The 大香蕉视频 PACKRAT (Physician Assistant Clinical Knowledge Rating and Assessment Tool庐) exam is an objective, comprehensive self-assessment tool for student and curricular evaluation.
These resources are used by Exam Development Board members to guide the creation of exam content, and by the Exam Development staff when constructing exam forms. They will be useful to students when studying for the exam.
Questions on the exam are considered only a sample of all that might be included in PA education and may not reflect all content identified in the topic list.
Disclaimer
The 鈥疨ACKRAT Topic List, Blueprint, and Core Tasks and Objectives are resources used by 大香蕉视频 to guide the development of exam content and construction of each exam version.鈥疩uestions on the exam are considered only a鈥 sample of all that might be included in PA education and may not reflect all鈥 content identified in the Topic List.鈥 These resources may be useful to students when studying for the exam; however the Topic List is not a comprehensive list of all the exam question topics. 大香蕉视频鈥檚 goal is not to provide a list of all the topics that might be on the exam, but rather to provide students with a resource when preparing for the exam. 大香蕉视频 recommends that students review the Topic List, Blueprint, and Core Tasks and Objectives in conjunction when preparing for the exam.
Guiding Principles
Several cross-cutting criteria guide the development and delivery of the PACKRAT exam. The goal of these criteria is to assist the Exam Development team in ensuring that the exam, to the extent a multiple-choice exam can, evaluates a wide breadth of dimensions critical to a PA student鈥檚 preparation.
- The PACKRAT blueprint is two-dimensional, meaning that it is organized by task and content area. Each PACKRAT exam is built to blueprint and topic list specifications. Questions included on the exam are considered only a sample and may not reflect all content topics identified in the topic lists.
- Questions developed for PACKRAT reflect the needs of聽a broad variety of patients聽whom PAs will be called upon to treat.
- PACKRAT is聽intended to mark important transition times for PA students, most commonly at the end of the didactic phase and at the end of the clinical phase of training.
- Questions are typically presented in聽vignette format so the exam can assess problem-solving and critical thinking.
- PACKRAT is a聽225-question multiple-choice exam written every year, and every question is scored. The national average is first published after 300 administrations and updates on a rolling basis as more students take the exam throughout the year.
- PACKRAT contains聽three 75-question sections.
- There are聽two versions of PACKRAT聽available at a time. Students are automatically assigned to the most recent version that they have not already taken.
- PACKRAT is a self-assessment and is聽not intended to be used for grading purposes.
- PACKRAT exams are delivered in the 大香蕉视频 Assessment Center.
- Items are聽randomized聽to ensure exam security.
- PACKRAT may be delivered proctored, unproctored, or with聽 a third-party remote proctoring service, with a set time of 3聽hours, 45 minutes with a 10-minute break between sections.
- Student score reports allow students and programs to see聽where individual students fall compared to other PA students聽taking the same standardized exam nationwide. The report provides formative feedback, which can be used to develop targeted remediation and study plans.
- Detailed program reports are designed to聽help programs evaluate trends聽in knowledge, strengths, and deficits across entire classes of students and may be used along with other data points to聽inform program-level curricular decision-making.