5 Great PANCE and PANRE Prep Books

Studying for the PANCE or PANRE requires a lot of self-study and independent learning. For both students and practicing physician assistants, time is extremely valuable. Having the best PANCE and PANRE prep books to guide and maximize your time is extremely important.

As a student, you’re already studying for your end of rotation exams. following the NCCPA Blueprint for whatever specialty you’re in while also spending some time on general questions allows you to maximize your time studying. There’s no reason not to kill two birds with one stone.

As a practicing PA, there’s a good chance you have other obligations like family. If you’re like 80% of practicing physician assistants, you’re also in a specialty. As of now, the PANRE is still a general test so maximizing your study time to focus on your weak areas is extremely important.

I recommend a good mix of Blueprint-focused outlined material as well practice test questions. For the first-time PANCE taker and the seasoned PANRE applicant, it’s important to understand and know concepts, but also how to answer questions.

I had several very intelligent classmates who did not pass the PANCE, not because they weren’t smart enough, but because they weren’t good “test takers.” There’s some skill behind answering multiple choice standardized questions.

The strategy behind multiple choice questions is usually to give

• The correct answer
• An “almost correct” answers
• An answer that is related to the question base but not correct
• An answer that is wrong and potentially harmful

So even if you don’t know the answer, you can attack the question strategically to narrow down the choices and make an educated guess. This takes practice and can significantly improve your scores. It takes “guessing” out of most of the questions you don’t know.

There are many great resources available that include reading material and practice questions. Studying for the PANCE or PANRE is all about maximizing your time. YOU DON’T NEED EVERY RESOURCE AVAILABLE. Pick one or two that complement your natural study method whether that’s outline form, studying by system, or by symptoms. Make sure you have plenty of practice questions. Good luck!

Here are 5 great resources available to help you through your self-study.

A Comprehensive Review for the Certification and Recertification Examinations for Physician Assistants

This is the only resource developed and endorsed by the American Academy of PAs (AAPA) and the Physician Assistant Education Association (PAEA). This is the resource I personally used for studying. I utilized it for the PANCE and my first PANRE.

While it does have a nice question bank of approximately 200 questions with answers and explanations, the well-written content is why it’s such a great research. Following the Blueprint, each chapter focuses on a body system and outlines in a concise, easy to read format everything you need to know.

Purchase of the book also includes online access to additional questions and a self-assessment CME post-test for 20 Category 1 self-assessment CME credits.

LANGE Q&A Physician Assistant Examination, Seventh Edition (Lange Q&A Allied Health)

This is the resource I recommend for practice test questions because there are so many. You’d be surprised how fast you memorize few hundred questions that come with some of these review books. And while they’re helpful, once you’ve run through them a few times you know the answers.

Lange Q&A has over 1,300 exam-style questions with answers and explanations. The questions are organized by organ systems and specialty areas which is helpful for students studying for end of rotation exams or if you’ve pinpointed a particular area of weakness.

Purchase of this book comes with online access to a free practice test as well.

Davis’s PA Exam Review: Focused Review for the PANCE and PANRE

The format is a question, followed by several correct answers. This is followed by a detailed explanation of why each answer is correct or not correct and what you should know about both the question stem and the answer choices. This allows you to extensively cover the subject matter and different ways the question could be asked.

Another popular study guide, this is a good option if you’re looking for a one-stop-shop clinical review with ample study questions. The format is also a little different, grouped by signs and symptoms instead of categories and systems like most others. This is a creative approach because most PANCE and PANRE exam questions give you a clinical scenario.

This review is divided in two sections. The first “Essentials” section details clinical topics by signs and symptoms. There are questions and detailed explanations throughout. The second “Performance” section is supposed to simulate the exam experience.

Pance Prep Pearls 2nd Edition

Pearls are an effective way to study large quantities of information. They’re light in the quantity and heavy on the quality. Pance Prep Pearls offers succinct information for Blueprint content as well as easy to follow algorithms and charts to maximize how much you retain.

