Practice Questions can be a super useful way to study and evaluate what you need to study more before the test. Practicing questions is an essential part of my study routine, both in didactic and clinical rotations.
There are many different types of practice questions: questions at the end of book chapters, entire books only of practice questions, questions in flashcard decks, interactive questions online that give feedback, etc.
Some question banks have an explanation for why the correct answer is correct and help you learn from next time. Some question banks do not explain the answer. There are pros and cons to each. Personally I like the questions that have an explanation if you get it incorrect so that you can learn from it, however these questions usually take longer to go through.
I have used many different question banks throughout PA school, so I wanted to keep this as a running list of resources I used, continue to use, or know of.
Please note, this is just my personal experience and all opinions and recommendations on this blog are my own. My opinions and recommendations do not reflect the opinions or recommendations of my employers or schools. Nothing in this article is intended as medical advice. I share all this information to share information I wish I would have known prior to my experiences. Everything on the blog is just my opinion and experiences.
Practice Questions
- Back of chapters in textbooks you already have
- BRS books, specifically the Anatomy, Physiology, Pathology, and Neuroanatomy were useful to me. These books are great review books in general, but the questions are good.
- SmartyPance is amazing for many reasons, but they have great clinical medicine questions on most topics that are on the PANCE (the PA board certification exam)
- “Dr. Pestana’s Surgery Notes” book has great questions for surgery rotations
- Rosh Review has great interactive question banks on rotations, the explanations for each are very thorough
- LANGE Q & A, I particularly used the psychiatry one most, but they have them on most subjects
- UWorld, I personally didn’t use it because it is pretty expensive, but I have heard great things about it
- Anki, you can download and purchase question decks in various subjects
- Quizlet, you can search through many decks that people have already made or make your own
For more study help, check out my post on different ways of studying in PA school.
I hope this list of practice questions can help you! I will add any more that find here as I find them! If you have any practice questions that you love, let me know here and I will add them to the list!
Thanks for reading!
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