blancas56

@ ACCRN2012 Not too sure how helpful I will be since I passed my boards in 2022 but I didn't pass until my 3rd attempt. I will start out by saying, the Pediatric acute care boards was the hardest test I have ever taken in my life. I say this because you begin to feel defeated and I began to think, maybe Im not smart enough. I had to convince myself that this was far from the case. The test is just very hard in my opinion and the resources are limited compared to other NP board exams. I also have very bad test anxiety and had to overcome that as well. Yes you have to know the information but you also have to learn how to take the test. What I think finally helped me pass was practice questions and knowing the rationale of why the other answer options were wrong. Because I have very bad test anxiety and seem to forget everything as soon as I click start, I brain dumped everything I could think of onto the scrap paper before I even read the first question. When studying, I remember things by writing them down. I wrote out all of my notes and typed up all of my notes with different colors and highlighted with different colors to be able to randomly look at them whenever I wanted on the go. I wrote up note cards and kept them on me most of the time to randomly pull them out on the go. I utilized NapNap, the Lipincott book, and PNCB questions. The most helpful out of the 3 was the PNCB questions, those were the most closest to the test. But again, I learned why the other questions were wrong in general for all the resources and what made them wrong. I also learned what little special detail made each disorder different from another. I apologize for the very long post but I hope this was helpful. Good luck, you got this!

I'm sorry that you did not have success with your first attempt. It was a very a difficult exam. I will be completely be honest with you, I did not remember my 1st exam attempt. I feel like I completely blacked out and was not prepared at all. After taking it the first time, I could not remember a single question or topic that was covered on the exam. Even though It took me 3 attempts, mentally I do not count the 1st attempt. I was not prepared at all. My friend told me that she thought her second attempt of the exam and what it covered was easier than the first, and I thought my 3rd was easier than my second. I think it just all depends on which version of the exam you get. I wish I could be more helpful

Update: I took my boards again and passed woohoo!!! I wanted to tell people what I did this time and maybe it will help others. I did listen to the suggestions of others from this post as well as doing other things. I made a ton of flash cards on disorders and topics Detailing management, treatment, labs, symptoms and specifics that made the disorders stand out from others. I did NapNap which I thought was helpful especially for the top 5 categories (pncb outline) on the test. I rewatched the napnap videos for modules I wasn't comfortable with. I redid the questions as well. I did the pncb questions and wrote note cards for explanations I needed to review. I typed up all my notes from NapNap and pncb explanations with questions. I did all 400 practice questions online from the Lipincott review book. I had already did the questions from the actual book on my previous attempts. Thank you everyone for the words of wisdom ?

I did do the NapNap review course the first time I took it and I did decide to purchase it again the most recent one. I'm hoping the more recent review course will be helpful. Thank you for responding.

I have taken the PNP-AC exam twice and was unsuccessful. I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong when it comes to my studying. I read all of Lipincott and did ALL of the questions, bought the PNCB questions, statPearls, notes. Does anyone have any suggestions or words of wisdom? I passed my PNP-PC boards but this Acute care has made be lose every bit of confidence I had.

It's probably a little late to be responding but my nursing career has been in the OR both peds and adults. I graduated last year from my PNP program. I found that there was material I found to be challenging and may have been less challenging if I had different work experience but it was all manageable. I wouldn't change my OR experience at all!

Not sure if this thread is still being used. Signed up to take my exam in a little over a month. Any study tips, resources that were useful? I saw that a lot of people referenced the melnic site but those resources don't seem to exist anymore.

I just had orientation for the dual PNP program and I'm considering doing the RNFA subspecialty. How doable is it to incorporate the subspecialty into the class workload you were already goin to have?

I searched for the page also and couldn't find it

Is there anyone that will be or continuing to do travel nursing at the beginning stages of the program?

Anyone who was accepted into the dual peds program that have received their acceptance letter know when orientation is? I just want to verify.

I thought the 21 and 22nd was for peds programs

Mine did the same thing this morning. I went back and created it with the same pin then when I went to log in it asked me to create a new pin bcuz my old one expired and then it worked. I'm peds dual as well.

I have 5 holds on my account as well with my first concentration choice. I just don't want to be disappointed. I'm not going to truly believe it until I see the acceptance letter in the mail.

Neither can I which has me extremely nervous now.