The ultimate goal for physician assistant programs is to provide the right amount of education and clinical experience for preparation of their students for clinical practice. In addition, programs must adequately prepare students for successful completion of the Physician Assistant National Certifying Examination (PANCE). Knowing that program completion and PANCE completion are required to practice as a PA, practice exams like the Physician Assistant Clinical Knowledge Rating and Assessment Tool (PACKRAT) may be a good predictor for PANCE performance.

Methodology: The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether PACKRAT exam scores served as a predictor of PANCE scores for Wichita State University PA classes 2003-2004. The data of interests included PACKRAT 1 (administered at the end of the first year), PACKRAT 2 (administered at the end of the second year), and PANCE exam raw scores (administered after graduation). The relationship between the scores was evaluated by determination of the correlation coefficient. Analysis of the predictive value of PACKRAT results with respect to passing the PANCE was accomplished using linear regression.

Results: Combined correlations of the class of 2003-2004 between PACKRAT and PANCE scores showed correlation coefficients of 0.602 (P<0.001) for PACKRAT 1 and 0.744 (P<0.001) for PACKRAT 2. Linear regression showed a significant relationship between PACKRAT scores and PANCE performance (P<0.001).

Conclusion: PACKRAT scores are strongly correlated with PANCE performance. The PACKRAT appears to predict student outcome on the PANCE.