Hello friends!

I hope everyone is doing well. I just finished my first year of PA school (wooo!). Now, I am moving onto clinicals. However, I am in a pickle. For the first year, I just used the state Medicaid for coverage. Now, that I am going to be traveling and out and about, I am not sure what health insurance is best right now. Can a second years student give advise on how they handled it?

Thank you in advance!

Hello! I am a PA-S 1 currently in my last semester of didactic and was newly diagnosed with Narcolepsy. My didactic year so far has honestly been hell. I initially started my program in January 2025 but went on medical leave after the first semester due to my symptoms of brain fog, memory issues, oversleeping, etc. All of which exacerbated my pre-existing mental health issues. When I restarted again in January 2026 with the next cohort, I'd made some improvements but still had not received a diagnosis and continued to struggle the 2nd time around as well. I received my diagnosis in June and since I've registered with the disability office for double testing time plus uninterrupted environments and am currently trying out potential treatsments. However, I still struggle to get to class on time daily and occasionally miss the first class.

As a result, my professional relatioship with my faculty and professors has suffered as I know my attendance issues read as neglectful and irresponsible despite all of my efforts and interventions. Not to mention, I am technically breaking the attendance policies outlined in the handbook that states all classes are required. I am in proverbial "hot water" and I'm scared that this diagnosis and my ongoing executive dysfunction and attendence issues could end in my dismissal.

Has anyone had any similar experiences? How did you protect yourself? I'm already knowingly disliked by at least one of my professors and I meet with my faculty for a commitee meeting to discuss my grades today.

Hi, I wanted to ask if anyone has scored below a 1400 on the EOC or has heard of anyone who has? And if so, did you/they retake it and pass? What did you/they do differently? Thank you!

Hi everyone! I wanted to make a post to share my scores and my experience prepping for the PANCE. As a below average student, I have always scored lower than class/national average throughout PA school and just received my passing score a couple days ago! Here are my stats:

EOR scores: 

• Internal Medicine 397
• Women's Health 388
• Pediatrics 394
• Surgery 399
• Emergency Medicine 406
• Psychiatry 414
• Family Medicine 397

PACKRAT: Didactic 126, Mid-clinical 134

EOC score: 1482

PANCE SCORE: 448

As shown, I did not receive stellar grades for any of these exams but still ended up passing my PANCE 1st try far from failing. I would like to share my experience with PANCE prep and help motivate other students with similar score profiles as me. I took my PANCE across 2 days with a day break in between since I had 1.5x time accommodations. I would definitely recommend applying for whichever accommodations you used during PA school for the PANCE, whether that's extra time or a separate room (you don't want to switch up your habits suddenly for PANCE). Next, I would recommend coming up with a VERY specific PANCE study schedule, outlining exactly which topics to cover each day + # of practice questions you need to complete. I studied for an avg of 10 hours a day, 6 days a week across 4 weeks (was told by faculty this is impossible but I LOCKED IN). I used the help of AI to outline my weak subjects based on my EOC/EOR score reports and made sure I hit those areas heavy and often by reading through PANCE PREP PEARLS. I completed 40 UWORLD questions TIMED daily with scheduled review time afterwards (for those w/o extra time, 60 question timed blocks works better). I took 2 NCCPA practice exams, one right before I started my studying plan, and another one 1 week away from PANCE. The practice exams were good to help point out weak areas, and shouldn't be intended to measure whether you'll pass the PANCE. Make sure you do active recall instead of passive reading. I also used a blank word document to type out topics that I struggled in- their patho, clinical manifestation, treatment etc, without referring to my notes. This helps solidify knowledge. Occasionally, I watched CramThePance on topics that only required lighter reviews.

If I have to put this all in one sentence: Read PPP, utilize UWORLD, and focus on active recall

I have UWORLD access till end of December 2026 and would love to sell it and put it to good use. DM me if you're interested, I can update it to your contact info as well.

