Welcome to Becoming a Stress-Free Nurse Practitioner, a show for new NPs and students that want to pass their board exam the first time and make that transition from RN to NP as seamless as possible. I’m your host Sarah Michelle. Now, let’s dive into today’s episode.
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Hey friends, for today’s episode I want you to come into it with an open mind and with a willingness to hear me out before you jump to your own conclusions. This episode is definitely one that’s important to me for you to hear because it can definitely impact not only your studying process as a whole, but also your actual exam day and how you are feeling walking into your big exam.
So at the core of today’s episode here’s what I want you to know right from the jump, every single person’s exam experience is different. You and your friend who went to the same school so you got the same preparation, studied for boards together, could even get the same version of the exam on the same day at the same testing center at the same time, and still both feel entirely different about how that exam went.
And I think this is crucial to write a podcast episode about because when you’re a student and you’re anxious it is so easy to get trapped in what everyone around you is saying about the exams. You’re going to hear so many different things like this exam is harder. This exam was easier. I walked in my exam, and I knew nothing. I walked into my exam, and I knew every question, I was out super quick, et cetera.
So with such vastly different experiences out there, then student anxiety jumps up even more. Who do you listen to? And how do you fade out that background noise? And I know it’s so hard to do. These are tough skills, but I’m going to walk you through in this episode why this happens in the first place, and what you can do about it moving forward to not get lost in the same trap.
I want to start off this episode with a little bit of a story about my first encounter with exam feedback that didn’t exactly match up. And also how easy it would have been for me to accept their feedback as the truth and just assume someone who had done it before me knew better than me.
So the very first time I ended up in this trap was actually at my first nurse practitioner clinical rotation. The subject of the big board exam came up one day in between seeing patients. And when it did my preceptor immediately interjected saying that she took ANCC because she knows it to be known to be harder, and therefore more prestigious.
I wasn’t even at a point yet where board exams had really been discussed during school because it was still so early. And so I started asking lots of questions, I got overwhelmed immediately. What makes ANCC harder? What makes it more prestigious? How does she choose between the two exams? Why are there two exams? I didn’t even know that was a thing yet.
And what she told me is that ANCC asked about a lot of policy and legal content, that she felt it was probably at least half of her exam. But that information was crucial to her role as a nurse practitioner and so it was definitely worth studying and knowing. She also told me that employers prefer that ANCC certification, which is why she deemed it to be more prestigious and more sought after.
These two things right here were my two big initial pieces of misinformation. But I had no one around me to ask, and that really is the problem when it comes to this entire process. How do we find out who to trust and who not? And so that night when I went home I did what I do best when I’m confused and I want to know more, and I started doing my own research.
You would be surprised how many rumors can be easily squashed by even just doing a quick Google search. And here’s what I found guys, ANCC, at least at present time only asked 15 nonclinical questions for the FNP exam. AANP can also ask that nonclinical content, also known as professional content. It’s a really common misconception that they won’t, but they tend to ask even less than that.
In addition, ANCC is not technically more prestigious. But the caveat there is it can be preferred by magnet institutions specifically. And most of us in the primary care field are not going to be working for magnet institutions anyways. And that’s the only difference there.
So why did my preceptor feel like the non-clinical content, for example, was half of her exam? Well, when she took ANCC, she took an older version of ANCC. The version that definitely asked about a lot more nonclinical content than it does today. But I would have made that same assumption about my own upcoming exam, had I not done my own research on the side.
That’s why when we start talking about exam feedback we have to take everything with a grain of salt and be willing to do our own investigation. We cannot blindly trust that what we’re being told is correct. People always mean well when they share their experiences with us, I know my preceptor did. But it doesn’t necessarily mean everything they are saying has to be held as 100% true either.
So with all that being said, I would like to pause before we move any further and squash the eternal debate of one exam being harder than another. You will hear this again and again. Some are going to say AANP is harder because the questions are lengthier and wordier. Some are going to say ANCC is harder because it has those varying question types.
But at the end of the day, guys, these are all just opinions. The only facts that we have to look at are passing rates. And for the last released year of data, ANCC did have a slightly higher passing rate than AANP. This is a fact, this is something we know. But it was still only a marginal difference, between 86% and 89%.
There is no such thing as a harder exam. These are both equally difficult exams that require rigorous preparation and mental work to be successful. You will prepare for both in the exact same way. Both will require you to be on your A game and be able to critically think.
And a tidbit I will add in here too is the fact that you will commonly see in students who take both exams, almost all of them, literally every time, it almost never fails, almost all of them will say whichever exam they took second was harder. So if they took ANCC first, they’ll say AANP was harder and vice versa.
Typically, the reason for this is the fact that the studying pressure is off for the second exam. They’re already a real deal nurse practitioner, they’ve already passed one, right? And so they do smaller amounts of studying in comparison and walk in just a tad less prepared than they did the first go around. So don’t get lost in those posts either. It’s truly still all opinions and not based in facts. We’re looking for facts, right?
