The Multistate Pharmacy Jurisprudence Examination, or MPJE®, is a standardized test that pharmacy school graduates must pass before they can practice in most parts of the United States. It consists of 90 multiple-choice questions designed to determine how well test takers understand the laws that govern the pharmaceutical industry. The questions are based on both federal and state law in the United States.
Despite being a national exam, the MPJE® differs slightly from state to state. The majority of the exam consists of questions about national law, which are the same on every test. Questions about state law, on the other hand, are based on a blueprint. Individual state pharmacy boards can plug their laws into the blueprint, which is essentially a question template with uniform wording and answer options. The blueprint system’s primary goal is to develop a nationally uniform exam that allows for state-specific assessments.
In the United States, pharmacy licensing is regulated at the state level. In order to obtain a pharmacy license, the vast majority of states in the United States require prospective pharmacists to pass the MPJE®. States that do not require the exam usually have a separate, state-specific jurisprudence exam. Pharmacists are required to have at least some legal knowledge in every state.
Even if it is accepted, the MPJE® is only one part of the pharmacy licensing process. The North American Pharmacy Licensure Examination, also known as the NAPLEX®, is required in all states. Unlike the MPJE®, the NAPLEX® contains only national-level questions that do not differ state.
The National Association of Boards of Pharmacy (NABP®) created and oversees both exams. All state modifications to blueprint questions are approved the NABP®, which also compiles and publishes each state-specific MPJE® exam. It’s also in charge of grading and scaling individual exams, as well as reporting the results to the appropriate state licensing boards.
The jurisprudence pharmacy exam is a computer-adaptive test in all jurisdictions. Candidates are given 90 questions to answer, but unlike written standardized tests, the questions are not pre-determined. Each MPJE® test contains both easy and difficult questions, and the computer decides which type of question a student will receive.
At a centralized testing facility, all examinees take the MPJE® on a computer. When a question is answered correctly, the next one becomes a little more difficult. If you answer a question incorrectly, a slightly easier question will appear next.
The number of questions a student answers correctly does not always determine his or her overall grade. Instead, it is determined a combination of correct answers and average difficulty level. The correct answer is more heavily weighted the harder the questions are.