PASSED THE PANCE FIRST TRY! Here are my stats!

I wasn’t the best student during didactic year and even had to remediate a course. I did much better during clinical year, but still had a lot of self doubt. I wanted to share my scores for anyone in a similar situation!

EOR Scores:
Psych: 418
Peds: 392
Family Med: 405
Internal Med: 426
Women’s Health: 417
Emergency Med: 416
Surgery: 414
Other Exams:
PACKRAT 1: 126
PACKRAT 2: 161
EOC: 1485
Katy Conner V1: 498
PANCE Prep:
Studied for 1 month using ONLY UWorld
Completed 50% of UWorld with a 68% average
NCCPA A: All yellow
NCCPA B: 2/3 yellow, 1/3 green

PANCE: 461

I had so much doubt throughout PA school and especially while waiting for my PANCE results. I just want to remind anyone struggling that one setback, whether it’s failing a course or scoring below average, does not define you or your future. I never thought I’d be on the other side of this, but here I am!

YOU GUYS GOT THIS!!! ❤️

I’m starting my surgery rotation soon and I’m extremely nervous. My first two rotations have been super low stakes so far and chill, and I always hear horror stories about surgery and I’m so scared. I have not been pimped yet on any of my rotations, and I know surgery is one of the most common rotations to be pimped on. What kind of things did you prepare before the rotation? Did you go in blind? Did you study specific procedures the night before you knew you were scrubbing into them? What about them did you study? Does the surgeon/PA talk you through suturing?? Did you avoid drinking water in the morning so you wouldn’t have to pee while you’re in the OR? How was the lunch break situation or did you just bring a bunch of snacks for between cases?? I’ve gotten good grades throughout didactic and my first EOR but I feel like I’m going to look like a huge idiot on this rotation. Any tips or tricks r appreciated thx

I’m on my 3rd rotation and am constantly beating myself up when I make mistakes like missing a part of my physical exam or not being great at a procedure. I know it’s part of being a student but it feeds into the imposter syndrome

I graduate next semester and my family is planning to come visit for it (I live 1000 miles away now as I moved away for school). They miss me and want to visit because I have not been able to see them in a year because of PA school. I miss them as well and want to have quality time with them, however I am nervous about reality of PANCE prep and how much free time I will have. I plan to schedule it a month out from graduation. Will I still need to study ALL day every day or do you think I will have time to spend with them? I have no idea what to expect for PANCE prep as I am still doing my EOR's/in clinicals

With them traveling this far for me, I want to spend time with them, but they want to stay for a week because of the trip and not seeing each other for so long. I do not know what to do.

Our dog is dying and we are going to have to put him down in the next 1-2 months. I’m about to start my ER rotation. I feel numb. If anyone has gone through this, how did you cope and still get through rotations.

Does anyone know if the updated and legacy versions of the PAEA EOREs test the same pathologies?

Curious to know why the feedback with the updated version has been so negative

Hi! I am a current PA student in Boston in my didactic year. My rotations begin May 2027-April 2028. I am planning on moving to the north jersey / Westchester NY area fall of 2027 during my clinical rotation year.

Since I am in Boston, my program does not have many affiliations with where I am looking and am feeling overwhelmed and not sure where to start. I am trying to get as many rotations as possible out of state but do not want to waste my time reaching out to places who do not take outside students.

Any recommendations for where and who to reach out to? I will take all the help and recommendations I can get!

Thanks!

im so tired of studying.

feeling extremely stupid and vulnerable right now, but I wanted to ask if anyone had any advice on failing an EOR? I'm a brand new clinical year student and had my first rotation in gen surg! I fell in love with it, but I just took the new surgery EOR and missed the benchmark by 5 points. It's honestly taken a large toll on my mental health, and I'm really lost at the moment. I performed extremely well on my rotation and received stellar feedback from all my preceptors, not only on skill but also on clinical and anatomical knowledge. I understood that the EOR was going to be nothing like our rotation experience, but this was a huge slap in the face, and I feel so defeated. Didactic was already the worst year of my life, and I'm nervous that I'll never be able to do well on the EORs coming up... I'm very fortunate to have the opportunity to retest soon after remediation, but I was just looking to see if anyone had any tips at all for the retake or things they would do differently to study? I used SmartyPance and Blueprint, and some of the PPP books to study. I was planning on using the Anki deck, but I got really overwhelmed when I quickly realized how different the exam was going to be. I would appreciate any tips

hello all! I am in my clinical year, approaching the 6 month mark to graduation and I am trying to get together studying materials I would like to start using. I have the PPP v5 book, and I just found out the v6 was released. anybody that has either used both books, or the new v6, was there a big difference? did v6 reflect smartypance well? I am debating spending the $60 on the v6 or just stick with the v5. any feedback would be greatly appreciated !!

