ANCC FNP exam: My experience

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Specializes in Cardiology, Research, Family Practice.

Today I took and passed the ANCC FNP exam and wanted to share my experience while it is still fresh:

First, although the process of submitting the online application was quite simple, it took 7 weeks to receive confirmation that I could schedule the exam. The reason - the Validation of Education form. My SON sent it electronically in mid-December, and by early February the ANCC told me they still hadn't received it. As it turns out, the SON uses a secure server that (I presume) the ANCC can't log in to. So my Validation Form was just sitting out in cyberspace for all that time waiting for someone to open it. I finally had the SON send it to me, logged on to the secure server myself, downloaded the form, and sent it to the ANCC. Less than an hour later I received authorization to schedule! Very frustrating and disappointing to have waited so long for that.

Needless to say, I had lots of time to study, using the following sources:

School notes & texts. I studied one system at a time and made powerpoint flash cards of things like "signs" (e.g. Markle's sign), reflexes, etc.

Fitzgerald CDs & book

Leik review book - there are over 600 practice questions in the back, highly recommend (despite a few errors scattered throughout)

FamilyNP prep - purchased 15 practice tests. These practice tests did help a little regarding clinical topics. However, there are a LOT of non-clinical questions such as theory, famous psychologists, NP entrepreneurship, etc. which were simply not reflective of the types of non-clinical questions that were actually on the exam. This led me down the path of studying nursing theories (Leininger, family stress, family dynamic, transcultural, blah blah blah) plus psych stuff like Erikson, Freud, Piaget....none of this stuff was relevant. Additionally, there were supposed to be all unique questions, but I had LOTS of repeats. Overall, the time (& money) I spent on these practice tests would have been better spent studying other sources.

Test day:

I don't know about anyone else, but I have taken two certification tests at my local testing center and both times there was one person in the room clickety-clacking away typing up War and Peace or something. It is beyond irritating and distracting! The testing centers should really separate the "typers" from the "clickers".

I had about 10 or so photos. The photo questions were application, such as "which of the following would you biopsy" and such.

There were 7-10 multiple answer questions, such as "pick 3" of the following. Some of them were a little challenging in that I knew 2 of the choices easily, but struggled with the third. Unfortunately, you either get the whole question right or the whole question wrong. There were also matching questions and a few "place in the correct order" questions.

There were lots of questions on research. Fitzgerald has a link on her website that is very helpful for this:

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and there is an additional handout for those who purchased the review course. These two Fitzgerald sources alone probably earned me 5 questions on the exam.

Lots of professional/legal questions. I recommend Carolyn Bippert's book and reading the recommended resources on the ANCC website regarding leadership.

There were also lots of cultural questions. I don't know how to study for those. Some of them I knew just from life experience, some I straight up guessed.

After the test, I received a print-out stating that I had passed. No raw score was given, which is probably for the best. After passing the exam, it is still required to go to the ANCC website and request a validation form to be sent to the BON (for ~$300, one would think the ANCC could manage that step automatically).

Last thing:

The exam itself was WAY less clinically-oriented than I expected. They say it's 25% non-clinical, but I bet it's more like 50/50. Of those, the clinical questions were the most straightforward with no rare or unusual conditions or disease states I'd never heard of. Fitzgerald says "common conditions occur commonly" and that is absolutely reflected on the exam. There was very little by way of meds either, with the exception of the very common meds for the very common chronic conditions. On the other hand, in my opinion, many of the non-clinical questions seemed ambiguous and from out of left field.

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Specializes in Author/Business Coach.

Steph RN,

I too took my ANCC FNP exam yesterday. Congratulations on passing!

I didn't think the test was too hard at all.

After graduating in December I took a live Fitzgerald's Review course. In addition, I already had the Fitzgerald's review book that I used to study with while in school. I went over these two texts twice in my study time. These two resources were more than enough to pass the exam, but I also bought the yellow ANCC book (used from Ebay) to study the non-clinical aspects of the test. And finally I brought 20 practice tests on FNPprep.com and completed all of them.

My study breakdown:

Fitzgerald's Live Review

In addition to a resource book, online access is given for other test content. I reviewed all of this material once and took her practice exam just last week. I scored 85%

Fitzgerald's Review book (3rd edition)

I used this to study during school and for my board review. I would go over each subject in my Live Review book and then this book immediately afterwards, completing the questions in the book and reading the rationale.

