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Wondering if anyone who has taken the PANCE thought the NCCPA practice exams were written like the PANCE questions or if those exams reflected your PANCE experience at all. I'm referencing the two exams you can purchase from the NCCPA. I am a little frustrated because I have been scoring 60's and 70's in my Kaplan QBank, which I am told is pretty good. I feel like I have been learning a lot and the review has been great with the Kaplan questions. I have also been going through the AAPA/PAEA review book and making notes on things I don't remember right away. However, I took the NCCPA practice exams and on the first one I scored in the low/mid "green" high proficiency block. The second exam I took was mostly in the green/high but also had a portion in the yellow borderline proficiency block. So needless to say that scares me. What should I think when comparing Kaplan Qbank questions to the NCCPA practice exams?

 

I have also been listening to the review lectures a lot from UMDNJ review course and most of that is recognizable and makes sense to me.

 

This pre-PANCE anxiety is really starting to get to me. I take the test in two days. **bangs head against wall**

 

P.S. The Packrat I took in May this year scored a 152. This was 3 months before graduation and before I started all of this studying. Taking another Packrat tonight. Wish me luck....I used to have confidence. But after the NCCPA practice exam, I feel like this is me:

 

funny-test-Leonardo-DiCaprio-school.jpg

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Unlikely to improve much in the next 2 days.

You could see what material you were borderline in the yellow portion and try to brush up last minute.

Or you could try to understand that all the practice exams and question banks wont really guarantee performance regardless of what they promise.

You likely will do better taking a break, getting some exercise and sleep over next 2 days.

Good luck.

G Brothers PA-C

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A 152 on the packrat administered by your program is a rock solid score.  I scored a 146 and had no difficulty passing the PANCE.

 

The NCCPA exam is a good simulation of the PANCE, as they are actual retired questions.  It also gives you a gauge of "if you are ready" based on incompetent, borderline competent, and competent.  If you are anywhere from the upper end of borderline to the competent range, you should have little difficulty passing.

 

Anything you don't score at or above the average on, you should study more for.

 

With 2 days left, it doesn't give you much time to use this test to your advantage.  I guess you could use it as one more, very realistic, practice test.

 

Good Luck.

 

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Thanks all--I guess I was just wondering if I should reschedule my exam. A couple more weeks vs. 3 more months. But whatever, I'm locked and loaded. Going to take a PACKRAT today to keep my mind in the game and then take the rest of the day off. Hopefully it won't completely crush my confidence. Wish me luck!

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I just took a PACKRAT (form 11) and scored a 171/225. I felt like I did HORRIBLE on the packrat while I was taking it and tallying up the questions I got wrong. But apparently that correlates to a 694 on the PANCE, using the formula on this guy's site (not sure if it's accurate or not):

 

http://doseofpa.blogspot.com/2014/04/everything-you-need-to-know-about.html

 

I'm going to stop freaking out now. ***sigh***

I'm also going to utilize my atenolol tomorrow like I did today.

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I agree with everyone here.  Deep breaths.  At this point you should be more concerned with managing your blood pressure than with anything else.  Anxiety is the only reason you won't do well on your exam.   Get some sleep, go for a long walk, this is the best thing you can do today.  Stop studying.  Don't study or take a test today.  Your brain needs to rest.  If you run 15 miles the day before a marathon you will not do well.  Don't study today.  Rest and play games.  Find a place to shoot a basketball.  This will be worth more to you than any last minute studying you could do. 

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I might be the only one who wasn't impressed with the NCCPA practice exams. I thought the actual PANCE questions were much more high quality, well written and contained all info needed to arrive at an answer. I didn't feel that way with the NCCPA. Practice tests. Just my opinion. As has been stated, relax and go take the PANCE, you're ready.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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  • 3 weeks later...

Well, I passed! Ended up getting a 544.

I looked at my score report and took the number of questions of the PANCE (300) times the percent of each category on the blueprint and multiplied that number by the percent of each category I got correct, and came up with a 246/300 for a theoretical raw score. So I'm pretty happy with that!

 

I think I got all the anxiety out of my system 2 days before the test (the day I wrote the original post), and actually ended up doing more practice questions the day before. I know everyone says not to study the day before a test, but I actually do better if I review the day before. Not doing anyting the day before just gives me more anxiety because I feel like I am wasting time. But I called it a day at 5pm and had a glass of wine and chilled out. The test actually wasn't that stressful. I knew what to expect. There were some softball questions, some questions that were really hard, and a lot of in-betweeners. But for the most part I thought it was fair. I am glad I did the Kaplan Qbank--there were actually a ton of questions on the PANCE that prompted my memory back to the qbank questions. Reading out of the Current book or the comprehensive review book does not prepare you for an exam like that!

 

Thanks everyone for your posts. Glad it's over. I'm a PA-C!!

