Failed ANCC twice — what finally helped me pass on my third attempt

I'm not going to sugarcoat it: I bombed the ANCC board exam twice before I finally passed last month. The first time I went in way too confident after just reading through Fitzgerald's review book, and the second time I thought adding some YouTube videos would be enough. Spoiler: it wasn't. What actually turned things around for me was shifting how I practiced. I started doing timed ANCC practice test blocks every single day — like 50 questions in 90 minutes — and forcing myself to review every single wrong answer before moving on.

The pharmacology questions were killing me, especially the psych meds. I ended up building a spreadsheet tracking which drug classes I kept missing and focused my study guide review there specifically. Honestly that targeted approach made a bigger difference than any broad review. I studied about 2-3 hours daily for 8 weeks leading up to my third attempt.

Anyone else have a rough road to passing? I'd love to hear what exam tips worked for you, especially around the clinical management questions — those felt way harder than anything in my FNP program.