The MPJE is a Complex Exam – Learn How to Master It!

As you sift through study resources in preparation for the New York MPJE®, you’ll have to balance multiple concepts at once. The state vs. federal dichotomy is your first challenge. Once you have a grasp on reconciling these two sets of rules, you can start navigating problems with multiple solutions (options) and problems with multifactor solutions (requirements).

Complex situations are best reflected in one of the most challenging characteristics of the MPJE®: multiple-response questions, also known as “select all that apply” and sometimes “k-type” questions.

What must pharmacy personnel do when conducting a controlled substance inventory? Select all that apply.

A. Keep the inventory record at the registered location.
B. Make an exact count of alprazolam.
C. Perform the inventory at the midpoint of business hours.
D. Retain the inventory record for a 5-year period.
E. Sign the inventory record (person taking the inventory).

Where to begin? It could be any combination of these answers, right? Almost. At Exam Master, we implement multiple-response questions often to beef up your per-question study gains.

There are a million ways to “game” a poorly written question, but you won’t find those here. We operate under strict rules in our question construction, so you always know what you’re up against and you can focus your brainwaves on the content instead of hunting for accidental clues.

Here are the rules: For Exam Master multiple-response questions, there will always be 5 options. 2, 3, or 4 of them will be correct. Never 1, never 5. You will never see “All of the above” or “None of the above” because these options undermine the multiple-response concept; it verges on a trick question, which tanks the educational value of the material.

The options are always presented in alphabetical order to remove bias potential. Extra care is taken to avoid overlapping phrases that will create unintended “pairs” or “groups” of answers that imbalance the set of 5. The options are always written in similar length. For a sloppy test, the longest answer is usually correct, in case you didn’t already know. We don’t let answers stand out. You just have to know your stuff, because we’re not going to slip up.

We put in the work crafting the questions this way so that the work you put into your study is rewarded more reliably. Your score is going to mean more when this level of precision is baked into each test question.

With all that in mind, do you know how to go about this controlled substance inventory?

Without diving into every detail, you might have correctly answered that you must (A) Keep the inventory record at the registered location. Seems sensible enough. Federal rules indicate that “Each inventory…shall be maintained in written, typewritten, or printed form at the registered location.” with lots of legalese jargon omitted and lots more following this rule in the subsection. Legislation is notoriously hard to read due to its (usually unmet) goal of being clear and comprehensive. We transform that jargon into plain conversational English for the same reason as the other rules we set for ourselves: to let you maximize your study efforts and cut straight through artificial barriers.

Take a look at (D) Retain the inventory record for a 5-year period. to understand a few final methods we use to curate our content. This option is one of the correct answers. The DEA only requires 2 years, but New York requires 5. This is an example of where state regulations supersede, but you have to know that you’re reading a state-specific detail. No hand-holding. You’ll notice that the 2-year DEA requirement could have been listed as a distractor (an incorrect option). But that would cause two new problems.

First, listing 2 years and 5 years as separate options would tip you off to that distinction in a lazy effort to trick you or otherwise phone in one of the options. Second, listing both of these options makes these options mutually exclusive; they can’t both be true. Exam Master multiple-response questions will always have 5 options that can theoretically be true simultaneously. If you could systematically rule out options based on pure logic, that’s testing your reasoning rather than your knowledge. Let’s stick to the pharmacy, not philosophy.

Option (B) Make an exact count of alprazolam. will be our closer. Correct or incorrect? This is another stealthy state requirement, but you’ll have to figure this one out yourself until you read the Exam Master explanation in Practice Exam Study Mode.

 

Learn More About Our New York MPJE Study Systems Here.