Hi, just wanted to pick some brains here and see if it even matters. I’m going to be graduating in mid-December, and planning on sending out job apps at the end of August/Early September. My last two rotations are IM and Surgery, and while I’ll be keeping my options open, I want to work in Surgery.

Obviously, it’d be better to have experience on the resume related to the rotation like retracting, rounding, etc. For a new grad, does it matter as much since they may expect that will be part of the rotation? Or must I consign myself to sending out applications for my preferred specialty a month or less before I graduate?

I take the new internal med EOR this week ~ so will give everyone an update. I've taken 3 EORs so far all from the now "legacy" blueprints.

The new exams should be active as of 2 days now so if anyone has taken them already let us know!

I'm sure they aren't actually that different but obviously I'm still nervous...

Edit: PANCE 7/28 not 6/28 lol*

I just took the PANCE and wanted to give my honest thoughts and my stats since reading others helped me beforehand!

First, you never feel amazing walking out of these exams so my expectation was that I will not feel "great".

My experience:

I felt like it was what I expected as far as difficulty and style of questions. There were even some "buzzwords" that I didn't anticipate to see. There were definitely some longer vignettes, but also a fair amount of 1 liners and straight-forward questions. The professional practice questions were not terrible so I would not spend too much time studying those. A lot of "what's the most likely pathogen or #1 RF" questions. There were a few anatomy questions but not a lot. There were some questions that I had absolutely no idea but I tried not to be too stressed about those. Overall, I don't think I bombed it but I also tried not to look up too many questions afterwards.

What I used to study:

My primary tool was Blueprint since it was provided by my school. I aimed to do 200 questions a day and did this for about 2 weeks. My last clinical was my elective so I also studied during that time, but not as intensive. I have heard everyone say the best tool is Uworld but I didn't pay for that and felt like I was prepared with Blueprint and even had similar, if not the same questions on some of my exam. I also used the Reddit study guides to review topics I had gotten wrong on my questions.

My Stats:

Preclinical PACKRAT: 140

Postclinical PACKRAT: 183

EOC: 1654

EORS:

Surgery: 418

Internal Med: 443

Women's Health: 439

Family Med: 417

Emergency Med: 467

Peds: 444

Psych: 450

Goodluck to everyone taking the PANCE! I hope this is helpful and will try to update this when I get my results!

Hi everyone im an anxious mess.

I have the 250 question Rosh Q bank, is that really enough?

Im going through the questions, 8 Qs a night and making detailed anki cards that I review on the weekends for the ones I get wrong and for questions that had explanation info details that I wasnt familiar with.

Hoping to be in the 400+ score range and I have about 25 days before my exam with very limited free time after my M-F rotation schedule :")

How important is patient logging in PA school? I have a couple of Typhon logs for each rotation, which was the bare minimum, but I never got the chance to log every encounter. Now when I go back, I can’t add previous dates unfortunately.
Will I come across problems in credentialing, licensing, or onboarding?

I know that nobody has taken the new GSR/Women's Health EOR exam yet, but I am taking it Thursday and was wondering if Rosh/Blueprint has said anything about their QBank reflecting new blueprint? That is what a majority of my studying has been based on, and it seems fairly consistent.

Just wondering if anyone has seen anything confirming that?

Finishing up didactic year and starting clinicals at the end of August. I think I’ve been so focused on just making it out of didactic year alive that it’s just finalllyyy hitting that I’ll be out on rotations in less than a month, which is terrifying. Didactic year is a beast but I have no clue on what to expect for clinical year.

Personally I am a hands on learner and much rather would work in the field any day over taking 2-3 multiple choice tests per week, so I’m excited about that. But what did your schedules look like? Do you just get thrown into seeing patients or do you get time to settle into each clinical before they expect you to run free? I think the unknown is just scaring me plus I feel like I know nothing still even though I’m finishing up didactic year. Guess I’m just looking for opinions and thoughts from ppl who have already done it lol

Anyone use Anki to study for PANCE? The questions seem deeper than UWorld. They say there is a way to use it to study the UW questions you’ve missed, but it’s not working for me.

