On Thanksgiving 2018, I did something crazy. I decided to take my PANRE. The only date that was still available was December 3rd.That gave me a mere 10 days to prepare.
Here’s the thought process. You can try the PANRE twice a year for two years. I could try it in 2018, and still have have two attempts left in 2019.The only downside to taking it in 2018 would be the hit to my ego if I failed. Yes, there is the cost of the exam and the few days I would have to put into studying, but really cost was vanishingly small. I figured my ego could handle the crushing blow especially if I only prepped for 10 days. I mean, there’s a built in excuse there.
I did not have time to review everything the way you should — no chance. I relied heavily on past knowledge and test-taking skills.
I’ve said for years that if you can be confident in what you already know (and you know plenty) and you have great test taking skills, then studying the content knowledge isn’t nearly as important.
Confidence and test-taking skills, that’s the ticket, and I was staking my claim on that ground.
So that’s what I did. I studied for a nice nine days. Took the 10th day off and walked into the exam cool as a cucumber. Were there things I didn’t know? Yes. Were there lots of things I didn’t know? Yes. Did it matter? Nope.
I got 2 months of my life back. I passed with room to spare. It was not my highest score. Not by a long shot, but I passed with plenty of breathing room. It was glorious. Not because it made me look smart – no, no, no – because it helped to prove that my methods work. It gave me even more evidence that I’d been right all along. You see I am smart, but not nearly as smart as half the people in my class or in PA school now. What I do is look at problems differently than most other people. I look for methods. I look for systems. I look for skills and ways to get better. And this huge win helped me prove that.
If you have decent test taking skills, you can crush this thing.
In the October issue of the Physician Assistant Exam Scholars Newsletter, I’m going to show you just what I mean. I’m going to show you how I walk through questions and use statistics to win.
Can’t remember Cushing’s from Addison’s? With this issue, I’m gonna show you how to tilt the odds in your favor whether you recognize the difference or not. I’m gonna show you just how I’m gonna passed the PANRE with only 10 days of studying.
Oh, you might be thinking that I review this stuff all the time. No wonder I did so well so fast. Maybe. That’s possible, but you’d be surprised how quick you forget medicine when you work in surgery all day long. You might also be surprised to see it that it took me years to review the entire blueprint on the podcast.
It might be that I have more content knowledge, but compared to a recently graduated student? NO way.
It’s all about how to get the most out of each question and out of the test itself. It isn’t hard, but nobody does it.
Very, very, few people fail secondary to content knowledge. The vast majority of failures come from lack of test-taking skills. Let me show you how to do it better.
Physician Assistant Exam Scholars
Brian Wallace