melcal Posted April 13, 2006 Share Posted April 13, 2006 our class took the PACKRAT two weeks ago and just got the results today. we were only given "basic" results, aka feedback on content & areas of weakness/strengths and our program is NOT allowing us to have our own copies of the questions/answers/explanations. is this not the purpose of the PACKRAT?!? :mad: i thought this is what i paid for!? anyone else out there whose school has done the same thing? or has everyone gotten copies of their PACKRAT to study with?!? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doboy Posted April 13, 2006 Share Posted April 13, 2006 I took the test two weeks ago, and got the results the next day. We all were allowed to print out copies to look at, and see where we made our mistakes. I chose the harmful intervention for the kid with epiglottitis. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JenGintheED Posted April 13, 2006 Share Posted April 13, 2006 We got to keep a copy of our results. Did they tell you why you couldn't? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LESH Posted April 13, 2006 Share Posted April 13, 2006 doboy I like that signature line you have; do you get beat in the head with Cecils a lot? I don't think this applies to the poster's situation, but some programs have given the test for purposes of programatic evaluation. But then the program usually pays for the students to take the test. The test results are held until the student retest at a later time to see if there is improvement. Like right before the students enter the clinical year and then again when they graduate. Good luck in you future PA endeavors LesH Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doboy Posted April 14, 2006 Share Posted April 14, 2006 I am switching to Harrisons in three weeks, that is going to hurt. Asprin helps.:D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
melcal Posted April 14, 2006 Author Share Posted April 14, 2006 We got to keep a copy of our results. Did they tell you why you couldn't? la, they decided not to release the results because "without this test security, we would be unable to use the examination for other students in the future." even if people had to retake it, they still won't release the answers. this was AFTER we were given a form saying that the results would be released to us. our program uses the PACKRAT as part of our "end-of-year exams" for 2nd year (it's one of 3 exams taken to pass and graduate). we only take it ONCE and the cost of it is included in our tuition/program fees already. our program is known for things like this after exams, so i guess it's no big surprise anyways.... i would just like to know what i got wrong & why for future reference & to study for the pance! :confused: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JenGintheED Posted April 14, 2006 Share Posted April 14, 2006 Nothing like a sudden policy change to keep you on your toes.... people under stress don't handle change well, and who could be more stressed than A PA student? We weren't allowed to keep our instructor's tests because they were recycled. However, I thought the PACKRAT was only licensed for a limited-time use, like one year? I could be wrong... again :) Sounds like you passed it, though? So one of three exams down? If so, congratulations!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
melcal Posted April 14, 2006 Author Share Posted April 14, 2006 yeah, i passed the packrat! but it was just as stressful during the exam, the computer servers were slow and even shut down for 15-30 mins while all 79 of us were taking it!!! how ridiculous is it anyways to have it off the internet, it should've been some sort of downloadable software instead. :mad: anyways, the other 2 exams (clinical skills & objective skills) were already taken at the same time of the packrat. and so now we're waiting to hear those results... :confused: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chatcat Posted April 15, 2006 Share Posted April 15, 2006 la, they decided not to release the results because "without this test security, we would be unable to use the examination for other students in the future." even if people had to retake it, they still won't release the answers.this was AFTER we were given a form saying that the results would be released to us. our program uses the PACKRAT as part of our "end-of-year exams" for 2nd year (it's one of 3 exams taken to pass and graduate). we only take it ONCE and the cost of it is included in our tuition/program fees already. our program is known for things like this after exams, so i guess it's no big surprise anyways.... i would just like to know what i got wrong & why for future reference & to study for the pance! :confused: The PackRat examination is sold to programs and included in the purchase price is data analysis for both the programs and the students. This is really meant to assist you for PANCE review. You really should have acess to your performance for feedback..not the actual exam per se but the areas of strengths and weaknesses. Talk to your PA faculty about this! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest lisnek Posted April 30, 2006 Share Posted April 30, 2006 can anyone comment how similar the packrat is to NCCPA boards? thanks, lk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Monica Posted April 30, 2006 Share Posted April 30, 2006 can anyone comment how similar the packrat is to NCCPA boards? thanks, lk My opinion is that the level of difficulty was increased on the PANCE. Three classmates from my PANCE study group felt the same way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest pac4hire Posted April 30, 2006 Share Posted April 30, 2006 i rea;;y thought the Packrat was harder then the PANCE. i guess it just depends on version of tests huh monica? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Monica Posted April 30, 2006 Share Posted April 30, 2006 i rea;;y thought the Packrat was harder then the PANCE. i guess it just depends on version of tests huh monica? Very well could be. Pretty subjective thing though..perhaps "test day stress" :eek: skews perspectives more for some of us than others. Speaking for myself only of course!;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abyers Posted May 8, 2006 Share Posted May 8, 2006 I take my first PACKRAT tomorrow. Approx. how long does it take to take it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
