Failed FNP AANP again (4th time) seriously I give up!

Dragonfly2014 · Dec 23, 2015

Have u tried the ANCC instead?

MikeFNPC, MSN · Dec 23, 2015

Wow, I would suggest the Barkley review CD's and the in-person prep if you haven't don that. Could you teach? Not passing the certification cant take away the degree earned.

greygooseuria · Dec 23, 2015

This probably won't help any, but I'll let you know what my method was anyway:

Starting in the fall semester, 8 months before graduation, I got Fitzgerald's Review course audio and some other woman's audio whose name escapes me at the moment. I listened to them EVERYWHERE. In the shower. In the car. While walking. Literally everywhere. I went without music for the year. I also had a few review books for the exam and I did multiple questions several times a day and read rationales for what I got wrong. I basically imprinted all the info on the materials into my brain and regurgitated it for the boards.

I should mention I did the same thing for the NCLEX too, except I started doing NCLEX questions at the beginning of nursing school. Took me 40 minutes to take the boards and pass, 15 minutes which was spent doing the sign in and tutorial crap. I think it definitely can work but you have to reeeeaally suffer with this method. I thought I was going crazy at times.

Wakes · Dec 24, 2015

I got all A's (1 B) in my master's program. I've never been good at tests. I passed my NCLEX with 76 questions. I did the Live Fitzgerald course and didn't really like it. I have Barkley and the CD's and listen to them as well.

I really appreciate everyone's help. I feel confident in my knowledge and doing the practice tests (which those gave me false hope). After giving myself a day to cool off and think about the test. I found myself thinking I second guessed myself on some questions. I came home and wrote down as many questions/answers I could remember about 75 of them. and realized then that I knew the answer but had selected another/wrong answer.

greygooseuria · Dec 24, 2015

You'll eventually get it. I had to force myself not to overthink things on the boards and I made myself not changed answers because with my history, I end up changing it to the wrong answer. Your performance in school/clinicals is how you'll be as a provider, not some random collection of questions.

TicTok411 · Dec 24, 2015

Some people stress out with testing. For my NCLEX I took the advice of a friend to graduated the semester prior. She said read the question and the right answer will jump out at you. Do not try to think and once you select your answer move on. She was right - I did not try to over think it and it all just clicked and twenty minutes later I was done. The people I know who fail stuff they know are the ones who talk themselves into other answers. The test is a basic knowledge needed for practice and as long as you graduated from a credible school (one that actually has tests and not just papers) you should be prepared with the information.

evolvingrn, BSN, RN · Dec 24, 2015

Sorry. That has to be super frustrating. Don't give up! I just took the test on the 17th so its still fresh in my mind. I think you have to go in confident enough that you won't/can't talk yourself out of your answer. I did the barkley review and the Leik book . I chose that over Fitzgerald because his goal is to help you pass the test. Fitzgerald, I have been told goes way more indepth than is necessary. I did buy the app with her practice questions. They were incredibly hard and tricky and helped me at learning to decipher questions. Hang in there!

TakeTwoAspirin, MSN, RN, APRN · Dec 24, 2015

There is a module on the ANCC website that walks you through how to read the test questions and what key words and phrases they put in the questions that give you an indication of what kind of answer they are looking for. If you truly know your stuff, but are still failing the test, you may be missing something in how you are interpreting the questions.

studentFNP16 · Dec 25, 2015

May I ask what school you attended? I am surprised they haven't offered to help!

Goldenfox · Dec 25, 2015

Giving up should not be an option for you. Not so easily. Not even after trying four times. That test is not that hard. You're not passing because you're over-thinking the questions. Perhaps it's all those practice questions you've done that are throwing you off. Seriously, the AANP answer options WILL throw you off if you read too much into the questions. No matter how tempting an answer looks, if it seems even a little complicated or exotic it is the wrong answer. They are testing your ability to recognize the more common things that you will see in primary care, that you understand what the diagnostics mean, and that you understand the rationale for the common interventions---all at the beginning clinician level. In my opinion, the distractors that the AANP uses are more cleverly written than the ones used by the ANCC and that's why the AANP exam seems harder. Writing down the questions may not help if you're planning to use this information to take the test again. The questions are pulled from a test bank. After you've seen a question once you may not ever see it again.

You already know most of the answers to the questions on that test. You just need to understand how to better identify the distractors and eliminate them. My suggestion is that you hold off on taking the exam again until you are throughly prepped. I recommend the Leik book for content review (though not her questions so much) and testing tips. I also recommend a review course. Barkley is good. I recommend either his course or Leik's course because they focus more on tips to help you pass the test than going through every single thing that you already learned in NP school. There is another book that I would recommend, but only if you can borrow it from a library, because it's a bit pricey...How to Study for Standardized Tests by Sefcik and Bice---excellent resource for preparing for any test.

Wakes · Dec 30, 2015

Yes. I took several tests for each course in my graduate I think several of you are correct. Doing the practice tests I am relaxed, I read a question and choose an answer. And like I said had been getting higher 580s and above. Thinking back to this recent exam. I took a lot longer than I normally do making sure that I answer and probably overthinking the question and even questioning myself. Thanks for helping me realize this.