How to Study for the NAPLEX: A Six Week Plan

Six weeks is enough to prepare for the NAPLEX if most of your time goes to practice questions instead of rereading. Start with a timed baseline, work through the content outline by drug class, do calculations every day and take a full practice exam before test day.

NABP describes the NAPLEX as a six hour exam with 225 questions, scored pass or fail. Download the current content outline and sample items from NABP before you start, because the outline is the list of what can be tested.

Week 1: Take a baseline and map the outline

Sit a timed block of practice questions with no notes on the first day. The point is not the score. It shows which areas of the outline you already know and which ones you have forgotten since the didactic years.

Then go through the content outline and mark every area green, yellow or red, the same way you would for a final. Your red areas become the order for weeks 2 to 4.

Weeks 2 to 4: Work drug class by drug class

Take one or two drug classes a day, starting with your red ones. For each class, know the mechanism, the main indications, the side effects that come up on exams, the major interactions and the counseling points.

Turn each class into flashcards the same day, and do a short set of practice questions on it before you stop. Questions you miss go into a pile you redo at the end of the week.

Every day: Do calculations

Calculations are the one area where practice turns directly into points. Do a set of ten or more every day, covering dosing by weight, IV flow rates, concentrations and dilutions, and unit conversions.

Write out the units on every line. Most calculation mistakes are a unit that was never converted.

Week 5: Take a full practice exam

Sit a full length practice exam in one sitting, timed, so you know what six hours of questions feels like. NABP offers the Pre-NAPLEX as a practice exam built from retired questions.

Go through every question you missed or guessed on, and send each one back to its drug class for one more round of questions.

Week 6: Review lightly and rest

Spend the last week on your flashcards that still come up wrong, your missed question pile and one more calculations set a day. Stop learning new material two days before the exam and sleep well the night before.

Practice questions

Try these before you look at the answers.

1. A patient weighs 70 kg. The order is 5 mg/kg of a drug. What is the dose?
2. How many grams of dextrose are in 500 mL of D5W, which has 5 g of dextrose in every 100 mL?
3. How many micrograms are in 0.25 mg?

Answers: 1. 350 mg, because 70 times 5 is 350. 2. 25 g, because 500 mL is five times 100 mL. 3. 250 mcg, because 1 mg is 1,000 mcg.