phxaz Posted January 2, 2012 Share Posted January 2, 2012 Hello, Does anyone know if there are tutors for PAs specifically to help with passing the PANCE? I was a decent student throughout school but for some reason I'm having a real difficult time in passing this test. Makes me wonder how I got through school when I see my scores. I've taken it twice now and failed miserably both times. Please, anyone, help me! Thank you Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
quarternote Posted January 4, 2012 Share Posted January 4, 2012 Contact your school. Most schools will help with reviewing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeyBoy Posted January 4, 2012 Share Posted January 4, 2012 How are you studying? If you were a decent student in school and are being completely honest with yourself about what you do and do not know, you should be able to overcome these recent setbacks. Lot's of people on this forum are willing to help, but, if you need 1on1 tutoring, I agree with the above post, maybe your school could provide some help. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bradtPA Posted January 5, 2012 Share Posted January 5, 2012 Have you tried CME resources review course yet? They do a good job of reviewing over 5 days with practice tests. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joelseff Posted January 6, 2012 Share Posted January 6, 2012 This guy was hired by our program to give us a review after graduation: http://www.paboardreview.org/ He's an old school PA who also taught us emergency cardiology during didactics. I took his class (2 days) and I passed first time. He's pretty entertaining too. Good Luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
quarternote Posted January 7, 2012 Share Posted January 7, 2012 CME resources is supposed to be good. Read and take tests, then do it all again. I was a non traditional student. I am also a poor test taker. Our program director sat me down one day during 1st year and gave me great advice. I had a hard time learning that part of studying was taking multiple choice tests over and over. When I was Studying for boards I'd read a section then do as many MCQs as I could get my hands on. Then repeat. It worked for me. I'm hoping that I can find time to do this for my recert next year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
entpac Posted January 7, 2012 Share Posted January 7, 2012 I would also recommend reading through Medscape. You can pick the subject areas you are least familiar with. Also, I recommend using Pathology Student.com. Daily tidbits are forwarded to you in the question / answer format. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TxRhino Posted January 8, 2012 Share Posted January 8, 2012 Hi All, I,m new to the forum but just wanted to add my 2 cents. If you haven't tried it, you might look up MED CHALLENGER at WWW.chall.com. It is in a question and answer format but does a good job of explaining the material, has great multimedia HD graphics, and offers almost 700 hrs of CME credit. It might bea bit pricey but has great material and you can concentrate on individual areas or the whole ball of wax. The staff are also very helpful and can be reached at 1 800 676 0822. They are happy to assist you finding just the right package for what you want. I use this program to work on CME's when traveling isn't an option and you can work on it online or via the accompanying CD's. Michael T :wink: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Acebecker Posted January 8, 2012 Share Posted January 8, 2012 A resource I found to be helpful was PAeasy. It's a website with a question bank - when you take a test, it scores you on individual content areas based off the NCCPA exam blueprint and will help you identify your weak areas. Then it will give you recommended readings to cover those deficiencies. I used it and passed with very comfortable margin. It helped me a lot to identify that cardiology was my weakest area. (as a side note, the cardiology lectures were the only ones I missed during PA school because I went to the national convention as a student representative) Good luck. Feel free to PM me and we can discuss content areas/study materials. Andrew Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mm2124 Posted January 9, 2012 Share Posted January 9, 2012 Hello, I just took the PANCE last month and here was the way I found helped me pass the exam without too much struggle: study the book "a comprehensive review for the certification and recertification exams for physician assistants" by Claire Babcock O'Connell and Sarah Zarbock. Get the most recent edition which I believe is the fourth. Go thru each chapter, highlight the important info and take notes on the complicated topics. Spend several days on topics that carry the most weight on the exam, such as cardiology and pulm. Then, I suggest signing up for Kaplan review for the PANCE (http://www.kaptest.com/PANCE) I believe a month worth of review is around $100, however there is access to thousands of questions. For example say you sign up to take the cardiology section of questions, you can click the 'tutor' mode. This way you can read the question, answer it, then click to read why the answer was the correct one. It will also go thru the other answers and explain the reasons for why those answers were not correct, thus it is the virtual tutor that you may need. It may be disheartening initially when you do these questions and you do not get a huge percentage of them correct. But doing a ton of these questions actually teaches you how to take each question and think it through (plus I thought the Kaplan questions were more difficult than the actual PANCE exam questions) so its good practice. If you say you were a decent student and feel that you struggle with test taking, you may want to focus on learning HOW to look at these questions and the process behind thinking each of these questions through. I strongly suggest kaplan. I know costs $$, but with the exam costing $475, the more times you take