In addition you can use a code found in this book to access pictures. The derm pictures helped me the most. I had about 5 derm picture questions on the exam. This helped tremendously.

ANCC Yellow Book

I believe there is a new edition out now, so I swiped this one up for $75 on Ebay. Chapters 1-3 have the research, theory, and developmental stages that you need to focus on for the non clinical questions.

FNPprep.com

I purchased a 20 pack bundle and believe this was the key to my success. I tried to take at least 2 tests per week. In the last few weeks of my study plan I took 3 tests a week, and finally the week of the exam I took 4. My scores subsequently got higher with each test. After the test you can review rationale for all of your answers. I made it a point to review all of my incorrect answers and made flashcards out of them.

P.S. the code to save 10% on the bundles is SAVE-SLLT

Flashcards

Like I said earlier, I made flashcards from the questions I missed or didn't understand on my practice exams. I reviewed these flashcards on my downtime at work or when I had finished my review for the day and felt the need to study more.

Notebook

For the questions that were awkward to place on a flashcard, I put in a notebook. I used the notebook the same way I used the cards, I reviewed it on my downtime.

By the time test time came around I was burned out! I literally didn't study for 3 days before the exam. I hoped this was a sign of me knowing my stuff, and apparently I did!

The non-clinical questions were not bad, most were easy to weed out if you didn't know it. I thought the breakdown was more like 25% non-clinical to 75% clinical.

I had questions on the level of research, how to manage HTN in DM, STD's, lots of asthma, and pictures mostly based on derm diagnoses.

Good luck to everyone studying for the ANCC exam!

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Congrats to you both !!!! I have the Fitzgerald review book and had recently ordered her CDs off Amazon. I have been trying to incorporate that book into each of my final segments of my FNP program. Its very encouraging to hear success stories. Again, congratulation to you guys. I hoping to be done this June ; ) Keep me in your prayers and thoughts

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Congratulations to those of you who already passed!

I am wondering what scores you got on the Exam Edge Familynpprep.com tests. I am wondering if the scores on there are indicative of how well one might do on the real exam. I purchased a few tests from the site and my scores are all over the place: I have some as low as 320 and some passing in the 380's.

On the Fitzgerald practice exam I got 75%.

Please post if you are able about whether your scores, particularly on Exam Edge, were in any way indicative to the real boards.

I would love to get this exam over and done with, but I honestly don't know if I feel completely ready to take the real thing. But I also think I'm just one of those people who never feels completely ready for an exam. On many standardized tests like these there are always questions that seem to come out of left field.

Thanks in advance!

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I took the ANCC FNP boards a couple of days after my last post and passed! I found this site helpful for info before I took the boards so I figured I’d post my experience as well. This post became a whole lot longer than I originally would have wanted, but I wanted to give a good overview of my experience. I decided to put bolded headings like a previous poster so maybe you can skip over things if you think I got too long-winded (sorry!)

Study Timeline

So all in all my timeline looked like this: I began studying around mid Jan while I was working FT as an RN. I wasn’t working during Feb at all because I wanted to just prep for the boards. I took the exam first week of March and quickly started my FNP job two days after passing the exam. It took around 6 weeks of prep in total but the last 4 weeks I was more focused because I wasn’t working. I think I could have probably taken the exam with only 5 weeks of prep but I couldn’t schedule the test sooner.

Fitzgerald Online Review Course

I was supposed to take the live course but ended up taking the online course due to scheduling. I heard from classmates that the live course is pretty much the same thing as the online course because the same material is covered. However, some people said that going to the live course gave them more of a push to start studying.

The online course allows you to view each module 4 times so you probably could share it with a buddy if you’re watching it together or only need to watch it 2 times each. There is one final exam at the end, so if you split it, you’d have to figure that out beforehand. It took me about 4 weeks to get through all of the lectures carefully to the point where I was comfortable with the material.

Also, be aware that for the final exam on Fitzgerald you can only review it once after you finish the exam. Once you close that box, you can’t review the exam and your answers. I had a problem with my browser so it had to shut down so I never reviewed my final exam on Fitzgerald but I ended up getting a 75%. I wasn’t too happy with that, but I ended up passing the ANCC on my first try so I’m not dwelling on it.

