going to through all the math at the end, which is exactly what happened. The math itself wasnt so hard but there were questions that i still didnt get the answer to (and it doesnt make things better when they dont give you any choices and make you TYPE IN the answer in a little box). Math is the utmost important aspect of this exam that every candidate should master it and should be able to do in their sleep. I used the prontopass math questions to practice as well as the other resources mentioned above to practice my math until i got so sick of it that i couldn't look at it anymore but knew that i could do any question if given so. However, i think what got me on the day of the exam was the time. I started running out of time at the end when they were throwing all math at me. I literally panicked when i saw 30 mins left and had 20 some questions to do (most of them being math). Luckily most were easy, flow rate, meq, NaCl equivalent. But there were statistic questions (like NNT) which i couldnt do. I had at least 3 i think on stats. So as i rushed through the last 30 mins with mostly math, the exam ended and i still had 3 questions to answer which i couldn't. Feeling miserable and especially not finishing just left me thinking how horrible i had done. I got my results today and i passed
So my advice to anyone reading this or wanting to know how to study and what to concentrate on:1) I would really read through the APHA book thoroughly. Really look at the counseling points, main ADRs, MOA, therapeutic class
2) do LOTS and LOTS of practice questions because it doesnt matter how much you review. If you cant apply it by answering questions then it is no good. I used different sources for the questions because i wanted different styles of questions and wanted to be able to answer them all. Also, reading the explanations for the answers is very important!
3) Learn to manage time if that is your limiting factor. Now that i think about it i struggled with time on the pre-naplex too (yes, it was only a 70 min exam with 50 questions) but not everyone is the best test-taker. I spent wayyy too much time on the first half of the exam, when i could have spent a lot more in the second half which was mostly math. Don't spend more than a min or minute and a half on a non-math question because you are risking your freebie math questions which need more time and are worth more. If you just have no idea on a question just guess and move on. Staring at the screen isnt going to help. If you are able to eliminate answers then perhaps your chances of getting that one right is pretty high.
4) Know the dosage form and frequencies of common drugs. I had alot of patient profiles with multiple drugs with their dosages and frequencies and was asked to pick one that is not the right frequency, or doesnt come in that strength etc.
5) I would also look through the reference material. I had 1 question on that.
As far as pre-naplex correlating to the real naplex, i would say it does a pretty good job. If i had more time at the end and had been able to concentrate more on my math questions and finished all of them, i would have scored a lot higher than the pre-naplex i believe. But because of my loss of time i didnt do as well as the pre-naplex but wasnt way off either! So study hard and have confidence. Believe me if I can do it anyone who puts time and effort into this can
I would be happy to answer any questions if anyone has any because i sure had alot when i was studying 
