Passed AANP FNP Boards

[akFNP20]

Hi everyone! On 11/18 I passed my AANP FNP exam by the grace of God! I spent a lot of time taking in all the advice on allnurses and I promised myself if I passed I would pay it back… I am going to walk you through my experience.

I graduated on August 28th and started really studying mid September. I also stated a DNP program, that is fast paced so I could not give 100% to studying 24/7. I knew I had no time to waste. Looking back, I would say I religiously studied for about 4-5 days a week and hours varying from 2 hours to 8 hours leading up to my exam date.

I tried Fitzgerald and Hollier, while both were good and are amazing instructors I felt Fitzgerlad was TOO in depth and Hollier was too broad for me. So after I realized that I decided to stick to the Leik book. I studied the whole book, first time through I read through it all and made notes, while doing about 50 – 100 questions in the back of the book. I also purchased the Ruphy and Penny LIVE review (2 days, about 3.5 hours each day). I still felt like I was not ready so I pushed my exam back 5 days. Within those extra 5 days, I reread and wrote the exam tips on a piece of paper and this was also the time I touched up on stuff I felt I was not strong in.

I came across two more reviews, some may say it is overkill, but I promise it helped me. I purchased the Latrina Walden bronze crash course (5 one hour videos and listened to these on my drives to work). Then two days before the exam I did the two day LIVE review by Vanencia Clark about three hours both days.

I also bought about 10 ExamEdge exams (scored 400s-500s), did the two APEA exams (60s-70s), and did all three PSI tests (60s-70s) and bought BoardVitals. I would probably have not done BoardVitals since it is too in depth.

The day of the exam, I listened to the first Walden video (probably should not have but I felt like I was forgetting some dermatology key points). Then I stopped at my place of worship to just take a minute to breathe and without any distractions just believe in myself.

About the exam: Out of the 150 questions I believe about 10 of them I did not know the answer to. The rest of them I was familiar with the subject due to studying.

Last advice: I TRULY believe that you can all do it… I still CANNOT believe I passed and kept questioning the preliminary results, until I got the real results in the mail. You are all nurses, went to school, this is just another challenge that you will ALL overcome. Before and during my exam I told myself if I fail at least I know what the exam process is like and I will touch up on weak points to retake it again. I also took a quick minute to breathe every 50 questions and just motivate myself again and tell myself I GOT THIS. I feel like during the studying process we do not give ourselves enough credit (at least I don’t) and sometimes we need to just believe in our own strength.

One last thing- I did not tell a single person I took the exam. I did not want anyone texting me right after asking how I did. So if that helps, do it!

I hope this helps! If you have any other questions, please reach out and email me! YOU ALL GOT THIS!

 

[RN_SummerSeas, MSN, APRN, NP]

Thank you for sharing!  I am prepping right now for my exam this month. I have not told anyone other than my family when I am testing.  I got Walden's crash course, Asia crash course, am doing V. Clarks live review this week.  I also have the Leik & Fitzgerald books.  The PSI exams are available on quilt and I will do those as well.  I am so happy you passed!!  Praying that I do as well.

[strawberryluv, BSN, RN]

Congrats to passing. You did a lot of prep courses which probably helped as each one delivered the content differently I would suppose. 

[Godsgirl73, MSN, NP]

Thank you for posting this akFNP20. I'm going to be writing my FNP exam sometime this year in Canada and have been trying to figure out how to study. Would anyone happen to know if the resources listed above would be useful for Canadian NP students, or are they more for Americans who are writing the exam?