Preparing for the PANCE

 

 

7 major points in studying for the boards

 

1.Study

Start off at 2-3 hours/day build up to 4-6 hours/day

No more than 8 hours a day 5-6 days a week

(you need a day off to recharge your brain)

 

2. The worst place to study is home

Make sure the study environment is stimulus free

No pagers, no cell phones, no TV, no PDAs, nobody is near you

 

3. Study groups work

Everybody brings new perspectives and experiences to the table

It’s easier to share the work load

Try teaching each others about a topic you know well

Make sure it is routine(1 or 2 times/week) and once again no distractions

 

 

4. Figure out what you know and then make some sense of it

  • Use the blue print (internet NCCPA web site)
  • Write down what you know about the topic(ie. Mitral stenosis)
  • Now look it up in a reference and write down what you didn’t know
  • Now the final step make sense of it and try to understand the concept
  • Remember keep you reference time brief and to the point don’t spend more than 10 minutes on a subject

 

5. What are some good references to use?

PANCE Review Books

 

1. Comprehensive Review for the Certification and Recertification Examinations for Physician Assistants Third Edition

By Sarah F. Zarbock

Lippincott Williams & Wilkins

Philadelphia, PA 2007

 

2. Primary Care for Physician Assistants:

PreTest Self-Assessment and Review

Rodney L. Moser

McGraw-Hill Co.

New York, NY 2006

 

3. Datachem Software, Inc.

www.CertiStep.com

PACprep $179

 

4. Kaplan

http://www.kaptest.com PANCE-PANRE

$99 per month

 

5. USMLE Step 2 and 3

Publisher: McGraw-Hill/Appleton & Lange

 

6. Family Practice Review by Swanson

 

Make sure to use Current Medical and Diagnostic Treatment

By Lange as your primary reference

 

 

6. How to I handle the ambiguous questions?

Get to the 50-50 point in other words down to 2 answers

Play the role of an attorney

Does you answer supersede or out defends the other

 

7. The answer is in the question not the answers

Most students spend all their time on the answers

Go through the questions slowly and come up with some answers before looking down

If after looking at the answers you can’t chose go through the question again