NAPLEX and PANCE Facebook Review Question Contests

As the Spring semester is nearly upon us, the Office of Assessment wants students to be remember that we regularly host NAPLEX (Pharmacy) and PANCE (PA) review question contests on facebook. Every week, the Office of Assessment posts review questions to the College’s facebook page, and gives away prizes for the first correct response. These are great, quick opportunities for review, and also allow students to engage with our social media sites. Our facebook and twitter pages are also utilized for important college announcements and as destinations for college media (photos, flyers, etc.) Like us on facebook and follow us on twitter!

https://www.facebook.com/pages/STJ-College-of-Pharmacy-and-Health-Sciences-Students-Alumni/162773507068074

https://twitter.com/SJUPharmHSci

 

NAPLEX Blueprint

As many of us are aware, NABP has published a NAPLEX Blueprint that details competency statements for the NAPLEX exam. This blueprint provides detailed statements related to each of the three areas on the exam. If you haven’t yet, feel free to check out the link below to familiarize yourself with this information. Faculty, students and administrators should all have a working knowledge of the topics covered on the NAPLEX examination, and the expectations set forth for an entry-level pharmacist.

http://www.nabp.net/programs/examination/naplex/naplex-blueprint

 

2014 PCOA Examination

For the third straight year, the College will be facilitating the PCOA examination for pharmacy students in the P1-P4 years. Invitations have been sent out to a select group of randomized students, asking for volunteers to sit for this exam. We are attempting to recruit 75 students from each of the four professional years: 300 in total. Having successfully run the PCOA electronically last year, we anticipate being able to manage it this way again.

Pharmacy Students: Please check your e-mail for an invitation to take the examination.

While the PCOA helps us to evaluate our curriculum in comparison to other programs nationally, each student receives an individual confidential report (which will not be part of your academic record) that will highlight areas of strengths and weaknesses so that you focus on these areas as you continue. You can use this report to meet with faculty to discuss the development of self improvement plan.

Click here for more information

NAPLEX & MPJE Correlations

The goal of the Office of Assessment is to find a predictor that will identify students who are likely to perform poorly on the NAPLEX and MPJE exams.  This was accomplished by performing Pearson correlations between two sets of data that are thought to have a relationship.  The students were divided into quartiles by professional GPA then this data was correlated to the students’ total score on the NAPLEX exam.  The only significant Pearson correlation (.724) that resulted was between total score and professional GPA in the first quartile.  The first quartile consists of students with the highest GPAs so the data shows that performance on the NAPLEX exam can only be predicted with high performing students.  This process was repeated with students’ professional GPA and total score on the MPJE exam but significant correlations were not found.  Student performance in PAS 4305 (Pharmacy Law) was divided into quartiles then correlated to the students’ total score on the MPJE exam but no significant correlations were identified.  The Office of Assessment and the Assessment Committee are going to further discuss this data to see what guidelines can be put in place to predict student performance on the NAPLEX and MPJE exams. 

NAPLEX and MPJE Statistics

This year, we were able to procure individual student results for both the NAPLEX and MPJE exams. With this new data in the possession of the Office of Assessment, we are looking at statistics for both exams, and looking for correlations. So far, we have run Pearson Correlations for:

• NAPLEX scores vs. Overall GPA
• NAPLEX scores vs. Math/Science/Professional GPA
• NAPLEX scores in Quartiles vs. Math/Science Professional GPA
• MPJE scores vs. Overal PGA
• MPJE scores vs. Math/Science/Professional GPA
• MPJE scores vs. student performance in PAS 4305 (Pharmacy Law)
• MPJE scores in Quartiles vs. student performance in PAS 4305 (Pharmacy Law

We are still in the analysis portion of this process, and will be looking for positive and negative correlations.