PMHNP ANCC exam prep

[pleuralP]

What did you use to study? Was it helpful? If you could go back and do the study process again, what would you do?

[Bea Bea, MSN, NP]

1. Board Vitals (very difficult, but great to use for practicing and critically thinking)

2. ANCC practice questions ( good review)

3. The purple book (especially chapter 2-7)

4. Pocket prep ( good study guide to use with purple book)

All of these reviews were helpful. I feel the most important thing is to do practice questions every day. You could do without board vitals because the questions were so hard and too specific. But, I think it didn't hurt using it.

All the others are great reviews. You definitely don't need anything fancy.

If I could go back, I would not have stressed as much. I studied for hard for 1 month. The test to me is common sense. If you do practice questions and the reviews I listed above, you will be great.

I ended up taking my exam 1 month early and passed because I felt that I studied to the best of my abilities

[pleuralP]

Thank you so much! and congrats! I got pocket prep and that is heavily based on the purple ANCC book. But then I did the ANCC questions and they did not seem to relate to the ANCC book. What do you think was better representative of the material?

[Bea Bea, MSN, NP]

Thank you!

I think the ANCC questions, but you only get like 150 questions (I believe), so its not that much variety. You should also do the questions in the back of the purple book. Pocket prep is definitely very simple and straightforward. Whereas the actual exam is more application questions. But pocket prep is good to use to learn basic things. The most important thing to do is read the purple book ( I read the whole book). But pay attention to ch 2-7. You should also review the most common medications (I.e. mood stabilizers, antidepressants, etc).

The most important thing to do is to complete questions every day. The day before your exam just relax. Good Luck!

[pleuralP]

Thanks!! Anyone else have any tips? Were there any topics that you wished you read more about? How much neuro was on there?

[shenique12]

I am about to take the boards and I was wondering what should I use to study?