Mission

            My goal is to develop a reviewing platform with content review and helpful exam-taking strategies etc., to pass and score higher on NAPLEX that a lot of future pharmacists are nervous about; help you grasping on fundamentals of therapeutics, equip you with a solid understanding of disease states and treatment plans that are commonly encountered in practice, beyond passing NAPLEX. Access to this website is completely free, all costs on me, it is my way of giving back to the pharmacy community, make resources more accessible and affordable for every student.

About Rx Exam Review

NAPLEX has evolved in the past few years from discrete stand-alone questions to more case-based “wordy” questions, the incumbent is to understand what the question is asking, use critical thinking to apply your knowledge. Rote memorization does not work anymore.

All essential and complex concepts and materials are written to illuminate your comprehension, significantly reduce your work to memorize for tests. Connect pieces together, to guide you see through the mist of a lengthy clinical scenario, immediately spot what is wrong with the patient. With a clearer picture in mind, you would know where to find the pertinent answers, solve exam questions with ease, and apply your clinical knowledge appropriately to a real case. No more rote memorizing!

 Drug agents of each class are often listed from the most common to the least common. Side effects are also listed from the most likely and noticeable to the least common.

            I try to annotate each side effect, so you understand why that occurred, instead of rote memorizing them. Although some students may use flashcards to brute force them into long-term memory without understanding the mechanism, it would be so difficult to answer the ever-changing questions on the test date. It is a lot easier to understand the mechanism of side effects and reason through why they can be developed.

• g: how does aldosterone work? Aldosterone is an anti-diuretic hormone that is released when the blood pressure is too low, causes the kidney to reabsorb more Na⁺, which in turn causes more water reabsorption, blood pressure is thus elevated.

• How about the mechanism of spironolactone (a type of diuretics)? It antagonizes the effect of aldosterone, which causes the kidney to excrete more Na⁺, water follows wherever Na⁺ goes, more water is also excreted, thus blood pressure lowered.
• What are the possible side effects of spironolactone? K⁺ travels in the opposite direction of Na⁺, more Na+ excreted to exchange for more K⁺ is retained in the body, which can cause hyperkalemia. (Just some refreshment from cell physiology: K⁺: major intracellular cation, and Na⁺: major extracellular cation, 3 Na⁺ out, 2 K⁺ in, thus the cell maintains a negative resting potential).
• Hyper-K is especially dangerous when combining with other potassium-sparing drugs which can lead to arrhythmia and other heart beating abnormalities (K+ is involved in the generation of the action potential, it is one of the major electrolytes in conducting disorders: arrhythmia, QT prolongation, etc.).

NAPLEX Tutoring

• “Is this for me?”: If you are one of those gifted students, prefer independent studying, and are self-ignited, you may not need my tutoring, but please feel free to come here for leisure and cost-free studying. If you struggled to pass, need a tutor, a mentor, and are motivated to pass and walk away with knowledge that you can lean on for future practice, you have come to the right place because I am here to give you a boost and all the support you would needed.
• Scope: I will highlight the popular testing areas, clarify challenging and confusing concepts, and guide you to pay extra attention to those areas to better prepare for the exam. I go over quickly the background information that supports understanding.
• Structure: I like to teach the "why" so that it would provide you a big picture, the ability to connect the dots of related concepts, and build a backbone that helps you comprehend, apply, and memorize; the more nitty-gritty details (second rounds of reviewing) will be learned after the first round of review (And I believe this part can be optional, since you would have learned the optimal approach to study independently with the strategies learned).
• Style: Challenge your critical thinking: why does drug X lead to this side effect or can be used off-label for another condition? What drugs should be avoided, or use with caution in comorbidity? Given a question in which you cannot recall details, how do you eliminate answer choices and make a smart guess? Even if you get a question correct, depending on the case, I would still go over how to solve it quickly with efficiency, which would enable you to bank testing time toward tougher questions. Understanding a drug's mechanism of action goes a long way in figuring out the indications, side effects for the entire drug class. Quizzes are given throughout the sessions to solidify learning and promote knowledge connectivity.
• Summary: Individualized, tailor to each student. For topics, you find easier (perhaps OTC sections, thyroid, etc.) can be skimmed through. Materials are chunked into bigger therapeutic areas. Since my purpose is to connect dots, one chapter (or topic) often leads to another closely related one, you will find them weaved in fluently.
• One to one private tutoring: please email for my affordable session rate.
• Group tutoring: better rate, please email for my affordable session rate.

About Me

            I am a pharmacist who has worked in the community pharmacy and hospital ambulatory care clinics since 2011, I passed NAPLEX on my first try with a score of 107 (passing score of 75). Although not impressive, but surely more than enough to pass. I studied full-time for 4-6 weeks with a clear plan. I recall taking a practice test purchased from the NABP website a week before my test date, the score was similar to my actual score.

            Although I passed with a seemingly satisfying score, did I really understand what those concepts meant back then? Not really, without a true understanding the concepts, I might fail today's exam which requires much more critical thinking. Not until I started practicing and working, later built my own website, and started tutoring NAPLEX, I was able to rebuild and solidify my knowledge base. There have been many epiphany moments, that I wish I understood as a student, I would have done much better in pharmacy school, and the exam preparation would be more of a breeze. Now I have so much to share with students like you.

            I am genuinely interested in teaching because I hope to share all those realizations, mistakes, knowledge, experience, tricks with you. I want to witness your success because I believe everyone deserves a chance as long as you have a willing heart and you put in the hard work. My goal is to help EVERY student to pass, help them to learn effective strategies, good habits to carry on to their future practice, and be part of their success story in the journey of the pharmacy profession!

            You do not have to be an A student to pass, even if you just marginally passed your classes in school, finally made it to graduation, but you want to put in the effort and do well on NAPLEX, you can still pass; or if you are unfortunately the ones who failed multiple times, and this may be your last chance at passing NAPLEX, don’t lose your hope, I have taught students that passed on their last try, how exciting and relieved! Whenever I hear good news from my student, it brightens my day, I am wholeheartedly happy for their progress and success. 

Disclaimer

I intend my website to be a non-profit organization, it is free of charge for public use, as a resource to your NAPLEX success. Some pictures I used as a visual aid in learning are cited with their reference. The sole use of this website is to learning pharmacy knowledge and studying for NAPLEX. Please refrain from redistributing the content. Any malicious copy for sale or reproduction without reference or credit is prohibited and a disrespect of author's hard work. I have spent countless hours creating and updating the content that you are viewing.

My website is not perfect, it may contain spelling errors, imperfect formatting, and some concepts that are not clarified. I am trying my best to fix those typos and elaborate more concepts with every update.  Everything related to the creation and maintenance of the website is out of my own pocket: hosting, server fee, and hardworking time.

Rest assured, this website incorporates Google Ads to display healthy ads, ensuring a safe and secure browsing experience, free from malware.

If you like my website, please purchase a PDF version of my entire website content for $20, to support my free labor. Your support means the world to me and drives me in this project. I am thrilled to receive feedback from readers who have benefited from the content, this further aids other test takers in enhancing their learning experience.

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