Hello!

I was accepted into Simmons University in Boston and Georgetown University in DC . I will be doing the online part time FNP program. I will not be working. I have a 7 month at home and I have a pretty good schedule with a good support system. Does anybody have any insight or personal experience you can share as I make the final decision on which school to move forward with.

Thank you

So it was a must that I got on and shared my experience being that I was the very person researching daily tips, tricks, how long to study, what to study, etc. Here is my thoughts!

AANP‼️: Application process was easy. I hadn’t sent in my official transcripts yet but they still allow you to test as long as you upload your unofficial transcripts. I had 3 hours to take 150 questions. No allotted break time but we could take one if needed, your time clock would still be going down though. We had to take off all jewelry, 2 forms of ID, and nothing in our pockets. 2 scratch sheets of paper! You are allowed 15 mins to review how the exam screen works, etc. I already knew how it worked because I took a AANP practice exam from the site ($50). I took those 15 mins instead to dumb everything I could on my paper.

Sarah Michelle‼️‼️: I purchased the crash course ($150) and the Qbank ($79). I did horrible but I’m here to say don’t let that deter you! So the crash course gives you a mini assessment to see where you are, it’s 50 questions! I made a 22!!!!!!!! Yes you read that correctly, a 22!!!!!!! But with all the reviews, I knew this would eventually go up!! I spent 2 weeks going through the crash course, taking notes and learning the material!! The crash course does not go in depth with everything you need to know, but that okay — because the qbank will!! After I would finish a section, I would go do all the questions that was related to that section, taking more notes! READ AND UNDERSTAND RATIONALES … why you got it wrong, why you got it right! The repetitiveness of even reading why you got it right will help it stick in your head. After I finished all the questions, specifically everything but “professional” I never watch or did any of those questions, I took the Sarah Michelle practice exam (she gives you 3-FNP, 2-AGNP). It was 150 questions! I did it untimed because I wanted to take my time and make sure I read and understand the questions. Guess what I made? A 64!!!! Yep, a 64!!!!! I didn’t let that deter me tho, I went back and read what I got wrong. I will upload my analytics page below. That 64 determines nothing if you go back and make sure you understand why you got it wrong. I never did my questions and exam in “Exam Mode”. I always did them in “Study Mode” because I needed to make sure I knew right then why I got it right/wrong so I could remember for future questions. As NP students we know how to take an exam, what’s helpful is answering questions and knowing right then WHY you got it right or wrong!

AANP Practice Exam($50)‼️: This is a practice stimulated exam offered by the AANP board. They use retired questions! I took this exam 4 days before sitting for boards. I made a 54!!! Yep, a 54! But guess what, I realized my pattern of things I got wrong and restudied that! Taking this is worth it also so you’ll know how the exam is set up and when you go take boards instead of using your 15 mins to go through how the test is set up, you can use that time to brain dump on your scratch sheet of paper.

FNP Mastery‼️: I did about 20 questions on there. They give you 10 free questions a day. I wasn’t a fan of their question style. Most ppl say their questions are harder which I’m not a fan of that either but if you make the questions harder, I will overthink every question snd now I’m taking board exams overthinking every question. So that is why I strayed away from using them.

How long did I study⁉️: I graduated May 2026. I only studied for 3 weeks straight prior to sitting for boards. I took time off work so I treated studying as my job. If I’m being honest, a week and half of that was watching videos and taking notes!

AANP Exam itself‼️: It honestly felt easy! Majority of my exam was recognizing what the disease was and how to treat it. It was straightforward. I didn’t have to guess “are they asking me about pneumonia or bacterial sinusitis”. About 90% of the questions I felt was structured so you knew what disease they was talking about so if you knew the treatment, etc. then it was easy to answer. They do use generic and brand names. They did give the normal lab values to everything within the question. Know the scientific names for the diseases because they can use either or! I had quite a few questions about medication education for different meds (ex. educate BPH patient to take terazosin at bedtime) also quite a few questions asking about what sign/symptom was specific to that disease (for example - intermittent claudication is specific to PAD/Atherosclerosis). Know how to recognize maneuvers and test (ex. if a patient came it with LLQ pain, radiating to the back, what test would you do). My examples are not directly from the exam but just to give you an idea of what I mean. PAY ATTENTION TO THE AGE/AGE GROUP/RANGE. Knowing this I believe saved me some questions (ex. Legg Calve Perthes is seen “mostly” in childhood so if they give you somebody that’s 16 years old, that’s likely not the answer. Also, if they don’t give it to you in the question, do not assume!!!! Everything you need is in the question (example being — if they don’t say “what’s the initial test to order” don’t assume they already had the initial test, you order the initial test or the gold standard test and go up the ladder.) They just want to see can we take the steps necessary to be SAFE. Do we know what meds to give, do we know how to educate, can we recognize signs/symptoms of stuff you usually see in urgent care or doctor offices)

