Everything You Need to Know About the PANCE

Anyone preparing career as a physician assistant will need to pass PANCE in order to be certified to practice. PANCE stands for Physician Assistant National Certifying Exam is a computer-based test administered by National Commission on Certification of Physician Assistants taken by physicians in United States. The test consist of practical medical and surgical questions with five 60-minute, 60-question blocks, 300 MCQ in total and must be taken before a PA licensing. You are provided 5 hours including 45 minutes between each block for break. Some of the guidelines to PANCE are:

• To sit for the PANCE, you must graduate from a program that was accredited at the time of your matriculation
• You are eligible to take the PANCE 6 times or up to 6 years after completing the requirements for graduation, whichever comes first.
• You must submit an application in advance. You can schedule your exam anytime depending on testing availability at a Pearson VUE testing center.
• You cannot submit an application to test until 90 days prior to your expected program completion date. You are eligible to sit for the PANCE 7 days after the completion of your program. You can only take the PANCE once in any 90-day period or 3-times per calendar year.
• It can take up to 2 weeks to receive your PANCE scores.
• A PANCE score of 350+ is generally accepted as “passing,” however, passing scores can and do range from 350-392 depending on the Form (though passing scores are no longer published)
• You can use the following formula to predict your PANCE scores
• PANCE = [PACKRAT x 5.74] - 287.47
• The highest score attainable is an 800

Here are some of the best PANCE test prep resources for PAs and future PAs preparing for the PANCE provided by Dr. Seheult (medical instructor with 20 years of experience). MedCram prioritize the most important concepts for medical test preparation and for clinical practice. We offer medical test preparation material and online medical training courses for medical students and practitioners.

Also read: Things You Really Have to Know as a Medical Student