I graduated May, 2016. I took two days off per week from my job to study for boards. I signed up for the ANCC which was a relatively smooth and easy process. I blocked out a calendar to study for approximately 6 weeks. Each day, I reviewed a system/topic and did 50-100 practice questions. I am a huge anal retentive list-maker, so I would check off my progress and this motivated me to stay on track with studying. I then made notecards for my "trouble areas" and things I felt I needed to memorize, such as ABX, Tanner staging, dermatology, etc. I took my test the first week in July and I passed. I took about 6 weeks of studying, therefore I wasn't "cramming" and didn't feel pressure to rush through material I needed more focus on!
Resources
I took the Barkley Review in January, 2016. I took this because I thought it would give me more time to study, however looking back, I feel I should have waited and taken it closer to graduation. It was basically a crash-course of everything we learned in graduate school compiled into 2.5 days. He was an excellent lecturer, however this really was not my style of learning. I did use the book provided to me during this course to study from and focused on the "PEARLS" of the exam which were helpful.
I bought the "Family Nurse Practitioner Certification Intensive Review 2nd Edition" book which was hands down, the BEST resource. It's basically the "quick and dirty" of the ANCC. This is the book I felt prepared me for the ANCC. I went through all of the chapters and systems and utilized this to focus on the theory, insurance, billing, etc. portion of the ANCC exam. There were 650 practice questions in the book which were also very helpful!
I also used the Family Nurse Practitioner Review Secrets Revealed" book for the questions, however I did not use it for anything else.
The FNP mastery phone app was awesome- I would answer questions when I was in bed, waiting for friends, etc. It was $30 and worth every penny!
The week before the test, I stopped doing practice questions, focused on my problem areas, and reviewed the Leik book PEARLS one more time.
Almost Test Time
I am very superstitious and like my RN boards, I only told two people when I was testing. I had scheduled my boards for July 5th, so when my friends knew I wasn't coming out to party, I'm sure the suspected my test was happening soon! The day before the test I didn't study, I watched movies, worked out, and relaxed. I was SO nervous all day, sick to my stomach, palpitations, etc. I just kept reminding myself that I was prepared! My test was at 8am, I woke up at 4am, 5am, etc. SO nervous that I would miss it! I arrived an hour early, was checked in, went through a metal detector, had to empty my pockets, sign in, verify my ID, etc. This process was slightly intimidating but the staff at the testing center were very calming!
The Test
I have never been so nervous or unsure of myself. The test is composed of 200 questions, however 25 are used for future test question development. It took me about 2 hours to go through the 200 questions the first time around and I marked the questions I needed to go back to. If a question was too "wordy," I would mark it and come back to it. At my two-hour mark, I took a quick bathroom break and returned. The test was not at all what I expected. It contained many non-clinical questions which were still difficult, however I was able to figure out with some deep thinking! My exam was all over the place, from derm to cardiac to pulmonary to ethics to leadership, etc. You name it, it was on there. I felt well-prepared, however hitting the "submit" button gave me the biggest stomach-drop EVER.
The Results
I went to the area to get my results and of course there were four people sitting there! AHHHH-Noooo, what if I failed? They are going to see me ugly cry!!! The nice man sitting at the desk asked for my ID and signature and I blurted out "DON'T SAY MY RESULTS OUT LOUD!" Everyone looked at me like I was a bit crazy, but he said "don't worry, I never do." I saw the sheet of paper laying on the desk and saw the word "Congratulations!" This was one of the BEST moments of my life! All of my hard work and dedication have paid off-finally. Anyways, he handed me the paper, I started happy-crying, hugged the four people around me in the testing center and was on my merry way!
Bottom Line
I've struggled with test anxiety my whole life. I've done well in school and have to work hard to get good grades and do well on exams. This may seem impossible to some, but it is SO doable and the best feeling after you're done.
Hi, I wanted to know if you can provide little advice for ANCC exam? I took exam last year about this time. Missed exam by 12 points. Did exam have more non clinical questions this year? What material/books help you better prepare for exam that's similar to test questions? I have various material from Leik, Barclay, Fitzs Gerald and feeling overwhelmed with whom to focus on more! Thank for any pointer towards exam
I passed ANCC for FNP in June. I did the Fitzgerald review course and used the Leik book. Fitzgerald provided a good content review. Leik's questions were very similar to what I saw on the test. Once you feel you have the content down, I would definitely use Leik's FNP review book. 😊
I am thinkig of purchasing the 2015 Barkley review CDs. Is this a good idea? Or are the materials on there no long relevant to the current test? (Not sure if they changed anything, but I think materials should still be the same right?)
I am sing board vitals, like & holier Qbank for study materials. I have to say board vitals is very challenging and covers a lot, but questions are intense. I do like Liek the most. Has anyone ever used board vitals to prepare for ANCC.
Ok, so I took the AANC exam this week and passed. It was my first attempt at passing either exam. My plan was to take the AANC as practice to see where I stood and to take the AANP after strengthening my weak areas, and hopefully passing. Let me give you a little background and maybe it will help some of you. I graduated from my FNP program in May 2012. I was working in an area where certification was not necessary and I kept putting it off. Not the smartest thing any of us can do, but where would any of us be without a couple of really good rationalizations in our lives? I am north of 50 years old and I hope that is helpful for some of my colleagues considering this path.
The exam. I cannot tell you anything that has not already been posted on several of the exam blogs here.. It has all been covered. What I can tell you is be careful with practice questions. I looked up the correct information on peer reviewed sites like UpToDate. I found a many arbitrary or flat our wrong answers in the 600+ questions in the back of the Leik 2nd Ed as well as Fitzgerald's 4th. I still highly recommend both, but verify the information. Do not take any source as correct if you think it might be incorrect, look it up. I took Fitzgerald's course upon graduating because it was required in my program in 2009. She is very knowledgeable and some really good information (more geared toward practice than passing). I did not like her course because every topic and ever sentence began with, In my practice, etc. There is so much wasted time on what she picked up what she did. It might be ok for others, but with my ADD I found it distracting. Three years ago I was able to take Barkley as CE's paid for by my job. I believe they all are about equal and they did not really reflect the exam, at least the ANCC.
What I found valuable was questions, lots of questions and looking up the correct answers if I got them wrong. I also found Paul Bolin's CRASH videos invaluable. (crash usmle step 2 and 3 paul bolin - YouTube)
Lastly, there was a lot of leadership, management, nursing theory. My program was big on leadership and management and a lot came back enough for a good educated guess. There are very few knowledge based questions, they are mostly analysis, application and synthesis questions.
How I approached the questions. I crossed out the two distracters immediately (most of the time they were obvious). If I knew the answer (or was pretty sure) I selected my answer and moved on. On the questions I was queasy on I marked them for review. On the questions I did not know, I kept comparing the 2 answers left with the stem (past/present/future tense, etc) and finally went with my gut (first instinct). I guess what I'm saying is work the question and not the content when you do not know the answer and give your best guess.
So take a review course, use one or more of the books recommended on this blog, and search out the correct rational on our own. Paul Bolin gives a complete medical review online for free and you can access as much or as little as you need. Lastly Lots and lots of questions. Search out allnurses for the best places for exam questions. The best resource I found was the FNP Exam Blogs on Allnurses. Thank all of you who have posted here for the confidence to take the exam and the excellent study advice. Good luck to all. If I can pass so can you.
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Congratulations!! So happy for you!
And thank you for providing your study resources. I purchased the FNP Mastery app for my iPad and use it frequently. Glad to know you found it useful.
Congrats again!