Passed ANCC FNP Exam 2014

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Once again, like my previous posts, I'm constantly looking for advice/tips when it comes to being a new graduate NP.

Well...as of this past Tuesday, I PASSED the ANCC FNP exam! And since I frequented this website religiously for tips and resources that others have used to pass the test, I thought I'd share my experience.

Study materials/references

- FITZGERALD Family Nurse Practitioner Certification Exam Review - 2014 (comes with CDs and manual)

This reviewed offered insightful tips on the exam and clinical practice. I completed the entire course (reviewing one system a day) but as I got closure to my exam, I relied heavily on the BARKLEY review course. It also felt not as structured as the Barkley review which I did not appreciate. Additionally, the lectures tend to go off topic (which everyone says), but regardless, I did find it useful. If you have TIME to study (like I did, because I had foot surgery and basically couldn't do anything for two months) it is a good resource to have.

- BARKLEY Family Nurse Practitioner Review - 2014 (CDs and manual)

I really liked this review, as it really narrows down your study topics and offers great exam tips. I reviewed a system a day and made flashcards.

*note: I studied system by system and listened to the corresponding Fitzgerald and Barkley lectures on the same day. Then made flashcards consolidating the two information.

- Family Nurse Practitioner Certification Intensive Review: Fast Facts and Practice Questions 2nd Edition - by LEIK MSN APN BC FNP-C, Maria T. Codina

I found this book extremely helpful as it went over topics that were not covered by Barkley or Fitzgerald. Plus it gives great exam tips and clinical practice tips. If not used to study for the exam, I would recommend it anyway as a great resource for clinicals/first job.

Practice Questions

- Adult-Gero and Family Nurse Practitioner Certification Practice Questions with Answers and Explanations (2013) - by AMEILIE HOLLIER

This book of questions should NOT be used soley to review for the exam. Rather, use these questions as an end of the day review/practice to test your knowledge on what you had studied. The book is divided up by system (roughly 20-25 questions per system) and 3 adult practice exams and 3 family practice exams. Note: There are A TON of REPEATED QUESTIONS on the adult and family practice exams (I saved the last adult practice test for last and felt as though I had already seen EVERY single questions before).

- http://www.familynpprep.com - ANCC FNP practice exams - bundle: 10 tests, 100 questions each

I felt like these questions prepared you for the exam (especially the multiple select questions) but there are repeated questions, and I felt like there were some mistakes and had reported several questions to the company because I would question the answer given. Also, there were random theory questions that I had never heard of, and somewhat dismissed these questions as it got closer to my exam (five days before) because I didn't feel like it was worth researching every theory that I had answered wrong.

- ANCC Test Taking Strategies Online Course

I found this useful as it gives you strategies on reading the questions and narrowing down answers. But found it similar to those test taking strategies you learned for the NCLEX exam. But I needed a refresher and thus found this useful.

- ANCC FNP Practice Questions (comes with two tests)

I feel like everyone who's gonna take the ANCC or AANP exam, should always do practice questions that the certification body offers. It just makes sense to do it. It comes with two exams, I did one exam about two weeks before my exam, and saved the last one to a few days before.

- FREE ANCC adult and family practice questions

*same as above

- Family Nurse Practitioner Certification Intensive Review: Fast Facts and Practice Questions 2nd Edition - by LEIK MSN APN BC FNP-C, Maria T. Codina (these had over 600 questions at the back of the book)

I really liked the practice test questions at the end. Although they were not divided by system.

- APEA 3 quizzes for FNP (60 questions each)

(purchased three days before the exam) I liked these quizzes as it offered a fresh set of test questions but it does not offer multiple select questions. But regardless, still a good resource to use. At the end of each quiz, it would break it down by category and told you what percentage of the questions you got right in each category (which is useful for studying). I did not purchase the 1000 test question "myqbank" for roughly $80 because it said that it was also offered in book form (the same book as the Ameilie Hollier that I purchased and reviewed above).

*Note: for all the practice test questions and exams I took, I felt discouraged because of the low scores I was getting (familynpprep: look below; apea 3 quizzes: low 70s; ANCC practice test - #1 test 83%, #2 test 73% (don't know what happened there)...but what I did was just constantly review the questions that I got wrong and added those facts to my flashcards. Overall, I probably did over 2500 test questions and what I liked about doing so many, was the little facts that you would get that were missing from my review/study resources.

Overall, I completed both the fitzgerald and barkley review over two months (it took long because I wouldn't do it religiously every day) and then about four weeks before my exam, I started making the flashcards and started test questions shortly after.

That was a lot of information! But, hope it helps!

[TABLE=width: 870, align: center]

[TR]

[TD=colspan: 8][TABLE=width: 100%]

[TR]

[TD]Subject:

[/TD]

[TD] ANCC Family Nurse Practitioner

[/TD]

[TD](10 of 10 full tests completed, 40 not purchased)

[/TD]

[/TR]

[/TABLE]

[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]Test Name

[/TD]

[TD]Time Limit

[/TD]

[TD]Questions

[/TD]

[TD]Raw

Score

[/TD]

[TD]Approx.

