You're beginning an exciting and rewarding career; and NCCPA certification is an important step as you begin this journey.

Updates to PANCE Blueprint in 2025 

NCCPA periodically conducts practice analysis studies to ensure that our examinations include the content most appropriate for the certification of physician assistants. Board Certified PAs are involved in every step of that process: providing input into the development of the survey instrument, completing the survey that is disseminated to the entire profession, and reviewing the response data to help develop recommendations for the exam blueprint. 

Based on the information gleaned from our most recent practice analysis, minor revisions have been made to the PANCE blueprint that will become effective in 2025.  

See our Exam Development & Scoring webpage for more information.

About PANCE

If you graduate from a PA program accredited by the Accreditation Review Commission on Education for the Physician Assistant (ARC-PA), you can take the Physician Assistant National Certifying Examination® (PANCE) for certification. PANCE is administered in one sitting at Pearson VUE test centers. The multiple-choice exam assesses basic medical and surgical knowledge. You will need to submit an application and payment in advance and can choose from over 200 testing sites. 

PANCE consists of five blocks of 60 questions with 60 minutes to complete each block. There is a total of 45 minutes allotted for breaks between blocks and 15 minutes to view a tutorial. You will be responsible for managing your break time. The testing time is six hours, and the total exam is five hours.   

To view an exam tutorial of PANCE, visit Pearson VUE’s website and navigate to “Tutorials. 

To learn about PANCE exam development and scoring, click here.

After passing PANCE, PAs are issued NCCPA certification and can use the PA-C designation until the certification expiration date (approximately two years). 

Read NCCPA’s Code of Conduct for Certified and Certifying PAs, which explains the ethics and professionalism expected of all PAs seeking or holding NCCPA certification. 

Who is eligible to apply for PANCE?

To be eligible for PANCE, you must graduate from a PA program accredited by ARC-PA. PA program graduates will be deemed to have graduated from an accredited program if their PA educational program was accredited at the time of their matriculation. 

LIMITATIONS ON ELIGIBILITY: THE SIX-YEARS-SIX-ATTEMPTS RULE 

Individuals who have never been certified and who graduated from an ARC-PA accredited PA program on or after January 1, 2003, will be eligible to take PANCE for up to six years after completing the requirements for graduation from that program. 

During that six-year period, PANCE may be taken a total of six times. When either the six attempts or six years are exhausted, whichever occurs sooner, the individual loses eligibility to take PANCE. The only way to establish new eligibility is to complete an unabridged ARC-PA accredited PA educational program again. 

How do I apply for PANCE?

You must submit an application and $550 payment in advance to take PANCE. You may schedule your exam anytime (depending on testing center availability) within the 180day timeframe established for you based on your expected graduation date and the successful submission of all required materials to NCCPA. 

Before registering for PANCE, be sure to review the policies and procedures. 

When can I apply for PANCE?

  • NCCPA does not accept applications until 180 days prior to your expected program completion date (as provided by your program director). In this context, “program completion date” is the date all requirements for graduation are completed as deemed by your program. 
  • The earliest date you’ll be able to test is seven days after your program completion (provided your program director has confirmed your program completion date). This date will be reflected in your exam application acknowledgement e-mail. 
  • You have 180 days from the beginning of your exam timeframe to take the exam. These dates will be reflected in your exam application acknowledgement e-mail. 
  • You may only take PANCE once in any 90-day period or three times in a calendar year. 
  • Visit our Key Dates webpage for exam administration windows.  

Becoming Certified Resources

Becoming Certified FAQs

Learn more about your future career as a Board Certified PA.

Successfully graduate from an academic program accredited by ARC-PA. Today, there’s no other way to gain PANCE eligibility.

All applicants can take PANCE once in a 90-day period or three times a year, whichever is fewer.

Individuals who graduated from an ARC-PA accredited PA program on or after January 1, 2003, are eligible to take PANCE for up to six years after completing the requirements for graduation from that program. During that six-year period, the examination may be taken a maximum of six times. When either the six attempts or six years is exhausted, whichever occurs sooner, the individual loses eligibility to take PANCE. The only way to establish new eligibility to take PANCE is to enter into and complete an unabridged ARC-PA accredited PA educational program.

There is a 90-day waiting period between retakes of the same examination.

To request an eligibility letter, sign in to your online record and choose Certification Info Release from the left-hand menu bar and email us your request (including your name, NCCPA ID number and to whom it should be sent).

Within three days of your application being processed and completed, you’ll receive an exam acknowledgement email from NCCPA with instructions on how to schedule your exam.

A list of available exam dates will not be available until you have received your exam acknowledgement email. However, a list of Pearson VUE exam locations is available at https://www.pearsonvue.com/nccpa/.

Yes, the normal labs value for healthy adults comes up in a separate screen when the examinee clicks “Lab Values”. Some questions may contain laboratory values that are not included in the separate “Lab Values” screen. In those cases, the appropriate normal range is provided in parentheses within the text of the question.

The generic name of a drug is always provided. The trade name is provided in parenthesis after the generic name of the drug only if it is deemed necessary by NCCPA.

No, K questions are no longer on the exam.

You will be notified by email when the results are posted to your online record (approximately two weeks after your exam date).

No. You must graduate from a PA program accredited by ARC-PA.

**Even if you have earned a medical degree from another country, you must still graduate from an accredited PA program to take PANCE.