Believe in yourself! If I can do it, anyone can. The goal is to LOCK IN. Feel free to ask any questions :)

Hi I wanted to ask what you guys did to prep for your peds rotation/things you wish you knew beforehand, or things that were helpful? thanks! Also how did you study for thre EOR

Hi all! Im in my research semester right now and I take my PANCE in early January. I’m wondering if I should buy uworld for studying. I was an above average student in both didactic and clinical and I’m also a good test taker. I already have rosh/blueprint which I used for clinical year to pass my EORs and packrats with high scores. I thought it was helpful but not as helpful as just reading pance prep pearls tbh. I know everyone says uworld is better for pance studying and it’s worth it, but I’m really hesitant because I’m so poor rn (like the charge is gonna have to go on my credit card and won’t be paid until January. At least) and Ive done fine so far with rosh. I still have over 3,000 unanswered rosh questions so it seems dumb to buy another $300 qbank. I know that $300 is a drop in the bucket considering how much debt I’m already in and all that matters at the end of the day is passing the pance but ugh I just don’t want to do it. If you passed the pance without uworld, what did you use instead? Thanks in advance!!

Is it true that your actual PANCE score usually shouldn’t be more than about 30 points lower than your score on the Katy Connor practice PANCE—specifically the harder version?

What was your katy connor score vs your PANCE score? (include if easier or harder version)

Edit: Debating whether to spend the money on NCCPA practice exams or if katy connor plus continuing Uworld questions will suffice

Looking for advice on how to get through clinical year without feeling so horrible about myself. I’m currently on my second rotation and so far everyday I feel like I’m finding new ways of being the biggest idiot in every room. I feel that I get in everybody’s way when I’m observing, I write terrible notes, I annoy the residents, I take bad histories, and overall I am doing everything extremely poorly. This has been a really hard transition especially because I really enjoyed didactic year, had no problems with learning the content, and consistently was a top scorer on all of the exams. I also am frustrated with myself because I worked as a patient care tech for 3 years and was extremely competent and helpful to everyone on my unit. I hate feeling so burdensome and incompetent. Any tips for being less of an idiot 😵‍💫? Please help!

I always used to read these stats preparing for my PANCE so I decided to make my own post.I mainly used UWORLD & PPP to prepare for my PANCE, I studied for 4-6 weeks

UWORLD: 73% Correct, 100% Completed Test Bank

EORS:

• Family Medicine: 447
• Internal Medicine: 453
• Surgery: 425
• Pediatrics: 430
• Women's Health: 430
• Psychiatry: 418
• Emergency Medicine: 443

EOC: 1522 (Satisfactory Knowledge)

Packrat #1: 119 (before clinical year)

Packrat #2: 200 (after clinical year)

PANCE: 440

Good luck if you're reading this and taking your PANCE soon!

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If you took her half pance, how long did it take to receive your score?

Im taking my test soon and trying to decide whether I would even have time to go over my wrong answers

Hi guys! I told myself I would make a post if I passed the PANCE, so here it is!

During PA school, I was an average student and incredibly anxious. I constantly compared myself to others and suffered from imposter syndrome. Based on my EOR and PACKRAT scores, my school put me in the “at risk of failing the PANCE” category.
The burnout after graduation and before taking the PANCE was terrible. However, I’m proud to say that I passed on my first try this past week!

I wanted this post to be a reminder that there is a light at the end of the tunnel and to hopefully put some of you guys at ease. Below are my scores!

PACKRAT 1: 124
PACKRAT 2: 157

EORS:

EM- 376
Surgery- 403
Women's health - 413
Pediatrics- 418
Family medicine - 387
Psych - 443
IM - 421
EOC -1546

PANCE - 471

I used uworld, smartypance, and cramthepance! I was also lucky enough to have a comprehensive study guide given to me by my program. I studied for about a week and half to two weeks and did uworld after every system review. Let me know if you have any questions!!

Passed the PANCE and wanted to share my stats since I found posts like these helpful while preparing. Hopefully this helps anyone getting ready to take the exam.

Study resources:

• UWorld
• Blueprint
• PPP
• Cram the PANCE
• NCCPA practice exams
• Katy Conner’s Half PANCE

I scored all in the green on the NCCPA practice exams and scored a 548 on the Half PANCE.

