I don't know what kind of paramedic schools you people are attending. I can't share in this experience. I really enjoyed paramedic class.
Although I will admit, I already had English I and II, college algebra, human (generic) biology, A&P I and II, general chemistry, and a couple of non-sense classes that I took because I wanted to. I also scored pretty high on the entrance exam for the class, probably because I had all those college credits behind me.
I had a great, interactive instructor. Sure he killed our "patients" pretty frequently, but at least he was fair about our kills. We spent mornings in lecture and afternoons in scenarios. I ended up doing a little over 1200 hours in clinicals by the time it was over.
I'd do it again, but only with that instructor. I had a lot of fun in medic class and I never felt like I was in hell. Plus we got an hour for lunch each day and we'd all get together at the Mexican Villa down the street for lunch.
Come to think of it, I actually miss paramedic school. Now I'm sorta wishing I would have failed so I could do it again.
I think the reason you had so mch success is 2 fold.
1. A better program with better instructors obviously. Most people only ever go to paramedic school 1 time and are only ever affiliated with that specific one until much later in their career, they have no idea a good one from a bad one.
2. All collages I have seen give paramedic class the designation of sophmore level work. Which in academia assumes you have had the requisite freshman classes. Of course if you have never been to college before, jumping into second year classes is going to set you way behind, which will increase the workload and learning curve substantially.
Because it is possible to enroll in paramedic class in a variety of ways, in all types of institutions, to subvert doing these "basic" science classes, people always have and continue to struggle.
We talk about higher degrees for paramedics, when you think about it, By the time you take 1 year of biology and lab,(for science majors) 1 year of general chemistry (for science majors) and lab. 1 Year of Physics and lab. (same as above) 1 year of A&P/lab, a semester English, a semester of math, and 2 semesters of humanities, you are already nearing 34 credit hours of work and paramedic class hasn't even begun. EMT usually a semester at 8 credits, Call it a year at 24 credit hours for paramedic class, and you are at 66 credit hours.(1/2 to a bachelor's) Start adding in pharm classes, psych classes, biochemistry and the like, and BS isn't really that far off.
As was pointed out, having all that basic science really makes paramedic class easier. I have noticed that people who take General Chemistry prior to paramedic class do even better than people who take A&P prior to it.
Imagine that.
