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The ANCC Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurse Practitioner (across the lifespan)
exam is built on the Test Content Outline. Here’s the format and how it’s weighted.
Exam format
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Questions | 200 (175 scored, 25 pretest) |
| Time | 4 hours |
| Format | Multiple choice and alternate item types |
The content domains
| Domain | Weight |
|---|---|
| Advanced Practice Skills | 27% |
| Diagnosis and Treatment | 22% |
| Scientific Foundation | 22% |
| Ethics, Legal Principles, and Cultural Care | 17% |
| Psychotherapy and Related Theories | 11% |
What this means for studying
Advanced Practice Skills (27%) and Diagnosis and Treatment (22%) are where the clinical
decision-making lives, and the Scientific Foundation (22%) is heavy on psychopharmacology —
together about 70% of the exam. Don’t underweight ethics and cultural care (17%), which is very testable.
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Sources & references
The exam facts on this page are drawn from official certifying-body materials, reviewed 2026-06-18 by the DrCertifications exam-prep team (10+ years in exam preparation and publishing).