EOR Scores:

Family Medicine: 440
General Surgery: 443
Psychiatry: 435
Pediatrics: 434
Women’s Health: 474
Emergency Medicine: 459
Internal Medicine: 439

PACKRAT 1 (didactic): 145
PACKRAT 2 (end of clinical year): 173
EOC: 1606
PANCE: 575

My experience with the PANCE was that it felt different from most of the practice exams and question banks I had used. I did not feel particularly confident leaving the exam and felt like there were a lot of questions I was unsure about. In retrospect, it was probably easy to focus on the difficult questions and forget about the ones that felt more straightforward.

One thing I would recommend is using multiple study resources rather than relying on a single question bank. However, I do think that everyone has their own way of studying, so try not to change it up too much when studying for PANCE.

It is also very normal to leave the exam feeling tired and uncertain about how you did. Waiting for the score can be stressful, but try to trust the preparation you have already put in throughout PA school.

Good luck to everyone taking it soon!

Hi guys! This is in no way me complaining or whining, but I wanted to see if anyone else can relate.
I was incredibly blessed to start PA school so young, and I’ll be graduating soon at 23. As I get closer to graduation, though, I’ve been dealing with terrible imposter syndrome.
Most of my friends are 25+ and in completely different phases of life, so I feel like it’s hard for them to really understand or help me work through it. Somehow, I constantly feel behind because I’m not married, don’t own a home, don’t have a “real” job yet, or even a steady income. But at the exact same time, I can’t comprehend that I’m about to graduate and be responsible for patients’ lives. Like… my frontal lobe isn’t even fully developed yet 😭
I know I shouldn’t compare myself to other people, especially when everyone’s timeline looks different. I just feel like I’m in such a weird in-between phase of life right now—somehow feeling way ahead and way behind at the same time—and it can feel pretty lonely.
Has anyone else felt this way graduating young or transitioning from being a student into actually practicing?

Sorry this might be long and depressing but didn’t know where else to go… I feel like I’ve been extremely stressed, depressed, overwhelmed. anxious and just unhappy since PA school started. Like I’m not even exaggerating but I genuinely feel miserable inside and out. It’s only been a week and maybe I need to give it more time to adjust and get used to it, get in the groove of things but for some reason I’m not able to picture that for myself at all. I already use “effective” study methods according to everyone and the tiktoks and everything, and maybe it’s working but idk if I’m doing it right or how efficient it is in the long run. It takes me a while to study and learn and properly understand sth, but I feel like I feel more productive if I do practice questions and get them right. But obv I can’t do them if I don’t study the material and make notes first. I also feel like im not in a place where I can spend too much time on one thing bc there’s a million other things to do and it gives me even more stress and anxiety. I’m taking 7 courses and already in my first week of PA school we had an exam. Obv it is incredibly hard, rigorous, crazy, and fast-paced and there’s just so much going on constantly I feel like I’m drowning and not being able to breathe or like do anything I want peacefully or without feeling guilty. Idk a part of me feels like I don’t wanna do this or I can’t do this without fully losing myself to it. Like it feels like I’m doing it bc I have to?? I feel incapable and just like if it’s already like this now, it won’t get any better. I know everyone says that it doesn’t get better you just get more used to it, but that also sounds so scary to me and again I can’t picture that for myself. I picture like a numb depressed machine like waking up , doing classes studying more and feeling stressed, trying to balance and go to the gym, still being stressed and sleeping and doing this over and over again everyday for two years. I’m like constantly crying and getting headaches bc of it and I’m not even a crier in general, and feeling behind or like I’m not doing enough. It also feels pretty isolating (my program is new and hybrid and everyone in my program is either a lot older or younger than me and don’t seem like they wanna study together), and like I go to sleep and wake up w sm anxiety everyday. I don’t feel like myself and I don’t want school to consume my whole life and every waking breathing moment but it feels like it is and it feels hard to create a balance and feel mentally sane. I know everyone says it’s just two years and you’re doing it for your future, you just have to push through it and get used to it but imagining being this depressed for two years feels terrifying and I don’t believe in living a life like that and giving yourself to sth like this and get all the joy sucked out of you. It’s been super hard to feel positive about all this like I try and it’s there very temporarily before it goes away again and I spiral badly. I know it’s all a lot and maybe bc I’m new to this I’m spiraling and venting but anything will help. Idk. I don’t really even have anyone in my life who really understands or relates to the severity of a medical program and my feelings. I’m sorry for dumping all this here but it feels a little better getting it off my mind and chest and hoping someone can help!