So now we have to figure out how to both understand and manage those vastly different exam experiences. It can be so difficult to read online when one person says it was the easiest exam they’ve ever taken in their entire life. And then the very next post behind it reads that it was the hardest exam of that person’s life. And it felt like everything on their exam was gibberish.
When you start reading these posts, these are the concrete things that I want you to remind yourself of before you start spinning in your own anxiety. Number one, you have no idea how that student prepared. Did they study for three days or three months?
Even if their post said three months and it was a solid three months of studying, how much were they actually studying day to day? Did they have to work full time? Did they have a family on top of it? Did they just buy one small review course? Did they do some practice questions along the way? Did they have dedicated studying time?
These are all questions that only the person who took the exam is able to answer. You can never have a true transparent view into how any of them really prepared. And that is why these exam experiences vary so widely. Everyone is doing something a little bit different. Everyone has their own life factors at play. So even if they use the exact same preparation materials and the exact same amount of studying time, you’re still going to have different experiences between students.
In addition to that, even if you and your friend who prepared the same way took the exact same version, there are going to be topics that you’re stronger at and weaker at versus your friend. So that can definitely impact how you feel about your exam as well. Did you get a lot of topics that you knew that you knew well? Or did you get a bigger variety with things you knew really well and things you’ve always struggled with?
Another super important point is that when your anxiety spirals out of control, it can make even the easiest exam in the world feel and seem absolutely impossible. Even if you were super prepared, you did thousands of practice questions, you did several review courses, et cetera. If that anxiety is not in check, suddenly the material that you’ve always known starts to slip away as you answer questions.
This is what I found to be a real source of student feedback when they say they feel like their exam was all in gibberish and they weren’t sure they were even in the right exam. Many of these students who are high anxiety will do multiple review courses. So if you see a students say nothing in their review courses was covered on their exam. That would almost be virtually impossible.
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For me, when I see that feedback, that is a huge red flag that anxiety was taking over for them during their exam. What we harp on in my courses is not only anxiety management, but anxiety awareness. If you’re not aware that you’re spiraling into anxiety in the first place, it makes it really difficult to be cognizant enough to stop, take a break, and utilize your strategies.
In my head I always go back to this one particular student who said she had no anxiety during her exam, we were talking after she failed. And she had two panic attacks in the bathroom. So she just didn’t even have the awareness that her anxiety was on overload and how that could impact her exam.
And so those students that keep barreling through are the ones that typically either fail, or very narrowly pass. It’s just so hard to be successful in your exam when you’re not totally in the game and ready to critically think through questions. You can’t critically think through even the simplest question if you’re in that panic level anxiety that we always talk about.
If this is something that you know you’re prone to doing, make sure that you’re practicing that anxiety plan ahead of time. Try it out on a couple of full-length practice tests to be sure you’re ready to go for your big day. The last thing you want is to be absolutely blindsided by it when you’re already in your exam without a real plan of attack.
So I know this will be a little bit of a controversial episode, and not everyone’s going to agree with me about exam day experiences. But I plead with you, if you haven’t tested yet, don’t listen to the horror stories. Make your own opinions about the exams. Don’t let other’s opinions on this exam scare you into postponing your test date, panic buying more review materials, any of that.
Here’s what I want you to focus on instead and keep coming back to, at the end of the day the only thing you can personally control is how you prepare. If you prepare well, you should do well as long as you can keep that anxiety in check. I wholeheartedly always believe that statement, the overwhelming majority of test takers pass their exams. And that is another fact that you can cling to when you’re reading posts and feeling unsure of yourself.
And the last fact I’ll leave you with is this, and it’s one of my favorites for those about to take their exam. You are not expected to know 100% to pass this exam. Not even close, it’s actually around 70%, right? And 70% is a lot of leeway when it comes to a 150 or a 175 question test you guys.
So don’t let a tough question or even a couple of tough questions on your exam get you down or make you feel like you can’t be successful. Odds are you will definitely still know the majority of those questions as long as you don’t fall into that anxiety spiral.
So deep breaths, my friends. Your time to pass is coming. Don’t get lost in what everyone out there saying because you’ve got this. And that’s it for this week guys, I’ll talk to you soon.
As an extra bonus, friends, if you’re looking for support no matter what phase of your nurse practitioner journey that you’re currently in I have communities available for both students and new nurse practitioners. In these communities, we work to uplift one another and grow this profession together every single day. Links to join will be included for you in the show notes.
So you have crossed the first hurdle and finished your Nurse Practitioner (NP) program – Congratulations! Next on your list of priorities is your FNP certification exam. If you are anything like me, the thought of a final, single, comprehensive test standing in the way before you can embark on the next phase of your career was both exciting and terrifying. As a newly certified NP, I’m here to share some advice on what study tools best prepared me for the big test.
