# premptive strike on the NREMT



## ellexruth (Feb 2, 2020)

I am a sparkling brand spanking new EMS student (like, we just finished anatomy/physiology and pathology and are moving into airways). I'm terrified of the NREMT. What is the best way I can start to tackle studying for it NOW? I obviously know very little at this point, but would love to get a jump on studying for it asap. ahahdkfjl;ans help me someone.

EDIT: apps, websites, study guides, anything!


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## DesertMedic66 (Feb 2, 2020)

All the answers to the NREMT are contained inside your EMT book. Focus on reading and studying your EMT book. Ask questions about concepts you don’t understand. Research topics you don’t understand using the internet. Your main focus at this point should be passing your class.


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## NomadicMedic (Feb 2, 2020)

You should be stacking knowledge as the class progresses. Right now you're an empty 5 gallon bucket that's slowly getting filled up with EMS knowledge.

If you insist on an app right now, I highly suggest MedicTests or JB Navigate.  If your program uses Brady Lab or JB, you'll find lots of learning tools to help you cement the knowledge. 

But honestly, don't worry about "the test" right now. You'll have plenty of time to gather the information you'll need to start to put it all together. 

And the test is not the big hairy monster it's made out to be. My classes have a 96% first attempt pass rate. Study and you'll have no issue.


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## ellexruth (Feb 2, 2020)

NomadicMedic said:


> You should be stacking knowledge as the class progresses. Right now you're an empty 5 gallon bucket that's slowly getting filled up with EMS knowledge.
> 
> If you insist on an app right now, I highly suggest MedicTests or JB Navigate.  If your program uses Brady Lab or JB, you'll find lots of learning tools to help you cement the knowledge.
> 
> ...


Thanks! You've put a good spin on my perspective. I feel a lot less freaked now haha. Plus I have an excellent teacher. He puts us all randomly on the spot with questions during lecture/skills, which is terrifying but I love. I'll just put my energy into that for now then. Oh, and we do use Brady. I love how you can skip around the chapter objectives.


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## ellexruth (Feb 2, 2020)

DesertMedic66 said:


> All the answers to the NREMT are contained inside your EMT book. Focus on reading and studying your EMT book. Ask questions about concepts you don’t understand. Research topics you don’t understand using the internet. Your main focus at this point should be passing your class.


The EMT textbook is my bible right now lol. My brain is like a sponge - it just absorbs that information; I guess because it's so fascinating to me. But I grew up with both parents in medicine (anesthetists) and it is all just so fascinating to me. We're getting to the point in class where we are actually gonna start practicing skills - I'm so excited


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## Gurby (Feb 2, 2020)

Make flash cards of info you want to remember from class, and review them every day.


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## Stegs (Feb 3, 2020)

If your book is jb learning, id recommend the JB learning test prep. I used it alot with my book

passed the nremt the first time. Honestly dont worry about the nremt test now. You hear horror stories on it, but honestly most people pass it. you only hear about the bad and never the good

study and you will be fine.


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## DrParasite (Feb 3, 2020)

I passed NREMT my NREMT the first time I took it.... true, I had been an EMT for about a decade, but still, after being out of class for several years I was a little nervous.

Focus on passing the class.  make drug cards for all of the medications you can give.  Gravitate to the instructors that give you the hardest scenarios, that actually make you think.  study you textbook, highlight important parts.  read the chapters BEFORE class.  do the HW.  pay attention during lectures, don't just play on social media or on your phone.  listen to your instructors.  ask questions.  get as much a hands on practice as you can.

To be completely honest, the NREMT isn't impossible, but you need to know the material to pass the exam.  Putting it quite bluntly, if you don't know the material, you won't pass.  the easiest way to prevent this is to study the material that your instructor provides to you, ask questions about stuff you are unclear on, and to pay attention in class.


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## Akulahawk (Feb 4, 2020)

Something else to remember is that while you need to have a solid education (see above), you also need to know that you don't need a god-level knowledge. The NREMT tests for entry-level knowledge and skills. That being said, the better you know the stuff you're being taught and guided through in class, the more likely you'll pass and have an easier time learning the job. These skills, while pretty basic, are going to be the foundation upon which you will build further knowledge and will be the very basic skills you'll do for EVERY patient  you encounter in the future. Do it long enough and you'll kind of forget you're doing things as it'll be pretty much second-nature.

As to the NREMT exam itself, yes, it's an adaptive exam that will test your limits. It will get very hard. It's supposed to. You will answer some questions incorrectly. That's expected and part of the exam. There will be no "trick questions" and all will be pretty straightforward. You just have to read the question, read the answers, re-read the question with the answer in mind (look for key words or phrases that you might have missed), and then answer the question. There will usually be an answer that is correct for the way a question is commonly misread. That's why I suggest you re-read the question after reading the answers. Any answer that you'd say "yeah, this is correct in this (somewhat obscure) situation (that's not part of the question)" that's not going to be correct. A correct answer will clearly answer the question without ambiguity and all parts of it will be true. If you get any "Select All That Apply" or SATA questions, remember to treat EACH ANSWER as its own T/F statement and each must be 100% true to "apply" or it's false and doesn't apply. There can be one, two, many, or all that can be true. That's why you must go through each individual statement and treat it as a stand-alone statement (T/F). 