It's been a very painful couple days and can use whatever guidance I can get. Was already on academic probation for failing two rotations due to not passing the initial or retake EORs at that time. Our program does two EOR's at a time so those failures were all within a two-week span. Not going to justify those failures, just know I suffer from ADHD, anxiety, and depression and was in a bad place mentally. Can provide more details if needed.

During the next set of exams, I was able to pass one but not the other. I used Blueprint to study as well as their boost exams as was told those were good indicators for the EOR's so I was devastated I did not pass the second exam. Had a meeting with the performance committee afterwards and was notified yesterday of their recommendation for dismissal. I have already let them know that I will be appealing but I know the odds are stacked against me. Worst part is I finally felt like my mind was shifting to where I needed to be and had made changes to reduce distractions and to stop my chronic procrastination.

To anyone that has gone through dismissal and/or appeal afterwards, whatever advice you can give me would be greatly appreciated. I heard stories of other people getting lawyers involved, is that necessary? I know I can pass my EOR's and the PANCE, just always have had issues with keeping myself focused (if you ever seen the TED talk on procrastination, that's literally me). We literally only had 6 more months until graduation too.

Of note: I had gotten married right before school started. I had to move away for school so after a few months, my wife had quit her job to move in with me. Navigating school while also being freshly married has been challenging for both of our mental health and I already felt like a POS throughout school taking her away from her home, family, and job. Finishing this program was my only justification for any of this. Now everything just feels like a huge waste of time that I can never repay back. I am already in my 30's, have no plan B career, no money, and no way to provide or even think about starting a family with my wife after this. I literally just fucked up both our lives.

Thought I’d be able to get through this rotation without being sick but here we are. Week 4 out of 5 and I got the sniffles, sore throat, and spiked a 102 fever. Legit never been sick on any other rotation. But I knew that starting peds during back to school season was setting me up for disaster.

Anybody else get sick during their peds rotation?

which branch?

and also what is the paperwork like and can the stipends vary depending on where you live.

Edit: I hope any future PA-S who are queer and/or trans don’t read this and feel discouraged to apply to PA school. The internet is transphobic, we all know that. This is just my personal experience, doesn’t mean it will be yours. There are so few of us in healthcare, it is important that we continue to show up for us and for those who can’t.

Edit 2: some of yall are fucking crazy go be terfs somewhere else this has nothing to do with you 😭😭 yall are acting like I want to be crowned king of my class and that i think im better than everyone. Literally relax

Are there any other queer and/or gender queer PA students that feel like they have a hard time becoming close with the other people in your cohort?

I’m one of two queer people in my class, and the other person isn’t exactly kind. I am the only nonbinary person and only one or two people use my pronouns properly. I don’t correct everyone cause I don’t want to be annoying, but it is upsetting that future providers, who will inevitably see genderqueer patients, don’t even try to use they/them pronouns properly. It does show a level of lack of respect for me too. I have told pretty much everyone at least once to their face in conversation my pronouns and my pronouns are clearly displayed with my name in our group chat, so there is no excuse of “I didn’t know”. They all know.

I try to be really kind to everyone and become friends, but I don’t really get invited to study groups or coffee runs or lunch runs. Unfortunately the one time I did, I had to say no because I had to finish a paper we had due that night and I wasn’t even close to finishing it. I’m afraid that may have ruined future chances of connecting with my class mates. The work comes first, and I had to prioritize that.

Anyway if you’re queer and/or nonbinary and/or trans and in PA school if you feel comfortable sharing your experience, I’m not really sure what I’m looking for, but it is starting to take a toll on my mental health and thats the last thing I did during the trenches of didactic year.

I am in my third semester of didactic and struggling with ClinMed exams.

I am a kinetic learner I and don't feel like making the charts is at all helpful so I have been running anki cards and doing practice questions which helps me learn some material but I still have knowledge gaps and find myself rushing to learn everything in the second week of the module/exam week.

