ANCC Certification
The ANCC is the American Nurses Cridentinialing Center
The ANCC provide certification recognize accross the united states. So if you were interested
in giving certified and cert in nursing professions you could take one of the exams with the ANCC
and be certified that way.
and this cridentials are recognized by employers across the united states, so this is like
a standardized form of Nursing testing.
so, if you are interested in becoming a certified nurse of some sort, you'll most likely be
taking exams.
Now, there are several different exams. there are 12 types of nurse practicioner exams;
there are 10 types of clinical nurse specialists exams;
and 25 other types of nursing specialties.
so there are variety of test and you would pick this specific one that you wanted to
take to focus on what your interest was in nursing.
but once you have this certification from the ANCC its going to open more doors for
you in the future. Employers would recognize this, and see that you were very serious about
what you are doing. and that you had the knowledge and skills necessary to pass one of this certification
exams which would make you valuable employee to them.
The cost for this test, if you were member of the american nursing association, then
you will pay a member price of $270 per exam. if you are a non-member it's $395 per exam
within this fees is a $140 non-refundable administration fees.
so these are your basic cost for each exam. now, you may find a special where if you do
a certain activity on the website or respond for a certain email you may get a lower cost
for your exam. but this are the basic cost. and if some reason you have to cancel an exam
you would probably able to get some of your money back there's always a $140 non-refundable
fee so even if you did decide you wouldn't take the exam and backed out you would lost
a $140.
so make sure you will sign up you are ready to take the test.
Scheduling your exam
If you decide, you feel ready to take an exam, you wanna get done set up
You wanna pick the right one for you, you're gonna register a specific test on the ANCC
Website. the ANCC Website will list all of these different tests specifically, that you
can take for certification
after approximately 6 weeks, you will receive an eligibility notice. so when you register
you're basically applying to take the test. you don't just sign up right there.
then after 6 weeks; you will receive this elgibility notice.
so that means, they receive your application, and their telling you whether youre able to
take the test or not.
you will have to had some schooling, some education and practice in nursing before you
take this certification exam. so you're eligibilty will have to be check before you can just
schedule the test.
so, assuming you receive a notice that you are eligible for the exam of your test will
schedule your test, within 90 days, at prometric testing center. and it's important to do this
within 90 days, because after that 90 day period,your application and eligibility is
gone. you would have to send an another application, wait another 6 weeks, to hear about your eligibility
before you take the test.
you will have this schedule with a prometric testing center via the prometric testing website.and
these are just testing centers that have the same standardized rules.
that certain certified exams like their test to be conducted under.
so, you can find prometric testing center all across the united states, so you;ll find
a one closest to you. and schedule your test.
now you wanna do this, as soon as possible the sooner the better, because if you wait
into the last minute, closer to the end of that 90 days, you may not getting a testing
center or a time slot that you like
and if you aren't at the most comfortable place, during the most comfortable time
you may not do as well in your test, you maybe stress about other things that is going on
or how far you have to drive back to get to your house, because you have to go so, far
at your testing center
if you schedule early you'll have a much better chance, of getting at the center at the time
that you want.
so schedule your exam as soon as possible after you get your eligibility notice.
Testing Center
so once you schedule your exam what do you expect to a Testing CEnter. remember
it's going to be a Prometric testing center.
and what that means, or atleast some of the policies in place there are:
- this is a closed book testing center.
which means you can have no personal items, electronics or etc. you may not be able to
bring your own pen or pencil or paper, no cellphone, no bags, you leave all that outside
the testing room.
once inside, anything you need will be provided by the testing center
you must also sign a confidentiality agreement.
and this is going to be saying that you will keep the contents of the test confidential,
you wont tell anyone else about the question on the test you won't talk about how you think
you did on specific ones giving out specific information.
everyone should be taking this test in a fair way, if you go out and tell people
exactly what questions where are in your test, then that will make it them
a little bit of an edge whicih would be really fair.