it, the more $ you are dishing out. Make the $100 investment in kaplan, it will hopefully give you the results you are looking for. I would say 80% of my classmates got Kaplan and we had an 100% pass rate on the boards. If you do make the investment, make sure you invest the TIME it takes to do as many questions as possible. It is the practice of test taking and question-answering that will hopefully help you. Good Luck to you Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jathas Posted December 20, 2012 Share Posted December 20, 2012 Hello, I am a retired MD and former Instrudtor in Medicine who now tutors PA students for PANCE and Med Students for the USMLE. I live in Florida (FT Lauderdale) and Boston. I use a sliding fee schedule. I am registered here as jathas, and my email is nowjohn2003@yahoo.com. I can only accept a limited # of students for the next semester. All The Best, jathas Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jathas Posted December 20, 2012 Share Posted December 20, 2012 Hello, I just posted a note on this page you might want to read....I am a retired MD and tutor, and may be able to help. jathas Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SocialMedicine Posted December 24, 2012 Share Posted December 24, 2012 take a review course. i feel like it is hard to get one tutor for this kind of thing. so many specialties and information... its not likt he SAT. And i am not sure well studied test taking strategies exist for the PANCE .... i could be wrong. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cthPA Posted January 3, 2013 Share Posted January 3, 2013 Hi All, I,m new to the forum but just wanted to add my 2 cents. If you haven't tried it, you might look up MED CHALLENGER at WWW.chall.com. It is in a question and answer format but does a good job of explaining the material, has great multimedia HD graphics, and offers almost 700 hrs of CME credit. It might bea bit pricey but has great material and you can concentrate on individual areas or the whole ball of wax. The staff are also very helpful and can be reached at 1 800 676 0822. They are happy to assist you finding just the right package for what you want. I use this program to work on CME's when traveling isn't an option and you can work on it online or via the accompanying CD's. Michael T :wink: I used Challenger too and did really well. It's pretty thorough and follows the blueprint. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest JMPA Posted January 4, 2013 Share Posted January 4, 2013 Go to nccpa website, print out the outline and read methodically on every subject. also exam master is worth every cent. questions, questions, questions, do tons of test questions including 3 1/2 hour tests to measure your fatigue and tolerance. question banks are most profitable because they teach your mind how to recall information but it is critical that you understand WHY the answer is what it is. good luck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sscheinfe Posted January 5, 2013 Share Posted January 5, 2013 Do the Lange book. Do it again. Sign up for Kaplan PA question bank. Take it. Take it again. Take it a third time. The questions may not be the same but it will train you in question interpretation. Keep notes and tidbits on the things that you need to remember, the little associations that you cant keep inyour head, etc. If you are a visual learner, make charts and diagrams, and review them a lot. Make cheat sheets to carry with you and review the absolute bare things you are missing when you are traveling. I used google docs extensively to agglomerate my own tidbits list, various charts and random associations. Try to structure studying. Do cardiology one week. then resp the next. then review cardio and resp and add a third. keep cycling through this adding-new-reviewing-old. It took me 4 months to prepare for PANCE, but it was worth it...though I would try to keep it to two months or maybe three to avoid the onset of forgetfulness. When you think you are ready, like really really ready, take the PANCE practice test from nccpa, and see how you are really doing. Then go back to the parts of the cycle you need. And learn to relax. Find a way to reach that calm inner spiritual place even while sitting in hour six in front of a computer screen at Pearson...it goes a long way. You can make it just prepare the right way. No rush. Do it methodically and deliberately and at your pace. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PACProvider Posted January 5, 2013 Share Posted January 5, 2013 I am a new graduate with one year experience. I often see posts that say "I was a good PA Student but failed the PANCE." Anecdotally, I find there is little relationship between performance in PA school and passing rates on the PANCE. In my class, many of the top students in the class failed the PANCE. I was a student who was not stellar but graduated and passed the PANCE on the first try. PANCE preparation was multipronged. I utilized many of the references mentioned here already. I did find that the best way to learn was through questions. It is not enough to simply answer a question and then read the correct answer if it was missed. When studying practice test banks, I would dig into the missed questions and then review the entire content. I found this focused more on weakness. I also recognized that certain topics of PANCE are more heavily tested than others. To increase my confidence, I mastered the top 80% of the exam topics extremely well. I think fast recall is important for PANCE so I utilized electronic flash card software for questions that required knowing fast facts. One cannot waste time on the PANCE "thinking" or "mulling" over question. As far as time investment, I devoted myself nonstop approximately 6 hours per day, 6 days a week for 4 weeks and then took and passed the PANCE. During this time, I made time to have fun and get some exercise for relaxation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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