I have always struggled with test taking, and this semester I find myself almost running out of time or missing questions because I didn't read something right when I knew the answer. I do much better practically with OSCEs, it's the exams and learning all the material that has been my biggest hurdle. Any advice would be appreciated. TIA.

I'm a student that graduated from a top ten school, passed the PANCE first-time, and passed all my EORs. I wanted to share a bit of advice for all PA students on strategies that worked for me.

Get the Pance Prep Pearl books (yes, even if you're in didactic year) and study those front to back and back to front. Mark them up, highlight them...whatever. Recite with a study group or solo the Pathophys, Physical Findings, Imaging/Labs, and Treatment/Management. Teach someone else and write it on a whiteboard and you'll never forget it. Use Anki only for stuff you cannot seem to remember or have to remember by brute force. I loved studying on my own 80% of the time and kept a little notebook to write down difficult concepts and meds. The other 20% I liked to study with others. Use the test blueprints as a checklist for how well you know the topics. Then the only way to do well is test simulation. Timed 60-question, 60-minute blocks. I used both Blueprint and U World and to be controversial...I think both are pretty equally helpful. Pick a test bank and stick with it.

For rotations, I think the most important thing is to remember yourself as a professional person. Even at my school, I couldn't believe the stuff people tried to pull. Your preceptors want to know that you're teachable. The way to impress is to be prepared by reviewing patient lists, working on your ability to name relevant differential diagnoses, physical exam, labs and imaging. Knowing the treatment is great but knowing how to get there is way more important imo. Nothing wrong with ever asking, "I really don't know can I look it up?". Also, you do not have to stay late if they let you leave. I never ever did an hour more than I was supposed, never was a try-hard, and got good evaluations. If you're interested in fellowships, look them up early to apply. A lot of people will talk about their job or fellowship they have lined up...blah blah blah. Shut it out because I learned people took the shittiest jobs, the worst fellowships, and I waited it out and got multiple great job offers AFTER graduation. Your first job is not your forever job so just be aware that you're not going to get everything you want; usually 2 out of the 3: salary, location, hours.

Also, don't feel bad about remediation. I knew people who had to remediate (sometimes a couple of times) and passed the PANCE first try. Do not let these things get you down or tell you you're unworthy or dumb. GL.

BONUS: Get your NPI # now. You can put your school as the address and categorize yourself as a student. You can update it pretty easily when you're practicing and got a job. I used mine to get a bunch of discounts including Pilates classes.

I've had a terrible year and failed a few tests by about 3 points. I was also falsely accused of something that I was successfully able to get vacated but was put on professional probation for not considering appearances. I still passed my courses with 80% but I've had health issues on top of everything.

Is there any reassurance that if I am able to pull it together I'll be able to find a job? It's crazy the low the threshold is for probation and how permanent it is.

Took my PANCE on 10/12 and got my results on 10/16! I’m a PA-C!!!

Below are my stats:

Women’s Health: 429
Family Med: 428
Internal Med: 448
Surgery: 419
Emergency Med: 446
Psych: 423
Peds: 490
PACKRAT 1 (during didactic): 160
PACKRAT 2 (during clinicals): 175
EOC: 1623

Katy Connor half PANCE: 567
PANCE score: 561

My biggest piece of advice is to read PANCE prep pearls. I seriously wish I had trusted PPP sooner, especially during didactic and clinicals. But never too late to start!

Me and my bestie spent 2 weeks reading COVER TO COVER PPP highlighting with different colors. Sometimes we would talk about a disease or something we didn’t know. Each day was dedicated to a chapter topic on PPP. After the reading was done, we did 60 focused UWorld questions on that specific subject (like cardio, pulm, gi, etc) then 60 mixed review questions. My friend also really liked the UWorld premade flashcard mix and said she was asked some questions that she would have otherwise not know had she not done the flashcards!
We did this for 2.5 weeks straight.
Once we finished all of PPP and every UWorld question, then we went back on some missed topics.
The last 2 days leading up to my exam I found a quizlet of most-commons just to rapid fire my brain before the exam. This helped me with some of those random “you know it or you don’t” trivia questions.

Honestly, the test was not horrible but there were some questions that were ridiculously weird and meant to throw you off. But I was actually surprised at how many questions WEREN’T tricky.

Trust your gut and don’t change your answers!

