Guest fly2dasky Posted September 25, 2012 Share Posted September 25, 2012 I just found out I failed PANCE. I feel super down right now especially knowing I have to wait 90days to retake it. this is how I study originally: Use a james van rhee review book, USMLE step 2 to review materials Did 3 packrats: score =65-70% Started doing pa easy 1 week before board= score 55-60% on an average Took Nccpa prac exam with most section in middle Not sure if I should go back and review everything or just do questions only for next 3 mo. Please offer some advise(espec those that have failed and passed second time around) ...really appreciate it . Thank you all! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
primadonna22274 Posted September 25, 2012 Share Posted September 25, 2012 Your pre-test scores were far too low. You need to spend this 90 days relearning what you do not know well. Use the score sheet as a blueprint to help you figure out where your weaknesses are, then concentrate FIRST on those that are highly represented on the exam (cardio, pulm, GI etc.) I recommend you go back to your ORIGINAL PA school notes for these subjects first, then to review books and practice tests. You must have the core knowledge to perform well on the test. Good luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jen0508 Posted September 25, 2012 Share Posted September 25, 2012 i recommend going to CME resources 5 day course, its a good overall review so you can get an idea of where you feel comfortable and where you feel completely lost. they also give you a practice test every night (4 total) that breaks down your score into specialties so you know where you are weakest. also make sure you are focusing on the right areas while you study --> cardio, pulm, GI, OB-gyn, ortho are the 5 heaviest topics on the PANCE. things like hematology are not worth spending alot of time on. allocate your time wisely, although with 90 days you will have plenty of time to give every topic atleast one go round. best of luck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest fly2dasky Posted September 25, 2012 Share Posted September 25, 2012 Thank you so much for all your advises..you don't know how much I appreciate it..yes you guys are right I shouldn't have gone into board with the score that low. I have a good understanding of the materials, but yes there are sections that I don't completely grasp like obgyn/ neuro. I guess I should have done a lot more ques so that I am able to formulate diff dx and get a really good feel for the style of ques. Is PA easy a good qbank for prac? I am planning to review and do Lange ques til mid nov and then switch to doing only everyday for 1 month til exam date Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
feedme Posted September 25, 2012 Share Posted September 25, 2012 fly2dasky - were you close to passing? my pretest scores are similar, and i'm awaiting my result...kind of scared now....i was told if you were getting 60-70% on PAEasy, you should be fine!!! And a 65-70% on PACKRAT is supposed to correlate to a passing score (well, at least when taken during second year)....freaking out!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
christopherjmu Posted September 26, 2012 Share Posted September 26, 2012 Your PA easy scores were low. Only use test questions to gauge where you are. It's not the right way to learn. Too scattershot. Print out each page of the blueprint, and run them along a wall in your house with cardio first (16%), Resp (13%), etc until you get down to heme (3%). Then have cardio week were you read Current (CMDT) and study your class notes. Put checkmarks next to each item as you learn them. Don't leave any blank. Then use the cardio section in PA easy to see where you are. Next week Resp, etc. After you've gone over everything once. Quickly go over again so everything it gone over twice. Don't forget the checkmarks. Then just concentrate on cardio one day, resp, gi, heent, and ortho until test day. That's 80% of the test. The other 20% is spending 1 hour on pharmacology every day until you can reconstruct tables of the drugs. For instance: learn all the HTN classes, then the drugs under each class, then side effects. Hope that helps. I have all my PA school notes on quizlet if you want them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
primadonna22274 Posted September 26, 2012 Share Posted September 26, 2012 You guys should be aiming for strong scores, not merely passing...remember PANCE is a test designed to gauge the minimum knowledge required of a competent PA. I humbly suggest that JUST doing practice exams without first having a solid grasp of the material is insufficient at best and dangerous at worst. I don't want you to memorize the answers--I want you to understand WHY one answer is better than the rest. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