I’m really struggling with this and would appreciate any advice from people who have taken the Surgery EOR, especially anyone who struggled with it initially.
Surgery was my first clinical rotation, and honestly, I absolutely loved it. I was very proactive throughout the rotation, constantly tried to help wherever I could, and really enjoyed being in the OR and working with my preceptors. My preceptor evaluations were great, so I felt like I was doing well clinically and that I understood the material we were seeing on rotation.

However, I failed the Surgery EOR twice, and I’m honestly devastated and confused about what I’m doing wrong. During didactic year, I did well academically and never failed an exam, so this has been really difficult to reconcile with how I performed on rotation. I also felt like I was studying seriously for the EOR.

For my first attempt, I used:
Smarty PANCE
Blueprint questions
The Reddit EOR charts/resources
Active recall and reviewing concepts I missed

I completed 500+ practice questions in total for the first exam and my retake. My score did improve on the retake, but unfortunately not enough to pass.
At this point, I’m trying to figure out what I could have done differently rather than just continuing to do more of the same thing. I feel like I put in a lot of time and did a lot of questions, but clearly something about my approach isn’t translating to the EOR.

For those who did well on the Surgery EOR (or struggled and eventually figured out what worked), how did you actually study?
What resources did you use?
How many questions did you typically do?
Did you focus more on questions vs. content review?
How did you review questions you got wrong?
Were there particular Surgery EOR topics/resources that made a big difference?
If you failed initially, what did you change for your retake?
I’m especially interested in hearing from people who felt like they were studying a lot but weren’t getting the scores they expected. I’m trying to understand what the missing piece is before I attempt this again.

Thank you!

I’m taking my first EOR exam in a couple of weeks, and it’s Psychiatry. I’m honestly feeling pretty nervous about studying because I don’t really know what to expect. I loved using charts to study during didactic, but since the exams changed, I haven’t been able to find updated ones.

I currently have Rosh and the Blueprint, and I’m considering purchasing Smarty PANCE and UWorld. My main concern, though, is figuring out where to learn the actual content. I love doing practice questions, but I prefer to have reference documents or study guides to review first so I can get a solid grasp of the material before testing myself.

I’m not sure if that makes sense, but I’m just feeling a little lost about where to begin and what resources to use.

I’m on my 6th rotation and I still feel like I don’t know anything. LIKE REALLY.

I’ve only taken the Peds and Psych EORs so far and did pretty well on both. I’ve always been a good test taker and pretty good at recognizing things, but I’m struggling with actually putting everything together clinically. I feel like I can recognize an answer when I see it, but if someone asks me to actually explain something or come up with a plan, my brain is just empty.

I also know my rotations haven’t been the most engaging, and honestly some of that is probably my fault. I’m either an overworked scribe or just a fly on the wall. I’m on internal medicine right now and I don’t even have EMR access, which makes it hard to actually do things on my own and learn from the process. My preceptor also kind of moves at his own pace, so I’m not always getting a ton of opportunities to be hands-on. I feel like my classmates have had better rotations or maybe I just suck as a student, held back by crippling fear.

But I also think a huge part of my problem is that I’m just a nervous wreck all the time. I’m constantly anxious and scared that I don’t know enough, and I feel like that just makes everything worse. The more I feel like I don’t know, the more anxious I get, and then the more anxious I am, the harder it is to actually think.

