A Wee Bit More.

Sorry if you think I've been talking too much about NPLEX lately... but with having just wrapped up the prep course and have sent off my application (to write the exam), I've had it on my mind as of late. 

A wee bit more about my upcoming NPLEX exam left to present:

1) The exam is written on August 7th, 2012. All second-year naturopathic students studying in North America (i.e. in Canada and the USA) write the exact same exam (same questions), on the exact same day, and even at the exact same time (to accommodate differences in time zones, the exam starts in some parts of the USA at 8 AM, while in other parts (and here in Canada) the exam starts at 9 AM).

2) The exam is divided into two parts, 2.5 hours of question-answering in the morning of the exam, and 2.5 hours in the afternoon (after a quick lunch break).

3) Part one tests your knowledge of structure/function of the body, meaning questions will be focused on the topics of Anatomy, Biochemistry, and Physiology.

4) Part two tests your knowledge of disease/dysfunction of the body, meaning questions will be focused on the topics of Microbiology, Immunology, and Pathology. 

5) You have to pass both parts and you must demonstrate competence in each of the six topics listed above in order to pass the entire exam.

I think the exam layout is cool.  Testing us on what's normal about the body, and then what's abnormal.  It's important that a doctor knows what's going right just as much he/she knows what's going wrong!  Furthermore, I never really thought of my Anatomy/Biochem/Phys courses as the healthy body courses and my Micro/Immuno/Path courses as diseased body courses, but I like they way NPLEX has them classified.