Physician Assistants who currently hold NCCPA certification
must pass a recertification exam before the expiration of their
certificates, which occurs at the end of the sixth year of the
certification maintenance cycle. The exam may be taken as early
as year five. There are two different choices of recertifying
exams offered, the Physician Assistant National Recertifying
Examination (PANRE) and the Pathway II examination. The fee is
the same for taking either, but the exams do differ in several
important ways. PANRE is administered at Sylvan Prometric
Centers, while the Pathway II exam is a take-home examination.
PANRE is composed of 300 multiple choice questions and is given
on computer, whereas Pathway II is a 300 item paper exam with
answers recorded on grid sheet. PANRE examinees may not use any
reference materials, while Pathway II examinees are free to use
any reference materials they like on this "open-book" style exam.
PANRE examinees must complete the exam within 5 hours, while
Pathway II examinees may take 6 weeks to complete it.
The final, and crucial, difference between the two types of
recertifying exams is that to qualify to take the Pathway II
exam, examinees must submit documentation that they have
accumulated 100 points by completing various activities of an
educational or experiential nature. This requirement is also
known as the elective component. Once the component has been
submitted and approved by the NCCPA, individuals can register for
the Pathway II exam.
