How soon is too soon for a prep class?

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Hi all. Hopefully you can point me in the right direction for this. I'm on the home stretch of FNP school right now. I have my peds clinical (11 weeks) and a second primary care clinical (11 weeks) to go. Graduation date is Jan 13, and I want to take my exam as soon as possible after that. I've been looking into the live Fitzgerald courses and there's one that's pretty close and convenient to my home in Oct. What I want to know, is if this is too soon to think about taking a review course? They're very expensive and I can't afford to take another one closer to when I take the test. How far out did you all take prep courses? Hopefully this isn't a dumb question. Thanks!

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Specializes in Internal Medicine.

This is an awesome question. It's a shame they don't allow this in the main NP forum where you would get a lot more responses since that's your target audience.

Going in October will probably be okay, but will you be in study mode and able to retain what you learn for 3 months before you test? It's really up to you.

I took my review about 6 weeks before I graduated (tested 2 days after graduating) and was in super serious study mode during that time because I had just about wrapped up all my clinical hours and had tons of free time to devote to studying. I also attended a Fitzgerald review and thought it was pretty good. On top of that I went dutch with a friend in the program and we split an audio version of the Barkley review (which I actually liked more).

I would gauge when you attend based on how much you can devote to studying. If you're just going to go then not review the content for a couple of months, it might not be worth it (although you will still retain and use a lot of the info in your practice).

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Specializes in Internal Medicine.

Here is an article I wrote for this site about passing the AANP when I passed late last year.

https://allnurses.com/student-nurse-practitioner/passed-aanp-fnp-964539.html

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Thank you so much for that feedback, that was exactly the type of information I was looking for. I was worried this was a stupid question. I'm approaching the exam with a pretty high amount of trepidation, so I think keeping myself in study mode won't be too difficult. As I've thought about this more, I think it would be pretty valuable to have the live recording of the seminar to just repeatedly listed to over the 3 months in addition to actual studying, even just listening to it in the car while driving.

What steps did you take that allowed you to take the AANP exam so quickly after graduation? I was under the assumption they wouldn't provide you with a letter to test until final transcripts could be forwarded to them. 2 days seems incredibly fast (certainly well past the speed and efficiency level of my own school haha).

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Specializes in Internal Medicine.

With the AANP you can apply up to 6 months before you graduate and test before you graduate. They only require that you complete all clinical course work before you test. It's basically the honor system. They won't release your scores or license though until they receive the final transcript. I would apply as soon as your second to last semesters grades are posted.

I got my ATT a month before graduating and could have tested basically anytime between then and graduation.

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Well alright then. I have 2 11 week blocks remaining, both of which are clinical courses. I'm going to go ahead and get on this towards the end of my upcoming course block. You've been a tremendous help. Thank you so much!

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Specializes in Internal Medicine.

Sure thing good luck.

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