CPEN Exam

[LA2692001]

For those of you who plan on taking the CPEN, please do not buy tons of study guides. If you've been taking care of kids in the ED for at least two years then you should have no problem with the exam. The only study guide I purchased was the ENA CPEN review manual three weeks before my test date. The majority of the questions in the CPEN exam involved critical thinking and the neat thing about the exam is that you could skip to any of the 175 questions (150+25). In order to pass you need to score at least 110 out 150 (73.3%). The ENA book review tests I scored in the 80's. On my exam I scored 126/150 (84%) and it took me about 2 hrs 15 minutes. If you have extra time you can go back and review your answers and change if necessary. Once you are done, you immediately find out if you passed or failed and they hand you a nice little score report with your goofy picture. On a scale of 1-10 with 10 being most difficult, I rate this exam an 8. Some questions are tricky!! Dont rush!! Heres the breakdown from my exam results:

Triage - 16 questions

Assessment - 29 questions

managing technical skillls - 18 questions

Medical Emergencies - 42 questiions

Surgical, Trauma, Procedural Sedation - 27 questions

Pysch/Maltreatment Emergencies - 11 questions

Legal and Professional Issues - 7 questions

[hiddencatRN, BSN, RN]

For those of you who plan on taking the CPEN, please do not buy tons of study guides. If you've been taking care of kids in the ED for at least two years then you should have no problem with the exam. The only study guide I purchased was the ENA CPEN review manual three weeks before my test date. The majority of the questions in the CPEN exam involved critical thinking and the neat thing about the exam is that you could skip to any of the 175 questions (150+25). In order to pass you need to score at least 110 out 150 (73.3%). The ENA book review tests I scored in the 80's. On my exam I scored 126/150 (84%) and it took me about 2 hrs 15 minutes. If you have extra time you can go back and review your answers and change if necessary. Once you are done, you immediately find out if you passed or failed and they hand you a nice little score report with your goofy picture. On a scale of 1-10 with 10 being most difficult, I rate this exam an 8. Some questions are tricky!! Dont rush!! Heres the breakdown from my exam results:Triage - 16 questionsAssessment - 29 questionsmanaging technical skillls - 18 questionsMedical Emergencies - 42 questiionsSurgical, Trauma, Procedural Sedation - 27 questionsPysch/Maltreatment Emergencies - 11 questionsLegal and Professional Issues - 7 questions

I'm planning to take it, and have both the ENA CPEN review book and Scott Deober's. The ENA book is definitely the better of the two- DeBoer's questions are so easy you don't need to know anything about anything to get them right, but the ENA questions were pretty challenging. I actually failed the practice test I've taken in there- failed it spectacularly, lol. So I would recommend studying a bit.Congrats on passing!

[cheryl2365]

Thanks so much for the info hiddencat! I am studying now for the CPEN. The only book I am using is the ENA CPEN review. I have my CEN, I've had it for about 6 years. Thanks for the breakdown on the test questions. Wish me luck. I did OK on the CEN exam, scored at 92% and all I used was the ENA Study Guide.

[Lunah, MSN, RN]

I used my ENPC book and the DeBoer review book when I took the CPEN in 2010. Did very well on the real thing -- 130-something out of 150 correct.