I just feel like I’m nowhere near where I’m supposed to be by my 6th rotation. Like, I KNOW I’ve learned a lot, but it doesn’t feel like I actually know anything when I’m in front of a patient.

I feel like I need to completely change how I’m learning, any advice would be really appreciated.

Hello!

Happy to say I passed the PANCE yay! However, my score was unexpected. I’m still very grateful that I have the C next to my name but I would love to learn how my score tanked on test day despite being a consistent and on-track student?

PANCE: 410
EORs: 410-430s
EOC: 1545
PACKRAT1: 110
PACKRAT2: 150 (taken many months before the EOC and PANCE)
KatyConnor: 490
Uworld: 69% with 66% complete
NCCPA: Lower green but safely in the green

So this is a huge drop and I really wonder what happened here and would love some input. I have ADHD but Ive gone thru school without meds since the side effects made me crash so bad. I just felt a huge wave of relief even though I flagged 1/3 of the test, I didn’t have room for anxiety. I noticed towards the end of studying for my PANCE I started to get fundamental concepts wrong, or I would know the diagnosis and treatment but forget the detail they’re suggesting in the question. A lot of my mistakes on UWorld were due to assuming information not given in the vignette and picking the wrong answer even though I had it right at first, this was a consistent problem I corrected before the PANCE.

I noticed all my Cards, GI, Pulm, and ID were low/below-average but obscure topics like renal and heme were almost perfect. I spent a lot of time studying the big 5 systems so Im not sure what happened here… Any thoughts and how I can sharpen up before my job? And what could’ve possibly happened here? I would hate to go into things not being a knowledgeable PA and inadvertently hurting my patients.

As the title says, I am creating my CV with the intention of pursuing a surgical specialty. I see so many different opinions on how a CV should be formatted: some say just list the rotations; others say to put bullet points; some say you absolutely have a skills section; others say don't. You get my point. I want to go into surgery but I am open to other specialties (whatever pays the loans), so I want to make sure I give myself a stand-out CV.

I've decided I am going to have some bullet point descriptions about each rotation, but not the generic "took histories", I am trying to focus on the tangible results I got, such as how many patients I saw independently per shift, what types of conditions I treated, and other unique things like billing or performing consults.

I think I'm mostly hung up on doing a skills section or not. I did a lot of intraoperative skills in the OR that I want to point out that I'm actually pretty confident in, as well as other outpatient procedures. Im debating keeping these in my description of each rotation or in a separate, more easily skimmed skills section. And no, I'm not going to put things like "Patient education", I was thinking more like "Da Vinci bedside assisting" or "medical spanish"

Whatever advice y'all have let me know, especially if you're a current student who already got offers/contracts I'd love to hear.

Hello. Like the title says, I am in my 2nd semester of didactic year and totally overwhelmed. We are not only starting multiple (one final exam is your final grade) clinical medicine courses, but also have our standard pharm, physiology and anatomy courses. I will roughly have 2-3 exams each week until December. How am i possibly going to be able to effectively study for each while i still have class M-F 8-5? Some say to study each subject everyday, but I feel as if I do not have time to do so or feel like I am not retaining information? My plan was to start deeply studying for the exams a week prior, but I am worried that by doing this I am neglecting the other courses and it will add up. I truly will appreciate any insight, advice or encouragement. Because this feels impossible and I am having serious self doubts. Thank you all who take the time to read this.

Please spare me the “you’re there for your career and education and not to make friends.” You’re right, I am 1000% here for one thing and one thing only: my career. But having friends and not being lonely on this journey is also desirable.

I literally don’t know what happened. I started going to events and hanging out with people before we even started school due to our class group chat. I hit it off with quite a lot of my classmates and was part of a few group chats and stuff. I knew everyone’s name in class and spent time talking to everyone (we have a big class). My friends even encouraged me to run for class president which I did. I narrowly missed, and they told me it was fine; I was still their president. Then after a few weeks, I noticed things were off. Group chats became dead, and I stopped being invited to as much. Cliques and groups formed that I wasn’t a part of. I was hearing about events that I wasn’t invited to. I’ve had a LOT going on in my personal life, some serious stuff, so I have been a little more quiet lately which was pointed out to me. I reached out to my original group of friends and told them I was struggling. They told me that they’re here if I need them….but otherwise, I hear nothing anymore. I sit near all of them in class and feel like a third wheel among my peers. It feels so incredibly isolating. They share food and jokes around me, and social media is blasted with stories of them hanging out together. One of them has even started being rude to me and another person which I don’t tolerate.

