AVPU
Forum Lieutenant
- 101
- 1
- 0
hi all, I know each has his own experiences with the national registry, and I'd like to share mine. Hopefully it'll shed some light for those entering an EMT program and / or prepping for the NR.
Going into my course (a WEMT), I had no medical knowledge whatsoever. It was all new stuff, and it was overwhelming. Nonethless, I graduated a month later in July of '09. The program I went to boasts one of the highest NR pass rates in the country (personally I wonder if it's skewed b/c a lot of people who take the course have at least some medical knowledge going in). I enjoyed the class immensely, paid attention, read the text (though probably not as thoroughly as I should have), and passed the practicals. After graduation, I did some light studying and took the written test, mostly relying on the fact that I had just graduated from such a quality program. I should add that I also had a lot going on personally at the time too: getting married soon, settling in to a new city. Not a great time to take a test (but then again, when is?).
At 75-ish questions, I failed. I was devastated. I stepped away from it entirely for a couple months. Then I came back to it and decided to start at square 1. I re-read my class text (JB AAOS one, the one with the orange cover), cover to cover, about 1200 pages. I took every practice test I could (I agree with the posts on here about JB Learning prep, it is great). I joined this forum and started asking questions and getting familiar with jargon. I re-took it yesterday and passed!
120 questions. I'd say they weren't nearly as concrete or clear as the JB prep questions (scenario-based though). Lots of airway and breathing, some cardio (incl. some CPR and AED), some operations (equipment, triage), lots of peds, and some repeat questions on a couple sections. I walked out of there thinking it could go either way.
I will say this:
*My case, I think, is somewhat unusual. Each month after graduation you wait to take the test, your chances of passing go down. And, the longer you wait to attempt the test again, your chances go down. Eight months had passed between my first and second attempts. I wouldn't recommend doing what I did. It's stressful.
*If you're looking for an EMT course and don't have a medical background (like me), I would start with just that, an EMT course. I took a Wilderness EMT course....the EMT and Wilderness in one unit. That was overwhelming. It'd be better, I think, to take an EMT course and then later bridge to WEMT.
*Each national registry exam is different. So know all the material. My first test looked dramatically different than my second test. Sometimes you can gauge how you're doing based on the difficulty of questions being asked. My first time, questions got progressively easier, and I knew it was a bad sign. The second time, difficulty level seemed all over the place, which is probably why the machine took 120 questions to see that I really did know my stuff.
Good luck to everyone. And to those already in the field, I look forward to joining you soon. Stay safe!!!
Going into my course (a WEMT), I had no medical knowledge whatsoever. It was all new stuff, and it was overwhelming. Nonethless, I graduated a month later in July of '09. The program I went to boasts one of the highest NR pass rates in the country (personally I wonder if it's skewed b/c a lot of people who take the course have at least some medical knowledge going in). I enjoyed the class immensely, paid attention, read the text (though probably not as thoroughly as I should have), and passed the practicals. After graduation, I did some light studying and took the written test, mostly relying on the fact that I had just graduated from such a quality program. I should add that I also had a lot going on personally at the time too: getting married soon, settling in to a new city. Not a great time to take a test (but then again, when is?).
At 75-ish questions, I failed. I was devastated. I stepped away from it entirely for a couple months. Then I came back to it and decided to start at square 1. I re-read my class text (JB AAOS one, the one with the orange cover), cover to cover, about 1200 pages. I took every practice test I could (I agree with the posts on here about JB Learning prep, it is great). I joined this forum and started asking questions and getting familiar with jargon. I re-took it yesterday and passed!
120 questions. I'd say they weren't nearly as concrete or clear as the JB prep questions (scenario-based though). Lots of airway and breathing, some cardio (incl. some CPR and AED), some operations (equipment, triage), lots of peds, and some repeat questions on a couple sections. I walked out of there thinking it could go either way.
I will say this:
*My case, I think, is somewhat unusual. Each month after graduation you wait to take the test, your chances of passing go down. And, the longer you wait to attempt the test again, your chances go down. Eight months had passed between my first and second attempts. I wouldn't recommend doing what I did. It's stressful.
*If you're looking for an EMT course and don't have a medical background (like me), I would start with just that, an EMT course. I took a Wilderness EMT course....the EMT and Wilderness in one unit. That was overwhelming. It'd be better, I think, to take an EMT course and then later bridge to WEMT.
*Each national registry exam is different. So know all the material. My first test looked dramatically different than my second test. Sometimes you can gauge how you're doing based on the difficulty of questions being asked. My first time, questions got progressively easier, and I knew it was a bad sign. The second time, difficulty level seemed all over the place, which is probably why the machine took 120 questions to see that I really did know my stuff.
Good luck to everyone. And to those already in the field, I look forward to joining you soon. Stay safe!!!
Last edited by a moderator:
