Passed ANCC FNP exam today

[southwest nurse]

I passed ANCC ARNP-exam today...

While I was preparing I was so nervous and some of the previous post regarding the ANCC FNP exam helped and some scared me to death. I made a promise to myself to post some of my experience so that It will be helpful for the NP students who are preparing for the test soon

First of all I want to tell you all the test was not bad at all. I graduated on May 15 and registered for exam at the same time. my school took 15 days to send my official transcript to ANCC, as soon as they received my transcript they send me the OK letter to schedule the test in 2 days. In between I contact them to verify the status and they were nice...

I took 2 week to study and these are the resources I used

Leik book-- Excellent book , only needed info. breakdown nicely.. and the 650 questions at the end ...very useful. The last 2-4 chapters go over at least couple times.. you will never regret ( some minor errors noted in Leiks book)

Fitzgerald review-- I have to travel to a different town and stay in a hotel 3 days for live review... I will choose the online review much more affordable and wise. the spiral binder they gave you in the review very helpful.

The Fitzgerald online tutorials about research and the Leik book research chapter will cover the research topics pretty much for you...

I borrowed Fitzgerald 3 rd edition and read all chapters and did the answer the test questions (1400)...

APEA online review (offered by school almost 3 months ago) -- Amelie is awesome and honestly the test did not look like what review questions...

Exam edge- FNP review- I bought 10 test bundles. End up studying 10-15 different theories (some of them I even heard before and very frustrating). I scored 360-399 on these tests. very poorly constructed questions with lot of grammatical errors --the test questions in real exam is much more professional ( and ended up withno theories in my real test at all...)

Here is my exam looked like (unable to provide exact details.. don't want to be in trouble):

• 22 multiple choice
• Hypertensive meds (CCB, HTCZ ACEI)
• 5 drag
• 3 exhibit
• 10 pictures (derm and eye) pictures were good quality ...please make sure you review common eye conditions with pictures well
• Billing and how choose CPT codes in primary care
• ANA position statements and research methods (meta analysis, case study etc..)
• At least 20 cultural questions (Leik book good resource but Google it for more info)
• 1 milestone peades, 1 obg question
• Real test looked like Fitzgerald review test questions

I finished 200 questions in 3 hours and took 30 mts to review the marked items

Once you finish the test, the proctor outside testing room will print a results for you..

I know this post is bit longer... But if this will help my fellow NP students I am happy for it....

Best of luck for all of you.

[vuo2694]

Thanks NeldaFNP for your kind and encouraging words. I have tuned in the 15 CUE hours required and waiting for approval to retake my exam. Meanwhile, I have gone back to studying again and I'm confident that it will go well this time. Please can you email me again as I did not recieve the previous email. I must have mistakenly deleted it or may have gone to spam.

Thanks again

[MrAllenU]

"More info on the format of the AANP exam (no specific questions). Hopefully this will be helpful to those getting ready for the test. (and I apologize in advance, I am entering this on an iPad and the spell check is terrible, it keeps changing my correct typing to something else. I am trying to watch it but there may be some odd sentences here and there.)"

Thank you for sharing your experience with us. I am in my first semester of FNP school, but I very much appreciate your tips and experience.

Congratulations on your success!

[RN,BSN,MSN,APN-C]

This thread helped me a lot and I promised that if I would pass I would post tips. I just took the ANCC FNP exam and passed on the first try. I didn't get the best education and was very worried about passing the exam. I had about 3 months to prepare. Here's what I recommend:

LEIK BOOK- amazing. I read it twice- made flash cards, took notes, really learned and understood all the info. Only after I was done reading the entire book did I attempt the practice questions in the back (642 questions) and averaged 75%.

BOARDVITALS- question bank of about 1800 questions. Great practice for the real exam. I have a discount code if anyones interested. Averaged 60's-70's.

FNPprep.COM- I bought 10 prep tests and found the questions super helpful as well. Averaged 350-400 on the exams.

onlinemeded.com- Great website- for medical students but I found it very helpful to understand patho as well as other content I wasn't very familiar with.

Brown and Dunphy question book- I took almost all the exams as well as the 2 big exams in the back- they were good but I didn't score too well overall- questions were hard but very informative.

The last thing I did was went on Amazon and clicked on the ANCC "yellow book" and looked inside the kindle version and was able to read the first 3 chapters for free as recommended by previous posters- this was great information for the non clinical info for the exam.

The exam itself wasn't as bad as I expected but was definitely stressful. I had a lot of SATA but they tell you 'choose 2 or choose 3 etc' so you know how many to choose. a lot of pictures, putting things in the right order, drag and drops etc. I was between 2 answers on a lot of them and marked them to go back later but in the end I just submitted it- was worried I would change everything to the wrong answers!

All in all, prepare, do a lot of questions and go in with confidence!!

[FNPinNY]

"There may be changes in the exam as of Feb 2016. check out the following post:

"Did you pass?

Things have changed up effective 2/16 so it appears all the review material being marketed is not up to date currently. I just took the aanp fnp and the recommended materials including the costly qbank from recommended site didn't help much at all. Looking for a study group..."

https://allnurses.com/aanp-fnp-exam-t600175/

Any comments to confirm or further explain the changes would be highly appreciated.

[FNPinNY]

ANCC Nursing Research.... This may or may not help.... FYI:

We all need to share resources....