This is doable. Very doable. Using this system I passed the NCLEX-RN (much harder exam) with relative ease... but I also had a SOLID education in nursing to do it. If I ever have to go back and redo the NREMTP exam, I'll use the same system for that too. It works.


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## ellexruth (Feb 8, 2020)

DrParasite said:


> I passed NREMT my NREMT the first time I took it.... true, I had been an EMT for about a decade, but still, after being out of class for several years I was a little nervous.
> 
> Focus on passing the class.  make drug cards for all of the medications you can give.  Gravitate to the instructors that give you the hardest scenarios, that actually make you think.  study you textbook, highlight important parts.  read the chapters BEFORE class.  do the HW.  pay attention during lectures, don't just play on social media or on your phone.  listen to your instructors.  ask questions.  get as much a hands on practice as you can.
> 
> To be completely honest, the NREMT isn't impossible, but you need to know the material to pass the exam.  Putting it quite bluntly, if you don't know the material, you won't pass.  the easiest way to prevent this is to study the material that your instructor provides to you, ask questions about stuff you are unclear on, and to pay attention in class.



That's reassuring. We have a skills binder for school that has to be signed by a handful of students and two instructors (your teacher and who ever is volunteering their time). It's funny that you mentioned asking for difficult scenarios because last week during airway management I said exactly that to the instructors. I was like, "seriously, make it hard." I'm glad they did because I had a lot of reviewing to do.


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## ellexruth (Feb 8, 2020)

Akulahawk said:


> Something else to remember is that while you need to have a solid education (see above), you also need to know that you don't need a god-level knowledge. The NREMT tests for entry-level knowledge and skills. That being said, the better you know the stuff you're being taught and guided through in class, the more likely you'll pass and have an easier time learning the job. These skills, while pretty basic, are going to be the foundation upon which you will build further knowledge and will be the very basic skills you'll do for EVERY patient  you encounter in the future. Do it long enough and you'll kind of forget you're doing things as it'll be pretty much second-nature.
> 
> As to the NREMT exam itself, yes, it's an adaptive exam that will test your limits. It will get very hard. It's supposed to. You will answer some questions incorrectly. That's expected and part of the exam. There will be no "trick questions" and all will be pretty straightforward. You just have to read the question, read the answers, re-read the question with the answer in mind (look for key words or phrases that you might have missed), and then answer the question. There will usually be an answer that is correct for the way a question is commonly misread. That's why I suggest you re-read the question after reading the answers. Any answer that you'd say "yeah, this is correct in this (somewhat obscure) situation (that's not part of the question)" that's not going to be correct. A correct answer will clearly answer the question without ambiguity and all parts of it will be true. If you get any "Select All That Apply" or SATA questions, remember to treat EACH ANSWER as its own T/F statement and each must be 100% true to "apply" or it's false and doesn't apply. There can be one, two, many, or all that can be true. That's why you must go through each individual statement and treat it as a stand-alone statement (T/F).
> 
> This is doable. Very doable. Using this system I passed the NCLEX-RN (much harder exam) with relative ease... but I also had a SOLID education in nursing to do it. If I ever have to go back and redo the NREMTP exam, I'll use the same system for that too. It works.



Oh wow thank you. I was kind of noticing that trend you were speaking of during our regular online exams. Kind of like how some of the answers seem right but there is one that is absolutely right. I kept your advice in mind just now as I was doing a chapter test and it was crazy. I did really well! My instructor also was saying a week or so ago that he recommended reading the ACTUAL question being asked and THEN reading the scenario with the main question in mind.


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## NomadicMedic (Feb 8, 2020)

interesting article about the registry test... https://www.jems.com/2020/02/05/myths-and-misinformation-about-the-national-registry-examinations/


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## BobBarker (Feb 13, 2020)

I used an app called EMT Prep. It pops up questions every day plus you can study I think up to 1000 questions for a $15 one time fee. The general consensus for the NREMT is if you think you did horrible, you probably passed. Our whole EMT class that took it felt that way and we all passed. I did it in 60 questions, my friend did it in 120 questions.


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## Akulahawk (Feb 16, 2020)

NomadicMedic said:


> interesting article about the registry test... https://www.jems.com/2020/02/05/myths-and-misinformation-about-the-national-registry-examinations/


Pretty good article. Pretty much aside from removing the "most correct" answer and going with a single correct answer, how I suggested a candidate tackle the exam still works. Unlike some, I never have suggested that a candidate would see information that's "out of scope" for the exam level they're testing for. The questions just get more and more difficult as you answer them correctly. That being said, adaptive exams do find your limit of ability pretty easily and therefore they can easily become the most difficult exams you'll ever face.


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