Fitzgerald - Nurse Practitioner Certification Examination and Practice Preparation, 3rd Edition

Nurse Practitioner Certification Examination and Practice Preparation, 3rd Edition - Fitzgerald Health Education Associates, Inc.

This is not the same book you would get doing the Fitzgerald Online review course. I didn’t do all of the questions in this book – maybe not even half of the book. I thought this was a good book for review but of course Fitzgerald wouldn’t give away all of her tricks in this book if she wants you to buy the live or online course.

I thought the questions in this book were a bit more straightforward (i.e., if you read the text, you can get the question right, and some of the questions are just straight up recalling facts and drills of identifying drugs of a certain class). Some tables and questions are the same as in the review book from the online course but some info seemed a little superfluous. I don’t think this review book needed to go into all that much detail ab/ Smallpox vaccine. There were other things that seemed like they were just filler. Once I figured out that Fitzgerald probably just put together this book with her name on it so she could make some money, I figured I would just stick to the review course workbook and lectures from Fitzgerald.

So if I could do it again, I wouldn’t have bought this book since I was doing the Fitzgerald online.

Exam Edge Family NP Prep

FamilyNPprep.com - Your #1 source for passing the ANCC Family Nurse Practitioner

These are just mock test questions and there are 100 questions for each test. I bought 25 exams which was completely overkill but I liked doing 100 questions straight because it really got me used to being in the zone for this test. After test #16 or so, I then started to do two tests back to back to simulate doing 200 questions straight like in the real exam.

All of the questions are exactly the same for all users. All of the tests are numbered and Test #1 is always the same for everyone, so is Test #2 and #3 and so forth. I sat next to a friend while doing Test #2 and she looked over to my screen every now and then and after the test she told me the questions were the exact same ones she got. So there is no shuffling and replacing of questions.

The content of the questions also didn’t always seem to reflect the FNP scope of practice. Some questions were really out of the blue and probably would have been better for a dental or orthopaedic review course.

There were other posts I found on this site that said the questions on this site kept repeating themselves. YES. THIS IS TRUE. I think Test #1 had a few questions that were also in Test #2 and Test #3. It also seemed like Test #7 had the same exact questions as in Test #8 and #9. The questions weren’t even worded differently nor had different answer choices. Mirror image.

My scores were all over the place and had no real trend. I was getting nervous because I thought these scores weren’t good enough. Apparently someone in my class was consistently getting 400 on these practice tests; my highest was 382 on these exams. I don’t know if this question bank is really indicative of how well you would do on the actual boards because I failed some of these pretty badly a few days before the real exam (which gave me some pretty terrible anxiety) but I ended up passing the real thing.

[TABLE=width: 523, align: center]

[TR]

[TD]Test Name[/TD]

[TD]Questions[/TD]

[TD]Raw Score[/TD]

[TD]Approx.

ANCC Nurse Practitioner

Score[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]FREE Practice Test[/TD]

[TD]10[/TD]

[TD]4[/TD]

[TD]221[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]Practice Test 1[/TD]

[TD]100[/TD]

[TD]64[/TD]

[TD]340[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]Practice Test 2[/TD]

[TD]100[/TD]

[TD]73[/TD]

[TD]382[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]Practice Test 3[/TD]

[TD]100[/TD]

[TD]56[/TD]

[TD]301[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]Practice Test 4[/TD]

[TD]100[/TD]

[TD]67[/TD]

[TD]354[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]Practice Test 5[/TD]

[TD]100[/TD]

[TD]60[/TD]

[TD]321[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]Practice Test 6[/TD]

[TD]100[/TD]

[TD]68[/TD]

[TD]359[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]Practice Test 7[/TD]

[TD]100[/TD]

[TD]66[/TD]

[TD]350[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]Practice Test 8[/TD]

[TD]100[/TD]

[TD]68[/TD]

[TD]359[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]Practice Test 9[/TD]

[TD]100[/TD]

[TD]66[/TD]

[TD]350[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]Practice Test 10[/TD]

[TD]100[/TD]

[TD]59[/TD]

[TD]316[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]Practice Test 11[/TD]

[TD]100[/TD]

[TD]60[/TD]

[TD]321[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]Practice Test 12[/TD]

[TD]100[/TD]

[TD]61[/TD]

[TD]326[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]Practice Test 13[/TD]

[TD]100[/TD]

[TD]65[/TD]