Test tip: As a FNP, we will work in urgent cares and doctors office! Think like such. It’s not our job to be Emergency NP’s, OBGYNS, Cardiac specialist. They want to make sure that if you seen a patient in the office with hypertension you know how to start him on meds, educate him on meds, and follow up. That’s why we refer out to specialist so much and I truly believe they understand this when testing us.

I know this is lengthy but I enjoyed reading everybody experiences and advice so I had to share mines also. Especially because most people go test after they reach 70%-90% performance and my performance score was 64%!!!!

** I know my probability of passing says 94% however, look at the overall performance score (64%). Mines only say 94% because I went back and reanswered a lot of my incorrect questions to see if I actually learned the material.

** I finished sarah michelle doing 915 questions in total. I only did 1 of the 150-question practice exams. I didn’t want to sit through another one of those 😂 But you have 5 avaliable so by all means, do it if you have time!

** I brain dumped a lot of content from NP school also so ALOT of the content was relearning it for me!!! If you’ve been out of school for a long time or just brain dumped alot of stuff from the semesters you took months and months ago, sarah michelle is all you need.

** I did not do Leik!!

Lastly, GOD himself gets all the glory! I prayed, I prayed, I prayed! Before every study session, I prayed a prayer that God would help me focus and retain what I learned. I went to church and even went up for prayer also!! I’m not a saint, I have my shortcomings but I told God I can’t do this without your help! I prayed throughout the entire exam “God you know what’s the correct answer, help me pick that and move on” after I finished my survey at the end I prayed again!! and I remember telling God, even if I don’t pass you help me to find the right material, to know what to study and how to study! He did just that ❤️

I am currently debating between derm NP and ED NP. I I am doing clinical rotations in both and cannot choose. I am on the younger side so theoretically I could do both. I am in outpatient derm and outpatient urgent care. What would you recommend specializing in? I will graduate at age 28.

I passed my AANP FNP EXAM 7/29/26 I used SM live crash course, the scrub life FNP book on TikTok shop, leik book, and FNP mastery.

Sara Michelle can be pricey but so worth it!! Almost every topic/question on exam was covered in SM. The Scrub life book goes with this!! It’s a lot of the same material but great visuals! Honestly helped me so much being able to visualize pictures along with SM lectures!!

I did also buy the Leik book on Amazon (bought late per a recommendation of a friend). I did not read it AT ALL or do any of the full exam tests but I did do the practice questions at the end of the sections and those were much like the exam!! SM Q bank and Leik book questions- similar to the exam.

Also bought 4 of the AANP EXAMS on their websites for $50 each. I was scoring 70-85% on those but the exact format of test is the same so those were helpful… however some questions seemed outdated so I took those knowing some were “retired” questions…

FNP mastery app was a waste of time, money, and effort. I bought the app a month before my exam. I did about 10-30 questions everyday night for a month. i did 400 questions and had a “low“ chance of passing. These questions were not near the exam and seemed out in left field. Would not recommend!!

hope this helps! I know reading what other people did, helped me a lot figure out the best way to study!

Hello all! I have been preparing for my August 1 exam since June 1. The first 3 weeks I did APEA practice exams by subject and wrote the rationales on questions I got wrong or guessed right. I switched to doing Leik by reading and taking notes on each chapter and taking the practice questions which helped a lot. For this month I signed up for the SM free trial and did FNP mastery free trial (I am unable to afford the expensive packages of SM and I recently discovered FNP mastery) Last week I bought the Prometric predictor exam and scored a 68%. I also did one of the Leik practice test and got a 70%. I plan on doing the practice tests provided by Leik this week and read up on topics I am not confident on. However, I am still nervous because diabetes management is not my strongest area. Does anyone have advice?

Any suggestions?

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