Feel free to DM with any questions

I wanted to come here to hopefully give some hope to people who are in a similar situation as myself. I am not going to harp on EOR, EOC scores because that to me is not the big picture idea here but just know I was a pretty average student. My first PANCE exam I was going through a lot health wise and in hindsight probably should not have taken it when I did. I scored a 224 (I know..you read that right) and was really bummed out by it. On my second attempt, I scored a 261 (gut wrenching to have hardly any improvement) and going into my third attempt I was riddled with the thought of how am I going to get my score to increase 89 points??? Here is what I did differently this last time:

QUESTIONS, QUESTIONS, QUESTIONS!! I cannot stress this enough. The first two rounds my main approach was trying to learn every single thing I could, but I was not prioritizing practice questions enough. This time I had both Blueprint (aka rosh) and Uworld and went between the two. On Uworld I scored 68% with 49% used. I framed my studying to basically only doing practice questions and doing an intense review on the questions I got incorrectly (including going through and reviewing the wrong answers as well). I did a lot of talk through with chatGPT in order to make sure I actually understood the scientific concepts or MOA behind each topic.

I also realized that my anxiety played a huge part in why I was scoring so low. For my third attempt I applied for an accommodation and was granted time and a half. I feel having extra time to read through questions really helped in terms of my anxiety.

I also had a one on one tutor from Blueprint but I do feel like this wasn't 100% necessary and a passing score can be accomplished without the help from a tutor. He was mostly there to help with extra question walk throughs and reassurance. When it comes to the debate about Blueprint(rosh) vs Uworld, I would say both are good for their own separate things. Uworld is very accurate to the PANCE in terms of style of questions but doesnt have a lot of those "one liner" questions you will also get. I think Blueprint does a really good job of those more difficult, nuanced, low yield style questions that you will also see on the PANCE. To me, blueprint felt a bit harder than Uworld. So I think both were useful in their own ways!

I walked out of my last attempt with the same fear and anxiety most people have walking out of the PANCE. For sure feeling like I did not do enough, got a lot of questions incorrect and missed simple questions. I ended up passing with a 390!! That is a 129 point improvement! All of that to say if you are in my similar position, you can do this!! Failure does not define who are you are as a PA and does not mean you are incapable of being an amazing provider. Just a small hump in your journey of becoming a PA-C!

I've been struggling with Anatomy especially with the lab practicals. I got a whopping 15/25 on my last one and its been giving me alot of anxiety.

There are just so much structures to know. I signed up for tutoring and got a list of all of the structures and pictures for the next module. I plan to spend my weekends in the lap and looking at the stuff (we have Amougae tables not cadavers which can be good and bad depending on your viewpoint)

Im really sacred, there are multiple exams and the way the class is structured is that basically you will get a whole letter grade boosted if you get a C.

Its the only class that I dont at all feel confident in and just feel so lost. I've gotten As on all of my other classes. Its only Anatomy that I feel so lost and unprepared

Hello all.

As the title says, I failed the surgical EOR. So much has happened since I took the exam (our exam was remote). Slow Wifi, camera cut out due to my iPhone overheating (my professor had to stop my exam midway to get my attention to turn my camera on). It was terrible. I felt so confident going into the exam. But my mind blanked and with the craziness I had with my exam in the beginning, everything crashed. I have to remediate for the exam within 2 weeks. I just don't know what to do. Has anyone bounced back from this?

I’m half way through my first semester of PA school and i’m consistently getting low 80s for pathophys for the first 3 exams. I have changed my studying methods pretty drastically from rereading slides to creating practice questions and watching videos, creating podcasts, having study guides, ankis. No matter what, even how confident i feel i always struggle on the exams. What other methods would you recommend for being able to retain this content which i think is my problem. I come into the exam understanding concepts then my foundation collapses and it’s been so humbling. I genuinely feel so stupid lmfao.

I did pretty bad on it and was far from passing.

I did all of blueprint, the mock exam, and some of uworld. I felt confident going in but some of the small diseaes got mixed up in my head and those tripped me up

does anyone have any experience with mediating this exam? is it harder or similar? and any advice or tips to focus on ?

I know that the development of mental health problems are common during PA school. I’ve seen recommendations on that situation before, but I’m asking for ideas/solidarity/support from people who had depression before school and figuring out how to stay the course and not fall behind in class when it feels like nothing matters.

I’m on multiple meds, have a therapist, and a psychiatrist so coveted on those fronts (and I’m not a danger to myself or others).