[TD]345[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]Practice Test 14[/TD]

[TD]100[/TD]

[TD]70[/TD]

[TD]368[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]Practice Test 15[/TD]

[TD]100[/TD]

[TD]66[/TD]

[TD]350[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]Practice Test 16[/TD]

[TD]100[/TD]

[TD]65[/TD]

[TD]345[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]Practice Test 17[/TD]

[TD]100[/TD]

[TD]69[/TD]

[TD]364[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]Practice Test 18[/TD]

[TD]100[/TD]

[TD]66[/TD]

[TD]350[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]Practice Test 19[/TD]

[TD]100[/TD]

[TD]61[/TD]

[TD]326[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]Practice Test 20[/TD]

[TD]100[/TD]

[TD]71[/TD]

[TD]373[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]Practice Test 21[/TD]

[TD]100[/TD]

[TD]67[/TD]

[TD]354[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]Practice Test 22[/TD]

[TD]100[/TD]

[TD]61[/TD]

[TD]326[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]Practice Test 23[/TD]

[TD]100[/TD]

[TD]63[/TD]

[TD]335[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]Practice Test 24[/TD]

[TD]100[/TD]

[TD]65[/TD]

[TD]345[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]Practice Test 25[/TD]

[TD]100[/TD]

[TD]71[/TD]

[TD]373[/TD]

[/TR]

[/TABLE]

In short, if I could do this over again, I would have bought the 25 pack and split it between 5 people and the first person can just do Tests 1,6,11,16,21 so you’re sure to get variety! Buying more than 5-10 tests from this site is really more than enough.

Other posts said that this exam bank seemed most similar to the actual ANCC FNP boards. I would agree that the questions are worded similarly, but after doing so many of these tests from this site, I think they’re worded very similarly only because the questions seem to be taken straight out of the FNP Review Manual which I will review below. Family Nurse Practitioner Review Manual - 4th Edition

The test questions are worded similarly and the “look” of the site is similar to the real boards, but **did not simulate the real boards at all. I ended up doing 100 questions in roughly 50 minutes on this site (sometimes even quicker because I ended up recognizing some of the questions from previous tests) but during the real exam, it took me much longer to do the first 100 questions. The questions provided on this site are sometimes only one or two lines long and not really case studies.

Also, this question bank has multiple-answer questions, but they don’t tell you how many to select, you just are told select all that apply. In the real boards, you are told “Select 3” or “Select 4” so you are told how many you need.

Family Nurse Practitioner Review Manual - 4th Edition (AKA “Yellow book”)

Family Nurse Practitioner Review Manual - 4th Edition

The 3rd edition of this book was yellow, so it seems that a lot of posters on Allnurses have referred to it as the “Yellow book”. I used the 4th edition. Again, I didn’t go through the two volumes of these books but I thought they were helpful.

The website says “Manual MUST be purchased from ANCC directly in order to qualify for the associated CNE credits.” But just know you’d have to pay another $95 in addition to the price of the books in order to get those CNE credits.

This book was the most comprehensive of all of the review books out there.

Other posters have said that it is good to read the first few chapters in this book that cover I would definitely agree. READ THE FIRST CHAPTER where there are a few tips (if there are two answers that are opposites, most likely one of those answer choices is the right one, etc.)

Read the few chapters on Healthcare issues, insurance, legal, management, research. It does come in handy.

Dunphy - Adult-Gerontology and Family Nurse Practitioner Certification Examination: Review Questions and Strategies

Amazon.com: Adult-Gerontology and Family Nurse Practitioner Certification Examination: Review Questions and Strategies (9780803627048): Jill E. Winland-Brown, Lynne M. Dunphy: Books

I didn’t do all of the questions in this book but found it helpful to use to run questions on topics I wasn’t as comfortable with after reviewing Fitzgerald. I did hear from others that the questions in this book were more difficult than necessary so I didn’t feel compelled to finish the whole book. I did like the fact that the questions had detailed answers.

ANCC FNP BOARDS

The actual exam took a lot longer than I had expected. I was doing the Exam Edge Fnpprep.com questions and got used to doing 100 questions in 50-65 minutes. So I got worried during the real exam when I was only at maybe question 50-something or 60-something after the first hour.

Meds: There were a couple of questions that just listed one drug and then you were supposed to choose which drug you would not prescribe because of interactions.

