What do your grades signify?

[wesr_gordon]

It sounds like a silly questions but...

 

Does PA school rank its students?

Do employers want to know your grades?

 

Obviously all PAs should be educated and adequate/competent at what they do but I ask because as long as you pass the PANCE, what do they count for?

[just_me]

Our school does not rank...hell some schools do not even give grades....everything is pass/fail

From my understanding employers are more worried about your certification

Grades are most important if you plan to get scholarships, could possibly want to go back to school for anything else and post-grad residencies

 

For some grades signify badges to show themselves that even though it was hard, they still got an A or B, for some, as long as they pass they are good.

For me, my grades signify what you were able to retain (at that point). This is important because what I retain now is directly proportional to what Ill remember later. In otherwords, the lower the percentage of what I remember now means a lower percentage of what I will remember many months from now--thats just how my brain works.

[flyingsquirrel]

Mine doesn't rank and no program that I know does.

 

Nope. If you apply to a residency/fellowship they will want your transcripts...but I get the feeling the actual grades are a small piece of your application. (There are people on here far more qualified to answer that question.)

 

Right about now I believe that grades are simply inversely proportional to sleep.

[KCMA79]

I have never had an employer ask about my grades.

[OpSite]

Right about now I believe that grades are simply inversely proportional to sleep.

 

What this smart person said ^^^

[Guest]

I was told that only passing matters. Now of course if you are passing with one point away from failing, that is not so good...but you shouldn't KILL yourself (stress, no sleep, no food, cry, throw up, get sick) just to get A's if some class is very difficult.

[wesr_gordon]

Thanks for clarifying!

[tcd1976]

For some grades signify badges to show themselves that even though it was hard, they still got an A or B, for some, as long as they pass they are good.

For me, my grades signify what you were able to retain (at that point). This is important because what I retain now is directly proportional to what Ill remember later. In otherwords, the lower the percentage of what I remember now means a lower percentage of what I will remember many months from now--thats just how my brain works.

 

I agree. The better one's mastery of the material initially, the easier it will be to pass the PANCE. There is another thread on here where the OP has taken the PANCE five times and never passed ===> dead in the water. Personally, finding myself in a place where i have a $100K debt and no license would be devastating. My good grades and good practice exam scores give me confidence that I will pass the PANCE when the time comes for me. Better yet, I am confident that I am making good patient care decisions in my rotations because I feel as though I have half a clue (though I think my brain dumps in the parking lot every day), and this is confirmed by positive feedback.

 

The bottom line is that one has to get through school, pass the PANCE, and continue to learn every day in order to be a competent, capable, caring practitioner. Our grades are a reflection of our ability to do this.

 

Happy Holidays!

[cinntsp]

The logical answer is that your grades signify your mastery of the material. You'll hear stuff like "C's get PA-C's" but do you really want to be the person at that pass/fail borderline, stressed out because you may not pass a class if you don't make X grade on that next exam? I am also concerned with making the highest grades possible so I can be competitive for a residency and additionally, my program uses GPA as a tiebreaker for clinicals location preferences in the event too many people want to go to the same place. I don't know if any others do it that way.

[crystaltide]

You also have to maintain a certain GPA to continue all of the programs that I have looked into.

[sartort]

A lot of programs seem to require an 80% on an exam to pass, with only one chance to retake it. I think this is typical of grad schools, not just PA programs. The school I went to for undergrad required B's in grad school. If a prof gave them a C, they were essentially kicking them out of the program. I did interview at one program that allowed you to get a 70% and didn't require a re-test if you failed, up to four exams I think it was. I didn't like that, and I think an 80% standard is respectable. One program director said you only need to get 65% of the PANCE right to pass though, so I guess it depends more on your personal goals and the expectations of the program.