My Tips on Passing the AANP Exam

[SL APRN FNP-C]

So I am another one of those graduated NP students who has been trolling these boards endlessly, looking for tips & tricks on how to pass the AANP board exam. As of June 17th, I passed the exam! It was a grueling 30 seconds as I waited for the results to print out to find out whether I passed or failed, and it honestly felt like a dream when I saw the capitalized letters: PASSED. However, I had slightly different circumstances throughout my studying for the boards. I was pregnant through the last semester of my program and had a baby 2 weeks before graduation, so truth be told I had to figure out a certain schedule to study effectively! Anyway, seeing as how much I depended on this website to collect all the tips I could find, I felt it is necessary to share my own tips for success!

Getting Ready For The AANP Exam

 STEP 1  Do NOT wait too long post graduation to take the boards!

This is absolutely the most important tip us students were given by our instructor, and I completely agree. The longer you wait, the more information from school you forget. It's best to go for it when information is still fresh! I decided to take mine a little over a month from graduation after giving myself a 1 week "vacation." It's highly recommended you take the boards

 STEP 2  Do review Leik and Fitzgerald!

These were literally the only two resources I used to pass the exam. I did not attend any live or online course. If only one could be utilized, Leik by far is the best choice! I loved that her book (second edition) was so straightforward, and she gives all the information that is important to know. I would pay special attention to her exam tips with each chapter, and to spend time answering every single question in the back of the book. I was only able to get through half the questions before taking the exam, and I wish I had done them all!

Fitzgerald is a genius - however, she does tend to dive a little to deep into certain topics, such as bacterial organisms and whether they are gram pos. or gram neg. etc.

 STEP 3  Do take the PSI practice test (75 questions), APEA predictor exam (150 questions), and ExamEdge (5 tests)

It's true that practice makes perfect! Set aside 1-2 hours each day to take practice questions, and read the rationales on those you get wrong. I don't remember which question came from where, but a few were recognizable through one or multiple practice tests. As far as the ExamEdge, don't buy more than 5 tests. I did not find their questions to be similar to the actual exam, but they are good for content and for getting used to the format of the exam. I got about an 85% on the PSI practice tests, 71% on the APEA predictor exam, and a range of 70-77% on the ExamEdge tests.

 STEP 4  Do set a schedule of studying.

I printed out a calendar and wrote out which subjects I would cover on certain days, then I spent 3-5 hours during those days studying. Make sure to set aside 1-2 days for pediatrics alone, then another day just for geriatrics. My test had many, many questions on the elderly and frail elderly. This seems to be the trend for the 2017 exams! So definitely know benign and abnormal conditions of the elderly!

 STEP 5  Do relax the night before.

I got a massage the night before the test, and I have to say it was the best decision I made! After a month of studying, you just need that relaxation to help settle all the information you have packed into your poor brain by that point.

To all those who are about to take (or retake) the exam, I wish you luck and I hope that some of my tips help you as reading others helped me! Remember! Don't over analyze questions or change answers, unless you know it is correct 100% ..I know it's cliche but go with your gut! Really, it works! ?

[sarringt22]

Thank you everyone for your post and suggestions! They were very instrumental in me passing the exam. One suggestion I took was practice writing after you have done your extensive studying. Take a blank sheet of typing paper and write down everything that you were somewhat uneasy about and practice writing it each and everyday. Such as hypo/hyperthyroid, intersupp/pyloric stenosis, trich, etc. as well as your acronyms! It really helped me. Some of the items i had on my sheet were actually on my exam! Good Luck to each of you.

SA, FNP-C

[nppassing]

Congrats on passing. Unfortunately, I failed 2 times on ANCC. Non clinical questions were so difficult to me. I am planning to take ANCC again in 1 month. Has Any Body Taken Leik's live webinar ? Could you recommend books to study non clinical chapters? I am wondering if there are any specific things or materials you would suggest for the Professional practice section. For some reason I really struggle in this section. If you have any information or suggestions it would be very appreciated.

[RM, MSN]

wow! good job! I also graduated from Walden in February and I waited a couple of months and studied exactly how you did and that scores very close to what you got and in June I took the test and failed. To this day I still have not taken it. I just got my verification code last week and I am just trying to keep up on my antibiotics and guidelines. I don't know what else to do. I think it is anxiety more than anything

[Futureapn2]

Your not alone! Would u like to join a study group? Please contact me on this site!

Thanks

[tekialove]

Hello Futureapn2, I would love to join a study group. I am in a struggle with when to retake the AANC. I am willing to try anything at this point. Hopefully this will help us.

Thanks

[KatieMI, BSN, MSN, RN]

I passed it today.

Prep: 2 weeks x 2 - 8 hours/day, 100 - 400 questions/day. Could probably do it quicker but I was working 30 hours/week.

Fitzgerald last edition: was required by my school for every clinical course, so I pretty much knew it through. The free qbank has no option to exclude already tried questions and has very few, of any at all, "original" questions, so it pretty much repeats the book, only on screen. Book misses entirely quite a few conditions. I knew the stuff from other sources or was able to figure it out but still, this book is not "everything you need to know" while giving too much info on some subjects.

Do not bother to memorize % % and dates "(how many kids in the US have pneumonia before they are 5"... nobody cares).

Leik: read like 3/4 of book and did all questions. The whole takes things a little below the level you supposed to know the content to have "safe margin" on the exam day. It is a good addition because it mentions quite a few things which can be accidentally seen on exam. Also, I felt that qs style of Leik is the closest one to the real thing.

