Help with Certification exam. I took it to day and I am totally bummed I failed. I studied

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I am so bummed. Need help. I took the FNP exam today and failed. I went to Hollier. Read LeikAnd did several test banks.

What did I do wrong. Help please!!!

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Specializes in ER, PCU, UCC, Observation medicine.

Learn from your failures. Now you know what the test is asking. Hopefully it brought out your weaknesses that you can strengthen for the next time you test. Keep studying. Some people aren't good test takers, especially me, trust me I've been there. Good luck!

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Specializes in NICU, Pediatric Urgent Care.

Which test did you take?

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This is not the end of your journey! You were able to conquer grad school, so I have no doubt in my mind you can handle this test! I agree with YoutubeTheNP. Learn from your failures so that you can be better prepared for the next go round. If you studied on you own for this exam, maybe sign up for a paid (in person or online) test prep program and review sections that you were weak. Believe me you got this!

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Thanks. Which reviews did you do?

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I took the AANP and failed also. I studied the Leik book, and questions, took live review A Hollier. I am lost as what to do also. Any help would be greatly appreciate.

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May I ask, what FNP school did you go to? Did they offer any assistance with study aides?

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I am sorry you did not pass, but plenty of people need to retake the test, so don't feel too bad. If you got through NP school, you can do this!

My study approach:

I didn't take a live or web class, but instead bought the Barkley and Associates CDs of an entire course of theirs. This was because I had to drive from Baltimore all the way back home to California, so I listened to all the CDs during my drive. It was also great to be able to listen to the CDs at any time. It comes with a class manual and a free 100 question diagnostic exam (online). Excellent review.

When I started studying, I re-listened to the Barkley audio lecture for the chosen body system to study, then read the Leik and Fitzgerald review books on that topic, taking notes to incorporate additional details. I then quizzed myself on that system using the (separate purchase) Barkeley sample question book and the Hollier sample question book. So, that took 1 to 3 days per system. Barkley strongly advises to focus on mastering the material, not on doing a lot of practice questions. I agree with him.

MAKE LOTS OF FLASH CARDS! That was the easiest way for me to memorize

Also, I found medical mnemonics to be incredibly helpful. The Ultimate Medical Mnemonic Comic Book” was very helpful. There is also a web site that is cool: Picmonic® Picture Mnemonics for Nursing School, Medical School, Pharm, and more!

You can search on the internet as well, but what really helped was when I got into this, I began making up my own, some complex and some simple:

Eye Bacteria” for Bactrim and Erythromycin – the most common meds for eye bacteria

Mr. Hodgkins , predictably, took his friend Reed Sternberg out to dinner for his 32nd birthday and gave him a neck tie.” (Hodgkin's lymphoma – Reed Sternberg cells differentiate from Non-Hodgkin's, 32 is average age and Mr because more common in males, necktie because sx is cervical adenopathy, predictably because spread is predictable.)

Leik is a great quick review book. In each chapter, she has Exam Tips” on specific things to know/memorize for the exam, which was very helpful – make sure you know that stuff. She also has a boatload of practice questions, which I didn't do, because they are all jumbled together in one big section, not separated by body system.

Fitzgerald is the most detailed book and is also excellent for review.

Hollier has an excellent practice test book (you have to buy it used on Amazon).

Barkley has a separate practice question book which includes detailed rationales as well as a quick review of each body system. You can buy from their website: Welcome to Barkley & Associates

Barkeley's Curriculum Review for __(_ANP, FNP, etc__)____”

Leik also has an app with review questions for you iPhone.

To help with memorizing meds, there is a very short little book called Memorizing Pharmacology A Relaxed Approach” which is quite helpful.

I DO NOT recommend the Winland-Brown practice question book. Many of the questions are too obscure or from acute care. After doing some of their questions, I was in panic mode, and checked the Amazon reviews and a lot of other people said the same thing. So I stopped using it.

YOU MUST take the sample AANP questions that are in the Candidate Handbook – one or two of them or very similar, will be on the exam. Some of the questions are worded strangely, too, as they are on the exam.

What I didn't do that I wish I had – paid the $29.95 to take the AANP sample test.

There is also a diagnostic predictor test - APEA predictor exam.

I did find a live review class that looked interesting, but I just didn't have the time to take it. It uses a "whole body" learning approach, so that might be helpful. Necessary NP Workshops

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Please do not give up, just have a plan of study.

Here I wanted to share my plan of study for the AANP Exam. I took it May 23, 2017 and PASSED (thank God)! I graduated from Walden University in the beginning of February, and kind of took about a month off (I was still studying a little and listening to Fitzgerald CDs' in a car). I started studying seriously mid-March 2017 and studied hard for about 2 months. Some days I studied 2-3 hours, other days 7-8 hours. On average, I would say about 5 hours a day. Here is what I studied:

1. First of all I listened to 2010 edition of Fitzgerald CD's (friend of mine gave them to me) for about a year and a half – a little bit at a time during driving. I went over all of them at least 6 times.

2.Leik book was my study bible. I know the book has some outdated material in it, but 90-95% of the material is still usable. As I was going over and memorizing the material in Leik book, I was writing the most important stuff out into a blank notebook. I believe when you write stuff down, you memorize it better. Also, I was highlighting the MOST important stuff. I went over the entire Leik book at least 3 times. Repetition is the mother of learning”.

3.I took Amelie Hollier Review course right after I graduated (end of February, 2017) and found it very helpful. I went over her book (the one provided for the review course) once more (closer to the exam date, which was around the beginning of May). Also, I was lucky and won her predictor exam (150 questions), which I saved for the end of my studies. I took the predictor exam a week or two before I took the boards and scored 71%, which kind of suggested that I was ready.

4.I did all 600 or so questions in Leik book. And some of them I did twice. I was getting 80-85% of them after I went through the Leik book.

5.I went ahead and purchased a Certification Practice Questions” (ISBN 978-1-892418-18-0) by Amelie Hollier (as was suggested in some Youtube videos) and found it to be very helpful. In my opinion the questions asked on boards were very similar to the ones in that book. Fitzgerald's questions I found to be a little too tough, Leik questions were a little too easy, whereas Amelie's questions were just right. I did all the disorders” questions (the first part of the book) and all the FNP and Gero practice exams. I think I did close to 1800 or so questions total including Leik, Hollier, (some Fitzgerald) and Hollier's predictor exam.

6.Another important thing I utilized was the quizlet app. There, I found some questions made up by a user jenhopper”, which were directly from Leik book. So every time I finished a chapter in Leik's book, I went ahead and did the flash cards on that chapter in quizlet. After the flashcards I took the test within the quizlet app. Those were not the most sophisticated tests in the world, but they did help to study and memorize material.

After studying all that and taking the exam, I scored 75% on the AANP exam and PASSED! Some of the questions were tough and long, while others were extremely easy and to the point. As I mentioned above, Amelie Hollier's practice questions were the closest thing I found to be similar to the real exam.

Lastly, I want to add that I did all the studying while working about 25-30 hrs a week and having a toddler around. I believe that if I was able to pass, everyone else can too. Study hard, and do not give up!!!!!!!!! ; - )

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Specializes in ICU, trauma, neuro.

If you haven't utilized Medical Board Review and Question Bank - BoardVitals consider this as well. This is the only tool that my wife utilized to pass her Psych NP boards. She did all 1600 questions in the test bank and looked at the rationales and then went back and did them again. You could go even further and do the FNP test bank or the test banks for ACNP (given that they have overlapping material but different questions with explanations). She was only scoring about 40% on the questions, but passed her exam the first time and said that if anything the actual certification exam was much easier.

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