An objective, standardized evaluation of a student’s medical knowledge as one component of their readiness for graduation
End of Curriculum™ Faculty Guide
The End of Curriculum Faculty Guide is available to introduce programs to this exam.
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The End of Curriculum exam requires live, in person proctoring. Please see the Delivery section of the Content page for more information on what this means. If your program would like to administer the End of Curriculum exam, the Program Director must complete this attestation that you will meet the requirements.
Specific
This 300-question exam is built using a blueprint and content area list developed by PA educators and national exam experts, and is required to be delivered in the final four months of the PA program.
Standardized
All exam items are peer-reviewed and statistically validated for accuracy and consistency. The exam is standardized by a panel of PA education experts.
Secure
Exams are delivered through a secure, password-protected website that will utilize a lockdown browser to maintain content validity.
Guiding Principles
Several cross-cutting criteria guide the development of PAEA’s End of Curriculum exam. The goal of these ideals 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’s preparation. The purpose of this exam is to assess a PA student’s general medical knowledge as one component of their readiness for graduation. It is designed to complement other tools that assess core medical knowledge as well as interpersonal skills, patient care skills, and professionalism, as required by accreditation standards.
- The End of Curriculum exam blueprint has dimensions that include, but are not restricted to: life course (with specific targets for questions referencing Pediatric, Adult, and Geriatric patients).
- The exam is inclusive of the types of patient students may see across different settings. The settings include specific targets for questions in the Outpatient, Inpatient, Emergency Department, and Perioperative settings.
- The exam targets the following stages of the life course: Pediatric (birth to age 17), Adult, and Geriatric (older person with considerable impairment or frailty).
- This exam employs the principles of Bloom’s Taxonomy to ensure that examinees who pass the exam have demonstrated a thorough mastery of the content.
- The End of Curriculum exam assesses how one undertakes the types of cases PAs may see: how one gathers patient information, develops and implements a patient plan, provides preventative health education and service, and applies the scientific evidence to patient care.
- Questions reflect topics in broad categories and do not necessarily indicate a greater importance or emphasis on that area in the exam.
- Questions are geared toward a PA student who has completed the relevant supervised clinical practice experience.
- Questions are typically presented in vignette format so the exams can better assess problem-solving and critical thinking.
- The End of Curriculum exam contains 300 questions (250 scored) and should be delivered in the last four months of PA education.
- The End of Curriculum exam contains five 60-question sections.
- The exam is 5 hours long and scheduled for 1 day.
- ADA accommodations for time are available. These exams must be given over two days, with no more than seven days between parts. Each day’s part includes five 30-question sections.
- The End of Curriculum exam is intended to be used as one component of the summative evaluation of a student’s readiness for graduation.
- End of Curriculum exams are delivered in the PAEA Assessment Center.
- End of Curriculum exams must be actively proctored.
- Security: The PAEA End of Curriculum exam must be proctored in person–the use of remote proctors is strictly prohibited for this exam. The PAEA End of Curriculum exam must be administered using PAEA’s selected lockdown browser, SecureClient.
- Graduation/Completion Date: The PAEA End of Curriculum exam must be delivered within the final four months of the program. Programs will not be able to schedule the exam before this point, so it is important to ensure that the graduation/completion date is accurate in ExamDriver.
- Program Director Attestation: The Program Director must truthfully complete the below Attestation of Eligibility prior to requesting to schedule the PAEA End of Curriculum exam.
- For more information on requirements, read the PAEA Assessment Exam Policies. If your program would like to administer the End of Curriculum exam, the Program Director must complete this attestation that you will meet the requirements.
- The exam has a set time of five hours with a 10-minute break between sections.
- Exam items are peer-reviewed and statistically validated for accuracy and consistency.
- Items are randomized for each student administration, within each section of the exam, and form assignments are randomized within each cohort to ensure exam security.
- Scores are reported in a way that allows students and programs to see where students fall compared to other PA students taking the same standardized exam nationwide.