I also had quite a few HTN and DM case studies with meds.

Questions with Multiple Answers: you are told “Select 3” or “Select 4” so you are told how many you need.

Images: I had quite a few questions with images. Some gave a med and you had to choose what picture you could treat with the med.

Order: I had questions that asked me to put what you would do in order, or what order med would you give, i.e. what is the first line drug, and second line, etc.

Even having read the ANCC Review book 4th edition (AKA “Yellow Book”) I still felt there were questions and terms related to insurance or research that I don’t remember seeing in that book.

Breaks: There is no schedule break but you can take a break if you want but I think the clock still is running during your break.

Earplugs: they let me bring earplugs into the room (I didn’t see earplugs supplied at the site) and there were some headphones at the computer but I don’t know if all computers had sound-cancelling headphones since I saw some ppl at other stations who weren’t using headphones or earplugs.

I recommend that you “Mark” the questions you don’t know because at the end, you have a list of what questions were “marked” and you can easily go back to those to review them. I’m glad I marked questions b/c there wasn’t enough time for me to go back and review every single question but I did mark quite a few questions and had enough time to review all of them at the end.

This was a really long review but I wanted to write while everything was still fresh. I definitely was getting a bit discouraged the few days before the exam because my ExamEdge FNPprep.com scores weren’t showing an upward trend, but I think if you go through the Fitzgerald course and do several practice tests from other question banks (for variety) and if you review topics in the ANCC review books that you are not comfortable with, you are probably ready to take the exam.

All the best and good luck!

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Thanks to you all for sharing your tips! I just submitted my ANCC application and now am waiting. I have taken the Fitzgerald online review and have two of her review books, have seen Hollier live, have purchased the LEIK FNP intensive review book and read through it twice/ completed the 600+ questions with rationale that it has, and now am going back to my assessment & guidelines/ differential diagnoses texts. I thought the Leik book had a fair amount of the non-clinical information (had a section of the book devoted to law, ethics, research etc.) so I am going to forego purchasing the ANCC book I think. Now I am wondering if maybe I should purchase some practice tests online as well (but perhaps a smaller number than 10 or 20)?

Congrats to you all on passing!

Cardiac-RN

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help.. are you selling your study material?

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I will be graduating from my program on may 3rd and would like to start a serious study program on may 1st in preparation to possible take the ANCC begining of july. So far i have Mometrix test prep which has a lot of information but only 50 questions. I also have Fitgerald review book and test questions on my Kindle which again i find the questions to be very lengthy, i also hate that the questions are after the information. Last and final i have Leik review which i love the break down and it has about 500 questions. At this point dont know if i should spend to get another book or utilize the books that i have to develope a content study guide that i can review daily. I am a good test taker i think i need more of the content to be learned and later do questions. I need help guys what do you think, Should i make flash cards? should i use a note pad to make a study guide? should i purchase another study system if so which do you recommend?

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I will be graduating from my program on may 3rd and would like to start a serious study program on may 1st in preparation to possible take the ANCC begining of july. So far i have Mometrix test prep which has a lot of information but only 50 questions. I also have Fitgerald review book and test questions on my Kindle which again i find the questions to be very lengthy, i also hate that the questions are after the information. Last and final i have Leik review which i love the break down and it has about 500 questions. At this point dont know if i should spend to get another book or utilize the books that i have to develope a content study guide that i can review daily. I am a good test taker i think i need more of the content to be learned and later do questions. I need help guys what do you think, Should i make flash cards? should i use a note pad to make a study guide? should i purchase another study system if so which do you recommend?

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I will be graduating from my program on may 3rd and would like to start a serious study program on may 1st in preparation to possible take the ANCC begining of july. So far i have Mometrix test prep which has a lot of information but only 50 questions. I also have Fitgerald review book and test questions on my Kindle which again i find the questions to be very lengthy, i also hate that the questions are after the information. Last and final i have Leik review which i love the break down and it has about 500 questions. At this point dont know if i should spend to get another book or utilize the books that i have to develope a content study guide that i can review daily. I am a good test taker i think i need more of the content to be learned and later do questions. I need help guys what do you think, Should i make flash cards? should i use a note pad to make a study guide? should i purchase another study system if so which do you recommend

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i am planning to take my FNP exam in early june and looking for a review partner, anyone interest. pls email

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are you from NY? i would love a test partner.

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