Passed AANP 2017- My tips!

[abp0220]

I am writing because I read a lot of these blogs for advice for the AANP exam and I feel that some of them saved me with the tips that were given and I am hoping that maybe my tips might help someone or atleast my story will inspire someone!

I took the AANP in June of 2017 and failed. There were multiple reasons of why I failed and one of them was I was definitely not prepared. This test is nothing like the NCLEX or any test that I took during the NP program. It is a challenging test and it does test you on clinical cases not so much facts.

I retook the exam in October of 2017 and PASSED!!! I was so excited and relieved!! It was seriously the best feeling ever.

So to prepare myself to take the exam again, I took the APEA review course online to obtain my 15 credit hours I needed for the AANP. I felt this review course helped reiterate the information and just help me understand topics in a different way. Amelie is a great teacher and she is very entertaining! After finishing the online review course, I then began to read the WHOLE Leik Book, which I HIGHLY recommend! The Leik book does have some outdated information and some of the questions in the back have wrong answers but overall this was my best resource. I am not a note card person but I made note cards for ALL the exam tips in the Leik book and this helped so much remembering the big topics! I also did note cards for the antibiotics because on the test they want to know that you know what antibiotic to treat what. I did not have many respiratory questions on my exam but on the first exam I remember more respiratory questions with one X-ray image. I recommend also doing ALL the questions in the back of the Leik book along with purchasing APEA Qbank, the first time I studied I just did management but this second round I did Assessment and Management and I feel that it helped to do both set of questions. I also purchased the predictor exams from the APEA website and they were great!! I LOVED taking these exams and being able to know where I was weak and strong and how I improved from weeks of studying. My second predictor exam was a 70% and I just felt way more comfortable about answering questions and understanding what they were asking.

When taking the second exam, I felt more focused. I used a system that one other blogger on here mentioned. I wrote 1-150 out on my blank piece of paper and I marked the questions on the paper rather than on the computer. It helped me visualize how many I felt comfortable with. I counted up my checks and had 105/150 and went back to review about 10 questions. I changed a lot of answers my first test and that could have been a reason why I failed but this time unless I was 100% SURE I DID NOT change ANY answers. I advise you do the same!

It took my a while to bounce back from failing but I hope this post inspires someone to keep pushing and it can be done. I did not let the test define me, I defined the test. Failing does not mean you are not meant to be an NP, it just means that you need to better understand the material and I am firm believer in "Everything Happens for a Reason".