Looking Within the PANCE

I’m glad you’re joining me once more at our weekly blog. As you may already know, my PANCE Masterclass will be offered again in October 2025. I thought I’d spend some time touching on the information I’ll share. While my Masterclass targets students preparing for the PANCE, much of this information should interest the instructors and administrators who deal regularly with these hopeful test-takers. Besides, most of us have lost a little sleep at some point over a critical test - we can certainly sympathize!

Let’s begin today with an examination of the test-takers themselves..

Test-taking is an improvable skill

Exam performance is not just a measurement of student knowledge; it is also a measurement of their test-taking ability. I’ve heard plenty of students admit, “I’m a bad test-taker,” and I’m happy to tell them that, like any other skill, test-taking can be honed and improved with deliberate practice.

We have a logical division of knowledge in the PANCE, which goes both ways. If you’re an expert test-taker but know nothing about medicine, you will likely fail the PANCE. That seems obvious. Likewise, if you have a terrific grasp of medicine but are an anxious and haphazard test-taker? Well, I won’t say failure is imminent, but the challenge is real. Poor test-takers may fail, or they may pass but with a low score that doesn’t truly reflect their knowledge, and in either case, the test-taking experience was far more distressing than it needed to be.

Everything I present in my Masterclass is based on tutoring students who were unsuccessful on their first PANCE attempt. Helping them has enabled me to reverse-engineer a proven process to prepare for PANCE and succeed on the first try. My strategy involves the marriage of test-taking methods, strategic study methods, and content review. I have worked with hundreds of students in the last 25 years to help prepare for the PANCE with successful results. The overall success rate of students directly under my charge is >95%

Debilitating test anxiety versus the usual “nerves”

Test anxiety is real and, in severe cases, can be quite debilitating for the sufferer. Your program has likely provided special accommodations to students when they took exams. In my Masterclass, I recommend that students with overwhelming test anxiety seek special accommodation, starting with obtaining a medical diagnosis and input from a specialist. 

For most students, test-taking anxiety is not debilitating, but quite distressing nonetheless, and its presence can have a marked impact on the test-taker’s performance. Luckily, it can be alleviated with two preparations: familiarization with the test itself, and comprehension of the components of a test question.

Familiarization: getting to know the testing format

Nothing is more alarming than the unknown. But what is the point of all that dread? By familiarizing themselves with the test they are about to take, anxious testers can eliminate considerable anxiety.

Practice tests are such a valuable resource because they allow students to familiarize themselves with the material. My Masterclass strongly recommends that by the time students take the PANCE, they should have answered 1500-2000 practice questions. Within that number, students should set aside at least three exact simulations of 300 questions that must be answered within the same time limit as the PANCE. 

Taking practice tests is only the first step, however. Ideally, the test-taker should also review the questions they answered incorrectly and find out WHY.

This method is Error Analysis, and it is an extremely valuable test-preparation skill. If one can determine where they are going wrong, they gain insight into how to approach these questions better. 

The test-taker asks, “Why did I get this answer wrong?” Was it because I was looking for the “trick” answer? Did I ignore important information, or talk myself out of my correct answer? Did I fail to understand the specific information sought? Find the solution, then ask, “Did I make a similar error on multiple questions?” Discovering where test questions are tripping up the test-taker is an essential piece of the puzzle - they learn what to watch for in their test-taking behavior.

Comprehension: learning how to read and answer test questions. 

Yes – this point seems patently obvious. “Scott,” you are saying, “reading and answering test questions is…well, basically the point of any test.”  

Quite so, which is why it’s so distressing to test-takers when they cannot seem to do it consistently. They may read a question, fail to understand what it’s saying; read it a second time, fail to understand what it’s asking, and finally read the answers and find that they all sound equally correct or equally incorrect. First, this wastes a significant amount of time in a situation where time is already limited. Second, this confusion is often unnecessary if the question is approached correctly, and I will explain why…next week!

Join me then for an interesting dissection of the notorious multiple-choice question. The inner workings of a high-level test question are more elaborate than you might think!

Mark your calendars!

If you would like to participate in the next presentation of PASS AND EXCEL, we’ll be announcing the dates and times for the October session soon. You can sign up now by clicking the button below to reserve your seat