How did you prepare for your practical?

[Sasha]

With my paramedic practical and written final looming on the horizon, I was wondering how everyone else prepared? Memorizing scenario sheets? Practicing at home, pick up extra ride/clinical time?

Good lord, I've never dreaded a test so much and felt so unprepared in my life!

 

[Epi-do]

I made index/flash cards with key words from the sheets to review. I honestly didn't worry about memorizing them this time around. I don't know if it is because I was older and (hopefully) wiser, or because I was better prepared for my medic practical than I was for my basic practical, but it just seemed easier. I'm not saying I didn't get nervous before some of the stations, because I did. It was just easier to prepare for this time.

For each skill we performed, we were taught why we were doing each step. For instance, while in class, we had to be able to tell our instructors why we would put a tourniquet on a patient, clean the skin, palpate for a vein, etc, when starting an IV. By being required to know why we were doing each step, we were also committing to memory how to do the skill. As long as we did each skill in the manner it was taught to us, it was very easy to pass.

The thing that was most difficult for me were the two stations where you were given a scenario and had to talk your way through it. I would much rather show you than tell you, so that made it tough for me.

 

[DrankTheKoolaid]

re

I for the last month or so prior to taking them, would read the sheets daily. And while on my 72 hour shift's I would set up skills stations and go through them, waking myself up in the middle of the night to test myself when my head wasnt clear to make sure the info was actually in memory. To be honest anything other then hands on practicing the skills would be a waste of your time. And like all the test I take I get drunk the night before. A hangover is just the thing to keep the test jitters at bay.


Corky

 

[mikeN]

for my basic I failed my first practical. I realized that I didn't know the steps from the sheets as I should have in addition to being sick and nervous. When I retook it I made flashcards and was much less nervous and new everything by heart. I'm already studying for my medic and I'm not testif until august. It's all about flashcards and practice.