Our Hippo PAs had a great time at our Crack the PANRE-LA Code: Tips from the Pros webinar talking about our experiences taking the PANRE-LA. Here, we have reviewed some of the nuts and bolts of the exam and our top tips and tricks. We read through all the questions asked during the webinar and have also addressed some of those here. We hope this helps ease your test anxiety whether you are almost done, halfway through, or about to start the PANRE-LA exam. Regardless, Hippo Education has the tools you need to succeed.
PANRE-LA Test Basics
In your 6th year, you are eligible to sign up for the PANRE-LA exam. Registration opens in July and ends in mid-December. Be sure to sign up! If you miss the deadline, you have inadvertently decided to take the traditional in-person PANRE in your local testing center.
Dates for the upcoming cohorts to sign up for the PANRE-LA:
For PAs with 2028 recertification: July 1, 2024 – December 18, 2024
For PAs with 2029 recertification: July 1, 2025 – December 18, 2025
You will take your questions in years 7, 8, and 9 and have to pass eight quarters out of 12 successfully. Once you pass eight quarters, the test automatically stops. You must complete one quarter in the first year and one in the second. Otherwise, it is up to the individual on how and when they complete the required quarters for their exam. You can skip quarters if necessary. Our advice is not to miss a quarter if possible and do eight in a row. However, life gets in the way, so taking one quarter off for a family situation or busy season may be necessary. NCCPA publishes the key dates for all quarters here. Set yourself calendar reminders of when each quarter opens and closes. Follow Hippo Education on Instagram as we also remind you of these dates.
What is up with the replaced and removed questions?
|
Replaced Questions |
Removed Questions |
|
When topics are repeated, whether due to an earlier incorrect answer or to reinforce existing knowledge, the first answer is dropped and replaced by the second. NCCPA states that no incorrect answer will replace a correct score, and our scores will not be negatively affected by any questions that are replaced. |
Questions deemed by the NCCPA to be statistically problematic are removed from the exam and your score. |
Read more about exam-specific questions here.
The skinny on the scoring
- No one understands how this test is scored. Main Goal: Keep your purple score bar the longest.
The PANRE-LA (along with the PANCE and the traditional PANRE) are scored using scaled scoring. NCCPA has a video on its website about how the test is scored. You can get all the questions right, but you still won’t have a perfect score because of item weighting in terms of difficulty. The scoring scale is from 1000 to 1500, with 1150 being the passing standard. When you log into the site, you will see three bars in the scoring section. Your interim score bar is purple, the passing standard bar is green, and the average score bar is gray. Keep your purple bar longer than the green bar, and you’re good to go! I got the most wrong of any quarter during my last quarter, and my score still went up. I recommend not spending any energy trying to figure out the scoring because it’s bonkers. Just keep that purple bar the longest.
Screenshot from NCCPA Video About PANRE-LA: How is it scored?
Maintain Certification - NCCPA
If you have more specific questions about the PANRE-LA, check out the FAQ section on the NCCPA website.
Our Super Six Success Suggestions
- Familiarize yourself with the exam and your resources
We recommend watching the NCCPA tutorial about the exam so you can see the layout of the question, where to find the lab values, how to zoom in and out on images, etc. NCCPA also published a PDF of lab values, which may be easier to see and navigate under a time crunch; most of us pull this up in a separate window during our test or even print it out. We also recommend becoming familiar with your resources, such as our AAPA PANRE-LA Reference Guide. Practice navigating the sections and familiarize yourself with the pharmacology tables and other bonus content. Use the search function a few times to practice. Remember, correctly spelled words or just inputting the beginning of the word will elicit the most correct search result then hit ENTER. Here is a helpful infographic on all our Reference Guide has to offer.
- Schedule a time with no distractions
We recommend scheduling a time to take the exam where your space is distraction-free or as distraction-free as possible. Find a quiet place to focus, free from family, pets, phones, music, etc. Everyone is busy and lives a full life so this is not easy, but you will appreciate the quiet when taking the test.