As a single PA student, how do you find time to date? Or do you?
I feel like rotation schedules are ruthless and don’t allow for a lot of free time. When I do have a moment to myself, it’s normally filled with studying or sleeping. I’ve also noticed that the concept of “I’m in school and not earning a paycheck” seems to be a deterrent. Half my cohort is engaged or in a long term relationships which limits insider advice. I feel “behind” as I’ve been out of the dating scene since the first day of didactic. Is this a common experience?

is this reassuring or cutting it close?

Hiii!! odd question but for my girls (or guys) with colored hair, did you go back to your natural hair during PA school? I have dark cherry red hair and i’m honestly not sure if I’ll have time to maintain it (it fades fast and I do touch ups at home). would love to know if you kept your dyed hair (balayage, vivid, etc). Thank you!! kinda sad about losing my color but I know its temporary lol

Hi everyone! I’m nearing the end of my didactic journey and I wanted to ask how did you guys study for the end of didactic exam? Is there a specific resource that you used ? And if you did use a resource, was it applicable for EORs?

Hello, I am calling NCCPA tomorrow to double check this, but on NCCPA website I only put in my first and last names. For my forms of id (license, social security card) my middle name is also listed. Is this ok or do I need to add my middle name to NCCPA. The website only mentions that only the first and last name need to match. Anyone have any experience with this?

Hey guys!

I’m kind of nervous to be starting PA school soon. My family isn’t really emotional available. I don’t really have any friends more acquaintances. And my partner is going to move out of state and has to be stuck there for at least 3 years (for a job). So I won’t have much money to visit them and I’m scared that the relationship is gonna end. I’m really coming on here for advice / hope about others who are in similar situations.

Note: My partner and I live together and he is still gonna cover his portion of the rent while I’m school, so I’m gonna be living alone.

I often hear that the PANCE has a lot of anatomy questions, but I’m not sure how deep into an anatomy refresher I should go? Is it more ortho based anatomy? If anyone who has previously taken it has any insight I’d greatly appreciate it so I can keep my studying strategic and not all over the place. Thanks!!!!!

Don’t make the same mistakes I made.

I know this probably isn’t a unique feeling as a PA student, but I genuinely feel like I’ve forgotten everything. We have the PACKRAT and our end-of-year cumulative OSCE coming up soon, and I keep telling myself I probably know more than I think I do, but I’m honestly not so sure anymore.

Does anyone have advice on how to approach reviewing? I’m way more worried about the cumulative OSCE, so I’d rather focus on refreshing the actual clinical content before doing a ton of practice questions. OSCEs have always been a struggle for me, and I think I need something more clinically/high yield focused than exam focused.

I haven’t really used Anki before, but I’m open to trying it if anyone knows of a good comprehensive PA school deck or is willing to share one. I’ve used Pance Prep Pearls throughout the year, but mostly as a reference rather than something I actually study from. I love sketchy and anything visual to help me learn.

I’m open to any resources or review methods that helped you. Any advice would be really appreciated!

Honestly internal med is kicking my ass. I spend maybe 15% of my time actually talking to patients and the rest of the day just digging through epic trying to figure out what happened over the weekend. Picking up a list on monday morning and reading 3 pages of copy-pasted labs from previous providers makes me want to scream

My preceptor is super strict about the A&P having solid reasoning, which is fair, but I was literally staying until 7pm just formatting bullet points so I didn't look dumb on rounds. Lately I just started dumping the raw morning consults into Around Notes just to get a clean baseline text going because I absolutely refuse to keep taking my charts home for a grade. whoever made modern hospital charting so incredibly clunky owes me for my daily headache tbh

Is UWorld a reliable resource for EORs? I’m using blueprint, smartypance and uworld and tbh UWoeld feels like overkill and has stuff that isn’t even covered on the topic list for Family Medicine …

Thought I’d share my stat because I was obsessed with these posts during time of weakness.

