Failed PANRE miserably

[aprillh]

^^ I agree. There has to be some way to *get something done* here or at least get answers! Has anyone contacted the NCCPA board members? AAPA? Everyone is just getting canned answers from the NCCPA and no real progress is being made. Surely someone here has to have a personal contact with a 'higher up'.

[dm123]

I tried to contact AAPA about 5-6 weeks ago. Nothing!! Not even an acknowledgement of receipt of my request.

[crosby1]

just came across this website. maybe it will help in addition to studying everything else.

 

http://quizlet.com/professional-and-careers/

 

just go to the "healthcare and medical" column and click on a subject. there's tons of flashcards covering a lot of subjects.

 

also, if you do a search for "physician assistant", you'll come up with a list of about a dozen flashcard sets as well.

 

i hope this is helpful for someone...

 

 

as far as the other topic, i'm not sure how we're supposed to get anything accomplished regarding this issue. you can't even get a response from the AAPA, and they're supposed to be our advocates in this.

[d2305]

Watch the Dr Najeeb lectures on youtube as they're free. Thanks to Mr. Andersen.

[paleanne]

Have any of you tried to contact your state PA organization? Maybe the president of the organization can get through to AAPA if your emails are falling on deaf ears? I can imagine this is probably only helpful if a number of PAs from your state are in the same boat, but maybe alert your state PA organization president to this forum and they can suggest some ideas.

[dm123]

Just to throw in my 2 cents on the flashcard thing. http://www.flashcardmachine.com/medical.html It's free too but has a bit of online advertising. I've got till mid November to take the PANRE and was hoping NCCPA would get their act together before my time ran out.

 

Just my opinion but I doubt calls are going to accomplish much. What is needed is a break bad lawyer letter. If I don't pass, I'll put my part into a kitty fund.

[Mari]

I just took PANRE & failed, too. I have been a PA for 25 years. I have taken 2 PANRE's on site & 2 take home, Pathway 2. This is the first time to fail. I studied for 1-2 months & spent over 100 hours to read Lange Current Dx & Tx. My plan is to do some kind of board review & re take PANRE for anothe $350 & the cost of new books & review course.

 

CA does not need C to be licensed. Some employers require the C. Any tips on great Board review for PANRE??

[swd5]

I have the same exact story, and I mean exact. I have tried to contact Richard Carr at NCCPA, he is the exam coordinator. He will not return my call. I am simply looking for direction and understanding here. Something is not right in Denmark. I went to CME Resources Review course and studied for 4 months.

[ventana]

someone has got to do something about this.... yes maybe people are failing when they should pass. but what about someone passing that should have failed....MAJOR liability on the testing company....

[KCMA79]

Redacted by author

[physasst]

^^ I agree. There has to be some way to *get something done* here or at least get answers! Has anyone contacted the NCCPA board members? AAPA? Everyone is just getting canned answers from the NCCPA and no real progress is being made. Surely someone here has to have a personal contact with a 'higher up'.

 

I'm discussing it privately with some now. Not sure anything can be done, but I am making them aware of this thread.

[crosby1]

I'm discussing it privately with some now. Not sure anything can be done, but I am making them aware of this thread.

 

please add me to your private discussion....

[cardiacspa]

I too took the exam since there has been changes. I studied for over 6 months, took review course and studied everything I could get my hands on. I thought I was ready and knew the stuff. I have been out 12 years. Took the PANCE and PANRE each once and passed with no problems. Not true with this PANRE, I failed horribly. Honestly, I didn't think I did that bad. There was some things I didn't know, since they were some weird questions asked but I thought I answered enough questions correctly to at least passed. But to fail so badly, I don't even know where to begin in order to study again. I have to take the exam in December before my certification expires. I am so fearful that I will get the same type of test and fail again even though I think I know what they say is the so called blue print of the information you are suppose to know. I am a cardiovascular surgical PA, so really none of this primary care stuff really tells anyone how quailified I am to do my job. I know I am a better PA today than what I was 12 years ago and I could pass those two exams before this recent one without any problems. Something is not right!! Please keep us informed on this site if anyone is getting anywhere with complaining. I would like to join in with the increasing number of people who have failed recently on getting something done about this.

[dm123]

someone has got to do something about this.... yes maybe people are failing when they should pass. but what about someone passing that should have failed....MAJOR liability on the testing company....

