FNP-SA

Hello everyone, I must apologize to many for 1) Not being able to respond in an appropriate time frame, 2) overlooking the email. I know over the first couple of months following my test, I had spoken to so many of you via phone call and provided additional insights/assistance, and it was always a pleasure to hear back from about their success. I am hoping I can still provide assistance to those in need who were in my predicament or will be taking the exam soon. To those reading this, if you have sent me an email in the past and I have not replied, please resend another one starting now 6/10/18 and I will do my best to reply as soon as I can. I have setup the following email to my phone, thus if you do email me with questions/followups, I can hopefully reply much sooner. Email: [email protected] Til this day, that whole test-taking process still remains memorable. Keep your head up, i'll check these forums more often. Take Care

Unfortunately I never ran into any such issues. If that were the case though, I guess coincidentally, I happen to call them on the following Tuesday, notifying them of my submission and they had just happen to release the test score? I can speak from my experience that I did NOT have to wait the time frame for my scores to be mailed and arrive at my house. Try calling again tomorrow and speaking with another representative. Maybe during today's conversation, it had not yet been posted on 10/24 Tuesday, but possibly tomorrow Wednesday 10/25 they can find the information.... Instead of asking directly the question, "when can I retake," I always used the wording, "I unfortunately was not able to pass on my first attempt and I know I have to complete CEU's prior to retake. I have finally completed the required CEUs and I sent verification of the pdfs/license identification. I just want to make sure it was sent to the appropriate personnel and that you received it, so that when I am able to reapply for retake, I was not missing any additional documentation." ... Then they could verbally verify they received my documents and it put my name on the top of the list to approve.

Disregard overconfident, that can be a good thing. Yes the first few questions could have initiated a downward spiral of confidence altering your train of thought. That is definitely a strategy/mind set I actually went into the exam with... "If I don't understand what the answer is for the first 3-5 questions, so be it, not going to let them 1) alter my pace, 2)alter my train of thought for future questions..." Instead, mark and choose whatever "kinda-sorta-ish first instinct, move on, icome back later to them... but seriously, don't alter your pace because you start reading the first couple questions slow, which in turn causes you to read the easier questions at the same slow pace. Exam was created so the first couple ones were harder anyways. Realistically, you still have alot more room/leniency to miss before failing. Looks like you had nerve/anxious issues like I did... which typically doesn't happen too often until AANP. umm, try to AM walk/gym like I did, or... the restful break prior to test day, or... schedule a massage an hr before the exam? Seems silly, but who knows, if it works it works. Good luck!

