How to Study for the CPEN Exam

Study and Prepare

When you’re a busy emergency nurse working toward certification, how do you find time to hit the books? We know you don’t have a lot of free time, and many of you have full-time jobs along with other commitments like family, volunteer work and more. However, certification is only a season in the grand scheme of your career, and its value will last far longer than the momentary stress of test prep. At BCEN, we have numerous ways to help you study.

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Congratulations on making the decision to achieve your certification and demonstrate your commitment to your patients and career! The secret to success is strong preparation. BCEN® offers the following tools and resources to help you prepare.

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Preparation Checklist – helps guide you as you prepare, from the application, to taking a practice test, to scheduling your exam.

CPEN Content Outline – become familiar with the topics on the exam so you are prepared for what to expect.

CPEN Sample Questions – these sample items are presented to demonstrate the format used on a BCEN certification exam and how questions reflect the nursing process. They are not intended to reflect the difficulty of the actual questions on any of our exams.

CPEN Reference List – provides a list of helpful books, websites, and other resources. (The Board of Certification for Emergency Nursing (BCEN®) does not endorse any resources or have a proprietary relationship with any publishing company).

Take the CPEN Practice Exam & Earn CEs – take this at the start to determine your weak areas, and again as your final pretest before the real thing!

What sets our practice exams apart from others?

- - Only our practice exams are created by the same organization designing the actual exams (that’s us).
  - We have a committee of nurses and emergency professionals who build our practice exams with the goal of helping you succeed.
  - A BCEN practice exam will help you familiarize yourself with the computer-based format of the real exam.
  - You will be able to answer questions, then have immediate access to the correct answers, backed up with rationale and references.
  - 3 CEs will be awarded upon successful completion of the practice exam.

Practice exams can be taken in three formats:

Timed Exam:

This option closely simulates the actual testing environment. You will have the option to see answers and explanations when the entire exam is completed.