68W AIT Preparation

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I am a split-option soldier in the National Guard and a college student. I went to basic last summer and am going to AIT this summer. I've been doing research on AIT and it seems like it's a pretty tough course with a high attrition rate, especially on the NREMT test. Is there anything I can do to help prepare these next couple months leading up to my ship date? Are there any good resources out there to study?

I am also a student volunteer firefighter on mixed career/volunteer department. We are mostly first responders with some emts and a couple paramedics. The career firefighters are almost all paramedics. Is there anything I should ask the emts or paramedics I work with?

I want to go into the fire service full time as a career once I graduate college, and it's incredibly important that I do well in AIT. If I fail AIT and have to reclass, that's pretty much the end of my fire career. Even if I got my EMT afterwards I can't see a fire department hiring someone who washed out of Army medic training.

The impression I'm getting is that you can study your *** off, know your stuff, do well on the tests, and then still fail the NREMT because you don't know how to approach the scenario. I saw a poster on another message board talk about how people with 71 averages in the class passed easily while people with 85's failed. If you put in work and prepare for the class, will you be prepared for the exam? Like I said earlier my civilian career is riding on this as well so I want to be as prepared as possible.
 
You worry too hard. Few people "wash out". Class is nearly idiot-proof.
 
From what I've read they always fail upwards of 25% of the class, sometimes up to 50%. Is that just :censored::censored::censored::censored:bags? Can you be a good soldier, study hard, and still fail the NREMT?
 
NREMT tests both skills and knowledge.

You can have book smart people who can't actually function as well as very functional people who can't answer questions for diddly.

Get an NREMT/EMT study guide and an EMT textbook from someone if you're worried. Start now, you'll smoke it later. In the end, it's all pretty straight-forward and it's all step by step.

If you can take a college level test, you can take the NREMT. If you can take a FF1 practical you can take EMT practical.

You're overthinking it. Probably worried about the (bleep)bags who barely passed the ASVAB.
 
First of all, it's only AIT, not exactly Ranger School or the Q-Course. So relax, you'll do fine. They'll teach you what you need to know to pass the tests, after all, that's the job of AIT Instructors, to teach the material to people who've never been exposed to said material before, not to wash people out.

Is there anything I should ask the emts or paramedics I work with?
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Yeah, start with this:
Is there anything I can do to help prepare these next couple months leading up to my ship date? Are there any good resources out there to study?
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I come to these forums all the time for advice myself, so believe me, I'm not knocking on you for asking, but you'll probably get much better results asking the EMTs and Medics at your department. I'm betting you'll get more than just a few paragraphs from semi-anonymous posters on a computer screen lol



I want to go into the fire service full time as a career once I graduate college, and it's incredibly important that I do well in AIT. If I fail AIT and have to reclass, that's pretty much the end of my fire career. Even if I got my EMT afterwards I can't see a fire department hiring someone who washed out of Army medic training.
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Ok, lets play worst case scenario here and say you fail AIT and get reclassed. How is that the end of your fire career? You're already a vollie with a dept, so you have both experience and know people, which are probably the 2 most important factors to have IMO when going for a full time, paid, career position. Heck I'm willing to bet that gives you a better leg up on the competition than my Army experience gives me.

Unless your Chief has already flat out said they wont hire you if you get reclassed, in which case, I'd say it would be time to start looking at other departments.

Turn it into a strength. "Yes my dream job in the Army is to be a medic, and yes, I was terribly disappointed to learn I was reclassed to be a Cook/Supply/Mechanic/etc in accordance with* the Needs of the Army. But I am a hard working, dedicated, team player who can roll with the punches and bounce back from setbacks. I understand that sometimes the organization's needs outweigh my own, and I'm willing to put theirs (yours) ahead of my own to be a valued asset. And now I know what I'm deficient in and what I need to study so that when the time comes to reclass and go back to 68W school I will knock it out of the park."

*In Accordance With (IAW) is one of the Army-isms that you'll rapidly get familiar with, thought I'd throw this tidbit in since I managed to work it into a context that isn't "do this task IAW this FM or this AR" lol

The impression I'm getting is that you can study your *** off, know your stuff, do well on the tests, and then still fail the NREMT because you don't know how to approach the scenario. I saw a poster on another message board talk about how people with 71 averages in the class passed easily while people with 85's failed. If you put in work and prepare for the class, will you be prepared for the exam? Like I said earlier my civilian career is riding on this as well so I want to be as prepared as possible.
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Once again, just relax. I saw this with lots of love to all the medics out there, but it's not exactly brain surgery stuff. 68W is actually closer to the realms of EMT and AEMT than it is to Paramedic. Just geared a lot more heavily towards trauma. Not saying it'll be a cakewalk if you already have your EMT, but it won't exactly be super difficult either, so don't psych yourself out over it. Once again it's AIT, not some super Hooah school with a Surviving the Cut episode (though you will most likely be saying hooah a lot at Ft Sam lol)

Just remember to keep your head down, motivation (even if its false motivation "loud noises!!!" Lol) up, PT up, keep your nose (and uniform/barracks room/TA-50) clean, pay attention in class and study the stuff they give you and you'll be at graduation before you know it
 
In my experience(Combat Medic), the "wash out rate" per class is well below 25%. Maybe like, 8-10%, and you get recycled to a different class like 2-3 times before they reclass you. Thats after 3 attempts at the NREMT. Like RocketMedic said, its basically idiot proof. If you can't hack it at Ft. Sam, it would probably be a good thing a fire department wouldn't hire you... That being said, I'm sure you'll do fine.
 
Yes it's a hard course. Doing EMT-B in 6 weeks is not easy. There probably was a 50% failure rate at various points in that portion, but yeah, mostly they recycled and ended up passing. I think we lost about half of our initial students in my class, but those numbers were mostly made up with recycles from other classes.

The army medic side was a piece of cake. Only washouts there were medical/injury or discipline.
 
Dude I was in the same boat split op except with high school. If it tells you anything on class rates I was on Benadryl ( which puts me to sleep) for a good half of the emt b portion an still passed. As far as the NREMT exam just remember the basics and don't read too much into the question. It's a piece of cake. Just go in not knowing anything and they will teach you what you need to know.
 
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