Til now, the day still haunts me! Speaking from true experience, not even 1 month ago... I know saying you'll do better next time is easier said than done, but from here on out, literally just tell yourself... "Okay fine, I didn't pass. So be it. It happens. But this next one...it's done, going to slap it in the face and own it." Now reading your post, I honestly believe you DID put in enough effort, in fact i'm POSITIVE you did. And on any other regular practice question(s), you would have done fine. However, it seems it's not the lack of sufficient knowledge, but an area of improvement regarding test taking strategies... I know myself, and I've always known that I am a HORRIBLE test taker... until this exam, I not only did 1000s of questions, i trained myself to approach a question a different way. At one point, I didn't need to know the answer to the specific question each time, but I at least had a rationale to determine/rule out why other answer choices were NOT or less likely correct. Additionally, continuing to train myself to identify patterns helped ALOT. More additional strategies:Example pattern question, of course I made this up and will be easy, but I am emphasizing the PATTERN strategy, not addressing the difficulty of this question... When assessing a patient with Cushings syndrome, what would be a potential complication expected from the APRN... A) Hypotension, B) Hypertension, C) Television, D) Chair.... So, I put "Television, and chair" in the answer choices to throw you off, but just pretend like it was "terminology" you had no idea what they mean or heard about. DON"T fall into the trap, downgrade yourself, and think it has to be one of those unknown words because you aren't familiar with them...BUT Realize that choice (A) hypotension and (B)hypertension are complete opposites of each other, thus for the exam, it would most likely be one of those 2. Another pattern like question: When 2 answer choices are basically the same thing (synonyms) and/or both correct, but this is a multiple choice test with only 1 right answer... so if 2 choices are the same AND even though they make sense, it CANNOT be what the test is looking.... Example (again, going to be easy, but focus on the strategy)... 60 y/o male complains of tightness in his chest. What would be the initial assessment of the APRN? A) Hypertension, B) EKG, C) High blood pressure, D) Cardiac laboratory values...... So, Choice A and C are essentialy the same thing (disregard technicality), and although they may be just as high of importance to assess concurrently with EKG and lab values...only 1 answer can be correct. Therefore, rule out (A), and © because if 1 of them is right, the other has to be right, and that can't happen due to confusion. Looking at the stem of the question, I asked "Initial" ... thus, doing the least expensive, least invasive, important of present objective status takes priority over cardiac labs. SOAP test taking strategy...Subjective, Objective, Assessment, Plan, Evaluation? This one was abit harder for me to actually master/apply Naturally, but the format of the question itself can hint/guide what the answer is looking for, especially if all the answers appear right.... Pretend I just gave you a Detailed patient scenario about an 80 year old with urinary issues, infrequency, hesitancy, complains of no pain with bowel movements, etc...What would be the next step for the APRN to make... A) Ask if it runs in the family B) Digital Rectal Exam C) PSA D) Prescribe 0.4 mg PO Daily....Tricky question because 1) your thinking well I need to gather ALL assessment before doing any next step, but realize what you need to actually ask yourself is "Do I have ENOUGH information to come up with a diagnoses... in this case, yes... Probably DX BPH..... B) Now I need to do a DRE before C) invasively drawing blood (also may/may not help knowing PSA after DRE will rise but is insignificant in numerical value meaning it won't really jump up high enough secondary to DRE). D) I did give you a BPH medication and correct initial starting dose, but still not the "Next step" in plan of care... So I literally just made up this question, so if you find any technical/faulty/questionable rationales I provide, remember I am emphasizing Test Taking strategy. Hope some of these help anyone reading. Again, I could probably discuss even further strategies, but do send me an email and we can always go from there. To those who have already emailed me, sorry for any delays in response and/or time. It's an email I am not used to regularly checking, but created merely for this site. Everyone who was unsuccessful thus far and possibly still subconsciously beating yourself up.... Stop...Now... Keep your head up, literally tell yourself it is what it is, and now at this time, do what you gotta do to get ur sh** done now! (Really not trying to use inappropriate language, but sometimes an empathetic soft speech isn't enough, just smile at my attempt and do work)

I had probably about 1/4th of the same questions. The 3/4ths of the questions were new, but did not seem as difficult. I would suggest as well... using quizlet as an outlet source. You would be surprised the type of information reviews/study guides you come across if you search hard enough :). Send me a message directly via email and we can discuss further.

I had probably about 1/4th of the same questions. The 3/4ths of the questions were new, but did not seem as difficult. I would suggest as well... using quizlet as an outlet source. You would be surprised the type of information reviews/study guides you come across if you search hard enough :). Send me a message directly via email and we can discuss further.

