Nurse Practitioner Certification Examination and Practice Preparation

Just passed my ANCC FNP certification exam yesterday February 10, 2015!!! Just a heads up -- my exam had about 40% non clinical questions so make sure you focus on studying theories/ethics/research. Not too many ethics/research questions but a TON of THEORY questions. I also had about 10-15 picture questions, 10 drag & drop questions, and about 10 multiple answer questions (but they specify how many correct answers there are.) If you take ANCC, make sure you spend at least 3 full days reviewing non-clinical info... a lot was common sense but it helps to have some knowledge about it. I would say don't stress too much about memorizing labs... know the basic ones (for anemia, BUN/Cr/ etc.) There are 200 questions on ANCC ... your brain will get tired! I recommend taking a 5 minute break to drink some water, go to the restroom, and splash your face with some water at the 100 question mark. It will help!!Now review of books I used:1) Barkley -- I went to the Barkley review course and I would say it was just okay. The audio/book is also just okay and it's mostly memorizing information (everything is presented in outline form). I think for the FNP exam, its best to UNDERSTAND diseases/treatments instead of memorizing information because the questions are formatted in a way that memorizing random info isn't going to cut it. You can use the book, but I would say don't let it be your primary study tool. However, this was the best book for non-clinical review since it has the most information. I also listened to the audio whenever I was in the car.2) Fitzgerald -- I really love this book! It definitely is more information than you really need to know but it really help me understand the material way more than Barkley's review did. If you have time, I would say read through this book once or twice -- it has questions embedded throughout the review material so it helps you to really think. THIS NEW UPDATED EDITION DOES HAVE INFORMATION ON NON-CLINICAL QUESTION! It was a good review but make sure you study other materials as well because it mainly focused on ethics & reimbursement and not so much on theory and research. I was getting mostly 65-70's when doing practice tests but after reading this book, I started getting 75-80s on practice tests. I would recommend reviewing this book a month prior (for 2 weeks). Then 2-3 weeks before your exam, put it away and focus on Leik! You don't want to overwhelm yourself before the exam.3) Leik - BEST STUDY BOOK. I felt this was most helpful in my review. After reading Fitzgerald, Leik's book does a really good job at tying everything together so it will be easier for you to apply your knowledge on the exam. I believe Fitzgerald & Liek combo is the best for studying! And practice questions--- bonus!! I did 25/day for about a month to prepare me. Once you start getting scores in the 80's... you're ready!Good luck! :)

I just passed my AANP FNP board exam today and felt well-prepared.I used several materials to prepare, and this book was the most helpful for the following reasons:--Topics and depth most closely matched those on the exam compared to other materials I used.--Well written practice questions with few errors. I would say the actual exam questions are a bit more difficult, but only in that they have another couple of layers to them, but not different material.--good clarity and summary of topics using the latest guidelines.Topics not covered in this book that I recommend spending time on are Tanner stages, HIV, and more on infectious disease in general.Other materials I used which were somewhat helpful were Codina-Leik, Winland Brown, and Fitzgerald audio. I took a practice test with aanp-fnp.com and it was TERRIBLE.The test bank on the Davis web site is free with the book, or you can buy it separately. It has some problems and I did not find it very useful. It includes all of the questions from the book, and every quiz you take repeats multiple questions so it is not actually a fresh quiz. Additionally, many of the questions are missing information that is presumably given in another question, so you have nothing on which to base your answer. For example, I got two questions that gave me only an age and a gender and asked me the next appropriate step for the patient. What?!?I also advise extreme caution when scratching off the access code for the test bank. I did not scratch it off just right, and was unable to read the code, and the customer service dept. at FHEA actually told me I would need to purchase access to the test bank that was supposed to be free with the book since it was my fault for doing a bad job scratching the code off! Thankfully, Amazon replaced the entire book without charge.

I purchased the Fitzgerald NP review book, as well as the online version of the FNP review course from the Fitzgerald website. I passed the AANP FNP boards yesterday and would highly recommend both for preparation! What I really respect about the Fitzgerald program is that it really prepares you with a thorough knowledge and reasoning base, both for boards and for entering practice. I can say that I absolutely feel more confident about beginning practice than if I had not done the book and course, or if I had done one of the more memorization-based programs like Berkley.What I found is that the Fitzgerald review course videos correlate wonderfully with the review book. There is a section in the book for each topic that the videos cover, and the book allows for even deeper explanation of the topics presented in the videos as well as some additional topics and lots of practice questions. The review videos are great too though, Margaret Fitzgerald is an excellent presenter and has that New-Englander bluntness that was helpful in sorting through what you do and don't need to know.The only thing I'd change about the book is moving the practice questions for each topic from the beginning of each section to the end of it. Do the questions at the end after you've read the section, so you are checking your understanding.

Dr. Fitzgerald is the end all, be all of nurse practioner readiness gurus. Dr. Fitzgerald is an excellent teacher. I used her book and her lecture in preparation for the FNP examination. The truth is, Dr. Fitzgerald's book is a little to caught up in the details. The book is difficult to read, and while it offers an abundance of good information, it is more than is necessary for the certification examination. If you can answer the practice questions in this book, you will have no issue passing the FNP board certification!