christopherjmu Posted September 26, 2012 Share Posted September 26, 2012 I'm waiting for my scores too.Your PA easy scores are a little low, but your Packrat predicts you would pass. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest fly2dasky Posted September 26, 2012 Share Posted September 26, 2012 Thanks primidonna @chris: I was very close to passing. I'm sure u did great Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
primadonna22274 Posted September 26, 2012 Share Posted September 26, 2012 You are very welcome. I have mentored many anxious students through the PANCE and a few through retakes and they all did fine. :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrator rev ronin Posted September 26, 2012 Administrator Share Posted September 26, 2012 Skip PA Easy--they have a ~5% error rate on their questions, which is far too high for you to rely on for good info. Basically, given what you're saying about your practice test performance, I suspect test anxiety or other factors screwed you up. There's a lot that goes into the zen of testing: never changing answers, unless you need to change an answer. Sleeping, eating, and eliminating appropriately. Pacing your breaks, doing 60 question/60 minute blocks for stamina. READING THE WHOLE QUESTION AND EACH ANSWER (can I emphasize that one enough? No, I cannot). Know that the PANCE as it is currently instantiated is designed to trip up people who are looking at "most common", "most severe", and pattern recognition. Problem is, a lot of board review resources (USMLEs, too) seem to be focused on those areas. I recommend a board review course immediately before the retest. I did the OHSU board review course--not as long a track record, nor as fancy as CME resources, but it was local and solid--finished it 4 days before test day, while two of my peers took the PANCE the day after the board review course finished. Best wishes on your retest. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest fly2dasky Posted September 26, 2012 Share Posted September 26, 2012 Thanks rev ronin. I am planning to review all topics. Then do a umdnj review at the end. Then do kaplan q bank ques for 1 month until the exam date. I hope that is sufficient. U are right I did had some rest anxiety, when I was taking board I notice feeling mental fatigue at 4-5th block of ques Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
izolaphi Posted October 13, 2012 Share Posted October 13, 2012 I also failed the PANCE, so I know how you feel. I recently took it for the first time and missed passing by 16 points. I feel terrible. The night before taking the exam, I was so stressed that I couldn't sleep no matter what I did. I almost missed taking the exam due to sleep deprivation. My situation was also compounded due to the fact that I graduated in 2010 and I have been away from school about 2 years prior to taking the initial exam. I had personal issues that I needed to resolve, but with that being said I studied various materials and spent quite a bit of money. I studied the Appleton & Lange Q&A (1200 + questions and answer explanations), Appleton & Lange Outline, Kaplan Q bank and Exam Master. I currently am using the PA Easy, but I am disappointed that I didn't read the blogs in regard to this question bank prior to purchasing the subscription. I also used the Emory PA online course review, but I found some discrepancies in the information for which I wasn't able to consult with anyone for clarification. I did contact the PA director from my PA program for advice and the CME resources was recommended, like many have recommended on this site. He also recommended that I purchase a current version of the CMDT. Could anyone give me suggestions about what I could do differently? I really want to pass the PANCE and I am truly frustrated. I would appreciate any feedback. Thanks in advance Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xcman1539 Posted October 13, 2012 Share Posted October 13, 2012 Best advice is a review course live or online. Also do 34343 practice questions!!!!!!! I did the UMDNJ online course, LANGE Q&A and PANCEMASTER. I would do 60-100 questions per day. I am selling my access if interested. Good Luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
primadonna22274 Posted October 14, 2012 Share Posted October 14, 2012 I have posted this question before, but felt it was worth a shameless hijack: what do you all think is missing from current PANCE/PANRE review resources? I am pondering a project to develop something entirely new but it will take quite a lot of my time and I want to know if it's worthwhile and needed. Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrator rev ronin Posted October 15, 2012 Administrator Share Posted October 15, 2012 PACKRATs content with PAEasy/ExamMaster-type online test generation and statistical tracking would be nice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greenmood Posted October 15, 2012 Share Posted October 15, 2012 There was a Groupon a while back for a Bench Prep course for like $20 bucks (usually was $150 I think), so I bought it and got the PANCE review. My opinion on it swings wildly between pleased and annoyed. Some of the questions, like on the pharmaceutical therapeutics, are challenging and remind me greatly of PACKRAT questions (my school has had us take two PACKRATs and we will take a third before graduation) and then others are too simple or have spelling/grammar errors that distract me. I was expecting a little more from such a slick piece of software. I like that it's on my phone, I can do sets of 1, 5, 10, or all questions at a time, and it includes very brief explanations of the correct and incorrect answers. If I need more depth I can research it on my own. It also allows you to rate each question by confidence level so if you completely guessed and got it right you can still mark the topic for review and the program will bring it up again. I am almost halfway through clinicals and have not decided what else I will purchase, having already gotten the PAEA-endorsed review book. How did you guys learn about all these other options? Personal research? Word of mouth? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
primadonna22274 Posted October 15, 2012 Share Posted October 15, 2012 Good ideas, thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PA student TN Posted October 18, 2012 Share Posted October 18, 2012 I passed my PANCE. Just heard from NCCPA this morning. I studied for 4 weeks, 8hrs/day. I used Exam Master and although some of the questions were long, they really helped me. I practiced at least 60 questions/day. In addition I used Kaplan Medical PANCE and did both exam simulations. I also read Babcock a couple of times and Van Rhee. In addition, I complemented my studies with Current's. I was very nervous during the 4 weeks because English is not my first language and I really wanted to pass on my first atempt. I think what really helped me was not getting nervous during the exam. I left the testing center with a positive feeling and all the study paid off. Good luck to everyone that is taking the exam as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gebaldwi Posted October 23, 2012 Share Posted October 23, 2012 I have posted this question before, but felt it was worth a shameless hijack: what do you all think is missing from current PANCE/PANRE review resources? I am pondering a project to develop something entirely new but it will take quite a lot of my time and I want to know if it's worthwhile and needed. Thanks! regarding the Pance: i did not do the review courses as i was flat broke but I did read a lot of the different review books and qbanks. my pance exam was just plain a lot harder than all of the review stuff. i know you should review diseases more in depth than what is listed in review books, as it is just a review, but the practice questions need to be ramped up in difficulty in my opinion and based on my one and only experience with the pance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
primadonna22274 Posted October 23, 2012 Share Posted October 23, 2012 regarding the Pance: i did not do the review courses as i was flat broke but I did read a lot of the different review books and qbanks. my pance exam was just plain a lot harder than all of the review stuff. i know you should review diseases more in depth than what is listed in review books, as it is just a review, but the practice questions need to be ramped up in difficulty in my opinion and based on my one and only experience with the pance. This is useful, thank you. Some of the practice questions I submitted were considered "too sophisticated" for PANCE, but having just taken my 2nd PANRE, I'm inclined to agree. The bar has been risen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
primadonna22274 Posted October 23, 2012 Share Posted October 23, 2012 Er, raised :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sthall Posted November 15, 2012 Share Posted November 15, 2012 The common perception among fellow classmates was that the pance avoided the key word or phrase association. You were forced to really know the material and not just recognize those key terms. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jts Posted November 23, 2012 Share Posted November 23, 2012 I studied for three weeks, 10 hrs each day. I used the PANCE review CD course that Ebony University PA Program puts out. It is a series of Lectures on CDs. Excellent review. I followed up with questions from my 2 PANCE review books. When I took the PANCE, I thought it was impossibly difficult but thankfully, I passed on the first try. I did a lot of mental preparation and that was key for me. If you walk into an exam like that with fear and trembling, your nerves might just shatter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Studentforlife Posted November 23, 2012 Share Posted November 23, 2012 Hello ! I was reading your post (its dated 2008) and was wondering what access are you mentioning about? Thankyou! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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