Practice Exams

CPAN® and CAPA® Practice Exams

Perianesthesia nurse certification - practice exams for perianesthesia specialty nursing

ABPANC’s practice examination program is designed to be representative of the types of questions you will see on the actual CPAN and CAPA Examinations.

 

Overview & Objectives

Purchasing & Accessing Your Exams

Practice Exam FAQs

 

Program Overview

Practice exams are available for both  CPAN® and CAPA®. 

For $100, you will receive a bundle of 4, 50-question exams. At the time of purchase, you will select either the CPAN® exam bundle or the CAPA® exam bundle.

The CPAN and CAPA practice exams have been developed according to ABPANC’s exam blueprints via our professional test developers at PSI, using psychometric best practice. For the CPAN practice exams, there are a total of 165 unique questions across 4 forms; for the CAPA practice exams there are a total of 167 unique questions across the four forms. Test developers have distributed the overlap of repeat items evenly by having a handful of common items between any two forms, and never across three or four forms. In addition to providing relevant exam preparation content, the practice exam experience is intended to simulate the CPAN/CAPA test-taking experience.

Practice exams Are Approved for 10 Contact Hours. You will receive 10 contact hours for completing all four CPAN practice exams and/or 10 contact hours for completing the four CAPA exams. Partial credit is not available.

There are two ways to take each practice exam form. 

  1. Training Mode:
    • Take the exams as many times as you’d like!
    • There is no time limit on each exam.
    • After each answer, you will receive feedback on your selection.
    • You will receive a score report at the end of the exam.
  2. Exam Mode:
    • You may only take each form in Exam Mode once.
    • There is a time limit on your exam.
    • There is no feedback offered between questions.
    • You will receive a score report at the end of the exam.
    • Use this option to receive your certificate of completion (CEs). (You must complete all 4 forms and the post-exam survey to receive a PDF version of this certificate.)

Requirements for Successful Completion. Each of the four practice exams must be completed in Exam Mode within the 200-minute (3.3 hour) time frame. You will be directed to a survey after you complete all four exams. A link to the Certificate of Completion is available at the end of this survey. You may download this PDF certificate for your records. ABPANC’s practice exams must be used within one year of purchase.

Helpful Tip: You are encouraged to have a copy of ABPANC’s Study References List with you as you take a practice exam and make notes about which references or page numbers are cited. It is not possible to print the test questions and references.

Disclosure Statement:
No one with the ability to control content of this activity has a relevant financial relationship with an ineligible company.

Objectives

The CPAN/CAPA practice exams are not intended to be a study or review course; rather, they are designed to simulate the exam experience while assisting candidates in identifying strengths, gaps and references for further study.

After completion of a CPAN or CAPA practice exam, you will be able to:

  1. Describe the style of question that will be encountered on the CPAN and CAPA certification examinations.
  2. Identify the pace needed to answer multiple-choice questions on the CPAN and CAPA certification examinations.
  3. Demonstrate answering multiple-choice questions like those found on the actual CPAN and/or CAPA certification examinations.
  4. Describe your strengths and gaps in knowledge to identify content areas for further study.
  5. Identify references for further study.

The target audience includes CPAN and CAPA certification examination candidates, any perianesthesia nurse interested in assessing their knowledge related to perianesthesia patient needs, and CPAN and CAPA certified nurses who wish to acquire ABPANC contact hours for CPAN and CAPA recertification.

This nursing continuing professional development activity was approved by the Ohio Nurses Association, an accredited approver by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation. (OBN-001-91) Activity # 2022-0000000761. Approval valid from 11/25/2022-11/25/2024.

ABPANC’s practice exams are study tools only. They should be regarded as a tool to assess strengths and weaknesses. They are not intended to serve as a study guide, nor should they used as a substitute for studying. While content may be representative of the type of knowledge and skills tested on the CPAN and CAPA certification examinations, this material is not identical to the content of the examinations. A passing score on a practice exam does not in any way guarantee a passing score on any ABPANC certification examination. Use of ABPANC’s practice exams is not a requirement for eligibility or for success in passing any ABPANC certification examination.

The CPAN and CAPA practice exams are for individual use only and may not be reproduced or shared with others without the express permission of ABPANC.

 

Purchasing and Accessing Your Practice Exams via Learning Builder

Practice exams can be purchased directly through ABPANC’s Learning Builder Platform. Exams expire 1 year after your date of purchase.

Please read this page thoroughly for step-by-step instructions to purchase your practice exams, as well as how information required to access your exams using Training Mode or Exam Mode.

Steps for Purchasing Your Practice Exams

  1. Log into your Learning Builder account. If you do not already have an account with us, you will need to create a (free) account.
  2. Scroll down to Practitioner Role and open the selections with marked with a +.
  3. Select the desired practice exam (CPAN or CAPA). Each set contains four 50-question exams.
  4. Submit payment. You will receive a confirmation email upon completion of your purchase.
  5. After purchasing the exam, follow click the orange Begin Practice Exam button to take the exam in the desired mode.
  6. If you need to stop or leave the exam before finishing, click the Disk (Save/Exit) icon at the top of the exam page. When you return, click on the orange Continue button; you may need to click the Refresh Link in order to continue.
  7. To see a score report in either mode, upon completion of that test click the “Finish” button in the upper right-hand corner. You will also be able to access your Exam Mode score report directly from Learning Builder by clicking the three dots to the right of the completed exam. If your exam status says “Saved,” you will need to click “refresh link” to continue and complete your exam.

ABPANC study tools are non-refundable.

