Passed AANP-FNP Exam August 2020

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I wanted to offer some advice on the AANP FNP exam and passing it for those who have trouble studying for more than 20-30 minutes at a time. This is not for those who have the ability to study for 6 hours per day. Having looked over this website a lot for tips and pointers I found extremely long lists of study materials and what I consider unrealistic study expectations to pass this exam ( I think I may have ADHD so studying more than 30 minutes straight on a platform is difficult for me). If this sounds like you, feel free to read on as it may ease your anxiety.

1. First tip is to try as hard as you can to stay away from the advice on allnurses if you are within a few weeks of your exam because it will only stress you out. As I mentioned above, a lot of the advice is very good, but if you are a week out from your exam it is too late to do everything that most people list. Obviously you can't study for 3 months is you have 1 week.

2. Your FNP program should have you well prepared for this exam and studying is really just the icing on the cake. This is an entry to practice exam and they do not expect you to know everything. They have standardized patients that are "straight out of the book" and they aren't trying to trick you. They do however ask you to think critically on some questions.

3. Find a good question bank. Our school got us board vitals and I found this to be pretty good. It's probably harder than the actual exam so if you are averaging above 60, its actually not that bad at all so don't let it freak you out. Practice questions really help prepare you for the exam and reading the rationales is pretty much the same as studying, but more entertaining for those of us who lack an attention span.

4. Maria Leik's book is fantastic. Everything is succinct and to the point without information overload and it's a pretty easy read even for those who never did the assigned readings for class...oops.

5. When you decide to start studying, you can do one of the psi practice exams for 50 bucks. It's 75 questions and pretty similar to the actual exam. Then maybe a week before the exam take the second. (I actually did worse on the second exam so it happens. Got an 85 on the first and a 78 on the second). Another good option is the APEA predictor exam. This one is nice because it gives you your likelihood of passing and its 150 questions so you get a feel for how long it takes. Be careful taking this too soon before the exam because if you do poorly, it will stress your out.

6. Try to schedule it during the time of day you are most productive. For me this is the morning. I am a lot more productive academically in the morning and I do not eat eat breakfast during my productivity window, so I did not eat before my exam. I just had my morning dose of caffeine. If you need to eat to stay productive, then eat before the exam just don't make any changes to normal routine too close before the exam.

Thats really about it. I used board vitals, Leik's book, and the practice exams. Nothing more and nothing less. I wanted to start studying daily 2 months before taking the exam. I started using board vitals and reading leiks book for about 20-30 minutes per day. This lasted maybe 1-2 weeks and I bought a house and moved, so studying went out the window until about 1-2 weeks before the exam. I started studying again 20-30 minutes per day then I was authorized to schedule my exam. I scheduled my exam as soon as I could. This meant a week out. It also meant I had to drive 2 and a half hours as this was the only site I could take it at before my vacation. I started studying at this point 1-3 hours per day (thats a lot for me). I would read leiks book until I couldn't and use my remaining time to do practice questions. Then 2 days before the exam I drove to my testing site with my wife to stay at a hotel and only studied 30-60 minutes per day the last 2 days and went site seeing to relax. Woke up bright and early on exam day and passed the exam.

As most have stated, you can mark/flag questions you are unsure of and go back. Sometimes the test will give you enough info later and you can correct questions. I started flagging questions, but I knew it would stress me out if I flagged half the test so I stopped unless I was confident that I would go back. Got to the end of the test and said to myself, "I don't want to review these" and just went ahead and submitted the test haha. I had an hour and 51 minutes left on the clock. I'm a really fast test taker because I need to be with my attention span.

Anyways, you can do this!

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This was THE BEST advice I've read thus far! Thanks ?

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I'm so glad I could help!

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Specializes in BSN, RN.

amazing advice!!!

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Does anyone here have any advice on Hollier review. I wanted to do the audio portion because I retain info better by hearing the information. I have already purchased Leik, Fitzgerald review books and board vitals questions. I'm trying not to spend any more money unless I need to, because Hollier is pretty pricey! And if anyone has any CDs or audio they are willing to sell. Thank you.

 

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The Hollier review is great! Everything you need , take the live review online days before you test and you should be golden?

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