My goodness do I remember standing in this exact pose before entering the test center. I was making all the promises to God about how I would work hard to impact lives and do all the benevolent things in His name if only He would help me pass. After one has achieved the degree, put in the herculean effort to study, stressed beyond reason, hyper-fixated on all the possible outcomes, and then stood in this place of last minute test anxiety, bargaining with one’s maker is where you may find yourself. Based on the conversations I have with NP students I precept and online / via my mentoring business, I can confidently say only a tiny fraction of new grads are immune to this fear. There are some things out of our control as a neophyte, but boards preparation is not one of them. Taking control of how you ready yourself for this exam definitely impacts anxiety level as well as success rate. In this post I will discuss the best way to prepare for your nurse practitioner board certification exam.

First, I want to bring awareness to the realities. Studies show 10% of people fail on their first attempt. This reflects what I experienced. One person in my class of 11 did not pass on the first attempt. This person was in my study group and I think did the best they could, it’s just a hard test. If you struggled more than most of your classmates do NOT let a test failure derail you. Take a minute to feel sad, frustrated, and defeated … and then wake up the next day and start again. This person did just that and passed the second time, now living their best ICU provider life. It’s just a speed bump and does not define the nurse practitioner you will be.

Second, I can’t advise you on which certifying body to use. I personally chose ANCC as this is what my program director recommended and my classmates chose. This made it a unified team approach to studying.

Thirdly, I have included relevant links to materials I used to study throughout this article. If it is underlined a hyperlink is attached and will redirect you to amazon. If you feel compelled to purchase and use my link I receive a commission at no additional cost to you for which I greatly appreciate!

Ok, let’s break it down by timing. This is not a test that many people can just wing, it’s a huge amount of material to cover and requires a plan for breaking it down into manageable steps.

Before You Start School

As early as humanly possible purchase review material. I got a second hand copy of the CD’s and the study book on ebay the summer before I started school. It was older, not the current material but for a fraction of the price I thought would still provide value and at the end of the program I would invest in an actual course with updated content. Not really having a clue what he was talking about I started listening to the CD’s during a drive down to Destin for vacation. This approach is not for the faint of heart. It expedited the overwhelm before I even started school. In the end, I did not end up purchasing or attending the live review, it just wasn’t something I thought would benefit me and cost way too much money. I will talk more about what I did do in the after graduation section.

Barkley Review for FNPs.

Fitzgerald is a commonly used program for FNPs.

Barkely Review for AGACNPs.

More current book review with test questions for AGACNPs.

https://amzn.to/3H4XTWr AGACNP Mometrix test bank

While You Are In School

1. As you progress in your course listen to the relevant topic as the lectures are assigned. I know I am in the minority now, but I drove to school every day so I used the commute time to do this. For example, during GI lecture topics I would listed to the GI CD. Almost more passively, not trying to memorize. This sounds like one more thing to do in a time when you are already overwhelmed with school/clinicals/work. Do not sleep on this though. Trust me. Once you graduate and then have to start listening in earnest it will be SIGNIFICANTLY less overwhelming because while you haven’t heavily engaged with the material, it is not foreign to you. It also is likely to help with your classes as tests are generally targeted to guidelines and this is also the focus of boards and by default the boards prep content.

2. Print, save, possibly go ahead and create flashcards of questions regarding guidelines content. For example, we alllll have to know the most current JNC guidelines on treating hypertension - yes even the acute care and the mental health folks. Basically any industry standard for core problems many Americans face. HTN, COPD, diabetes, heart failure, depression, etc.

After Graduation

Here’s where the rubber meets the road and it’s time to get your grind on. Listen, you are going to have some sticker shock once you start really getting into the content and realize vast the material is you need to know. Give yourself a minute to celebrate the huge achievement you obtained by obtaining your degree. Then get busy.

1. Form a study group. I know many of you are online students. That’s fine, form an online study group from your school. Or go on FB forums and search for study groups. But, you realllllly need the accountability and refinement that comes from studying with peers. Often I was 100% wrong in my understanding of the material that I was memorizing; having someone else point it out and help me actually grasp the concept solidified and streamlined my comprehension. My group began as one person and grew to three or four participants. We met about three times a week for varying time frames. Some days we could commit to 6 hours and some days we could only spend an hour or two.

2. Consider a live review. Folks who will benefit from these are those who need peer pressure and want to highly compress the time frame for review. But let’s be clear, this is just a presentation of the same material that is on the CD’s from Barkley. You still have to study the material over the following weeks. I personally found it to be cost prohibitive given you have to pay for travel, hotel stay, food, course fee, etc. Some schools are now including this in the cost of tuition and I think that’s phenomenal!! If not or you don’t want this approach here is what I would do. Pre-order the cheap / older / second hand stuff to study in advance (then you have at least some immersion with this content) then post graduation look into a different review course which could present the material in a different way or include content not in the initial program. I love love love Sarah Michelle Review Courses. The only downside is that at present she does not have an acute care course.

3. Test questions are where you will gain the most traction. I used several test banks including the books listed below as well as online DRT (diagnostic readiness test) simulations from Barkley. They are helpful. However, the best approach to test simulation is one that I cannot claim credit for developing. A former student suggests scheduling a practice run simulation just like the real thing. Put it on the calendar, leave your home or go somewhere with zero interruptions, silence your phone and take 175 test questions and limit yourself to 3.5 hours to complete. Set an alarm. Get out one plain piece of paper you can use as a brain dump and literally pretend it is the real thing. Sounds like torture? Yep, it does to me as well. Here’s the psychology behind it: practicing hard things makes it sightly less stressful in the real world. You also will get to know yourself and your weaknesses better. Consider your crazy friend who is always trying to sell you the benefits of doing ice plunges. I never understood my friend who did this until a podcaster said “doing challenging things in smaller more manageable doses builds up your ability to handle the truly hard things in life.”

   Barkley AGACNP DRT

   AGACNP Mometrix Test Bank Book

   AGACNP Carpenter Test Bank and Review Book

   Leik FNP Review and Test Bank Books (a LOT of FNPs that I know used Leik)

4. The other thing about test banks. Read the rationale. Every single time. Not just when you get it wrong but also when you get it right. This will tell you if you are a good guesser or if you are truly mastering the material. Brilliant idea, also not mine.

5. There are some quizlets out there. I think they are helpful. Especially for free content. Take it for what it is though. This is not your creation and therefore you don’t know if this person is right or not. You can, and should however, create your own. Way easier than writing on index cards. Unless you learn like that. Like I do. The best approach of all is to do this as a study group. Everyone take a few topics. Divide and conquer.

That’s it! I know it feels overwhelming right now. I know. Trust me do I ever. I am going to do a livestream on youtube tomorrow (1/18/22) and I’ll tell you all the embarrassing details of how my test experience went. If you can top that story and / or make me laugh at your own trauma I’ll award you 10,000 bonus points in life. HMU. Leave me a comment or DM or send me an email. We all have some degree of test anxiety - it will be ok. Good luck —— YOU GOT THIS!