and so, you sign this confidentiality agreement saying you will not discuss the contents of
the test after leaving the center.
now, after you know what to expect on the testing center
Scoring
you need to know what to expect of scoring on these exams.
the ANCC Certification test practice Criterion reference scoring
this means everyone is measured by the same criteria, you aren't going to be judge against
other testers at the same time
it is like all the people who tested are going to be range 1 through 25 and then top 5 passed
and everyone else fails.
thats not how this test work. these are criterion referenced.
theres a total number of points and you must earn of minimum of somebody points to pass
the test.
all 25 people could pass, all 25 people could fail wihtin a group if they pass or fail these
standards for meeting the minimum score.
a minimum score required to passed, but you don't necessarily have to bid out,any other
test takers to pass.
you must score 350 out of 500 points, so you must earn 350 points out of 500 total from
scored questions, and your questions aren't all going to be worth the same amount. there
are maybe some that are worth a couple of points, some just worth on e point.
because not everyones gonna have the same question. not everyone has the same number
of question
but all in all you have the opportunity to earn 500 point total and you must earn atleast
350 points to pass the test.
so you will have a 150 to 175 questions that count. then you have 25 pilot questions that
do not count.
you have atleast 150 questions as many as 175 to earn this 500 points from.
there will also be 25 questions in there that don't count. you wont know which once are
those are, they're pilot questions,
they tell the test makers, how students will do on this particular question if it's too
easy, too hard, which one pupil struggled with. which one is everyone was getting right.
and so you won't know which one those are. you just need to do your best on all the questions
and assume they are all for credit.
there is no penalty for guessing, you should not leave any questions blank on this test.
but you can't go backward.
so don't skip some, assuming you will be able to go back at the end and fill in the ones
you missed.
you must move from start to finish without going backward. so don't take too much time
on one question.
but make sure you answer each of the questions, you wanna make sure that you will get through
the whole test,
beacuse if you leave the questions unanswered you know you didn't get them right.
but if you atleast guess on some you are unsure of you might get those right and get those
last couple points you need to pass.
Results
your results. results are just given on a pass or fail basis.
if you get 350 points, you pass. if you get 495 points, you pass. you all both choose
students having that same 350 and having a 495 would both get a certification of pass.
it's not, you don't get a higher score or some higher certification, for getting a higher
grade on this test. so it's just going to be given this past / fail.
either you get your certification or you don't.
first let's look at if you fail.
hopefully this isn't happen but if you do, you'll receive feedback for each category
on your test, for each type of skill or knowledge. each category in your test you will receive
feedback, it will say wether you did low, medium or high for each category.
Low meaning you didn't meet the minimum number of points for that section. you didn't have
as much knowledge about that section as you should have.
Medium meaning you are right there on target you have an adequate knowledge.
High meaning you have an above average knowledge in this particular category.
if you don't get feed back so you need to work on things for the next test.
if you fail, you can retake the exam after 60 days have passed. so you must wait for
60 days before you can even try to test again. but you must register again for the exam with
ANCC. which means you come back, you apply, you get your eligibility notice, then you
register to prometric testing center.
so it's a long process if you have to do this again. and you can't take more than 3 exams,
within a 12 month period so there are some limitations there.
so what you should do, is make sure that you prepare well enough that you don't need to
take the test a second time because it is a lot of work to go back and do this over.
now, if you pass your certification begins on testing day. the day you tested the day
you pass that's the day your certification starts.
Now mometrix, provides some great study guide and flash cards to help you get prepared for
any of your ANCC certification test. there are lot of good study materials on the mometrix
website. if you go to http://www.mo-media.com/ancc/ you will see all of the different materials
that are available to help you pass your ANCC certification test. They list specific test
secrets that you might find there. they list what kind of of tricky problems that the test
makers throw in there.
and they help you not just learn more about the knowledge that you need for the test but
how to actually take the test. instead of teaching just the material which you should
already know. they're teaching you how to pass this test so you can get through the
certification the first time.