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Hi everyone!


 


So I posted this to a general PA forum and a different user was nice enough to respond and let me know most people on that form had been out of the PANCE for a while. Because of this I thought I'd go ahead and post to this forum!


 


So I am new to this forum and have recently graduated from PA school. I just took my PANCE on 1/5/15 and am freaking out. I know that a lot of PAs I see on this forum are in the same boat, but I found this exam way harder than I was expecting it to be and way harder than some of the practice exams I took during my time studying. I used The PA Life, A comprehensive Review for the certification and recertification examinations for physician assistants book, a couple of Pakrats, Lange, exam masters app, and both of the optional practice test provided by the NCCPA. 


 


I did pretty well on all the exams. The practice exam in the from of the comprehensive Review I took before I even began reviewing as a pretest and I got an 81%. I also did 300 of the additional questions supplied on their online resource and got in the mid 80s% after reviewing the book. I thought the book was overall a decent review of all the topics, but it did not go into enough depth for a lot of the questions I ran into on the actual PANCE.


 


As a PA school we took a couple of pakrat exams throughout our time there. One was after the didactic phase and the other was towards the end of our rotational phase. They specifically informed us not to study for them so that we will know where we stand and what topics we need to focus on the most going into our board prep. On my last pakrat I got a 161. I then took the 2011 version of the pakrat before i took the boards and got a 206. This made me feel really good going into the exam.


 


On the practice ones provided by the NCCPA I took both and thought the second one was way more difficult than the first, but I still did well with my overall score comfortably in the green section


 


Both the Lange and exam masters tests I found to be very over the top and for the most part not very helpful/comparable to what I saw on the exam. But I averaged between 60s-80s% on those exams. 


 


So I guess going into the exam last Monday I felt ok, but I was a little worried because when I take exams I tend to suffer from a little test anxiety and make stupid mistakes. I also thought that there were a few questions that I had never heard of or that were worded it a way that I have never heard of. Now I am sitting here waiting for my results and I am freaking out. And it is not helping either that my employer is constantly wanting updates on my licensing status and it's frustrating because I have to wait on the results of this exam before I can proceed. I'm afraid that if I fail, I will lose my job due to everything being pushed back another 3 months. 


 


On some of these forums I have gathered that the NCCPA releases results on thursdays and I had also seen that some PAs who had taken the exam on a Monday had received their results that following Thursday despite the NCCPA stating results will be released in 2 weeks following your exam. I was kind of banking on finding out today so that I can get my employer off my back, but today is Thursday and I still have not received an email from the NCCPA :-/. I was wondering if anyone else who has taken the exam recently has received their scores today yet? I'm not sure I can take another week of waiting!


 


Thanks


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My friend took it 1/3 and is still awaiting results. He spoke with the nccpa and they told him it's now their policy to release results mon-fri, not just Thursday's. I performed similarly to you on exams and did very far above passing on PANCE that I took 12/19, with minimal studying. Only did about 1500 questions over a week and little else. I did however feel similar to you with the "wtf" questions. So I wouldn't worry. Remember they do metrics on PANCE to average out the score. So if you consistently outperformed national average, which you did if you made a 161 on your packrat, then I'm sure you did fine.

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I took my PANCE 1/6/15. I was hoping for a miracle to find out today, Thursday, but I am not surprised I didn't. Too soon. I could wish though. I was bummed to have to wait a whole week though, but now, I might not have to?!? Eekkkkk, now I'm going to be on edge every day! You really think they will drop the Thursday thing?? Goodness, so very nerve wracking.

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Deep breaths.  The majority of people I hear back from seem to find out about 7 days after their exams although it can certainly take up to 2 weeks.  That is no indication of how you did on the exam.  

 

It is difficult, but all you can do now is wait patiently.  There isn't much else to do.  As far as the questions you didn't understand, its ok.  there are 300 questions covering medicine in its entirety.  You can "not know"  a whole lot and still pass with a good score.  There are a lot of questions that are crazy hard, but there are also a lot of questions that are very easy.  

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  • 3 months later...
  • 3 weeks later...

Hi all, for those suffering from PANCE anxiety LOL:  

 

Graduated 5/15/15, used A Comprehensive Review For the Certification and Recertification Examinations for Physician Assistants book, PANCEMASTER question bank, Kaplan question bank, and CME4LIFE flashcards (based on above book), took the PANCE on Tuesday 5/26/15 at 130pm eastern, received PASS results today (Thursday 6/4/15) around 1030am eastern.  

 

Was top in my class, scored very high on packrats and got thru all of the schooling unscathed.  Walked out of the PANCE knowing I changed many right educated guesses to wrong and felt like I failed.  Most of my classmates so far have felt the same.  So far all have passed.  I not only passed but did much better than expected and predicted.  

 

So there is it folks; take the test and breath, and then enjoy time off between the PANCE and starting your first job. 

 

I wish you all success on your PANCE and careers!

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  • 5 weeks later...

Looking around the forum, seems like the consensus is 350 is the passing score. Does that pertain to the PANCE or the PANRE too? I was told by a colleague who took the PANRE last year the passing score was 379. Anyone would like to clarify?

PANRE is 379.

379 correlates to 3rd percentile.

PANCE 350.

Doesnt have to do with ease or difficulty of exam.

Passing is determined by national board of medical examiners after review of exam and statistical analysis of cohort taking exam.

Just have to get yourself in the pile with the other 97% of your peers.

GB PA-C

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