26

AUG

2021

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If you just finished your Nurse Practitioner (NP) program, Congratulations!! As a DNP/NP new grad, the next big step is to pass the board certification exam. Some of you might have started searching for the review courses to help you succeed in the board exam. As a newly certified AGACNP, I would like to share my research on the two most popular review courses - Fitzgerald and Barkley, and how I chose between them.

 

Why using a review course?

I believe most NP new grads want to find the most efficient method to pass the exam in order to start the next exciting chapter as soon as possible. And I think the best way is through a well-organized, single, comprehensive review course. Couple reasons to support this choice. First, instead of going back to the materials provided by your school (I believe they are scattered in different semesters' files), the experts already organized the content you have to review so you won't miss anything. Second, they ensure everything is updated and include the latest guidelines you need to know. When I looked back at the handouts I got from my NP program, some information is already out of date. Third, the review course also teachs you how to comprehend the text and the test-taking techniques, which are vital to study effienctly and master the extended spectrum across the young to old adult for AGACNP board.

 

How I choose the best fit?

First of all, I would like to share the detailed coomparison between Fitzgerald and Barkley. To have a better view on the differences, I organized the information I found on their website into a table:

AGACNP Certification Course Review Comparison

 

Fitzgerald

Barkley

 

Basic

Premier

Premier Plus

Ultimate

Live Course

Online Streaming

Home Study

Price

749

759

859

1099

460-530

460-530

440-480

Livestream

2-day

X

2-day

2-day

3-day

3-day

X

Online Review Course

X

V

V

V

Only cover STD, Risk assess, Cultural topics

Only cover Practice issues, Ethical & Legal, Cultural, Obstetrics pearls

Only cover STD, Risk assess, Cultural topics

- access day

-

180

180

180

90

90

90

- attempts

-

4

4

4

2

2

2

MP3

V

V

X

V

X

X

V

Course Manual

Printed

Printed

Printed

Printed

Electronic

Electronic

Electronic

Extra textbook

X

AGNP, Ferri’s Best Test, Imaging

AGNP, Ferri’s Best Test, Imaging

AGNP, Ferri’s Best Test, Imaging

Digital AGACNP eBook for extra $190

Digital AGACNP eBook for extra $190

Digital AGACNP eBook for extra $190

Practice Exam

150

150

150

150

100

100

50

- attempts

2

2

2

2

1

1

3

Contact Hours

36.9

36.9

36.9

36.9

21.5

21.75

15

- Rx hours

18.3

18.3

18.3

18.3

8.75

8.75

6

Pass Guarrantee

V

V

V

V

V

V

X

1. Course types

There are livestream, online, and MP3. I personally wanted to study in my own pace and review unfamiliar topics as many times as I need, so I immediately crossed the livestream option. I'm also a visual learner, and prefer a recorded video (online review course) to MP3. Barkley put most of the content in their livestream but did not provide it in an online review course. In other words, you have to attend the 3-full-day course based on "their" existing schedule and only have one chance to capture teacher's talk. And that's the main reason why I did not choose Barkley. However, if you are a more passive learner, attending the live course or livestreaming may push you to start studying. Then the Barkley may be a good choice for you from a cost efficient standpoint. 

 

2. Access period & attemps

In my opinion, 90-day access is sufficient (I studied for 6 weeks). If you have a busy life and/or like to start slow and pick up gradually, Fitzgerald may give you more flexibility. Regarding the attemps, I only launched 1-2 times in most chapters., but more attemps allowed are always better. There were times that I wanted to stop in the middle of the course or ran into wifi disconnection or technical issues, and that wasted 1 attempt occasionally. 

 

3. Textbook

Having a good textbook in hand is important for me. Although the review course is comprehensive enough, it's still impossible for them to cover every single detail. And when you review the practice questions, there's time that you need to go back to the basic and review probably the entire chapter. I personally really like the imaging textbook provided by Fitzgerald. There are not many imaging questions in the board but this will be a great supplement when you actually become a NP. For the AGACNP textbook, I prefer Barkley's over Fitzgerald because Barkley's is more organized and has useful tables and images (you can review the sample on their website) while Fitzgerald is just plain text. However, Barkley's costs an extra $190. I ended up not buying it but used UpToDate as my resource. 

 

IMG_0032.jpg

 

4. Practice Exam

Taking the practice exam is the best way to verify if you are well prepared and identify your weakness. In my opinion, only taking 1 time is not enough, and either 150 or 100 questions are way too few. Many people buy extra test bank for more practice, and for instance many recommend Board Vitals. You can also spend extra $29.95 to buy Barkley's 100-questions (include 45-min review session), but total of 200 questions still not a lot. I used my university's library as a resource to find a couple NP prep books with practice questions and rationale (cost $0) and finished about 1000-questions. The only cons that I can think of is most of these books are not updated (mostly published before 2015), so you have to be careful when reviewing the answers. 

 

5. Price

Although on the top of the price colume there's hundreds difference between Fitzgerald and Barkley, you need to take the actual content into consideration. The price is actually quite similar when you buy extra materials (textbooks, practice questions...etc.) from Barkley to match the same content as Fitzgerald. 

 

Last but not least, just in case you wonder, I purchased Fitzgerald's Premier package.

 

Hope this article gives you some hints of choosing the review course that best fits you.

I will also share my study plan/schedule on the next blog. 

Best of luck!

 

Anne小安妮
27 人追蹤

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