If you are searching for revision resources and finding a confusing mixture of PANE and PARA material, here is the situation in one line: the Physician Associate National Examination was replaced by the Physician Associate Registration Assessment in September 2025, and it is now delivered by the Royal College of Physicians on behalf of the GMC. Much of the older content is still relevant, because the knowledge assessment remains a 200-question single best answer paper. But the governance, the blueprint and above all the consequences have changed, and revising as though nothing has happened is a mistake.
Key takeaways
- The PARA replaced the PANE in September 2025 and is now the route to GMC registration.
- The knowledge assessment is still 200 single best answer questions, so much older content transfers.
- There is also a 14-station OSCE, and the two components can be sat in either order.
- A transitional hybrid blueprint applies until December 2026, after which the 2023 curriculum alone is assessed.
- Search using both terms, because a great deal of useful material is still labelled PANE.
What actually changed
The change is more than a rebrand, and understanding the shape of it tells you what to trust in older material.
The regulator changed. The PANE was administered under the Faculty of Physician Associates. The PARA is delivered by the Royal College of Physicians' assessment unit on behalf of the GMC, as part of the GMC's regulation of physician associates.
The purpose changed. This is now a registration assessment, the gateway to being on the GMC register, rather than a professional examination sat within a professional body's framework. That reframing is why the stakes have risen so sharply.
The structure is two components: an online knowledge-based assessment of 200 single best answer questions, and a 14-station objective structured clinical examination. They can be taken in either order, both must be passed, and you have a maximum of four attempts at each.
The timing rules that catch people out
Several deadlines now attach to the assessment, and they are easy to overlook while you are focused on revising.
The two components must be passed within eighteen months of each other, so you cannot pass the knowledge assessment, drift for two years, and then sit the OSCE. Once you have completed the PARA, you must apply for GMC registration within twenty-four months.
And the consequence of not being registered has changed fundamentally. Following the end of the GMC's transition period in December 2026, practising as a physician associate without GMC registration becomes a criminal offence. This is no longer an exam that determines your professional standing. It determines your legal ability to work.
The blueprint is in transition
This is the single most important thing to understand when judging older revision material.
During the GMC's transitional arrangements, the PARA assesses candidates against a hybrid blueprint containing content from both the 2012 Competence and Curriculum Framework and the 2023 Physician Associate Curriculum. Once the transition period ends in December 2026, the assessment moves to the 2023 curriculum alone.
The practical implication depends on when you are sitting. If you sit during the transition, both curricula are in scope, and older PANE material remains broadly relevant. If you are sitting after the transition, material built purely around the 2012 framework is progressively less aligned, and you should be checking your revision against the 2023 curriculum rather than assuming an older resource still maps.
How to handle legacy resources
Given all that, the sensible position on older material is neither to discard it nor to trust it blindly.
Clinical content transfers. Medicine has not changed because the exam was renamed, and a PANE-era question about the presentation of a pulmonary embolism is still a good question about the presentation of a pulmonary embolism. The vast bulk of your clinical revision is unaffected.
Blueprint and structure claims do not transfer automatically. Anything telling you about the number of components, the pass rules, the attempt limits, the registration consequences or the curriculum being assessed should be checked against current RCP and GMC guidance, because all of those have moved.
And search deliberately using both terms. A meaningful share of the useful PA revision material still sits under the old name, and restricting yourself to resources that say PARA will cut you off from content that is perfectly good.
What has not changed
It is worth being clear about the continuity, because anxiety about the transition can be paralysing.
The knowledge assessment is still 200 single best answer questions. It still covers the enormous generalist breadth of the PA curriculum, from medicine and surgery to paediatrics, women's health, mental health and emergency medicine. It is still set at the level expected of a newly qualified PA working as a generalist, which means it still rewards recognition of common presentations, red flags and safe escalation rather than mastery of rare disease.
The revision method that worked for the PANE therefore still works for the PARA: broad coverage across the whole content map, honest measurement of which systems you have actually sampled, targeted correction of your genuine weak areas, and mixed timed practice as the exam approaches. We set that method out in building a generalist PARA plan.
Where iatroX fits
iatroX's PA bank is mapped to the clinical domains the assessment covers, with an adaptive engine that targets your genuinely weak systems and spaced repetition to hold a very broad curriculum together. Explanations are grounded in NICE, CKS, SIGN and the SmPC, so what you learn reflects current UK practice rather than the framework a resource was written against, which matters particularly during a curriculum transition. Missed questions can be opened in the Socratic Tutor, which asks you to reason before it explains. Try it with free sample questions at iatroX.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between the PANE and the PARA? The PARA replaced the PANE in September 2025. It is delivered by the Royal College of Physicians on behalf of the GMC and functions as the registration assessment for GMC registration, rather than as a professional examination under the Faculty of Physician Associates.
Is the PARA knowledge assessment still 200 questions? Yes. It remains a 200-question single best answer paper, delivered online, alongside a separate 14-station OSCE. The two components can be sat in either order and both must be passed.
Are old PANE revision resources still useful? The clinical content largely transfers, since the medicine has not changed. Claims about structure, pass rules, attempt limits and the curriculum being assessed should be checked against current RCP and GMC guidance, because those have changed.
Which curriculum does the PARA assess? During the GMC's transition period, a hybrid blueprint covering both the 2012 framework and the 2023 curriculum. After the transition ends in December 2026, the assessment moves to the 2023 Physician Associate Curriculum only.