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I might be the only one who wasn't impressed with the NCCPA practice exams. I thought the actual PANCE questions were much more high quality, well written and contained all info needed to arrive at an answer. I didn't feel that way with the NCCPA. Practice tests. Just my opinion. As has been stated, relax and go take the PANCE, you're ready.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

I thought the NCCPA practice exam was very easy.  My confidence went way up after taking it.  For me, the actual exam questions were much harder.  I was frustrated duing my exam when I realized this.  The strange thing is that my score were almost identical on the two exams.  *shrugs*

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  • 2 months later...

My PANCE is in 1.5 weeks. I just took NCCPA exam, scored in the  middle of the "high" mark on the overall performance. The organ system performance is a little confusing though. If you are the red star and you are way above the "average" black line then you are good? My only "below average" sections are ENT, psyc, and pharm (pharm was never my friend). Should I just focus on those sections? 

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Yup that means you are good! I would brush up on ENT and psych. More focused on ENT though since its a higher percentage. Pharm is such a broad topic for PANCE. Its either you know the random facts abt certain drugs or you dont. Definitely know drugs for the big 5 topics to increase your chances in that category. Good luck!

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I just took a PACKRAT (form 11) and scored a 171/225. I felt like I did HORRIBLE on the packrat while I was taking it and tallying up the questions I got wrong. But apparently that correlates to a 694 on the PANCE, using the formula on this guy's site (not sure if it's accurate or not):

 

http://doseofpa.blogspot.com/2014/04/everything-you-need-to-know-about.html

 

I'm going to stop freaking out now. ***sigh***

I'm also going to utilize my atenolol tomorrow like I did today.

That's funny. I plan on utilizing my propranolol. 

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My PANCE is in 1.5 weeks. I just took NCCPA exam, scored in the  middle of the "high" mark on the overall performance. The organ system performance is a little confusing though. If you are the red star and you are way above the "average" black line then you are good? My only "below average" sections are ENT, psyc, and pharm (pharm was never my friend). Should I just focus on those sections? 

You likely are going to do well and pass without further review. An important thing to consider is that as a test taker, one always thinks that there might be one tidbit of knowledge gained during last minute review that will answer another question or improve a score. But the truth is that can work for a formative exam, similar to what you took on a regular basis in school, block to block, unit to unit, term to term. For a summative exam, such as the PANCE, this last minute review usually does not do much other than fill and empty your short term memory, it probably does not add much to your knowledge base that is worthwhile. This is a test of the last 2 years, not the last 2 weeks. It is likely that there would be no statistical difference between you taking the test the day you graduated vs several weeks to months post graduation. You may feel more comfortable but it is likely the only reason a difference may be noted would be if there was a significant deficit in a certain area that has persisted over the last 2 years.

But good luck and def use the beta blocker.

GB PA-C

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You likely are going to do well and pass without further review. An important thing to consider is that as a test taker, one always thinks that there might be one tidbit of knowledge gained during last minute review that will answer another question or improve a score. But the truth is that can work for a formative exam, similar to what you took on a regular basis in school, block to block, unit to unit, term to term. For a summative exam, such as the PANCE, this last minute review usually does not do much other than fill and empty your short term memory, it probably does not add much to your knowledge base that is worthwhile. This is a test of the last 2 years, not the last 2 weeks. It is likely that there would be no statistical difference between you taking the test the day you graduated vs several weeks to months post graduation. You may feel more comfortable but it is likely the only reason a difference may be noted would be if there was a significant deficit in a certain area that has persisted over the last 2 years.

But good luck and def use the beta blocker.

GB PA-C

Hehe, thank you :). I think studying over the past month definitely helped me. I focused more on reviewing the steps of ordering tests and treatments, rather than knowing a mix of treatments, as well as drug MOA and ADRs. Some areas needed better understanding too, like neuro. Others just needed a quick review. This last week probably won't do much, but I think I can squeeze some extra stuff about drugs into my short term memory :). To be honest I would rather take the test today and just be over with it and enjoy life before my job starts, but I will just stick with it and review everything again.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I just took the test. It was horrible! I do not understand :(.  I was getting 70s-80s on Kaplan, high green on NCCPA practice test. I studied NCCPA book and step up to medicine, I felt great about the material, but on exam it is like they took it to another level. It was harder than Kaplan! And NCCPA is a complete rip off only because those questions were ridiculously easy. I walked out of the testing center feeling completely defeated. I don't even know how to study for a retake. 

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  • 1 month later...

I was going to take the NCCPA practice exam but when I read about it before purchasing- it seemed like it will give you a general score and let you know what you need to focus on. Was wondering if they provide an answer to their practice questions. Would like to hear from anyone how has taken that before. Thank you everyone. My exam panre is less than 2 days away and with two small kids and working full time it gets pretty hard to study and any advice is appreciated.

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  • 2 weeks later...

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