AANP, PSI, APEA, Barkely, Leik

gdhaliwal551 · Oct 31, 2019

Hello! I just passed my AANP exam (FNP) yesterday (10/30/19). Yayyyy!!! I have been reading these forums since 2010 (LVN, RN and now for FNP). I promised myself that if I pass, I would finally make a profile and post on here to help others.

I graduated from SMU FNP (online) program this mid-August and didn't start studying until mid September. I took the Barkley review in June because there were no other reviews after I graduated until late this year and I didn't want to wait that long. The Barkley review was great. It was a long 3 days, the speakers were very knowledgeable and it wasn't boring. I would definitely do it again.

My study plan:

- For 3 weeks I studied two chapters in Barkley and would do the questions from the DRT book that I bought during the review course for the chapters I studied (I studied maybe 4-6 hours each day depending on the length of each of the chapters)

- For 1 week I did the APEA test bank ?s (I would do more than 150?'s each day, but spread out into 10 ?'s, 30 ?'s or 50 ?'s). The reason I did this is because I have two babies and doing 150 ?'s without them interrupting me is impossible LOL. I only did ?'s from the management tab. I scored starting in 50's, then went to 60's and stayed in about 60-80's percentile.

-For 5 days I did 2 actual 150 ? tests each day to build my stamina. One at 9 am like my actual test time and second before dinner and in between I would review the areas that I did bad in from barkley and leik book. I bought 4 APEA test (2 pack and another 2 pack). I did 5 tests in leik (I basically just spread out 150?'s in the back of the book). I did one test in PSI (the first one only). I would def recommend all these tests and many of the ?'s on all of these were on the test or helped me rule out answers. (these 5 days were long days, like studying 12 hours a day)

-I mainly used the Barkley book, leik only during the last week in the areas I did bad on and just used the ?'s and exam tips (however if you do not read the book you will get some ?'s wrong in the back because the Barkley didn't review that content). I would say all the extra things in leik that weren't in Barkley did not show up on the test nor in APEA ?'s or the PSI.

-I would def say that don't worry about the scores so much as long as you know your stuff, you should be good to go; but if your curious my scores were APEA: 65, 71, 74, 70; PSI: 76; Leik: 64, 70, 70.6, 66, 70.6 (my complete avg was 70% and I felt like I knew my stuff, so I took my test)

-The day before: Reviewed exam tips in leik and my personal notes from reading from Barkley

- Just for a comparison, I would def not say I am super smart, but I know I'm a hard worker. So if you study, and your family member or anyone can ask you about the diseases in the Barkley book and you know the cause, s/s, diagnostics and treatment, you should be good.

- Of course, there are some plain memorizing stuff to know like immunization, mr.***, ms. ard, cranial nerves, hep serology, the norms and abnormals for kids, pregnancy ?'s, screenings etc. (which really helps out if you already have kids or have been pregnant)

- The day of the test, I got up at 5 am, left at 6 and my husband drove me, which was super sweet. Got starbucks, went to my temple, and basically made it to the exam 45 mins early (but really just 15) because they take about good 30 mins getting everyone checked in, so arrive 30 min before your exam. Don't wear a hoody because they made me take it off and I was cold during the exam. I finished about 25 mins before the exam time was going to be over.

-During the exam, I wanted to cry after ? 30. I want to say 75 ?'s I knew and the other 50 ?'s I had narrowed down to 2 and about 15 ?'s I had no idea. I really didn't mark any ?'s I noticed I do better on my exams going with my first choice. I honestly thought I failed and when they printed my results and it stated passed I was overwhelmed with happiness.

-Personal tips I picked up during studying and during taking exams, I did better on exam when I took over 2 hours, I missed almost 5-10 ?'s on the exam because I would not read the except, least likely or double negative in the ? or didn't read all the answers and lastly just take a deep breath you got this!

(sorry, for any grammatical or spelling errors)