Leik uses some outdated info, like JNC7, and has too few "descriptions", of which this exam is very heavy. A few qs are obviously misprints or mistaken.

Exam pearls are really good. Take them as they are, and just work on the level of Pavlovian dog to save your time and sanity.

APEA: only book of questions. IMHO, they are lower quality than Leik.

Boardvitals: all questions twice just to keep my brain running. Too much in depth, very much NOT in style of real exam (mostly because Boardvitals uses "second step thinking", which is one characteristic feature of USMLE but absolutely NOT of AANP exam), quite a few of questions were clearly wrong. I tried to contact them, and got responce pretty much "it is so 'cause we think so", the existing evidence be d***ed. All their calculation questions can be safely thrown away, and 8/10 of "statistics/research" as well except the simplest ones (know definitions).

PSI test: taken 1 week before test day, 93%. The rest was steady between 85 to low 90% all the time. I still was crazy nervous, but that's just what I am when it comes to exams.

Test:

- I have no idea what randomizing algorithm they are using but it seems to pick up a few things and stick on them till the end. I had a lot of qs of geriatrics, the rest was heavy in peds, OB and derm. There was one Xray which would make an Xray doc thinking a bit. No "two-steps" for me (like Dx Ms. Molly - then treat Ms. Molly).

- old USMLE rule works here as well: if it is not said, it is out of the picture. No s/s of infection in scenario - throw away any answers which are about infection. Test is not specific for a condition in question - there must be another option, or you are thinking about a wrong thing to begin with.

- Scenarios are "classic" all right as Leik says but can be very, very short. Imagine how you would describe any disease in one medium-long sentence. This is the part which needs to be mastered at conditional reflex' level. One had to keep the classic description firmly in mind and sort out everything which didn't belong/associated with it.

- No calculations, SATAs, ECGs.

- pharmacology and more of it. Maybe it was so because I'd got that much geriatrics. Some things were not mentioned in any exam prep book, so I had to use my (quite strong) patho and pharm background to figure them out.

- know how every test looks like in norm and pathology

- before you "consult out", see if there is something you can do as an NP (teaching, reassuring, etc), especially if Dx is here already, but do not miss emergencies.

- the time is ample. Most questions are short, so reading takes just a few seconds. I was slower than usual because I caught myself over a silly mistake very early in test and told myself to stop rushing on but I still finished in less than 2 hours.

- I found out that I do not know the area of the USA in square miles after living here since 2000 ?

Overall, the thing was not outrageously simple but definitely not terrible as well. Everyone who are still preparing - good luck!

[tekialove]

Hello All, I am very happy to say... I PASSED the ANCC on Sep 20, 2017. This was my second time and the questions were just as hard as before. I basically used my Barkley CD's to study this time. Just glad it's over!!!

Good Luck to future test takers

[Rose885]

Hello and congrats to everyone who passed! I passed on August 26th 2017 through AANP. I chose AANP because I do not test well on ethics/legal/role type questions, I prefer clinical. I graduated May 25th 2017 and did not do a lick of studying until the first or second week of July. I used Fitzgerald review online and the book that came with it. I found the test at the end of Fitzgerald and the PSI tests were helpful. I scored between ~82-86% on each, I don't remember the exact scores! Perhaps it was my nerves, but I found the actual test quite difficult. I had a lot of questions related to endocrine and vascular. Positive self talk and relaxation breathing really help! Good luck

[zebrapants1]

I also went to Walden, took the Hollier review, and studies Liek...and failed. I studied the Liew questions, not the book. Do you think the book would be most helpful at this point? Or is there something else I should focus on?

[zebrapants1]

FYI...IMO, Walden does NOT do a good job of preparing you for the exam.

[goziem]

I promised myself that I will come back to this site and post what really helped me in passing my AANP exam. This is my story. I graduated in May 2017 and decided to take a 2 week vacation without studying. I did not start studying for my exam until June. Long story short, I took my exam on 09/14/2017 and failed. I felt like I was stabbed in the stomach. I could not figure out where I went wrong because I studied soooo hard until my heart and soul were tired of studying, and I graduated with a 4.0 GPA. With the support of my husband, I quickly pulled myself together and started studying again the very next day (9/15/2017). I quickly did an online CE ON 09/14/2017 without even waiting for my score report.

09/14/2017 - reapplied for AANP exam and turned in my CEU online.

09/19/2017- approved to retake the AANP exam (yes, that fast)

09/21/2017- Received my ATT, and scheduled to retake the exam on 10/18/2017.

10/18/2017- PASSED

I took Hollier review, bought the question bank, used Holier's Q&A book, took predictor exams scoring in the low 70's the first time but FAILED.

What I did differently:

1. A friend that passed the first time recommended the Leik webinar review, the Leik Q/A book, and the Leik family NP Q/A app. I am soooo glad that I listened to her.

2. I took the leik webinar from Oct 3 to 6th 2017, and took my exam on Oct 18th and passed. I did not use any other review course.

3. After the webinar, I reread the entire 270 page review guide that came with the review course, and made notes on a journal which I focused on 3 days before my exam. Leik review course gave a lot of material in an easy to remember format. She has a lot of tips and mnemonics too.

If you have failed the exam before, please do not give up. Keep trying, you will succeed at last.

[Futureapn2]

Thank you for sharing, and congrats! Way to persevere!