Be aware, there are numerous reports of fake copies of this book being sold on Amazon. Your best option is to buy directly from the publisher.

PANCE and PANRE Question Book: A Comprehensive Question and Answer Study Review Book for the Physician Assistant National Certification and Recertification Exam

Written by the same author as PANCE Pance Prep Pearls, this book is a great adjunct for additional test question. Practice tests come at a price. A 50 question practice test from NCCPA is $50. This has over 600 additional questions with detailed explanations for each answer. While not categorized by system or subject, it’s a nice sized question bank to keep you busy. I recommend purchasing this with PANCE Prep Pearls.

Completing the 100 required continuing medical education (CME) hours every two years to maintain your physician assistant license can seem like a daunting task. It helps to know some of the best places for free physician assistant CME.

This is especially true if your employer doesn’t provide a stipend. Even if you have an allowance, airfare, hotels and conference fees can run in the thousands of dollars. If you do attend a large conference, you may still only earn a fraction of the CME required.

There are many resources available that offer free continuing medical education, most of them approved for Category 1 CME Credit ™ , which NCCPA recognizes for PAs. With most of these programs listed you can search by specialties, clinical topics, or even profession such as programs specific to PAs.

Depending on your preference, you can choose between print, audio or even video mediums on most of these sites. Whatever your preference is, doing a few free continuing education hours a month will help keep you on track. No one wants to be scrambling in December when their NCCPA license renewal is due.

These free CME sources can supplement your hours or be your sole source of continuing medical education if that’s what you’re looking for. Most require nothing more than registering with their site.

Doximity

Doximity provides more than free CME. You get a custom news feed of articles personalized for you. You can search for articles that match your interest. They have free medical education hours accredited for physicians, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants. While the resources are free, registration is required.

MedScape

Medscape has accredited courses covering over 1000 clinical topics. You can read unlimited articles, expert perspectives, FDA announcements, conference news and practice guidelines across over 30 specialties. All activities are certified for AMA PRA Category 1 Credit ™ which is recognized by the NCCPA.

ReachMD

ReachMD also provides free online CME. If your preference a variety of mediums such as audio and video, they are a great resource. Their content is not only web-based and mobile app friendly, but they also stream 24/7 on ReachMD, iHeartRadio, and iTunes digital platforms. Content is Category 1 CME.

Up To Date

The first time I heard Up To Date tracks your usage, which you can then apply as CME time I died a little inside. I spent hours on Up To Date in my first few years of practice! This is a fantastic resource if your organization provides you a subscription to Up To Date. Subscribers with an individual or EMR/system subscription can earn CME each time a clinical question is researched. UpToDate tracks the search activity and the time spent reading the topics. You can select AMA PRA Category 1 Credit ™ or log hours reading for Category 2.

FreeCME.com

FreeCME.com is another online database of courses offering accredited hours at no cost. There is no news feed but their website is simple and easy to navigate. You can search by specialties, clinical topics, professions, credit type, and different media formats.

MyCME.com

If you aren’t already receiving The Clinical Advisor, a free clinical publication for nurse practitioners and physician assistants, you should sign up! Free CME is offered monthly and available on MyCME.com. Dozens of other courses are available to search by specialty or topic. They also create Small Bites, where you can earn CME through short 15-30 minute courses.

Pri-med.com

Pri-med host multiple live conferences around the country for extremely affordable rates as far as conferences go (around $50/day for 1-3 day conferences). They also have many free CME courses on their website. Their database is simple and easy to search.

Grand Rounds

It’s likely your local hospital offers grand rounds regularly. These typically provide AMA Category 1 Credit ™ . This is also a chance to interact with your colleagues. Many hosts now allow you to call in and attend virtually for the same credit.

State Medical Associations

There’s a good chance your state medical association offers free CME. They especially do this when new laws are enacted or education for licensure is required. For example in my state, practitioners are now required to do 2 continuing education hours on opioid prescribing and abuse, so a free webinar is available. I frequently see free CME as well on infectious disease topics when there are new outbreaks.