An exception will be offered when a candidate purchases a study tool for the incorrect examination (for example, the candidate intends to purchase a CAPA tool but mistakenly purchases a CPAN tool). In this case, the candidate must notify ABPANC at abpanc@cpancapa.org within 48 hours of the original purchase date. The candidate must then purchase the tool for the correct exam, and ABPANC will refund the original purchase.

Accessing Your Practice Exams

You may access your practice exams within the Learning Builder platform (or by clicking “I’m Ready to Certify/Recertify” at the top of this page).

Getting Your Certificate

Following completion of all four practice exams in Exam Mode, you will be directed to an evaluation. A link to your Certificate of Completion is available at the end of the evaluation.

While you may take the exam in Training Mode as many times as you would like, you may only complete each test Exam Mode once.

Studying with Training Mode

In Training Mode, you will receive feedback between each question indicating whether you answered the question correctly and clarification regarding the correct answer. You can use this mode to review all of the questions in the practice exam before making another attempt. You may take each form in training mode as many times as you would like.

Studying with Exam Mode

Exam Mode is designed to simulate the exam experience and you will not receive feedback between questions. You may only attempt each exam in Exam Mode once.

Question and Score Report Detail

For each question, you will see the correct answer, the domain, the content area, and at least once reference. The score report at the conclusion of each Practice Exam will provide you with a second chance to review this information. You will also get domain level feedback to help focus your study efforts.

Timer in Exam Mode

Maximum time allotted for each Exam Mode form is 3.3 hours (200 minutes).

 

FAQ

Q: Can I earn contact hours for taking a practice exam?
A: You will receive 10 contact hours for completing all four CPAN practice exams and 10 contact hours for completing the four CAPA exams. Partial credit is not available.

*Note: Prior to 11/25/2022, the CAPA and CPAN Practice Exams were approved for 16 contact hours. Candidates who completed their practice exams and the survey prior to 11/25/2022 will still receive 16 hours for both the CPAN and CAPA exams. This change was due to a new calculation for credit hours by the Ohio Nurses Association, who approves credit for this activity. Candidates who complete the exams after 11/25/2022 will receive 10 hours for CPAN and/or 10 hours for CAPA practice exams.

Q: Why should I take a practice exam?
A: The CPAN and CAPA practice exams will help you assess your readiness to take the CPAN/CAPA exam, as well as identify your study needs. After taking the practice exams, you will be able to:

  1. Describe the style of question that will be encountered on the CPAN and CAPA certification examinations.
  2. Identify the pace needed to answer multiple-choice questions on the CPAN and CAPA certification examinations.
  3. Demonstrate answering multiple-choice questions like those found on the actual CPAN and/or CAPA certification examinations.
  4. Describe your strengths and gaps in knowledge to identify content areas for further study.
  5. Identify references for further study.

Additionally, you are eligible to receive 10 contact hours for completing the four exams!

Q: What is the format of the practice exams?
A: Each of the four CPAN and CAPA practice exams have 50 questions and have been developed to correlate with the CPAN and CAPA examination blueprints.

Q: What information will I see for each question? Are rationales provided?

You have the choice to either see the correct answer immediately (Training Mode), or to wait until the end to see the correct answer (Exam Mode). For each question, you will see at least one reference, as well as the domain and content area. Please note that ABPANC does not provide rationales. ABPANC believes that empowering candidates to refer to the reference themselves to find the correct answer and understand the rationale makes them active participants in the learning process, which is ultimately better for comprehension and retention.

Q: How many questions are on the practice exams?
The CPAN and CAPA practice exams have been developed according to ABPANC’s exam blueprints via our professional test developers at PSI, using psychometric best practice. For the CPAN practice exams, there are a total of 165 unique questions across 4 forms; for the CAPA practice exams there are a total of 167 unique questions across the four forms. This means that you will see some repeat questions across the 200 items on the four forms. Test developers have distributed the overlap of repeat items evenly by having a handful of common items between any two forms, and never across three or four forms. In addition to providing relevant exam preparation content, the practice exam experience is intended to simulate the CPAN/CAPA test-taking experience.

Q: What is the time limit to complete one exam?
A: You will have 3.3 hours (200 minutes) to take and review each practice test form in Exam Mode. There is no time limit while you are taking the exams in Training Mode.

Q: How much do the practice exams cost?
A: You will receive all four practice exams for CPAN or all four practice exams for CAPA for the cost of $100.00.

Q: Will the contact hours count toward my recertification?
A: This activity counts toward your CPAN and/or CAPA recertification, however you must complete all four practice exams to receive credit. Completion of your exams must fall into the appropriate date range to be eligible for recertification credits.

  • After April 1 for Spring Recertification
  • After October 1 for Fall Recertification

This activity applies to direct care. The certificate of completion, available to download after you complete the program evaluation survey, will serve as verification of your participation.

Q: What do I have to do to receive the contact hours?
A: Each of the four practice exams must be completed in Exam Mode within the 200-minute (3.3 hour) time frame. You will be directed to a survey after you complete all four exams. A link to the Certificate of Completion is available at the end of this survey. You may download this PDF certificate for your records. ABPANC’s practice exams must be used within one year of purchase.

Q: Can I take both the CPAN and the CAPA practice exams for contact hours?
A: Yes, you will receive 10 contact hours for completing the four CPAN practice exams and 10 additional contact hours for completing the four CAPA practice exams.

Q: How often are the practice exams updated?
A: The practice exams are updated at the end of each Role Delineation Study (RDS), to coincide with the updating of ABPANC’s Test Blueprint. The last Role Delineation Study took place from 2015-2016. A new RDS was completed at the end of 2021, and new practice exams became available on Jan. 2, 2023.

Q: Who can I contact if I have additional questions?

Contact the ABPANC office at abpanc@cpancapa.org or 1-347-708-7975.