Most PAs Choose PANRE-LA. I Did, Too.

PANRE-LA or PANRE? Choose the path that fits your life.

When I saw that nearly four out of five PAs in an NCCPA study chose PANRE-LA, the finding felt familiar. I chose it, too.

Recertification is one of those things we all share as PAs, even when our day-to-day work looks completely different. Eventually, we have to make room for it alongside patients, charts, family, and everything else.

When my turn came, I took the PANRE-LA. So this NCCPA graphic caught my attention: a lot of other PAs had made the same choice.

I took the PANRE-LA myself

My setup was pretty straightforward: the exam on one screen, the Smarty PANCE PANRE-LA blueprint on the other. I worked through the questions with the resources I'd built close at hand.

There was something very practical about that arrangement. Read carefully, think through the clinical problem, and check a reference when needed. It gave me a way to put the same resources I share with other PAs to use in my own recertification.

I passed with a score of 1384. I've shared my full PANRE-LA experience here, including the setup and approach I used.

Since I took my exam, we've revamped our PANRE-LA search tool and added PANRE-LA mock exams to the Smarty PANCE QBank. The search helps you find relevant lesson references by content area and what you need to look up; the mocks give you a chance to get comfortable with the format before your own assessment.

That's my experience, of course. It doesn't mean everyone needs to choose the same route. But seeing how many PAs also opted for PANRE-LA made me curious about who was choosing each option.

What the PANRE-LA study actually found

An October 2026 JAAPA study by Kozikowski and colleagues examined 80,553 PAs due for recertification in 2024–2027. Of those PAs, 77.6% chose PANRE-LA and 22.4% chose traditional PANRE.

Nearly 4 in 5 chose PANRE-LA.
That is an exam-choice statistic, not a pass rate.

Age was the strongest associated factor. Here is the breakdown shown in NCCPA's infographic:

Recertification choice by age group
Age group	PANRE-LA	Traditional PANRE
Younger than 35	91.6%	8.4%
35–44	86.3%	13.7%
45–54	73.9%	26.1%
55–64	61.6%	38.4%
65 and older	35.5%	64.5%

Source: NCCPA infographic and the linked JAAPA research. Choices were captured through February 2024; publication in 2026 does not make these a live enrollment count.

Previous traditional PANRE experience also mattered. Earlier exam scores had little association with format choice. This observational study describes who chose each option; it does not establish which option will work best for you.

I'm glad we have a choice

The age breakdown is the part that stayed with me. PANRE-LA was the more common choice in every age group below 65, while most PAs 65 and older chose the traditional exam.

I can understand wanting a familiar exam format and a single appointment to work toward. I can also understand wanting to spread the process out. We don't all have the same schedules, responsibilities, or feelings about taking another board exam.

For anyone weighing the two, I'd start with NCCPA's description of the options and think about which fits your life. My own choice was PANRE-LA, and I'm happy to share what that looked like for me.

Did you choose PANRE-LA or traditional PANRE? I'd love to hear what went into your decision—and whether you'd make the same choice again.

Thanks for reading!
Stephen Pasquini PA-C

Disclosure: I created Smarty PANCE. The linked personal walkthrough describes my experience using it for recertification.

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