Tanguera

I took the ANCC FNP boards a couple of days after my last post and passed! I found this site helpful for info before I took the boards so I figured I’d post my experience as well. This post became a whole lot longer than I originally would have wanted, but I wanted to give a good overview of my experience. I decided to put bolded headings like a previous poster so maybe you can skip over things if you think I got too long-winded (sorry!) Study Timeline So all in all my timeline looked like this: I began studying around mid Jan while I was working FT as an RN. I wasn’t working during Feb at all because I wanted to just prep for the boards. I took the exam first week of March and quickly started my FNP job two days after passing the exam. It took around 6 weeks of prep in total but the last 4 weeks I was more focused because I wasn’t working. I think I could have probably taken the exam with only 5 weeks of prep but I couldn’t schedule the test sooner. Fitzgerald Online Review Course I was supposed to take the live course but ended up taking the online course due to scheduling. I heard from classmates that the live course is pretty much the same thing as the online course because the same material is covered. However, some people said that going to the live course gave them more of a push to start studying. The online course allows you to view each module 4 times so you probably could share it with a buddy if you’re watching it together or only need to watch it 2 times each. There is one final exam at the end, so if you split it, you’d have to figure that out beforehand. It took me about 4 weeks to get through all of the lectures carefully to the point where I was comfortable with the material. Also, be aware that for the final exam on Fitzgerald you can only review it once after you finish the exam. Once you close that box, you can’t review the exam and your answers. I had a problem with my browser so it had to shut down so I never reviewed my final exam on Fitzgerald but I ended up getting a 75%. I wasn’t too happy with that, but I ended up passing the ANCC on my first try so I’m not dwelling on it. Fitzgerald - Nurse Practitioner Certification Examination and Practice Preparation, 3rd Edition Nurse Practitioner Certification Examination and Practice Preparation, 3rd Edition - Fitzgerald Health Education Associates, Inc. This is not the same book you would get doing the Fitzgerald Online review course. I didn’t do all of the questions in this book – maybe not even half of the book. I thought this was a good book for review but of course Fitzgerald wouldn’t give away all of her tricks in this book if she wants you to buy the live or online course. I thought the questions in this book were a bit more straightforward (i.e., if you read the text, you can get the question right, and some of the questions are just straight up recalling facts and drills of identifying drugs of a certain class). Some tables and questions are the same as in the review book from the online course but some info seemed a little superfluous. I don’t think this review book needed to go into all that much detail ab/ Smallpox vaccine. There were other things that seemed like they were just filler. Once I figured out that Fitzgerald probably just put together this book with her name on it so she could make some money, I figured I would just stick to the review course workbook and lectures from Fitzgerald. So if I could do it again, I wouldn’t have bought this book since I was doing the Fitzgerald online. Exam Edge Family NP Prep FamilyNPprep.com - Your #1 source for passing the ANCC Family Nurse Practitioner These are just mock test questions and there are 100 questions for each test. I bought 25 exams which was completely overkill but I liked doing 100 questions straight because it really got me used to being in the zone for this test. After test #16 or so, I then started to do two tests back to back to simulate doing 200 questions straight like in the real exam. All of the questions are exactly the same for all users. All of the tests are numbered and Test #1 is always the same for everyone, so is Test #2 and #3 and so forth. I sat next to a friend while doing Test #2 and she looked over to my screen every now and then and after the test she told me the questions were the exact same ones she got. So there is no shuffling and replacing of questions. The content of the questions also didn’t always seem to reflect the FNP scope of practice. Some questions were really out of the blue and probably would have been better for a dental or orthopaedic review course. There were other posts I found on this site that