As a tutor, one of the most common questions students ask me is “Do you think I’m ready to register for the PANCE?” While there’s no infallible way to determine this, there are some steps you can take to assess your preparedness. In this article I’ll share them with you, so you can get a better sense of where you stand.
Here’s five things you can do to see if you’re ready for the exam!
5 Ways to See if You’re Ready to Register for the PANCE
1. Print out the NCCPA blueprint.
The PANCE blueprint is the topic list provided by the NCCPA for the exam. This is a must-have resource. Ideally, I recommend printing it out in the beginning of the clinical year and using it to guide your studying throughout the year.
If you are coming up on your exam and want to assess your preparedness, make sure you look this through. Of course, there are always some rogue topics that find their way onto the test, but I can guarantee that if you know the blueprint well, you’ll pass your exam. If, during your review, there are a lot of topics you feel uncomfortable with, that may be a sign you aren’t ready to register for your PANCE.
2. Assess your PACKRAT score.
The PACKRAT is a comprehensive, 225-question test that students usually take twice during PA school. The first time is following the didactic year prior to clinicals and the second attempt is often made shortly before graduation. Though a useful assessment tool, the test isn’t a curriculum requirement for PA schools, so yours may administer the exam differently or not at all.
This exam is given to thousands of PA students each year and following its completion, students get a comprehensive score that can be compared to the national mean, along with a breakdown of missed content areas and keywords. This feedback makes the PACKRAT one of the best ways to guide your PANCE studying and assess your risk.
Your score tells you a lot about your progress towards passing the PANCE. For example, PACKRAT scores of over 150 on the second attempt are strongly associated with PANCE success and can boost your confidence going forward.
While the exam gives you great data to assess your readiness, it’s often given at inconvenient times when students are desperate for a break, such as right before graduation. Many students have told me they were feeling burnt out prior to taking the PACKRAT, which influenced their efforts on the day of the test.
Further compounding student motivational issues is the fact the test isn’t administered for an actual grade, which influences the effort many put into it.
I empathize with students who don’t feel particularly motivated to put their full effort into the PACKRAT, but my advice is to do your best on this exam as it’s a great way to assess whether you’re ready to register for the PANCE. Give it your all! Putting the effort in now can save you a lot of work later.
3. Reflect on the past year.
While a great tool, the PACKRAT is not a foolproof way of assessing your readiness. Many students fall just shy of that 150-or-greater goal score and still do well on their PANCE. A lot of this may have to do with how they have spent their last year preparing.
Only you can know if you’ve been putting your best foot forward when it comes to studying throughout clinical year. Unlike didactic year, there are minimal exams to keep you accountable during this time.
To assess your degree of preparedness, ask yourself the following:
- Have I been performing well on my end of rotation exams, or just skating by?
- Have I spent time outside of clinical hours studying?
- Has my studying been of a high quality?
- Have I been following a plan, or have I just been winging it?
Reflect on these questions to determine if you’re ready to take the test.
4. Take a board review course.
If you can afford it, taking a board review course is a great way to assess your preparedness. These courses go over high-yield topics across all content areas in a concise and organized manner. They’re a great way to review material and be reminded of topics you may need to study further.
As to what the best courses are out there, I can highly recommend the board review courses offered by Blueprint PA. These courses are virtual, which relieves the financial burden of traveling.
The PANCE Live Review Course offers four days (30 hours) of live content, with many short breaks included of course! The material is presented by two PA instructors and students can ask any questions they have in a live Q&A environment. There are many practice questions thrown in to keep students involved, and additional resources you can use outside of live instruction time.
The board review course also provides you with a unique opportunity to assess your readiness. As you’re taking it, you should be seeing familiar concepts and remembering tips and tricks for how to identify them on a test. If you find that you’re relearning the material during the course, that may be a sign you have some work to do before taking the PANCE. While there’s always a handful of topics you’ll need to go back and relearn, you shouldn’t have to do that for the majority of topics in the review course.
5. Use a reliable PANCE question bank.
Question banks are one of the best resources available for students looking to assess their PANCE readiness. There’s no better way to test yourself than by doing practice questions. Blueprint PA offers a comprehensive question bank that presents questions in PANCE format. (You can take the Blueprint PANCE Qbank for a free test run!)
While you’re doing questions, keep track of your performance. Make sure towards the end of your studying you’re using a cumulative question bank to truly test your knowledge and pinpoint areas of weakness. If you’re consistently scoring 70% or above on these questions, you’re likely setting yourself up for success on the PANCE. However, if you’re struggling with the question banks, use the analysis provided to help determine where to focus your studying.
So…are you ready to register for the PANCE?
If you’re not sure whether you’re ready to take the PANCE, I strongly recommend going through these five steps. Print the blueprint and master its contents, give the PACKRAT your all, and honestly reflect on your study habits over the past year.
Doing all of that will give you a great sense of where things stand. Good luck with your prep and be sure to reach out to Blueprint tutors for additional support!
