I'm fairly sure that the standard response is "six to eight weeks", which is what I used to tell the students I taught. Here's how it works:
1) You and your classmates take your exam at whatever site was selected. A group of state-certified examiner and a lead examiner (who is in charge of the whole thing) also show up and perform their job.
2) Each examiner tests the individual applicants and documents each one (those papers you saw them scratching away on). At the end of the day every examiner hands their papers over to the lead examiner.
3) The lead examiner has to go through every piece of paper, looking at passes and fails. As you know, Massachusetts allows a retest for an individual station fail (i.e., if you fail one station they'll let you re-test that station that day. If you fail more than one you'll be notified at a later date for re-test).
4) At the end of the day (after the re-tests have been counted, etc.) the lead examiner will submit that paperwork along with a form that more or less says "here's who tested, here's who passed, here's who needs to re-test".
5) That paperwork is mailed to OEMS in Boston. Once it arrives there, the results have to be verified by the requisite individuals in OEMS (which is why they can't tell you the day of your exam if you passed or failed; it's got to be verified by OEMS).
6) Once the results have been verified it's data-entried by one of a couple of very nice yet overworked individuals (who are also answering phones, compiling and entering con-ed data, processing applications and recertifications, etc.).
7) If you need to re-test a letter is generated by OEMS and mailed to you; if you passed a card with a verification number will be mailed. This verification number is also transmitted to the third-party testing firm. Once you have your verification# you can call the testing firm and schedule your written exam.
As you can see, the actual paperwork and process is a long one. I know how difficult it is to be waiting on such important results but it'll probably be another week or two as the machine grinds along. I would be more concerned if your classmates were receiving notices and you weren't. Use this "extra" time reviewing for the written exam. You may want to spend some extra time on Operations, OB/GYN, and trauma as for some reason those are the sections that folks seem to have more trouble with. Best of luck.
TL;DR: 6 to 8 weeks is standard because of the process involved.