said the questions on this site kept repeating themselves. YES. THIS IS TRUE. I think Test #1 had a few questions that were also in Test #2 and Test #3. It also seemed like Test #7 had the same exact questions as in Test #8 and #9. The questions weren’t even worded differently nor had different answer choices. Mirror image. My scores were all over the place and had no real trend. I was getting nervous because I thought these scores weren’t good enough. Apparently someone in my class was consistently getting 400 on these practice tests; my highest was 382 on these exams. I don’t know if this question bank is really indicative of how well you would do on the actual boards because I failed some of these pretty badly a few days before the real exam (which gave me some pretty terrible anxiety) but I ended up passing the real thing. [TABLE=width: 523, align: center] [TR] [TD]Test Name[/TD] [TD]Questions[/TD] [TD]Raw Score[/TD] [TD]Approx. ANCC Nurse Practitioner Score[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]FREE Practice Test[/TD] [TD]10[/TD] [TD]4[/TD] [TD]221[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]Practice Test 1[/TD] [TD]100[/TD] [TD]64[/TD] [TD]340[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]Practice Test 2[/TD] [TD]100[/TD] [TD]73[/TD] [TD]382[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]Practice Test 3[/TD] [TD]100[/TD] [TD]56[/TD] [TD]301[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]Practice Test 4[/TD] [TD]100[/TD] [TD]67[/TD] [TD]354[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]Practice Test 5[/TD] [TD]100[/TD] [TD]60[/TD] [TD]321[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]Practice Test 6[/TD] [TD]100[/TD] [TD]68[/TD] [TD]359[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]Practice Test 7[/TD] [TD]100[/TD] [TD]66[/TD] [TD]350[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]Practice Test 8[/TD] [TD]100[/TD] [TD]68[/TD] [TD]359[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]Practice Test 9[/TD] [TD]100[/TD] [TD]66[/TD] [TD]350[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]Practice Test 10[/TD] [TD]100[/TD] [TD]59[/TD] [TD]316[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]Practice Test 11[/TD] [TD]100[/TD] [TD]60[/TD] [TD]321[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]Practice Test 12[/TD] [TD]100[/TD] [TD]61[/TD] [TD]326[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]Practice Test 13[/TD] [TD]100[/TD] [TD]65[/TD] [TD]345[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]Practice Test 14[/TD] [TD]100[/TD] [TD]70[/TD] [TD]368[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]Practice Test 15[/TD] [TD]100[/TD] [TD]66[/TD] [TD]350[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]Practice Test 16[/TD] [TD]100[/TD] [TD]65[/TD] [TD]345[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]Practice Test 17[/TD] [TD]100[/TD] [TD]69[/TD] [TD]364[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]Practice Test 18[/TD] [TD]100[/TD] [TD]66[/TD] [TD]350[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]Practice Test 19[/TD] [TD]100[/TD] [TD]61[/TD] [TD]326[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]Practice Test 20[/TD] [TD]100[/TD] [TD]71[/TD] [TD]373[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]Practice Test 21[/TD] [TD]100[/TD] [TD]67[/TD] [TD]354[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]Practice Test 22[/TD] [TD]100[/TD] [TD]61[/TD] [TD]326[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]Practice Test 23[/TD] [TD]100[/TD] [TD]63[/TD] [TD]335[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]Practice Test 24[/TD] [TD]100[/TD] [TD]65[/TD] [TD]345[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]Practice Test 25[/TD] [TD]100[/TD] [TD]71[/TD] [TD]373[/TD] [/TR] [/TABLE] In short, if I could do this over again, I would have bought the 25 pack and split it between 5 people and the first person can just do Tests 1,6,11,16,21 so you’re sure to get variety! Buying more than 5-10 tests from this site is really more than enough. Other posts said that this exam bank seemed most similar to the actual ANCC FNP boards. I would agree that the questions are worded similarly, but after doing so many of these tests from this site, I think they’re worded very similarly only because the questions seem to be taken straight out of the FNP Review Manual which I will review below. Family Nurse Practitioner Review Manual - 4th Edition The test questions are worded similarly and the “look” of the site is similar to the real boards, but **did not simulate the real boards at all. I ended up doing 100 questions in roughly 50 