CME doesn’t have to break the bank. You can spend a fortune going to conferences. If it’s on your employer’s dollar, great. But if you work part-time, or your organization doesn’t cover the cost of continuing education, try one of these resources. Don’t forget to log your CME on NCCPAs site as you go so that it’s nice and organized for you when it’s time to submit.

The short answer to this question is 350. A score of 350 certifies you are knowledgeable and able to safely and effectively practice as a Physician Assistant. But what does this score actually mean? Where does this number come from? What is a passing PANCE ™ score in practical terms? We’ll lay it out for you today.

Standardized test development

The PANCE is a standardized test. Standardized tests use statistical analysis in both test development and scoring. The PANCE is no exception.

For a standardized test, strict specifications ensure each test is similar in difficulty. But, unless all tests are identical, it’s impossible to exclude some variability in the difficulty of individual questions.

For this reason, a scaled-score method is used. This limits the variability in difficulty across different tests. For example, someone scoring 50% on a difficult exam may score 80% on an easy exam. A process must be used to account for this variability.

A scaled score creates a standard range for test-takers and allows a fair comparison of results between different tests. It creates fairness among test takers given different questions on different days. No system is perfect, but most standardized tests use a standard-setting method.

The Angoff Method

The NCCPA uses the Angoff Method as their standard-setting approach. The Angoff Method is a system where field experts, called subject-matter experts (SMEs), examine each test question. These SMEs predict how many questions a minimally-qualified candidate, or in our case a new PA graduate, should be able to answer correctly. Each question is given a score based on these results.

For example, a question rated 0.50 means 50% of minimally-qualified candidates would answer it correctly. A question rated 0.90 means 90% would be able to, implying a much easier question.

After the SMEs individually rate the question, they review them a second time. Often this part of the process is done together as a group. A consensus is made about the rating for each question. This rating is called its predicted difficulty.

The predicted difficulty for all the questions is totaled, then divided by the number of questions. This value is called a cut score, or score required to pass.

Example

Here’s an example of how this likely plays out in developing a passing score for the PANCE.

A panel of physician assistant content experts with experience and knowledge about what a new grad should know is formed. This might include PA faculty or practicing PAs. Non-PAs with expertise in our field may participate as well. All we know is they are content experts on the knowledge, skills, and abilities of entry-level physician assistants.

These panelists individually review the test questions and determine whether a new PA graduate should be able to answer the question correctly. Once this is finished, everyone on the panel reviews the ratings of the other members and compares their ratings. They come to a conclusion and assign a predicted difficulty for each question.

The ratings are then totaled, and divided by the number of questions to get the passing score. For the PANCE, it’s 350.

Other scores you may see on your score report

Reference Groups

Reference groups compare a first-test taker’s scores to others taking the exam for the first time. This gives you a sense of how you compare to your peers. The sample size includes all first-time test takers over the previous two years.

Standard error of measurement

The standard error of measurement, or SEM, gives you a range you should be able to score if you took the test again without studying. A smaller SEM indicates you’re likely to achieve a similar score if you took the test again.

Subscores

Subscores tell you how well you performed in each area of content. Bigger content areas such as cardiovascular or pulmonary have more questions. This makes their SEM scores typically smaller.

If there are 40 cardiology questions and you miss 3, you likely know the content very well. If there are 5 hematology questions and you miss 3, your subscore will indicate you don’t know the content well. But, it may not be accurate. What if the difficulty level of those questions was high? More questions decrease the variability of scores.

The bottom line is the subscores can be helpful or interesting to look at, but may not accurately reflect your knowledge.

Passing the PANCE

When it comes down to it, passing the PANCE requires you to know the blueprint content at a level expected of a new graduate. You are not expected to score perfectly. The test takers aren’t out to make you fail. Understanding major systems, concepts, diagnosis, and common disease management will help you achieve a passing score.