ANCC Nurse Practitioner

Score

[/TD]

[TD]Start Time

[/TD]

[TD]End Time

[/TD]

[TD][/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]FREE Practice Test

[/TD]

[TD]Explanation

[/TD]

[TD]10

[/TD]

[TD]5

[/TD]

[TD]272

[/TD]

[TD]20-Jul-14 06:49 PM

[/TD]

[TD]20-Jul-14 06:56 PM

[/TD]

[TD][/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]Practice Test 1

[/TD]

[TD]2 hr

[/TD]

[TD]100

[/TD]

[TD]62

[/TD]

[TD]330

[/TD]

[TD]02-Sep-14 06:18 PM

[/TD]

[TD]02-Sep-14 07:09 PM

[/TD]

[TD][/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]Practice Test 2

[/TD]

[TD]2 hr

[/TD]

[TD]100

[/TD]

[TD]60

[/TD]

[TD]321

[/TD]

[TD]03-Sep-14 09:55 AM

[/TD]

[TD]03-Sep-14 10:40 AM

[/TD]

[TD][/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]Practice Test 3

[/TD]

[TD]2 hr

[/TD]

[TD]100

[/TD]

[TD]65

[/TD]

[TD]345

[/TD]

[TD]03-Sep-14 06:04 PM

[/TD]

[TD]03-Sep-14 07:09 PM

[/TD]

[TD][/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]Practice Test 4

[/TD]

[TD]2 hr

[/TD]

[TD]100

[/TD]

[TD]70

[/TD]

[TD]368

[/TD]

[TD]04-Sep-14 09:49 PM

[/TD]

[TD]04-Sep-14 10:55 PM

[/TD]

[TD][/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]Practice Test 5

[/TD]

[TD]Explanation

[/TD]

[TD]100

[/TD]

[TD]66

[/TD]

[TD]350

[/TD]

[TD]07-Sep-14 12:27 PM

[/TD]

[TD]07-Sep-14 01:49 PM

[/TD]

[TD][/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]Practice Test 6

[/TD]

[TD]2 hr

[/TD]

[TD]100

[/TD]

[TD]69

[/TD]

[TD]364

[/TD]

[TD]08-Sep-14 10:24 PM

[/TD]

[TD]08-Sep-14 11:44 PM

[/TD]

[TD][/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]Practice Test 7

[/TD]

[TD]Explanation

[/TD]

[TD]100

[/TD]

[TD]68

[/TD]

[TD]359

[/TD]

[TD]09-Sep-14 11:57 PM

[/TD]

[TD]10-Sep-14 01:05 AM

[/TD]

[TD][/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]Practice Test 8

[/TD]

[TD]Explanation

[/TD]

[TD]100

[/TD]

[TD]73

[/TD]

[TD]382

[/TD]

[TD]10-Sep-14 09:45 PM

[/TD]

[TD]10-Sep-14 11:52 PM

[/TD]

[TD][/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]Practice Test 9

[/TD]

[TD]Explanation

[/TD]

[TD]100

[/TD]

[TD]78

[/TD]

[TD]405

[/TD]

[TD]11-Sep-14 11:31 PM

[/TD]

[TD]12-Sep-14 01:26 AM

[/TD]

[TD][/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]Practice Test 10

[/TD]

[TD]Explanation

[/TD]

[TD]100

[/TD]

[TD]76

[/TD]

[TD]396

[/TD]

[TD]13-Sep-14 12:42 AM

[/TD]

[TD]13-Sep-14 06:22 PM

[/TD]

[TD][/TD]

[/TR]

[/TABLE]

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Congrats!

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Thanks for the reference book. Do yo think that 2 1/2 months it's time enough to study for the ANCC board exam?

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I think so...I think the most important thing is to be organized and lay out what topics you are gonna study for the day. Set goals and meet them, otherwise it can get pretty overwhelming. And just remember, you can't possible know every single thing.

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Specializes in Hospice, Nursing Education, Primary Care.

Thank you for all of the information. I am going to copy and paste it into a word document for easy reference.

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Congrats!! And what an AWESOME resource you've made!

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I took and PASSED the ancc FNP exam yesterday. Such a sigh of relief. The one book I could say reAlly helped was the leik book. The questions were worded similar. I literally red that book 3rimes and flashed card/noted all her exam tips which I revi in my down time at work, at night, traveling back n forth to work. I also used the Fitzgerald review course. The one thing I could say I got from her course that helped me was choosing the cheapest and quickest works that could be fine in the office to make your diagnosis. I also bought 4tests from the familynpprep which was ok but all that theory was just not needed, well did not see a theory on my exam. In the familynpprep my scores were between 51-68.so I got frustrated and bought 2 practice questions from Apea as well as 2 predictor exams and my scores were right on the pass mark. But I kept reviewing question I did not know. My exam was more 25% clinical of which most were straight to the point. I had slot of select two or three mAyb up to 20. I was so annoyed each time I saw it n kept praying they better be part of the 25unscored. The rest 75% I ft were research. Practice guidelunes. Some u can study for others either common sense or guess. Because some of the research questions I had never seen or heard of. Just know all your lab values, screening guidelunes. Derm n what they look like plus treatment, management and propitiation, levels of research Fitzgerald has a good hierarchy that was helpful. Most of all I thank God for helping me go through that exam because I am usually a nervous reck in exams. Good luck

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