# How I passed after forgetting everything



## LastMinuteEMT (Jul 4, 2015)

Hi guys. I want to write about my experience of how I passed the NREMT because I think it's a different journey than most people take and ideally it might help others to pass their exams. This turned up a bit longer than I anticipated so apologies for that. I was never a concise person. But hopefully the details can help explain questions that would otherwise arise.

BACKGROUND:
So I completed the course two years ago and despite finishing I never took the NRMET. I had a job that paid a lot more and decided to stay with that job than focusing on a medical career. My instructors wisely said to take the NREMT asap because you'll forget everything if you don't use it. They were right.

For those who don't know, after completing the course/skills, you have 2 years to take the NREMT before the class completion expires. My skills certification expired 1 year after the end of the class. I wasn't even aware of this, but your skills will expire before the class credentials so I had to redo the skills if I wanted to even take the NREMT. The NRMET website won't let you register to take the test until your program's coordinator unlocks the course and skills completion.

I decided to not waste the ~$2000 I put into getting the class so I decided to study for the NREMT and quickly realized that I forgot EVERYTHING.

STUDYING:
My deadline to pass the NRMET was the end of June 2015. I literally didn't know the difference between or the definition of bradycardia/tachycardia and had to make a notecard for those two when I started studying. I started studying very lightly in April by reading the course book which for my program is around 1500 pages. I was working full time so my reading/studying time was limited to my days off.

I realized that with June's deadline approaching I wouldn't have time to read the full text so I needed an alternative source to study and prep. After researching I found a book that had high reviews, the EMT Crash Course Book by REA. I went to the local Barnes and Noble and looked through it, deciding that it covered everything I'd need. Spent $18 on it but you can get it cheaper online. The book goes over all the main subjects of the EMT-B and breaks it down in a very concise manner. The book is only 331 pages and each page is very short so it's a quick read. I started making note cards off of that book. The book also gives you 120 questions online and analyzes your strengths and weaknesses. I found the questions to be too easy and got 99/120 on my one and only test on there. The book isn't a substitute for a class book so whatever I wanted to understand fully I read with supplemental reading from the course book. Overall I ended up reading entire chapters of Patient Assessment, Shock, OBGYN, Soft Tissue Bleeding, GI medical problems and Cardiovascular medical problems in the class book and deemed those chapters to be key and very helpful.

I also got two apps, the first being called EMTutor for $5. They have a lot of material from term glossary to chapter quizzes to flashcards. You can bookmark things you want to visit later which is helpful. There's some spelling errors there (which I've found everywhere including books) and the quiz questions range from very easy to very hard/trivial. It times you and saves your scores so you can see if you improved later on. It has a comprehensive test of every question in it's bank which is over 1000 questions. The second app I bought was the EMT Review Plus for $10 but more on that later.

I also read the 2010 AHA guidelines from the NREMT website for the AED/CPR which was short but helpeful.

I made over 250 flashcards that I studied off of.

PRACTICE TESTS/REIVIEW
Asking several EMTs about how they studied and researching online gave me several options but I chose to pay for FISDAP instead of JBLearning (that I had during class). FISDAP costs $30 for 3 separate 200 question tests you can take and various quizzes that range from 15-20 questions on many subjects that you can retake 10 times each, but the questions repeat so each additional time it becomes less and less useful/necessary. The quizzes give a rationale for the answer, the 200 test doesn't which is very unfortunate. The test does however tell you your strengths and weaknesses. I don't know how they calculate this but in general they were right about my weakest areas. The questions on FISDAP were VERY SIMILAR to the ones on the NREMT. They're mostly scenario based, not definition/knowledge based. You have to apply what you know not just show them what you memorized. That was very helpful practice. FISDAP also has audio files for various subjects but these proved not useful to me at all.

The second app mentioned earlier, EMT Review Plus, has 5 separate tests of 100 questions each and rationale for every answer. The questions here were very similar to the NREMT questions and I found to be very helpful practice. The author of the app from what I understand is the same guy who wrote the Brady Book which I have not bought. The app has some learning tools with flashcards but they're not extensive and I didn't use them. I mainly used the practice tests and it's well worth the $10.

I was running out of time and didn't take another FISDAP test so only had the first one of 200 questions and all their quizzes which was roughly 200 questions. I took 3 tests on the EMT Review Plus app so 300 questions on there. Another 300 or so from the other app, 120 from the REA book, 100 from an old final I had and several hundred from quizes online like jblearning (too easy) and other sites. Smart Medic has over 400 questions (some are for paramedics) and I took the ones for EMT (by ignoring the Paramedic ones) which was roughly another 400. All in all I answered close to 2000 questions in one week before my NREMT test.

STUDY COSTS:
$18 for REA book, $15 for two apps, $3 for flashcards, $30 for FISDAP = $66 total. This isn't much and if it'll help you to pass then don't be cheap.

STUDY TIME:
As I noted before, I finished the class 2 years before, so when I started studying again it was as if I was taking the class for the first time. I began 2.5 months before the test but did the majority of my studying within 3 weeks of the test because I quit my job (filler bs job) to study more. I relearned a good 3/4 of the material in about a month on my own and the previous 1/4 when I worked on my days off. It really seemed like I taught myself the majority of the material because I forgot pretty much everything from terms to anatomy and physiology and procedures. I didn't forget to do scene safety and BSI though, that thing is ingrained into my mind for life!

TESTING:
The NREMT to me was challenging but not overly taxing. I finished in 70 questions and felt confident after completing it that I had passed. Knowing that this was the cut-off for most people who passed helped ease my stress additionally to knowing that I answered the right answer in many of the questions. The NREMT questions in my experience were easier than FISDAP questions and the EMT Review Plus questions. Either they were easier or they seemed easier after all the studying I did.

Found out the very next day that I passed 

LESSON:
Don't wait as long as I did. I literally took the NRMET 36 hours before my class certification expired. I was fortunate that I could quit my temporary job to concentrate on studying but not everyone can do that. Reviewing questions and analyzing things made it simpler for me to learn than just reading the material. I rewrote the questions from a situational perspective so that if they would come up I could recall what the appropriate procedure was. There's a finite amount of scenarios that you can be asked about, so knowing what to do in each of those situations will make you easily pass.

If you guys has any questions I'll add any additional information.


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## NomadicMedic (Jul 4, 2015)

Talk about making it 1000 times more difficult than it is. 

I guess, congrats on passing?

Otherwise, cool story bro. You described driving from New York to Philly via California.


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## LastMinuteEMT (Jul 4, 2015)

DEmedic said:


> Talk about making it 1000 times more difficult than it is.
> 
> I guess, congrats on passing?
> 
> Otherwise, cool story bro. You described driving from New York to Philly via California.



It definitely became more difficult by delaying for two years, that's obvious. Not something I'm recommending. My job at the time paid more than triple what EMTs earn so I opted out of testing because financially it made no sense at the time. I took the class while working because I didn't like the field I was in despite the money (sales). As far as the job, my previous company folded which made me take a temporary filler job and I wanted to revisit the medical career with EMT as a stepping stone.


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