This site
About CPEN Study Guide
An independent study site for the Certified Pediatric Emergency Nurse exam. Not BCEN, not endorsed by it, and specific about what it does not know.
CPEN Study Guide is built by people who make exam-prep software, not by a certification board. It runs on one idea: a four-option item is solved by reading the four answers, striking what cannot be right, and finding the single difference between the two that remain. Every guide, question and editorial rule below is that habit applied somewhere else.
The site is free, has no accounts, and covers one exam. The credential is awarded by BCEN, the Board of Certification for Emergency Nursing. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by or approved by BCEN, and BCEN endorses no study materials, ours included.
What the guides are built from
Every exam fact comes from BCEN's public pages, read on the date shown at the top of each guide. One rule holds across all of them: no number without a source. A figure we cannot trace to bcen.org is struck, the way an option with no support in the stem is struck.
| What we quote | Source | How it is stated |
|---|---|---|
| Item count and seat time | CPEN FAQ and candidate handbook | 175 items, 150 of them scored, 180 minutes |
| Domain weights | Content outline, effective August 2023 | as item counts of 150 (56 for System-Focused Emergencies); a percentage is our arithmetic, labeled "about" |
| Passing score | CPEN FAQ | 110 of 150 per BCEN, September 2026, with BCEN's note that it changes after each role delineation study |
| Fees | CPEN cost page | with the date read (September 2026) and "per BCEN" |
| Yearly exam counts | BCEN exam statistics | for a named calendar year, never as a first-time pass rate |
What we deliberately do not publish
- A first-time pass rate. BCEN publishes yearly counts of exams delivered and passed; any first-attempt figure is somebody's guess.
- A fixed passing percentage. The cut is a raw count, and it moves.
- A fee without a date, or "real", "actual" or "retired" exam questions. Ours are our own.
- A guarantee of any kind, or the word "official" about anything here.
- Clinical dosing or treatment advice. A rationale explains a pick; it is not a protocol.
How the practice questions are written
One outline line per item
Each question starts from a line of BCEN's content outline, so the bank tracks the six domains without claiming to copy the exam's exact weighting.
Four options, one differentiator
Two options are usually near-duplicates that differ by a single word or step. The item is about that difference, and the stem has to contain the reason for it.
A reason under every answer
The explanation states why the right option holds and where the closest wrong one fails. For doses and thresholds, use your current clinical references, not a practice question.
Found an error, or a fact BCEN has since changed? The contact page says what to send; what the site stores about you, which is almost nothing, is on the privacy page.
Try the questions the rule-out was written for
90 four-option items on this site, sets of ten, no sign-up; the full bank on the web and in the app.