First Attempt NAPLEX Pass After a 2-Year Gap — For Anyone Feeling Behind
Ugh where do I even begin? I FINALLY PASSED NAPLEX!! Literally crying tears of joyy 😭
I’m a 2024 graduate. I did pretty well in pharmacy school, mostly A’s and some B’s, but I was also the type of person who would cram everything 2 days before an exam lol. I always had a study partner/group, so staying motivated and accountable was never really an issue.
After graduation, I took my MPJE first and passed. Then came NAPLEX... and for some reason studying became EXTREMELY hard for me.
I wasn’t used to studying by myself, and I quickly realized my usual “cram everything last minute” method was NOT going to work for NAPLEX. There were way too many topics, and I’m also the type of person who won’t sit for an exam until I feel confident.
I became overwhelmed and decided to take a little break... except that “little break” turned into a veryyy long one because of different personal reasons. By the time I seriously tried studying again, it had been almost a year and a half since graduation.
And honestly? It was one of the darkest periods of my life.
Everyone around me had passed their boards and started their careers, meanwhile I felt completely stuck on this ONE exam. I would open RxPrep and literally could not get past 1-2 pages. I had grown to hate studying. Maybe I lacked motivation, maybe I became lazy, maybe it was a combination of everything... but I just could NOT focus.
That’s when I randomly came across Rxcellence on Instagram. I was VERY skeptical at first. I looked through their page, saw some of their practice questions, and noticed they had a 12-day Crash Course.
I considered joining but initially couldn’t justify spending the money, so I kept telling myself, “I can do this myself.” However, the same cycle repeated where I lacked the motivation to even open the book and read through the pages.
Eventually I got to the point where I asked my parents for the money and signed up. My thought process was literally, “If I spend this much money, maybe I’ll finally force myself to study and make it worth it.”
I also had NO idea how the class worked. I thought it was lecture-based and that we would sit there with our cameras on listening to someone teach.
First day I walked in confused as fudgee lol.
The tutor had absolutely no filter and was VERY straight to the point. She had a super high pitched raspy voice lol, and was kinda scary. Then I realized it was basically verbal rapid-fire questioning and I was internally hyperventilating because I HATE looking stupid in front of people 😭
But weirdly enough... for the first time in a VERY long time, something clicked.
I started studying again. I was able to study more in those 12 days, that I had in an entire year. Yeah, I know that sounds really crazy, but that's literally how bad it was.
I had never failed NAPLEX before because I had never even attempted it. My problem wasn’t necessarily understanding the material — I had completely lost my motivation, structure, accountability, and confidence. And THAT is what this program helped me get back.
I also met amazing study partners through it, and eventually we were staying up all night studying together just like I used to do in pharmacy school. Having people around me who were going through the same thing made such a huge difference.
And honestly, meeting the people in that program really humbled me too. There were people on their second, third, even more attempts, and every single person had a story. Some had full-time jobs, some were postpartum, some were running on barely any sleep and still showing up every day and staying up all night to study. Seeing that really inspired me and made me realize everyone is fighting their own battle, and if they could keep pushing, so could I.
This is NOT an ad lol. Trust me, I am probably the lasstttt person to make a post like this because I am a HUGE critique. It takes alottt for me to be impressed or compliment someone. And quite honestly, I do NOT think everyone needs tutoring. You can absolutely pass studying by yourself.
I’m making this post specifically for the people who feel like I did.
If you’ve been stuck in a rut where you KNOW you need to study, you WANT to move on with your life, but for whatever reason you cannot even bring yourself to open the book... sometimes you need an external push.
I was stuck like that for almost 2 years.
For me, getting that push, structure, accountability, and finding people to study with was worth the investment.
And after feeling like I was never going to get out of that phase of my life...
I FINALLY PASSED. 😭❤️