NAPLEX Question of the Week: Three Tips When Beginning to Study
Congratulations! Many of you reading this have begun your last APPE rotation and are looking forward to graduation. Have you begun studying for the NAPLEX? If not do not fear, if you start now you can plan for success. Here are 3 tips for beginning your study plan.
1. Study what is actually on the exam. Seems simple enough, right? Many pharmacy students assume they know what will be on their exam based on their final year of rotations. Read through the NAPLEX Competency statements and I am certain some of these would not necessarily come to the top of your list of items you thought would be on the exam: https://nabp.pharmacy/programs/examinations/naplex/competency-statements-2021/
2. Know the different question types. While multiple choice is an important question type, it is only 1 of 5 different formats that may appear on the exam. Others include multiple-response, constructed response, ordered-response, and hot spot. Details can be found here: https://nabp.pharmacy/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/NAPLEX-Sample-Questions.pdf.
3. Study your weak areas. We love to study drugs like metformin, lisinopril, and atorvastatin don't we? Because we interact with these medications frequently we feel very confident in aspects of their therapy. However when you see emtricitabine, doxorubicin, or tacrolimus...chances are you aren't as confident. Areas like these along with calculations are great areas to invest some time to shore up your knowledge base in weaker areas.
Happy Good Friday and Easter! See everyone next week.
Dr. B
Dr. Christopher M. Bland is the Albert W. Jowdy Professor in Pharmacy Care at the University of Georgia College of Pharmacy at the Southeast GA campus in Savannah, GA. Dr. Bland has nearly 25 years of academic and clinical experience both in the inpatient and community patient care settings. He is a Fellow of both the Infectious Diseases Society of America as well as the American College of Clinical Pharmacy and has been named Teacher of the Year at the University of Georgia College of Pharmacy. He is co-author of the book "InteGREAT: A Guidebook for Creating Great Healthcare Teams."
He is co-founder of the Southeastern Research Group Endeavor, SERGE-45, with nearly 100 practitioners across 14 states involved. Dr. Bland serves as Associate Editor for the NAPLEX Review Guide 4th edition as well as upcoming 5th edition, as well as the Editor-In-Chief for the Question of the Week. He has provided hundreds of hours in live, interactive NAPLEX reviews for more than 10 Colleges/Schools of Pharmacy over the course of his career.
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