melcal Posted May 8, 2006 Author Share Posted May 8, 2006 you're given 3 hrs. 225 questions. beware, when we took it the computer servers were slow (which slowed us down)-the fault of the packrat people. hopefully you won't have that problem. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abyers Posted May 8, 2006 Share Posted May 8, 2006 Thanks! Yes, I hope that doesn't happen! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abyers Posted May 12, 2006 Share Posted May 12, 2006 you're given 3 hrs. 225 questions. beware, when we took it the computer servers were slow (which slowed us down)-the fault of the packrat people. hopefully you won't have that problem. Our system actually crashed a little past half way through! That was annoying & then we had to wait about an hour before we could finish. Luckily we were able to finish. I wonder how that effected our performance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abyers Posted May 12, 2006 Share Posted May 12, 2006 yeah, i passed the packrat!but it was just as stressful during the exam, the computer servers were slow and even shut down for 15-30 mins while all 79 of us were taking it!!! how ridiculous is it anyways to have it off the internet, it should've been some sort of downloadable software instead. :mad: anyways, the other 2 exams (clinical skills & objective skills) were already taken at the same time of the packrat. and so now we're waiting to hear those results... :confused: How do you know if you "Pass" the packrat? What is considered passing? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Monica Posted May 12, 2006 Share Posted May 12, 2006 How do you know if you "Pass" the packrat? What is considered passing? Hi Allison, Teri Bigler would usually let us know what the "passing" scores were once they were graded. I remember it taking a while to get those back, so just be glad you are done with it for now. I'm sure you did well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abyers Posted May 12, 2006 Share Posted May 12, 2006 Thanks, Monica. I am sure they will probably be more concerned with how we do after our clinical year when we take it again. Hopefully, I will do a lot better on the second one!!!! Only 6 more weeks until clinicals begin. EEK! :eek: :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
melcal Posted May 12, 2006 Author Share Posted May 12, 2006 How do you know if you "Pass" the packrat? What is considered passing? we found out about 2wks after the exam. our program lowered the required %score to 55% (124/225 questions). 5% less than last yr, to compensate for the computer problems. so this will probably be different with your program. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Abbey Posted May 21, 2006 Share Posted May 21, 2006 The packrat changes every year. so students taking next years test will have a different version. My program allowed us to have a copy...or maybe they never realized that we were able to access it online. I just logged on with my user name and password and saved a copy of the exam with explanations as an adobe file for future study purposes. Glad to see my program isnt the only one with poor moral judgement when it comes to the mental health of students. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest PA_2007 Posted November 15, 2006 Share Posted November 15, 2006 Just took the packrat last week, I thought it was fairly challenging, I'd say i felt pretty clueless on ~1/3 of the questions, we did a practice packrat earlier in the semester and I scored around a 136:eek: but really rushed through it (i was trying to get through it in an hour to get to an appointment on time! LOL!! baaad idea) hopefully since i actually read all the questions my score will be improved :confused: :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JenGintheED Posted November 15, 2006 Share Posted November 15, 2006 A score of ~135 or better has been correlated with passing the PANCE... so if you get 136 in your didactic year you are doing well. Keep doing what you are doing! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest PA_2007 Posted November 21, 2006 Share Posted November 21, 2006 well the scores are back and i got a 152/225 which is defintiely an improvement. when i look at it percentage wise BLECH! But i know thats not how its done really. top score in my class was 160 and class avg was 129 and national avg 135, as well as national highest "165" which i know these must be scaled somehow because our lowest score was lower than the national. but i swear im not bragging i am just proud of myself for getting closer to the national top score than the national low score haha! with a bit of studying i might actually do alright on this pance thing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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