 

My personal opinion is that the PANRE is a poor check valve for competency. Since PAs are dependent practitioners, incompetence will be culled quickly by their supervising physician thru malpractice concerns. There are also the state boards of medical examiners who serve as watchdogs. Credentialing committees at hospitals, even the admissions team to get into a PA program. Think about nurses, CRNAs, and Nurse Practitioners who do not have to take a recertification exam. We have plenty of checks to the profession.

 

For the PANRE (not the PANCE) to have any relevance, it really needs to be specific to an area of practice, such as peds or hearts or psych. I’m still not convinced the PANRE has any relevance at all other than to support the finances of NCCPA. Thirty plus years ago, it wasn’t that way. It was more of a merit badge. The “C” now is controlled by the 600 lb gorilla tooting their on horn.

 

As currently formatted, no one knows if NCCPA is affecting quality at all. It’s like cramming for a final exam. Of late, judging from those who have taken the exam since June and no longer have access to Pathway II, PAs must memorize Zebras ever 6 years in every field of medicine, soon forgotten. If a person doesn’t memorize the right Zebras, they are screwed. If a pregnant lady comes in to my urgent care with a finger cut, I don’t really need to know what G3P2112 stands for. For an urgent care, why do I need to know the name of the drug used to determine Myasthenia Gravis?

 

My opinion, what is more important is to be humble enough to say “I don’t know, but will find out”. Excellent H&P skills should be much more important areas to test. Know how to do a good thorough H&P based on the patients CC. If you know what is normal, and something abnormal is found, you might not know what it is you found but now you can find out by research and asking other medical people. If you don’t know, ask. If the person you ask doesn’t know punt to someone in that specific field.

 

 

I'm just brainstorming here a bit. Seems like most of the people who are having trouble are a bit long in the tooth, as a horse trader would say. The age discrimination act of 1967 might possibly be used as a tool to pry some information out of NCCPA. Could be hard to enforce but as a tool might get them defensive enough to at least respond if those over forty seem to be failing more than those under.

 

I don’t know how to do a survey here but would love to see one for failures over forty and those under forty. Agreed it isn’t very scientific but might be enough of an indicator to evoke a response.

[pamb77]

I'm discussing it privately with some now. Not sure anything can be done, but I am making them aware of this thread.

 

 

Please add me to your private conversation as well.

[crosby1]

my grievance to the nccpa was unceremoniously denied. i had complained (in writing, and 3 hours after taking the exam) that their pearsonvue testing center did not provide an environment conducive to test-taking. it was loud, they didn't provide foam earplugs. they did offer and "audio" headset which was in no way noise-reducing, and the headphones they said were noise-reducing were very heavy in weight and uncomfortable to wear. so i chose to sit through the exam and listen to the person next me furiously typing on her keyboard for whatever exam she was trying to pass.

 

basically, they told me that since i didn't complain to anyone at the testing center at the time, that my grievance was invalid.

 

and yes, it was filed before i received my exam results.

 

i am COMPLETELY and TOTALLY fed up with this organization. they have a monopoly over us; whatever they say is the final word. we have absolutely NO recourse. there's nothing to do except continue to cough up money to them for exam fees.

 

i'm seriously considering getting out of this profession that i've been in for 25 years. we have NO support from any group; the aapa is a complete joke as far as i'm concerned. the state chapters are pretty much the same.

 

i haven't paid aapa fees in years; i encourage others to drop their membership as well.

[celtic33]

crosby1, totally agree ... AAPA and NCCPA are just looking for money. I have been a surgical PA for 13 years, easily passed the PANCE, and my first PANRE, this one .... FAILED. I called and wrote letters .... nothing. Something is clearly wrong. the pass rate in the mid 2000's was 98%, no way it is near that number now. They don't care. I can't sleep at night anymore because I keep thinking of my next (and LAST) attempt at the PANRE in 2 months and that fact tha if I fail again ... lose my job, likely will have to move and totally disrupt my kids ... Where are our leaders?

[crosby1]

crosby1, totally agree ... AAPA and NCCPA are just looking for money. I have been a surgical PA for 13 years, easily passed the PANCE, and my first PANRE, this one .... FAILED. I called and wrote letters .... nothing. Something is clearly wrong. the pass rate in the mid 2000's was 98%, no way it is near that number now. They don't care. I can't sleep at night anymore because I keep thinking of my next (and LAST) attempt at the PANRE in 2 months and that fact tha if I fail again ... lose my job, likely will have to move and totally disrupt my kids ... Where are our leaders?