minutes on this site (sometimes even quicker because I ended up recognizing some of the questions from previous tests) but during the real exam, it took me much longer to do the first 100 questions. The questions provided on this site are sometimes only one or two lines long and not really case studies. Also, this question bank has multiple-answer questions, but they don’t tell you how many to select, you just are told select all that apply. In the real boards, you are told “Select 3” or “Select 4” so you are told how many you need. Family Nurse Practitioner Review Manual - 4th Edition (AKA “Yellow book”) Family Nurse Practitioner Review Manual - 4th Edition The 3rd edition of this book was yellow, so it seems that a lot of posters on Allnurses have referred to it as the “Yellow book”. I used the 4th edition. Again, I didn’t go through the two volumes of these books but I thought they were helpful. The website says “Manual MUST be purchased from ANCC directly in order to qualify for the associated CNE credits.” But just know you’d have to pay another $95 in addition to the price of the books in order to get those CNE credits. This book was the most comprehensive of all of the review books out there. Other posters have said that it is good to read the first few chapters in this book that cover I would definitely agree. READ THE FIRST CHAPTER where there are a few tips (if there are two answers that are opposites, most likely one of those answer choices is the right one, etc.) Read the few chapters on Healthcare issues, insurance, legal, management, research. It does come in handy. Dunphy - Adult-Gerontology and Family Nurse Practitioner Certification Examination: Review Questions and Strategies Amazon.com: Adult-Gerontology and Family Nurse Practitioner Certification Examination: Review Questions and Strategies (9780803627048): Jill E. Winland-Brown, Lynne M. Dunphy: Books I didn’t do all of the questions in this book but found it helpful to use to run questions on topics I wasn’t as comfortable with after reviewing Fitzgerald. I did hear from others that the questions in this book were more difficult than necessary so I didn’t feel compelled to finish the whole book. I did like the fact that the questions had detailed answers. ANCC FNP BOARDS The actual exam took a lot longer than I had expected. I was doing the Exam Edge Fnpprep.com questions and got used to doing 100 questions in 50-65 minutes. So I got worried during the real exam when I was only at maybe question 50-something or 60-something after the first hour. Meds: There were a couple of questions that just listed one drug and then you were supposed to choose which drug you would not prescribe because of interactions. I also had quite a few HTN and DM case studies with meds. Questions with Multiple Answers: you are told “Select 3” or “Select 4” so you are told how many you need. Images: I had quite a few questions with images. Some gave a med and you had to choose what picture you could treat with the med. Order: I had questions that asked me to put what you would do in order, or what order med would you give, i.e. what is the first line drug, and second line, etc. Even having read the ANCC Review book 4th edition (AKA “Yellow Book”) I still felt there were questions and terms related to insurance or research that I don’t remember seeing in that book. Breaks: There is no schedule break but you can take a break if you want but I think the clock still is running during your break. Earplugs: they let me bring earplugs into the room (I didn’t see earplugs supplied at the site) and there were some headphones at the computer but I don’t know if all computers had sound-cancelling headphones since I saw some ppl at other stations who weren’t using headphones or earplugs. I recommend that you “Mark” the questions you don’t know because at the end, you have a list of what questions were “marked” and you can easily go back to those to review them. I’m glad I marked questions b/c there wasn’t enough time for me to go back and review every single question but I did mark quite a few questions and had enough time to review all of them at the end. This was a really long review but I wanted to write while everything was still fresh. I definitely was getting a bit discouraged the few days before the exam because my ExamEdge FNPprep.com scores weren’t showing an upward trend, but I think if you go through the Fitzgerald course and do several practice tests from other question banks (for variety) and if you review topics in the ANCC review books that you are not comfortable with, you are probably ready to take the exam. All the best and good luck!