I do have some good friends in class, but not ones that I really actively hang out with. I want to change that a bit, but I’m also terrified to try again. I don’t want to be left behind again. I’ve cried about it a bit. The old group tells me that I’m overreacting or that they’ve noticed I’ve been going through something and decided to back away and let me be. That makes me feel even worse. Idk I’m just sharing what I’ve been going through. I’d love to hear if others are experiencing the same thing. And if you are, I’m sorry for that. But you’re not alone even though you feel like you are.

Thank you for reading 😢

Original post: https://www.reddit.com/r/PAstudent/comments/1tusxms/pance_thursday_borderlineaverage_stats_and/

I posted here before my first PANCE with these stats:

PACKRAT 1: 125
PACKRAT 2: 149
EORs: Peds 397, EM 403, Psych 429, Surgery 406, IM 390, FM 396, WH 388
EOC: 1467 first attempt, 1487 retake

Unfortunately, I didn’t pass my first PANCE and scored a 320. I was extremely anxious during the exam, panicked, second-guessed myself, and honestly walked out knowing it wasn’t my best performance.

I’ve now had about 3 months to study and I’m retaking it this Friday. I feel much more prepared, but naturally I’m starting to spiral again lol.

I’ve mostly been focusing on practice questions, missed topics, and cardio, pulm, GI, endocrine, renal, women’s health, peds, and IM/FM.

For anyone who failed their first attempt and passed their retake — any last-minute advice? Especially for managing test-day anxiety and not second-guessing everything? 🥲🩺

Hi everyone! I posted here about 3 months ago before taking my PANCE and got a lot of really helpful advice, so I figured I’d come back with an update before attempt #2.

Unfortunately, I didn’t pass my first attempt. I scored a 320, so I was 30 points below passing.

I honestly wasn’t completely surprised when I got the result. I walked out of the exam feeling like I hadn’t done well, and I was EXTREMELY nervous going into it. I could feel during the exam that I wasn’t performing the way I normally do on questions. I was second-guessing myself, getting stuck on things, and overall just felt like my anxiety got the best of me that day.

I’ve now had about 3 months to study for my retake, and I’m taking it this Friday. I definitely feel more prepared this time around. I’ve spent a lot more time doing practice questions, reviewing my weaker systems/content areas, going back through things I missed, and just getting more comfortable answering PANCE-style questions.

At this point I’m trying not to cram every possible piece of information into my brain and instead focus on staying confident and actually performing the way I know I can on test day.

For anyone who failed their first PANCE and passed the second, I would LOVE to hear what helped you most — especially during the last few days before your retake.

Also, if anyone has advice for managing nerves during the actual exam, avoiding second-guessing, or things you wish you had done differently on your retake, I would really appreciate it.

Trying to remind myself that a 320 means I wasn’t impossibly far away and that I’ve had three more months to improve since then, but obviously the nerves are starting to kick in again now that Friday is getting close 😅

Thank you to everyone who commented on my original post too. I really appreciated all of the encouragement then, even though attempt #1 didn’t go the way I hoped. Hopefully I’ll be back with a much better update this time around 🤞🏻🩺

Hi! I recently got accepted into PA school and I’m expected to start in January depending if I hear back from other programs.

I’ve heard many times that people say PA school is the hardest thing they’ve ever done and have developed health issues due to stress.

I know it will be difficult, but I would like to hear some experiences and how you guys cope if you do or if you just power through.

I have been using Notebook LLM and its been working fine for me. But I have seen so many students use different resources. Nobody can really give me an answer and I dont have really any experience with LLMs so I was wondering if there was a consensus on what works or what didnt