 

celtic33: i don't know what to tell you...i'm in my 5th yr, so i have 3 more chances to pass. but i definitely feel your pain and anxiety.

 

i took the online kaplan course ($550.00) and didn't think it was worth it all. i don't think they followed the nccpa blueprint and i think they mislead people into believing that the pance and the panre are basically the same. the course was definitely geared more toward pance examinees and i didn't get much out of it. they have absolutely no test questions and therefore no way for you to gauge if you're learning anything.

 

so what i'm doing now is this:

 

i'm using paeasy.com, the o'connell/zarbock review guide and online pre and post tests, the "first aid for USMLE 2 clinical knowledge book", some USMLE video lectures (do a youtube search), and i'm planning on ordering either the Emory or the UMDNJ pa review programs (haven't decided which). i'll also get a 2 week subscription to exam masters closer to the actual test date and run through those questions as well.

 

other than this, i'm not sure how to prepare for this exam.

 

i've contacted the president of my state association; he said he's heard from a few other people that have failed as well (that did well on past exams) and he was going to see if he could come up with any more info.

 

i'm just wondering; which exam did you take? i took the surgical exam and couldn't even tell if there were surgical questions on it or not.

[rpackelly]

The NCCPA has sent out an email regrading the PANRE taken recently by PAs. It was a little unnerving getting the email but it did not change my passing result. This is a copy of the letter sent to me:

 

Our quality assurance review identified an anomaly with the scoring of PANRE. In order to precisely determine the problem, it was necessary to wait until enough exam results were collected to conduct a psychometrically-sound analysis. The data was received, and the analysis was completed yesterday.

 

Our investigation uncovered a miscommunication between our psychometric and scoring vendors that may have resulted in an inaccurate PANRE score for some, but not all, candidates. We have corrected the problem. Your pass/fail decision did not change. Your originally-reported exam results have been replaced with your new results. If your exam score was unaffected, we still felt it prudent to provide you with notification of this anomaly.

 

Please sign in to your personal certification record at www.nccpa..net to view your score report and Performance Interpretation Guidelines, which may assist you in interpreting the results. We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience or problems that this error may have caused and stand ready to address any questions you may have.

[pamb77]

GREAT NEWS!

I just got an email from NCCPA stating that there was a grading error and that I have now passed the exam.

Unbelievable that they can put us through all this stress, wasted time studying and paying for an extra exam, just to find out I passed the first time. Totally unacceptable by the NCCPA. Did anyone else get same email?

[KCMA79]

I also received the above e-mail. My score went up a few points but didn't change the overall results. I called NCCPA as instructed in the e-mail and they were very forthcoming in answering my questions. It will be interesting to see how many people now passed the PANRE with the revised scores.

[crosby1]

i also received the letter from the nccpa and found out i passed. obviously, i'm please with the new result, but i'm pissed that this happened. in my mind it further invalidates the exam and the nccpa.

 

i'm going to start a new thread to see how many people this effected

[PAinMaryland]

Hello All,

 

I too received an email and my results went from failing to passing. I felt so relieved as I couldn't understand how I could have failed despite putting so much effort into the test. I am also glad that they will refund the fees as I have already registered to take the test again. I also spent so much additional time and money on more review books, etc and wonder if I can requrest reimbursement for those items. Regardless, I feel that this forum had much to do with this NCCPA action. Discussions here led people to see that there are other PAs who have failed but didn't expect to. This resulted in people calling NCCPA and having them eventually decide to do what was necessary for analysis of the results. I personally had gotten a kick around from them when I had inquired about my results previously.

 

Thanks to all who put the effort into reaching out to NCCPA.

[bobuddy]

The first score I got - I passed with an unbelievable 800. Unbelievable because I knew I did not do THAT well. I attended the CME Resources course and according to their scoring - I should be around 700 - which is what I got when the NCCPA re-scored the test. Yes, I would have liked to keep the 800 - but I knew it was not an accurate score. I am very happy for those that now have passed and thankful for the others that contacted the NCCPA regarding this fiasco. They should be ashamed about how this was handled and hopefully will be refunding everyone the money that they put out - but geez - the stress and emotional toll that this put on those that "failed" - WOW........ :(

[paleanne]

I passed with an 800 the first time too and honestly couldn't believe that was accurate either and the rescore was around 700...I too am so happy that many who failed are now getting a passing score, because it could have been any of us...I'm glad this forum exists and I hope it continues to grow...