Congratulations to those of you who already passed! I am wondering what scores you got on the Exam Edge Familynpprep.com tests. I am wondering if the scores on there are indicative of how well one might do on the real exam. I purchased a few tests from the site and my scores are all over the place: I have some as low as 320 and some passing in the 380's. On the Fitzgerald practice exam I got 75%. Please post if you are able about whether your scores, particularly on Exam Edge, were in any way indicative to the real boards. I would love to get this exam over and done with, but I honestly don't know if I feel completely ready to take the real thing. But I also think I'm just one of those people who never feels completely ready for an exam. On many standardized tests like these there are always questions that seem to come out of left field. Thanks in advance!

Hi Hephzy and all of you other FNP-BCers!! Thanks all for your input with the boards. Reading through these posts have been helpful. I am scheduled to take the boards for FNP ANCC soon and I did purchase some tests on the familynpprep site but I'm wondering what you all were getting on those exams. I have scored a little below 350 on some, but also in the 380's. I am not sure if I'm ready to take the boards yet so I'm wondering if those Exam Edge http://www.familynpprep.com results are in any way indicative of what I might get on the real exam? Also, I got 75% on the Fitzgerald practice test. Did others who have passed the boards get these types of scores on the practice tests? I just want to know if my scores indicate whether I'm ready or if I should just keep on studying. Any thoughts on this? Thanks so much!

Hi BabyCatcher, I'm actually curious to know how things worked out with your part-time master's at Columbia. I am particularly interested in learning how you handled going to school part-time and working full-time. I am starting the Part-Time FNP program at Columbia this fall and I was offered a full-time position in the city on the Upper East Side. The job is a research position (which is what I have always been interested in doing since I have a little bit of research experience) working on a ground-breaking study with some very knowledgeable and influential doctors and researchers in the field. I wonder if at Columbia, there are part-time students who are able to successfully work full-time throughout the program. I talked briefly with one student at Columbia who said that she tried to work during the program but found that it became too stressful. I have another offer for a part-time position if I want it, but that is an office job completely unrelated to healthcare so it would only be a job to pay some bills. Thanks for any advice and insight you might have.

Yeah, for ETP you don't need to have any experience since the students already have a non-nursing Bachelor's degree and have only taken BSN prerequisites; but they don't even have the RN license. It seems that if you want to enroll in the NP program, they prefer to have 1 year of experience in the specialty you choose. So, if you wanted Acute care, they prob would want to see some ER or ICU experience, if you wanted to go into peds, they'd want to see 1 year of peds experience. But I think it's possible that the experience doesn't even matter all that much, but is certainly preferred. I got into the Columbia ETP Program but decided it was just too expensive. A lot of hospitals pay if you want to go back to school part time anyway. Not all hospitals (or unions) will pay for Columbia, but have certain schools that you can choose from within the CUNY/SUNY system, or other, less expensive schools. Good luck!

Yeah, it's tough to know what their process is like. I was wondering whether they might have made offers to their top 10 and are giving those ten people maybe a week or so to decide, then after a week, they try to fill the slots with their next top candidates. It is just kind of annoying b/c I have already interviewed in other hospitals that don't have such long and drawn out processes. Thing is, I feel like that nurse recruiter says things like "next week" or whatnot, but doesn't stick to what she says. I asked her when I interviewed when I would hear, and she said maybe the following week. She also asked me if I had any offers and I told her that I did, she said that she tries to get in touch w/ those candidates who HSS is interested in who already have offers so HSS doesn't lose them. So I called last week to follow up since I have gotten some other offers, but she didn't even look in my file or consult with any of the nurse managers who conducted the interview to see whether I am still in the running or not, instead, when I told her I had another offer and needed to give the other hospital an answer, she just told me that she knows that there will be many disappointed people who were part of this process. And then she threw at me a proverb that pretty much indicated that I might as well take one of the offers I have already gotten instead of just waiting around and hanging onto the possibility of an offer from another hospital that is seemingly within reach. I actually did already accept an offer from another hospital but haven't yet gone through the whole hiring process and I haven't yet signed on the dotted line. Until my name is in ink on that dotted line, I still am considering anything that comes my way since nothing is set in stone yet.

I'm tempted to call and see if they've made any decisions, but the thing is, I already called last week to follow up on the matter and they said they were still interviewing candidates. I already got like 5 offers and I would like to know at least whether I'm definitely NOT advancing in the process since it's really difficult to know whether I should turn down other offers or not. BTW, does anyone know how the tuition reimbursement for HSS works? One of the people on the panel interview said that if you're employed, the hospital will pay up to something like $6,000 per semester or something if you go back to school for a master's. I remember she wasn't exactly sure of the figure, so I wonder if anyone out there knows for sure. It is certainly an important factor for me. Thanks!

I don't know when we're supposed to hear back but hopefully soon!

They asked some very common interview questions: about previous work experience, how did you transition into nursing, why HSS, where do you see yourself in 5 years, things like that. It isn't always about the questions and the answers, they just want to see how you answer the questions and get an idea of who YOU are. Also, having been on the other side of the interview process, you never know what they're looking for so you have to just give them a clear snapshot of who you are and hope for the best. I haven't heard back yet from HSS but they start orientation in May which is a while from now.