One of the most important things I used to prepare for the FNP boards was taking practice test questions. Lots and lots of test questions. One of the best options for online practice FNP certification questions is BoardVitals. BoardVitals specializes in preparing medical students, physicians, nurses, and advanced practice providers for their individual exams. They even have different practice questions for the AANP versus the ANCC exam. (Not sure which one to take? Find out how to decide.) They offer a whopping 1,900 different questions (Wow! – I know, right?) covering clinical and non-clinical topics, and the rationales are second to none. Not only do the rationales have detailed explanations for the correct answer, they even have detailed explanations for why the wrong answers are wrong. BoardVitals also has separate full-length practice exams available for purchase that mimic the exam’s real interface. Another great feature to this site is that you can purchase unlimited access to all the questions for 1, 3, or 6 months depending on your exam schedule. They even offer a mobile app and 100% pass guarantee!
Please keep in mind… these FNP review questions are tough. But, I learned so much from them. Do not get frustrated or anxious if you are not scoring as well as you expect. Take notes on the rationales, flag the questions you want to review later, and just keep practicing. In the end, the FNP certification exam questions I saw on test day were much easier. BoardVitals can definitely help you prepare well.
There are many review courses available for the FNP exam with different options to best suit your needs. If you are an auditory learner, attending a live presentation may be a great first step to beginning your exam prep. One option is attending a seminar with Margaret Fitzgerald. In case you don’t know who she is, she’s kind of an FNP review guru and has been helping new graduates prepare for their certification exam for decades. I have attended continuing education seminars with her and she is a wonderful, dynamic speaker – I can only imagine that her review courses are great. The seminar not only covers clinical content, but the non-clinical content that is on the test, such as clinical guidelines, evidence-based practice, and professional issues. Further, she has great resources that accompany her seminars, such as a review book, online resources, practice test questions, and even continuing education units – bonus!
Fitzgerald also has online and MP3 audio options that allow more flexibility than the in-person seminar. The online option provides 6-month online access to her lectures that can be viewed up to four times each, and online practice tests for each lecture that can be taken twice. Both options also include a review book, online resources, practice questions, and continuing education.
Another option for a review course is with Maria Codina Leik. She has a money back guarantee if you do not pass, which I think is incredible. She also has a webinar option available, and the cost of either option includes her review book (see below). Although I have not attended any of her live presentations, I have used her review book and highly recommend it.
If you were anything like me as a new grad, I was done with lectures. I had had enough of sitting down in classrooms for long hours being fed inexhaustible amounts of information. I preferred a much more flexible and mobile review option that I could digest in short durations any time or place – even while sitting by the pool as my children attended swim classes. So, review books were my preferred study method. Again, there are many options available and I recommend using two different sources to give you different perspectives on the exam.
One reference I highly recommend is Maria Codina Leik’s Family Nurse Practitioner Certification Intensive Review: Comprehensive Exam Prep with Interactive Digital Prep and Robust Study Tools. Leik presents a thorough review across the lifespan in an organized concise, well written, easy to read format. She also includes nonclinical topics, such as ethical and legal issues and nursing research. Leik presents the information in a straightforward manner and uses lots of mnemonics to help you remember specific details. What I liked the most about her book were the practice test questions. She provides more than 600 questions with rationales at the end of the book to test your knowledge.
A word of caution: the latest edition does not include the updated guidelines for hypertension (although there were very few changes), and there are a few mistakes throughout the rationale, which are sometimes too basic in their explanations.
Another source that I can recommend is Fitzgerald’s Nurse Practitioner Certification Exam and Practice Preparation. It is a detailed, comprehensive review of FNP clinical content. She even includes about 1,400 practice questions followed by the discussion of the topic being presented. The information is more in depth than Leik’s book but does not cover any nonclinical topics. Based on this alone, I cannot recommend solely using Fitzgerald’s book since nonclinical questions are a significant part of the exam.
A word of caution: looking for the answers’ rationales is particularly challenging – they can be found within the detailed and sometimes lengthy discussion after the questions.
A third review book option is the American Nurses Association’s Family Nurse Practitioner Review and Resource Manual. It is a 2-volume review book by the people who write the ANCC test – how great is that! The book is an easy to read source written in an outline form with bullet statements. It presents case studies and uses open-ended statements, like “what would you order?” but not multiple choice questions like what is on the exam.
There are quite a few questions on the test that deal with evidence-based practice and different types of research.
Nursing Theory, as well as “developmental theories, family theory, educational, (and) patient-centered care” are all fair game for the test. In case you have not gotten enough of Roy, Rogers, and Orem in school, The Nursing Theory website provides some review info.
So, there you have it… my recommendations for the top tools for preparing for your FNP certification exam. Remember that the exam is designed to be entry level to ensure patient safety, so don’t get too anxious and don’t over think it. Throughout your nursing education, you have passed many tests, and this is just one more test. You can pass this, too!
Best of luck!
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