NAPLEX® Test ©

September 27th 2009 The first thing that I >SHOULD (here) to apply for the exams. In that paperwork is one section to go the nearest finger-print analysis company (I used my local UPS) - and in California there are loads of places that offer this service. The important point to think about is that this can be done at any time, and need not wait until just before you apply to sit the Naplex and CPJE, and can often be one of the delaying factors - so at some point towards the end of the 1500 hour internship get this done, but don't leave it to the last minute. The second think that needs to be done is to then send off the rest of the paperwork to the CABP. This can't be done until your have completed both your hospital and community hours and had signed affidavits to say so. Once that has been collected then you can send the paperwork off. Finally, you will have to go online to the NABP website and apply to sit the Naplex with them. What then happens is the reverse. The Na...

Tuesday 15th October 2009 I went to bed just after midnight and set my alarm for 4.30am to squeeze in a few extra hours of last minute cramming before the exam, as I hadn't quite finished reading all the scraps of paper and books and notes and websites and links and downloads that I had wanted to get through before I sat the exam. In the end I just couldn't wake up that early and re-set my alarm for 7am instead. Before I went to bed I had made sure all my documents were at hand - my US drivers license, my UK passport and my US Social Security Card - all with the exact and precise same version of my name in. I also had the address stored in my Sat Nav, and my clothes laid out for what I had been forewarned would be a somewhat cool room temperature. 7am and I wake up, get ready and go. The exam was due to start at 8am, but the paperwork said you had to be there 30 minutes before to go through the necessary checks. The place was a bit tricky to find, but as I walked towards the...

Monday October 19th 2009 The CPJE contains, according to the content outline which you can read on pages 10 and 11 of the full outline here , or specifically here , there are 90 questions, of which 15 are "test" questions that aren't scored, but included for potential use in future exam use, and the other 75 questions are divided equally between: 1. Provide Medication to Patients 2. Monitor and Manage Patient Outcomes 3. Manage Operations They have example questions here and some more example questions here for you to familiarize yourself with the exam style and content. I cannot say this any more clearly, but there is good reason to look very carefully at these example questions! Now, for all the websites, books, downloads, links, hints and suggestions I may have received and can suggest to you, NOTHING is as close to the real exam as I found those example questions were. What I THOUGHT the exam was going to feel like, was something like the example questions I...

Wednesday 28th October 2009 Before I get to my result I just want to review for a moment the thought processes that have been running through my head since I sat the Naplex. Firstly, and i've probably said this already, the exam was HORRIBLE! It was the most difficult exam I have sat since I was at University back in the late 1980's, and I felt like I was totally unprepared for what came up in the exam. I felt that I had basically learnt all the wrong stuff. Although I read the whole of APhA, and I endorse that book as the best study guide that I had, it really didn't help in terms of answering the questions that came up on the exam, or to put in more correctly, it failed to add focus to the correct information worthy of studying over the other sections or areas that weren't as exam-important. Thus, I spent my revision time, for example, reading the chapter on hypertension, or diabetes or HIV, which are all absolute must-learn sections, but the questions that appeare...

Sunday October 8th 2009 Ok, boys and girls, are you sitting comfortably? Good, then I shall begin. I sat the CPJE on September 19th 2009, 6 days after having taken the Naplex. Given the first exam had basically ripped my heart out and made me eat it for breakfast, I wasn't confidant walking in to the CPJE exam, and was amazed that I left feeling so happy with what I had experienced whilst taking the exam. How could it be that everyone was so petrified of the CPJE when it was the Naplex, and I apologize for having to use this perfect expression, that was such a bitch. Lets look at some stats which are available to view in even greater breakdown here . NAPLEX Fail 2.4% Pass 97.6% So, overall, for the Naplex, 97.6% pass the exam! How can that possibly be? That exam was DEVASTATINGLY difficult. The pass mark must be something like 30%! One additional point to note for the Naplex is that the scaled score has a pass mark of 75, but a MAXIMUM ATTAINABLE of 150. Keep that in mind....

November 24th 2009 I've mentioned this before, but it seems that at every stage of this process somehow something goes wrong,but I really thought I had got away with it this time. I was wrong. Having passed my Naplex and CPJE and sent my check to the board, the only possible thing left to happen was to receive my R.Ph. registration number and then start working as a US pharmacist. What actually happened was that on November 16th 2009 I received a letter from the California Board of Pharmacy saying that their had been an "operator error" with my fingerprint/Livescan done on August 13th 2009, and that my date of birth had been entered incorrectly. The board couldn't issue me a license until this had been corrected and that they were working to correct this, but suggested things might move faster if I repaid the fee ($61) and had the test re-done. I did the test again. I am not amused, and I am not a US pharmacist, yet. Can you believe it! Farmacyst. (Apparently...