- Switch your brain into a “test mindset” from a “clinical mindset”
It is challenging to turn off what we see and do in the clinic and think about the “textbook” answer. We recommend checking your answer choice with a resource even if the question is in your clinical wheelhouse (e.g., strep treatment when you work in Family Medicine or Urgent Care). Also, remember that success in taking a multiple-choice exam is part knowledge, part test-taking skill, and part gameplay. Testwise examinees look for these clues:
- Grammatical clues: The question and the correct answer have to agree grammatically
- Word Repeats: Look for repeat words in the question and the answer (e.g., mentioning bleeding in the posterior pharynx twice during the question and then one answer choice is posterior packing) to clue you into the correct answer
- Absolutes: Shy away from answers with absolute terms (e.g., never, none, always, every, all) as these are rarely the correct answer .
- Paired answers: If two answer choices are paired/similar, one of them is most likely correct
- Convergence strategy: The correct answer is the one with the most words in common with the other choices and is most likely the longest
Often, the least invasive/easiest answer is correct (e.g., a splint before giving an injection, PT before a surgery consult). Also, ‘recommend quitting smoking’ and ‘maintain the airway’ are commonly correct.
If you get down to two answer options that you think are both correct, here are some of our tips for this situation: Go back through the question with a fine tooth comb, looking for things you may have missed, like pregnancy, abnormal vital signs, allergies, a medication interaction, etc. Use several resources to triangulate the correct answer to see what more sources point to. Finally, trust your gut. You’re a PA; you know things! In the worst-case scenario, there are two correct answers, and the question eventually gets removed.
- Focus on the section NCCPA tells you the question is about
This seems like a no-brainer, but if NCCPA tells you the question is in the Hematology section, then it will cover one of the Hematology topics listed on the NCCPA PANRE/PANRE-LA Blueprint. Open the Reference Guide to the organ system listed for the question – as not only is this the best place to start, but most likely, where the answer will lie. If there seems to be more than one correct answer, look for the answer in the defined section (e.g., a super sick patient needs lots of interventions and the question is listed as being in the Renal section, the answer will be renal in nature like dialysis, a diuretic, renal consult, etc.)
- Have a good set of resources at your disposal, open and ready
We recommend our PANRE-LA Reference Guide as well as a well-worded Google search. Most of us use two screens; one has the exam on it and the second with our references open and a Google window. Our Reference Guide follows the published blueprint, and we are constantly reviewing/updating our content. You can access this Reference Guide any time before the test to study or familiarize yourself with the content, which we highly recommend.
Many of us use UpToDate in a pinch or OpenEvidence. We recommend online resources that are constantly reviewed/updated with current information rather than a printed textbook. This is one of the reasons our Reference Guide is not available for print, as we are constantly updating it and don’t want anyone to have an out-of-date version for their exam.
- Prep for the new quarter, even if just a little bit
NCCPA tells us that starting in our second quarter, five topics will be repeated from the last quarter. Usually, these are the topics from questions you got wrong, but if you didn’t get five wrong, repeat topics will still appear. It will make your testing life easier if you review your incorrect items and read up on those topics before starting the next quarter. I also sometimes review my correct answers to get back into the testing mindset and remind my brain how NCCPA asks questions.
Many have asked about preparing and/or studying before the exam starts. Because this exam lasts over 2-3 years, it seems unnecessary to study intensely beforehand or take a review course, as it will be challenging to maintain that level of knowledge over that length of time. For example, you could study diabetes or heart failure if you work in Orthopedics and never manage these, and then still never get a question on either topic. We suggest preparing for the PANRE-LA by taking some practice questions to get your brain back into the multiple-choice mindset. Hippo Education has a PANCE/PANRE Qbank with over 2250 questions and a 120-question General Practice Self-Assessment, which would serve as a good preparation for this test.
PANRE-LA Reference Guide Pricing and Subscription Information
The AAPA PANRE-LA Reference Guide is available in 1-, 2-, and 3-year subscriptions. You can earn up to 18.75 hours of Category I CME for each year of use, and AAPA members get a discount at checkout.
- 1-year subscription → $99
- 2-year subscription → $178
- 3-year subscription → $253
We are all on this recertification journey together; all the PAs at Hippo Education are here cheering you on! We got this! Please contact pa@hippoeducation.com with any other questions about the exam or our PANRE-LA Reference Guide.