On Friday 9/8, I took the FNP AANP exam for the first time. Unfortunately, I received the Preliminary "Not Passed," notification. I Didn't know how to feel. I felt I was ready and was already burnt out from studying, and could not believe all the time committed did not payoff. Even worse, I did NOT feel the exam was that difficult and not 1 questions really stumped me or made me feel like I didn't have at least a general idea.... Yet, to my surprise, I failed. I was basically in shock and did not know what else to do, as I felt my studying was sufficient and I felt comfortable with the material. I even slightly had a peace of mind when I walked out of the exam thinking "that was slightly difficult, but I'm pretty sure I passed." - Nope. What I did next, set me up for success... Immediately when I got home, although saddened, I started highlighting out the questions and/or info I remembered and looking up answers to make sure I didn't miss them. I compared questions with a friend who also took the exam the same day, and I couldn't believe it considering all the "hard" questions, I got right, yet still failed. I trolled these boards numerous days, along with Google to find out 1) if anyone recently was/has been in my situation, what they did next 2) if anyone has ever had their preliminary score changed to passing = which is a no btw, maybe like 1/99999999999 chance 3) any advice I could think of regarding how to pick myself back up and do differently... Honestly, it was emotionally difficult, but I refused to be put down too long. Literally, Exact same day, I finally told myself, yes I failed, but it happened for a reason, maybe so I could review even longer and become a better NP in the long run? or it just wasn't my time. It's not the end of the world, I can and I will overcome this. I basically turned my sadness into even MORE motivation. I gave myself 5 hours to beat myself up, embrace the results, and immediately got back on it...So if you are reading this and in the same similar situation I was in...Stop your negativity mindset now, tell yourself it is what it is, and Do what I did next.... In order to retake the exam, I needed to complete 15 CEU Hours and reapply. I didn't wait for the AANP to mail me my results and I am glad I didn't, considering it does not even break down in detail the test composition percentage, only mentions ... "The following information lists the strengths to weaknesses in descending order - Diagnoses, Assessment, Plan, Evaluation." ... I googled, AANP CEU's, was taken to their website https://www.AANP.org/education/ce-opportunities here, I had to register/become a member (if you are already a member, great), forgot how much was membership but not too bad, but this opened up the door for free CEU's. Then I just started completing random ones. Mine were all online videos that I pretty much pressed play, let it run for the 1-3 hours, and came back to save my certificate. There is a post quiz after each video but you have unlimited chances (I am not recommending/advising you to do this, maybe you will learn something in the video?) I completed the ones that provided the most CEU's in 1 online video and I will post them below. Concurrently, I entered in the CEU hours on the aanpcert.org website to save time. Note, Save the certificate pdf to your desktop as you will have to upload the document when reapplying for examination. You don't have to go through the tedious steps when reapplying, it is only uploading the CEU certificates and a copy of your present RN license you originally sent... Timeline of CEU's Friday 9/8 - I failed. Saturday 9/9 - Treatment of Heart failure, Acute Rashes in Urgent Care, Polypharmacy, Pharmacology 101. Sunday 9/10 - Bugs and Drugs Antibiotic Overview, Opioid Prescribing, Obesity Treatment, 2017 Update for Dx and Mgmt of HTN. Monday 9/11 - Resent the retake application to AANP via their website, concurrently emailing them notifying I did so. Tuesday 9/12 - AANP Approval and PSI notification to reschedule exam date..! (That fast) I was up and down about whether I wanted to retest that same week, but also was nervous about it being my last attempt, so I decided to schedule it 1 1/2 weeks later on 9/20. Realistically, if I took the exam the next day/same week with the same amount of information I knew back then, I probably would have passed... it wasn't an issue of lack of studying/information, but moreso overcoming the nerves, and more importantly applying strategy I practiced. My errors on my first attempt: 1) I was sooo nervous/anxious on every question, I "did" look at how much time was left, (I quote "did" because I would look at it but never really pay close attention to how much time left compared to questions still unanswered) but I didn't use it to my strategy. I knew the general rule about answering and marking the question if questionable, and theoretically should be answering 1 question per minute, which if performed appropriately would leave me 30 minutes to review. Yet, despite knowing that strategy, I ended up with no time at all to review my answers. I completed all 150 questions, but literally had 1 min left for 1 last question. 2) I focused too much on memory dumping everything I could on my scratch sheet prior to beginning the exam, thinking if its on the paper, all I have to do when a question comes up (such as dermatology/viral exanthems/JNC 8, statin benefit group, DM) is look at my scratch paper and I knew what "med" to start or what diagnoses the question referred to based upon characteristics... It felt like it was quick, but when I add it up, this wasted SOOO much of my time because when a question did come up, I would compare and contrast why one is the correct answer versus why the others are not,even though I knew the answer/diagnoses,etc... yet I wanted that secondary confirmation because it was on my scratch paper... 