Nursing, Nursing Advanced Practice, Exam Prep
So, what’s the AG-ACNP exam like?
Feb 4, 2019
(With excerpts from Adult-Gerontology Acute Care Nurse Practitioner Q&A Review, by Dawn Carpenter DNP, ACNP-BC
It pays to be mentally prepared for what’s to come on exam day! Here, we outline what you can expect—from format to timing and everything in between.
Offered by the Hospice and Palliative Credentialing Center (HPCC), the CHPN® credential was developed to demonstrate knowledge and experience in the role of the hospice and palliative nurse.
The Adult-Gerontology Acute Care Nurse Practitioner (AG-ACNP) certification or your Acute Care Nurse Practitioner Certified in Adult-Gerontology (ACNPC-AG®) certification exams are offered through PSI Services (PSI), with certification valid for five years.
AGACNP Exam Format
Offered as a computer-based exam (CBT), the exam format allows you to take the test in one sitting and get your Pass/Fail score along with your raw and scaled scores.
There are 200 multiple-choice questions with four answer options on the ANCC exam, while the AACN exam is 175 questions.
The Questions and Time
Of the questions you’ll encounter, 25 are pretest questions used to validate new questions for future exams. Note that you won’t know which questions are counted and which aren’t, so be sure to answer each one as if it’s being counted!
If you’re taking the AGACNP exam through the ANCC, you’ll have 4 hours in which to complete it. If you’re taking the exam through the AACN, you’ll have 3.5 hours to complete it.
Be sure to review the exam blueprints for the organization you’ll be taking the exam through, as each is slightly different. For the ANCC exam, clinical practice comprises 46% of the exam and the APRN Core Competencies is 16% of the exam, whereas for the AACN, clinical judgment comprises 73% of the exam.
On the ANCC exam, 38% of the content tests role, professional responsibility, and healthcare systems. On the AACN exam, professional caring and ethical practice account for 26% of the assessment.
Get the ANCC Exam Blueprint here.
Get the AACN Exam Blueprint here.
Resources:
Carpenter, Dawn. (2018). Adult-Gerontology Acute Care Nurse Practitioner Q&A Review. New York: Springer Publishing.
AACN Certification Corporation. (n.d.). ACNPC-AG® Exam Handbook. Retrieved from https://www.aacn.org/~/media/aacn-website/certification/get-certified/handbooks/acnpcagexamhandbook.pdf
American Nurses Credentialing Center. (n.d.). Test Content Outline. Retrieved from https://www.nursingworld.org/~4accca/globalassets/certification/certification-specialty-pages/resources/test-content-outlines/adultgerontologyacutecarenp-tco.pdf
PSI. (n.d.). Welcome to PSI Candidate Services. Retrieved from http://online.goamp.com/CandidateHome/CandidateInformation.aspx