Passed AANP exam 3/12/2016

[NewNP2016]

Just wanted to say I passed. I studied for 1 month straight about 2-3 hours a day.

i used Fitzgerald review books and leik.

i studied through both books and did all their questions. I bought the books from Amazon and I bought the Fitzgerald review book handed out at the live sessions.

After doing thoroughly studying through those books I took the AANP, APEA, Barkley predictors and readiness tests. I did the apea twice. I scored in the 70's which according to the scales is indicative of passing the real exam and I did.

The test I felt was hard but manageable. You have to really read through the questions thoroughly because two of the 4 answer choices are usually thrown in to get you off track.

If there is one thing you take away from this post, take the practice exams into consideration because it gives you rationales and if I remember correctly the structuring of the questions are very similar to the actual exams. Some questions are even word for word almost.

Good luck everyone!

[Taglas-FNP]

CONGRATS !

[ZenNurse2016]

I am new to this thread. I have received so much help from reading various threads from NPs struggling and some celebrating their success. Everyone's comments have been very helpful so I decided to pay it forward and share my experience. Whenever I fell in a slump I would go back to various threads for somewhat of a pep talk. I am happy to share that I have passed the AANP on my first try . I started studying intermittently in May when I set my exam date ( this was done to motivate me to study). These study sessions were 3-5 hrs a day on my days off until 10 days prior to exam I studied 8 hrs or more a day doing practice questions and solidifying those areas of weaknesses.

First and foremost, I used Amelie Hollier's APEA review course via MP3 player. This was priceless as I had access listening to her course 24/7. Personally, buying the audio course worked better for me than attending a live course that squeezes in all this information in 2 1/2 days. Amelie is masterful at demystifying the information you need to know to pass the exam and also for your practice as an FNP. The review books I used was Fitzgerald and Leik. Fitzgerald's review book is great. However, I did not complete it. Her book is quite detailed in the summary that follows each test. I personally found that time consuming. Fitzgerald's app(Pocketprep) was the worst. These were not well written questions and answers. I had to refer to her book to see if she was asking these questions, and she was not. So I am not sure why the app questions /answer choices were so bizarre.

I preferred Leik's book who organized the information in a manner better for the exam taker. Her exam tips are precise and helpful. I also did not complete that book. What I did was the practice questions at the back of the book and also on her exam app (Family Nurse Practitioner Certification Review) on itunes. There is an opportunity to do the tests by section, comprehensive, with rationale, quiz, or test mode. This was a great app. I also used Board Vitals (test bank has approximately 1800 questions) which was helpful in exercising my brain. The questions are more difficult than the actual exam. However, by doing these questions and reading the detailed rationales it was a great refresher's course. I bought 10 questions from ExamEdge and completed them using timed mode and rationale mode. These gave me good practice paying attention to details in the wording of the questions. In addition, it boosted my confidence as the scoring was similar to AANP 800 point system. On those I scored no less than 75 raw score or 569/800.

In a nutshell

I had 2 months of quality studying at least 3-5 hr/3 days per week then the final week before exams I studied 8hrs or more per day listening to the APEA review course, doing ExamEdge, board vitals and Leik's app. I found the AANP questions to be straight forward, no tricks. Leik's and APEA questions were more similar to the AANP exam.

This is my 2cents or rather 50cents :). Congratulations to all who have passed the exams and for those still on that journey I wish everyone all the best on your exams.