NAPLEX Pass Rates: Understanding the Challenges and Strategies for Success

While the NAPLEX is a minimum competency examination, the NAPLEX is widely considered challenging for several reasons. It is a comprehensive exam, and candidates must demonstrate a deep understanding of pharmaceutical care concepts, clinical decision-making skills, and regulatory content.

1. Comprehensive Content: The NAPLEX covers various pharmaceutical sciences topics, including pharmacotherapy, pharmaceutical calculations, and pharmacokinetics, which graduates have learned over many years. The breadth of content requires candidates to comprehensively understand a wide range of disease states and various aspects of pharmacy practice.

2. Clinical Decision Making: Most examinations assess a candidate’s ability to make clinical decisions in real-world complex patient case scenarios. This requires not only content knowledge but also the ability to translate this knowledge into practical situations quickly.

3. Integration of Knowledge: The examination assesses the candidate’s ability to integrate information from various therapeutic and practice areas to solve specific problems.

4. Time Management: As this is a timed exam, you must be efficient as you work through the examination. The ability to answer many questions within a limited timeframe is crucial to optimize your chances of passing the exam. While failing to complete the exam doesn’t guarantee failure, it certainly reduces your chances of receiving a passing grade.

5. Adaptability: The NAPLEX is administered via computer adaptive testing (CAT), which means that the difficulty of the questions changes based on your ongoing performance. This can be psychologically challenging. If you are asked an easy question, you may think that you’re performing poorly, and this mental state may negatively affect the remainder of the test. It’s important to realize that an easy question for you may be difficult for someone else.

6. Stress and Pressure: This examination is likely the most crucial exam of your life. The requirement for a passing score to obtain licensure, the mental bandwidth and endurance this exam requires, and the pressure to succeed can exacerbate and amplify any test anxiety.

To overcome the challenges of the NAPLEX, candidates must develop a well-structured study plan, identify and focus on areas of weakness, engage in self-directed learning, and practice with realistic exam simulations. While the NAPLEX is demanding to prepare for and to take, successful preparation and a thorough understanding of the exam’s content can significantly increase the likelihood of achieving a passing score.

Your exam results will be reported as either a PASS or a FAIL. There is no scaled numerical score. Once the NAPLEX is graded, the NABP will release the results to your designated pharmacy board. Only your jurisdiction’s Board of Pharmacy has the authority to grant a license to practice pharmacy in that jurisdiction. The time to notify varies by each state and tends to be longer in the summer months when more applicants are taking the examination. It is common for licensure to be granted within 4-6 weeks after taking the exam, assuming you pass.

If you fail the NAPLEX, don’t be discouraged. 20% of first-time and 22% of all test takers in 2022 failed the NAPLEX. Of all the NAPLEX test takers in 2022, approximately 12% had taken it before unsuccessfully.

Preparation is again of utmost importance, as only 63% of candidates who have previously failed a NAPLEX will succeed upon retaking it. If you fail the NAPLEX, you will receive an official exam result detailing your relative performance in the six major competency areas. 

You will receive an achievement performance level for each competency area. The lower the level, the lower your performance in that competency area compared to your peers. This is valuable information that can be used to guide your future preparation before retaking the NAPLEX. The four achievement levels are:

• Level 1: Performance is far below meeting the minimum performance necessary to demonstrate competency

• Level 2: Performance does NOT meet the minimum performance necessary to demonstrate competency

• Level 3: Performance meets the minimum performance to demonstrate competency

• Level 4: Performance exceeds the minimum performance necessary to demonstrate competency

To retake the NAPLEX, you must start the eligibility application process again, including the $100 application fee. Once a Board of Pharmacy grants eligibility, you must again pay the $475 exam fee. A mandatory waiting period is at least 45 days from the previous attempt. Some states or jurisdictions may have a more extended waiting period.

You are allowed three attempts to take the NAPLEX during 12 months. If you fail three times, you must wait at least 12 months from the date of the first attempt to reapply before the 4^th attempt. You have a maximum of five attempts to pass the NAPLEX unless a jurisdiction’s Board of Pharmacy determines otherwise. Similarly, the MPJE has a minimum waiting period of 30 days with a maximum of 5 attempts per jurisdiction. Some jurisdictions may require a longer waiting period.

In 2022, the NAPLEX pass rate was 80% for first-time test takers, 78% for all test takers, and 64% for test takers who have failed one or more previous attempts at the NAPLEX. It is essential to know that pass rates vary yearly, from jurisdiction to jurisdiction and program to program. Pass rates have decreased slightly over the last several years. In 2020, the first-time pass rate was 86%, with an overall pass rate of 82%. In 2021, the pass rate fell slightly to 82% and 78% for first-time and overall test-takers. 

Since the pass rate continues to decrease, choosing a pharmacy program that provides the necessary didactic material to prepare you for the NAPLEX best is now more critical than ever.

Amongst universities in the United States, these are the Top 20 Colleges of Pharmacy with the highest reported first-time NAPLEX pass rate for the recently graduating class of 2022, according to the NABP:

These are the Bottom 20 Colleges of Pharmacy with the lowest reported first-time NAPLEX pass rate for new pharmacy graduates according to the NABP:

The largest 20 programs by number of 2022 first time NAPLEX attempts is also included below: