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Aracne · 2009 July 2nd, 08:20 PM

Ahah, I really hope nobody tries to see what happens by willingly answering a question wrong. There is 1 fault in your conclusion though, the dummy questions are meant to be answered and the answers be assessed by the 'experts' in order to give them a coefficient and place them in future naplex exams as scored questions. If the dummy questions were by definition easy, the Naplex would be a joke by now. They need to put dummy questions that are thought to represent all range of difficulty, in order to keep the level of the exam consistent for the time ahead.
How to weight a question is a complex problem, I believe it depends on what the board wants us to know absolutely and what's the response of test takers while answering the dummy questions.
An example, first dose syncope with alpha blockers is very important to know for a pharmacist because will save lifes but is a relatively rare event; on the other hand, the diarrhea during the first weeks of metformin therapy is not dangerous but it happens relatively often. Based on these findings I'd give similar weight to the 2 topics. On the other hand, I'm prone to think that any question on dosing, even if of a common drug like metformin or prazosin will have a high coefficient because it's simply harder to remember numbers as compared to side effects and they will have more people failing a dosage question than a side effect question.
I assume questions will have a different weight if they are about a drug in the top 100, 200, 300.
In the same way, math questions that expect memorizing the molecular weight of Na and Cl and require a 3 step process to get the answer will be valued more than math questions that can be solved with a single proportion using given values.
But what I was tryin to say is this, if I did not know that metformin gives diarrhea, for me that would be the hardest question, for who knows it, is a very simple question to answer, nontheless the coefficient of this question is the same for the 2 test takers. Therefore I'm pretty sure that they base the question values on what they expect us to know and on the statistics about the dummy questions.
And to conclude YES, you miss a question, you get an easier (according to them) one, you get that right, wait for the harder one (still according to them).
I'm glad some of you find some of my posts entertaining, for real fun I suggest theangrypharmacist.com and theangriestpharmacist.com I don't agree with them but still it's worthed reading ... don't forget to study though!!

2009 July 2nd, 08:20 PM	#5 (permalink)
Aracne They are already proud! Join Date: Aug 2008 Posts: 84	Ahah, I really hope nobody tries to see what happens by willingly answering a question wrong. There is 1 fault in your conclusion though, the dummy questions are meant to be answered and the answers be assessed by the 'experts' in order to give them a coefficient and place them in future naplex exams as scored questions. If the dummy questions were by definition easy, the Naplex would be a joke by now. They need to put dummy questions that are thought to represent all range of difficulty, in order to keep the level of the exam consistent for the time ahead. How to weight a question is a complex problem, I believe it depends on what the board wants us to know absolutely and what's the response of test takers while answering the dummy questions. An example, first dose syncope with alpha blockers is very important to know for a pharmacist because will save lifes but is a relatively rare event; on the other hand, the diarrhea during the first weeks of metformin therapy is not dangerous but it happens relatively often. Based on these findings I'd give similar weight to the 2 topics. On the other hand, I'm prone to think that any question on dosing, even if of a common drug like metformin or prazosin will have a high coefficient because it's simply harder to remember numbers as compared to side effects and they will have more people failing a dosage question than a side effect question. I assume questions will have a different weight if they are about a drug in the top 100, 200, 300. In the same way, math questions that expect memorizing the molecular weight of Na and Cl and require a 3 step process to get the answer will be valued more than math questions that can be solved with a single proportion using given values. But what I was tryin to say is this, if I did not know that metformin gives diarrhea, for me that would be the hardest question, for who knows it, is a very simple question to answer, nontheless the coefficient of this question is the same for the 2 test takers. Therefore I'm pretty sure that they base the question values on what they expect us to know and on the statistics about the dummy questions. And to conclude YES, you miss a question, you get an easier (according to them) one, you get that right, wait for the harder one (still according to them). I'm glad some of you find some of my posts entertaining, for real fun I suggest theangrypharmacist.com and theangriestpharmacist.com I don't agree with them but still it's worthed reading ... don't forget to study though!!