Good Luck

FNPinNY

[Taglas-FNP]

Hi, I feel overwhelmed as well with the studying! I feel like I am all over the place. I am using the highly recommended Leik Intensive Review as well as Fitzgerald review books. I actually applied for the ANCC and the AANP just in case I you know!

Good luck to all!

[FNPinNY]

No problem...If everyone put up a little something esp. non-clinical for ANCC... We could start a great resource site...

Try the link below... from PA Study YouTube....

Joe

[FNPinNY]

More help

I love Khan Academy

[jmuhammad10]

Greetings everyone. I passed the AANP exam on the first try. It was a challenging exam. So the amount of time and energy that you put into preparing for the exam (and for NP practice) will help you to have the confidence needed to endure the stress and anxiety while taking the exam.

Here are some resources I found helpful, including Nelda's suggestions:

If you feel your NP program did not provide you with an adequate knowledge base, it is critical that you lay a solid foundation first. How would you know you have a faulty knowledge base? Work 50-100 questions from a review resource - Leik, Fitzgerald, Hollier; if you score less than 75%, your knowledge base is lacking. Also examine how you felt as you were reading through the questions and the answers. If you felt dumb, stupid, inadequate, scared, or anxious - your knowledge base needs building.

Remember a review course is just that, it provides a surface review of the knowledge you SHOULD already have gathered from your NP program. If your NP program was like mine, you are going to NEED to build your knowledge base first. I recommend using Winland-Brown and Dunphy's NP review textbook first to build an excellent knowledge base (as you are going through the textbook, you may think: I don't need allll of this to take the NP cert exam. Know that the NP exam WILL cover the depth and breath of the NP role and the questions will come from everywhere. Also, the Winland-Brown book covers all topics on the exams; and uses an unique "scaffolding approach" with the questions where the authors build your knowledge base slowly, then cycles back around to some of the same subjects so you are constantly exposed to the content and you don't forget. In addition, the answers/rationales provided are comprehensive. After working through the book, you will FEEL like a NP and have a much better understanding of what a NP should know).

Then, I used Leik's and Fitzgerald's NP review textbooks to refine my knowledge base. I would read through Leik then take the quizzes in Fitzgerald for the same subject and then read through Fitzgerald's content. I was scoring well over 90% on most quizzes and I was able to articulate WHY the correct answer was correct and the wrong answers were wrong. I had the knowledge!

Also, note the review courses DO NOT cover everything that you may encounter on the Exams. So avoid attending one review course and thinking that that info is all that will be covered on the exam. For example, I encountered Morton Neuroma on the AANP Exam, it IS NOT within Hollier's or Fitzgerald's review course. I attended a live review course before my final semester and I purchased a CD/online version of a review course before I started my clinical courses.

Be sure to look up pictures on Google and watch videos on Youtube to deepen your understanding especially of musculoskeletal assessment maneuvers, e.g. Lachman, McMurray's, Spurling's, Doorbell test, etc. Some of the exam questions will "describe" what the skin lesion looks like, so it is helpful to look at pictures and know the differences of how, say, various skin cancers look and are described.

I think the Leik questions aligned more with the type of questions I encountered on the AANP exam. I took the AANP online test (it is $50) only after I had completely studied and was ready to test to see if I had any areas of weakness. I scored 87% on it and felt it was amazingly easy. However, as Fitzgerald says - "What makes a difficult question easy? Knowledge". So I was really feeling confident going into the exam that I had adequately built my knowledge base and I had a solid understanding of my NP role.

Some others recommend going on Amazon and using the ANCC "yellow book" and looking inside the kindle version. The first 3 chapters are free and are a great resource for the non-clinical info for the AANC.

Here's an excellent "study guide" on how to organize your study time for the NP certification exam. The woman who created it, Nelda Sturgill, was already a CNM when she went back for her NP credentials. Here is the first page, Family Nurse Practitioner Tips and Tricks: What to do while waiting for your books and CDs to arrive....

Bottom line, depending on your current wealth of knowledge and confidence level will help you to determine what you feel you need in NP knowledge building and review resources. It is far better to be "over-prepared" than under-prepared - at least, post-exam you will be better prepared for the practice environment. Lastly, you should subscribe to midlevelu.com blog - there are excellent resources and info to help you through NP school and practice.

[Taglas-FNP]

Thank you for the great input!

Taglas

[FNPinNY]

Affirmative answers to questions concerning the use of street drugs or alcohol can be further explored with two other useful mnemonics: CAGE and RAFTT.

The CAGE mnemonic stands for the following questions:

Have you ever felt the need to Cut down on your use of alcohol

or drugs?

Have you gotten Annoyed by someone's criticism of your

drug or alcohol use?

Do you ever feel Guilty about your alcohol or drug use? and

Do you Ever need a drink or drugs in the morning before

school?

A positive screen result consists of two or more yes answers.14

The RAFFT mnemonic refers to the following questions:

Do you use alcohol or drugs to Relax, feel better about yourself,

or fit in?

Do you ever drink or use drugs when you are Alone?

Do any of your close Friends drink or use drugs?

Do any close Family members have a problem with alcohol

or drugs? and

Have you ever gotten in Trouble from drinking or taking

drugs?

A positive screen result consists of two or three yes answers

[Taglas-FNP]

Time is ticking on. Three weeks to go ! Although it is my preference to sit for the ANCC, I actually scheduled both exams and will sit for the AANP prior to the ANCC.

Taglas