Hi,
I haven't seen lots of posts about people taking the new ANCC-FNP exam as of February 2016, so I decided to write one because I know I went looking here for advice and on what to expect several times throughout my process. I just got home and I passed the exam.
So as far as study advice I would say really really really really DO NOT SKIP OR GLOSS OVER epidemiology, all the technical jargon about nursing roles, standards of practice, quality improvement programs, risk management programs, sentinel events, root cause analysis, outcomes analysis, malpractice, CPT, ICD-10, incident to billing.
Learn these definitions so well you can repeat them back including, if applicable, their precise names (International Classification for Diseases, Budget Reconciliation Act). If there are stated steps to the "risk management review process"- know them by name and in order. If you get these type of questions wrong on your practice exams, pay A LOT of attention and review, retest, try to fix. Don't think "ugh, whatever, I know what 'leadership' is"... they will ask it in strange ways.
Really improve your literal test-taking skills at closely reading questions. I am someone who is generally naturally good at this (I had a near perfect score on GRE verbal and I'm a voracious reader), but I actually realized I needed to do work on this. There are many questions where the line between the right answer or wrong are things.
I used lots of things to study over time, Leik is very good for streamlining and making things feel manageable, but there are also mistakes and exclusions and its organized not very well. There were some nights where all that made me pretty aggravated. All that said, I used her a lot. She does talk about professional issues, but you NEED to supplement-- go everywhere looking for supplements on the topics I suggested above, no one source covers it all. Check ANCC's book.
I took Barkley review ages ago, so the live review didn't factor in to my success (but could have), but the book I got from it was very good-- his outline for peds really helped me feel like it was manageable where other books were too bogged down in info. But of course, none of that was on the exam. ?
Fitzgerald is great, but she really lays on surplus info you don't need- she's focused on making great clinicians with her book, not getting people to focus on only passing the exam. But good supplement. I took Fitzgerald's practice online questions (many repeats from book, but some new), I bought Barkley's DRT exams (annoyingly expensive and overthinking it I think), the ANCC practice tests (they only sell 2 which together make up a little less than 1 whole exam), and I took APEA predictor exams the last few days before my exam, which I liked and also boosted my sense of confidence. Really none of these provided the mix I got on my exam, they were all much more clinical, and the test wasn't. But you need to just start testing and getting some sense, so just choose whichever budget wise works for you. But, if you had to only buy two for instance, I would choose two tests from two different sources rather than from one. Just having the experience of doing questions on the computer is valuable.
I also took Fitzgerald's review (again a long time ago) it was very thorough... it had a less relaxed feeling than Barkley's... I felt I liked hers better, but again... they are all focused on clinical...I also have lots of other resources that I didn't use much (Fitzgerald's CD's for instance) and I am happy I didn't use to study in retrospect... although I will for my general knowledge.
So, that's it. Hope it's helpful. I had agonized way past the point of return because I was so nervous about this test.... Oh, also, normally I take tests VERY quickly. On practice exams of 150 questions, I am done in an hour and 15. I needed every minute of 4 hours and 30 minutes on this test. I didn't even get through reviewing all of my marked questions when the computer shut off and I only took one short bathroom/ drink break.
OH and another thing, the computer DID NOT tell me if I passed. I sat there thinking it would given what others have said. And then I thought something went horribly wrong, or I failed. In fact, the proctor outside the room after checking me out, printed out a sheet, silently folded it and then handed it to me. THIS had if I passed or failed on it.
Additionally there were two features available to help you on the exam, which I have never heard anyone mention before. 1. You can strike out answers to help you visualize and cut down on the data. When you go back to a question, your strike outs remain. 2. You can also highlight parts of the question and your highlights remain.
Also everything, but your ID And key to your locked has to be put away, but at my testing center people were allowed to access food and drink they left on top of the lockers. A lady actually told me that I could even go into my locker as long as I didn't check my phone or other prohibited behaviors, so although I left my water and juice out, I left my snack bars in. It turns out my proctor made me leave my key on the desk, so she was misinformed. But I had access to my liquids, I would have put out my bar too if I had known. I took the test in NYC- Manhattan at Prometric and I am sure there could be variation between centers, but just putting it out there....
Good luck!