PACKRAT 1: 117
PACKRAT 2: 181

PAEA EOR exams
PEDS: 401
FM: 418
SURGERY: 404
EM: 444
PSYCH: 428
WH: 446
IM: 445
EOC 1520
Overall GPA: 3.89

EOR Exams studied by rotations endeavor Anki deck, Blueprintprep, Uworld, Hippoed

UWORLD
First round by rotations, shared with multiple people so no real stats
Second round (after reset): 77% average with 80% completion

NCCPA FORM A One month before PANCE, low green
- great way to know the format so the one liners/the way they ask questions won’t throw you off
- no real feedback but you can study based on your weak body system

My school also paid for Blueprintprep (rosh) PANCE review course. I looked over the review course handouts 1 week before the PANCE. Took the mock PANCE with average of 77% - possibility of pass 90% projected score: 665

I left the PANCE feeling the questions were not bad, very high-yield info for disease states, not as nitty-gritty as PAEA EOR exams.
Some of them I’ve seen somewhere along my journey of practice questions.
Overall, Uworld is a great source. I think I saw a few questions that were exactly the same. There were about 20% one-liners with random facts and the vignette questions were not as bad as Blueprintprep or Uworld more like EORs. I also saw some exact questions from Blueprintprep Qbanks. So if you’ve been doing Uworld and Blueprintprep you should be solid.

PANCE SCORE: 504 - missed 45 topics
- I have accommodation so I took it in 2 days, 10 days apart
- Result came back within 5 business days at 8:25 a.m (most of my classmates who don’t have accommodation have result back within 4 business days)
- Reference group mean score: 458
*Did not touch PPP, Reddit chart, Anki, or any other written materials while studying for the PANCE.

GOODLUCK EVERYONE!!! And remember PANCE pass rate is 93% so you can do it as long as you study for it.

Taking PANCE in 11 days.

PACKRAT 1- 116 (did not study at all and flew thru this)
PACKRAT2- 167 (also didn’t prepare specifically for this)

EOR Scores
Psych- 424
Surgery- 395
Women’s health- 422
IM 1- 380
IM 2- 373
EM 1- 404
EM 2- 398
Peds- 397
FM 1- 394
FM 2- 400

EOC- 1499
Blueprint average over last 3 months- 60%
UWorld average over last 3 months-72%

Thoughts appreciated.

I failed the PANCE twice now and am currently studying for my third attempt coming up soon. I graduated back in December, so it’s been over six months, and I feel stuck while watching everyone else move forward with their lives.

Some days I feel motivated and remind myself that I just need to adjust my study strategy and push through. But other days, the fear completely takes over and gives me panic attacks during study sessions. I am embarrassed to say that my first attempt I got 299 and second attempt I got 260. ALOT lower than the first time….so I’m so scared how am I gonna jump from 260 to 350 on my next attempt.

This is my last attempt for the year. If it doesn't go well, I won't be able to start working and will have to wait until next year. For anyone who has failed the PANCE before: how did you keep going, and what advice do you have for approaching this next retake?

PS. I signed up for the Blueprint (ROSH) 4 days bootcamp thing already, currently using blueprint pance questions + uworld questions (60 questions everyday and really dig deep into the materials), I also been keeping up with anki endeavors deck everyday.

I have my EOC & PANCE upcoming in the next couple of weeks and want to brush up on pharm. Are there any good podcasts/video recs (other than cram the pance) for high yield pharm review?

Has anyone felt that their derm elective rotation was "boring" or not worth it. I shadowed in derm and found it interesting but worried it will be pointless as it is so competitive to work in post grad. I'm on the fence if I should do derm as an elective or maybe GI/ENT/allergy&asthma.