I am not sure how many people are taking AANP compared to ANCC. I passed it, and thought I would take a few minutes to share some thoughts.
1) The exam was much better than the books. I used Fitzgerald and Leik. Both were older editions, so many of the questions regarding guidelines were outdated.
I didn't really like Fitzgerald book very much. She tries really hard to be obscure, and often her answers added more to the confusion. It was valuable spending 20 minutes looking for the source of some of her answers. Leik is much more to the point.
2) I initially went through the 500 questions in Leik, and scored about 60% - cold. When I moved on to Fitzgerald, I took the questions first, scoring about 50-60%, then read the rationale that followed. I think a lot of her rationale was goofy, so I used Epocrates and emedicine to cross reference, and went directly to the guidelines from AHA, JNC7, etc, when it was appropriate.
3) Then I went to APEA. I took the first predictor exam - 57%. Now I am thinking I am a loser. Studied hard on the weakest subjects, and took another one. 76%. Now we are onto something. Studied again, another one, 81%. The questions were almost all unique, except for a few repeats.
4) Learned cranial nerves, antibiotics for all of the major disorders (CAP, UTI, Diverticulitis, AOM, Strep A pneumonia, lady partsl infections, STD's, etc. Studied anemias and thryroid disorders. Maneuvers and signs, red flags.
5) When I started out in the exam room, I used the scratch paper to write down all of the antibiotics I had memorized with their corresponding disorder, and wrote down the anemias and their corresponding lab values. It woke up my brain and gave me a cheat sheet to speed up my decisions.
Summary. My test was heavy on female disorders, thyroid, and dermatology. All subjects I think should be removed or lessened on an initial certifying board. It was very light on cardiology, had some respiratory with spirometry, and a few cancer questions.
Very little on governing, licensing, ethics, or health promotion. Almost no neuro. Too bad, I like neuro.
So that's my take on it. 5 years work for a 150 question exam.
