PASSED AANP ON FIRST TRY!

[Katherine C]

I am happy to say that I passed the AANP exam today (on my first try!)! All I can say is—YOU CAN DO IT TOO! I promised myself I would post if I passed because everyone has been soooo helpful to me along the way. I listed some of the stuff that I did to prepare for the exam, along with the scores I was making because I was always scrolling through this page to see how I compared to people who had passed (this helped to give either confidence or more of a reason to study harder).

PSI

Scores: 79 (PSI 1) and 70 (PSI 2)

There are only 75 questions in these exams, so I would not use them as a way to increase your testing stamina. I took one exam a week before testing, and the second one about 4 days before testing. The questions on PSI 1 were pretty similar in level of difficulty compared to the actual exam. I definitely would not recommend PSI 2—a lot of the questions came from left field and went beyond our scope of practice (like questions on managing pregnant HIV patients?) I took a big blow to my confidence after PSI 2.

Exam Edge

Scores: ranged between 540-580 on a total of 5 exams

I bought a package of 5 exams about 2 weeks before I tested. I was pretty nervous about testing after getting scores so close to 500. However, I did feel like a lot of their questions were either somewhat vague or so specific. I couldn’t imagine that the national exam would contain such vague or specific information—and it didn’t! I would recommend taking exam edge questions just to build test taking stamina. I also think this helped me stay focused during the exam because it forced me to stay positive and alert even when a there was a question I was unsure of (and there were quite a few of those on Exam Edge).

Leik

The Leik questions, FNP mastery, and the APEA questions were most similar and the most helpful when it came to preparing for this exam. I finished with an 84% after answering all of thee Leik questions. I feel like the exam questions were as long winded as Leik. These questions also have pretty good rationals!

APEA

Scores: 81, 79, 80

I would recommend these exams over and over and over again! The exams were 150 questions (helped with stamina), good rationales, and a great break down of the areas where you needed improvement. These exams really helped me tailor my focus on specific areas. I bought three of these exams about a week before my exam.

Barclay:

Scores: 64, 69, 72, 70

In addition to the three sources I used above, I also took the Barclay review 1.5 months before I tested. I LOVE BARCLAY! I recommend his live review. I also purchased 3 of the DRTs (and took the free one they offer with the course). I actually recommend the APEA exams before the Barclay DRT’s because they are 150 questions vs 100 and I thought the information/style of questions was more relevant to the actual exam.

FNP Mastery

First time through: 72

Second time through: 86

I bought this during my last semester in school. I highly recommend this app as I feel like I was constantly doing questions whenever I had down time because it was easily accessible on my phone. The rationales are GREAT. I highly recommend.

[Amanda Davis]

Hi there! I am happy to report I too passed the AANP on the first try today!!! I had a similar study experience. However, I did not find the LEIK text all that it was cracked up to be. In fact, I found several instances in which the LEIK text was boldly incorrect. I found the BARCLAY to be outdated. My best study recommendation is APEA. I did purchase the WALDEN recordings, “bronze level”. For me, the recordings were a little distracting. I completed 2 AANP practice exams in the week prior to my test date. These were VERY helpful. In fact, several questions from the practice exams were almost identical to those on the current exam.

Goodluck!