I passed- stats and takeaways
Took the AANP FNP board exam this am. Takeaways in case anyone else is like me and was scrolling Reddit looking for advice on what board prep to use and/or likelihood of passing based on scores.
Background: nurse for seven years in ER and family medicine. I was an A student in undergrad and grad school.
Prep: I started board prep shortly after graduating. I got my approval to test about 14 days post graduation (slight delay because my school did not process commencement until weeks after graduation). I booked my exam for seven weeks after graduation and gave myself six weeks to prep.
Resources:
my primary resource was the Leik book and questions. I spent about five weeks going through the entire book cover to cover, completing all of the questions and completing the four practice exams. I averaged 75% on the practice exams and about 85% on practice questions at the end of the chapter.
Sarah Michelle one day prep. I did the live one day review class and practice exam. It was a good general overview, but not particularly specific (which I expected, how in-depth can you get in one day?). The memory tricks were very helpful and their additional resources were beneficial. I got an 80% on the practice exam (which in their portal said a 99% chance of passing).
UWorld FNP question bank. In the last week I started doing between 100 to 200 questions per day. I started out averaging in the high 60s and ended up with an average in the high 70s. I felt that these questions were slightly more difficult than the exam but very worthwhile. Some of the questions were almost identical to what I saw on the exam too. The question bank is approximately 1200 questions, I did about 900 of them.
Exam takeaway:
- read each question at least twice to make sure you know exactly what they’re asking of you.
- know going into it that there will be questions you don’t know the answer to. It’s okay to simply make your best guess and move on. You aren’t aiming for an A.
- the questions are not designed to trick you. People kept saying the exam was very straightforward and it was. The information you need to answer. The question is either a) in the body of the question or b) not available because it is strictly memorization.
- do not change your answer unless you have a compelling clinical reasoning for changing it.
Like I said, I spent a long time scrolling on Reddit reading y’alls posts like this one so hopefully at least one person finds this helpful.