Thanks Horseshoe, Yeah, I had my interview already and it wasn't too bad. I usually am very relaxed at interviews, and I have a lot of experience with public speaking, so I wasn't too nervous. However, what threw me for a loop was that I was in the room w/ three of the nurses on the panel who were interviewing me, and also with two other candidates in the room! so there were three people interviewing, and three people answering the questions. I really don't think it was a good way to screen applicants, and I would have preferred to be by myself and sitting in front of the panel, but i suppose you can't always choose. I think it went well but what was difficult was knowing how much to say when answering the questions. Because there are other people in the room, you know that they will be moving onto the next candidate, but you don't know exactly how much time you'll have to answer their questions, or how many questions they'll ask you before moving on to the next candidate. I think i do well with one-on-one interviews also b/c since you're half of the conversation, you have more of a say in where the conversation is going, and i've even had some recruiters tell me up front "You are a very strong candidate" or "i really would like to hire you"... but with the panel, it's just really important to keep the confidence and the optimism b/c while they won't say nice things upfront right away, you don't know what they might be thinking. I think with panels they're just very guarded because they don't want to give you any impressions before they consult with each other about each candidate. Thanks for the encouragement!

NurseJackieO, I have an interview coming up there also. Did you have your panel interview at HSS? What does that mean even? Who is on the panel besides the nurse recruiter? It sounds intimidating! I usually do really well with interviews, but a "panel interview" sounds like there are multiple people sitting and staring you up and down!

So I was going to bring up this topic (gender/race/ethnicity/nationality/) before, but since it is a touchy issue, I didn't think I wanted to touch it until someone asked outright. So, thanks for asking a good question. Gender: As in most nursing schools, the overwhelming majority of the faculty are women. Race/Ethnicity: The dean, director of the accelerated BSN program, and the director of the RN-BSN program are Filipinas. The Dean and Dir of RN-BSN program both got doctorate degrees here in the US at Columbia University. There are a lot of West Indian/African-American teachers/clinical professors and few caucasian. A lot of the professors got their nursing degrees in other countries and have work experience abroad. I don't know how long many of them have been here serving as professors/clinical instructors in the US. The way things are taught and the way things don't always start on time and are disorganized makes you think you're in another country, a developing country (AKA third world country). I know this because I have spent considerable time abroad and am from the same background of some of the faculty. So I don't want to disclose too much about myself but if you have any further questions PM me.

Wow yeah that is new to me. I know that in other countries, like the Philippines, those programs are popular where the students will pay the hospital for experience so that they could perhaps get their foot in the door after completing the program. But that seems so expensive for the courses and the amount of time of the course. A lot of hospitals want to see your PAID experience. So even experience as a volunteer doesn't count.

I'm in the same boat as you are. I just wonder whether a NJ state license is going to be of help. I talked to people who said it is also very hard now to get a job in NJ. I don't want to have to move, but i am thinking I might have to get another state license but I haven't figured out yet which state might be a hot spot for hiring nurses now. I am thinking of home care but at the same time, have you heard anything about new grads and home care? Don't they usually want experience since you'll be visiting patients at their homes? It just seems unsafe to send someone new out on their own. It is a little intimidating, but I'm thinking I might have to go in that direction since it's difficult in NY right now to find a hospital position.

I graduated three months ago and passed the NCLEX. I haven't looked that hard for jobs but my classmates who also graduated with me have been looking. I dont' think anyone has a nursing job yet. I went to a staffing agency that asked me if I was open to doing home care. I told them that I wouldn't be comfortable doing home care since I'm a new grad and I think it would be best to learn in a hospital setting. Also, I wouldn't want to be alone visiting houses and not know what I'm doing. That is so dangerous for the patient and also a potential threat to my license. For those of you who have experience as new grads who entered home health care as your first job, how easy is it? how difficult is it? I am reading postings and I hear of new grads who haven't been able to find jobs for a year after they graduated. I wonder if I should just take a home health care job now, or if it might be better just to move to another location where RN's are more in demand since it looks like NYC has more nurses than it knows what to do with.