3) I was so tense in my neck/back. All the studying, anxiety and lack of rest leading up to test day created so much tension, I found myself changing positions frequently, which probably altered my 100% attention on the exam, misreading easy questions, and not applying test strategies for every question. Those were just a few big ones. What I did differently today and my game plan. 1) Mental/Physical preparation: Up until the day before yesterday, yes I did study, but it did feel like I had already known the information. BUT what I did differently, yesterday the day before the exam, I decided to take a break and enjoy the day. I looked over notes 1 last time last night. Today, I woke up early, ate a good breakfast, went to the gym for a small walk/run to ease my mind/nerves. I went home, studied for 1 hour. Had a pre-set massage appointment at 1030AM-1130AM to relieve all potential muscle tension and again, calm my nerves. Closed my eyes and told myself I got this...Took my exam at 1PM-4PM. Passed. 2) Test Strategy: I knew I had to use time more efficiently. Even prior to the first exam, I was great at test taking strategies and knew the information well enough to answer any question in 30 seconds or less (on practice exams), but didn't perform on the actual test day. So I needed to keep that mindset of confidence. My goal was to read the question at a pace not too fast to misread, but not too slow, and keep it at a pace I have practiced up til now. I'd kinda sorta think of the answer beforehand, look at all the answer choices, pick the one I thought was my first gut instinct with reasonable rationale, but before hand, would take a quick second to make sure I had a rationale also as to why each other answer choices were wrong, and more importantly LOOK FOR PATTERNS!... For example, Which of the following would more likely lead to tachycardia? A) HTN, Anemia, Pericarditis. B) Hypotension, Anemia, Fever. C)Hypothyroidism, Anemia, Hypotension, D) Pericarditis, HTN, Fever..... In this case this is how my mind worked... "Yes anemia and Hypotension cause tachycardia, so I need to pick a choice with at least those two... eliminate A and D. I see hypothyroidism, nope eliminate C. My leftover answer was B. 3) Test strategy: I did mark questions I felt I needed to review, but I did NOT want to overmark any questions like I did on the first exam. My goal was if I could rationally break down a question literally to a 90-100% chance, I would pick and move on and not mark. But if I really did see a 50/50%, 60/40%, chance, or wanted to review it later because although I had a choice, I was questionable. I ended up marking 30 by the time I was done with all 150 questions (still overmarked but better this time). But in reality, it was probably only 10ish I truly needed to review while the other 20, I looked back and said yes... that's right, why did I mark it. 4) Test strategy: I mentally and physically practiced my test-pace and performed on exam day, finishing the exam in 2 hours. I took a quick 5 min break, then came back to review the marked questions. Even then when reviewing those marked questions, I again prioritize my time and I gave myself 30 minutes to review the marked questions, and the remaining 30 minutes to review the entire test just clicking to make sure I was pleased with my answer choice. 5) Test Strategy: Scratch paper - this time I was not going to info dump and fill up paper before starting as I mentally convinced myself I know it with confidence, I only really wrote down specific dermatology characteristics/viral exanthems (not all), Heart locations/sounds like APEA MR. PM. AS MVP/ARMS. CN 1-12, as well as Hepatitis B antigen,antibody Core/Surface results so I didn't spend a second trying to interpret. For these type of questions, its best to look at answer choices first because they will give you random non-related information like Hep A stuff, Hep C stuff, that isn't even in the answer choice, so don't spend your time trying to interpret those that when you finally do... you find out it's not even a choice. 6) Test Preparation: In summary, I used the following: APEA Amelie Hollier review course (although I do find it great/simplistic, I believe it prepares you just enough to pass, thus if you don't know every little detail down, bad news)... Leik's FNP Intensive Review (rented on amazon - this was great! You can look at reviews, etc. about people saying it is not up to date, or has misleading information, but it goes over more in detail topics barely/rarely mentioned in APEA that DO show up on the exam, thus use it as a guide to make sure if the information is mentioned in the book, better go online to look it up more... The fast facts are amazing and question dissection. APEA Qbank - I thought this was great as it has millions of questions Lastly for my on the go, FNP Mastery. ....I also rented Fitzgerald because I felt I needed ALL materials I could get my hands on, but in reality I barely used it, not because it wasn't good, but because I had too much overall. I would recommend actually just MASTERING only 2, I recommend APEA/Leik's book (Paying special attention to the Geriatrics/Pediatrics portion... again geriatrics portion...)... I do have even BETTER in depth topic strategies/tips/Recommendations for studying, but I feel its best you message me. That's my story. I know it was long, but I know I'm not the first/last to experience failure to success, thus whoever came to this for guidance, hope it helps. Keep your head up, you got this, Good luck.