School Earns Highest NAPLEX Passing Rate in Calif.

USC School of Pharmacy students had a 97.4 percent North American Pharmacist Licensure Examination (NAPLEX) passing rate in the summer period of 2016.

The California State Board of Pharmacy exam results  show that of the 154 graduating USC PharmD students who took the examination between April and September 2016, 150 passed. This rate was the highest in the state of California.

Of the 156 USC PharmD graduates who took the California Practice Standards and Jurisprudence Examination for Pharmacists (CPJE) between April and September 2016, 91% passed. This was the second-highest passage rate in the state of California.   View the statistics here.

The NAPLEX, or North American Pharmacist Licensure Examination, measures a candidate’s knowledge of the practice of pharmacy. It is just one component of the licensure process and is used by the boards of pharmacy as part of their assessment of a candidate’s competence to practice as a pharmacist.

According to the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy, which administers the test, the 185-question computer-based exam “tests a prospective pharmacist’s ability to measure pharmacotherapy and therapeutic outcomes, prepare and dispense medications, and implement and evaluate information for optimal health care.”